Canada

Tuesday April 2, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 2, 2019

Trudeau apologizes to Grassy Narrows protester thanked for ‘donation,’ kicked out of Liberal Party fundraiser

February 15, 2019

Two former women cabinet minister from Justin Trudeau’s government, Jody Wilson-Raybould (Canada’s first indigenous Attorney General and Justice Minister) and Jane Philpott (Treasury Board President), were unceremoniously booted from party caucus today.

This follows an embarrassing moment for the Prime Minister from a few days earlier:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized for how he responded to a protester Wednesday evening who was advocating on behalf of a northern Ontario First Nation struggling with health effects linked to historical industrial dumping upstream from the community.

Grassy Narrows First Nation held a protest and demonstration in Toronto on Wednesday evening during a Liberal Party fundraiser to press the Trudeau government on its promise to fund a specialized mercury treatment facility in the northwestern Ontario community that’s about 100 kilometres northeast of Kenora.

During the event, the protester appeared to be escorted out of the room while Trudeau thanked her for her “donation.”

“From time to time, I’m in situations where people are expressing concerns or protesting a particular thing, and I always try to be respectful and always try to engage with them in a positive way,” Trudeau told reporters in Halifax on Thursday morning.

“I didn’t do that last night — last night I lacked respect towards them and I apologize.”

Grassy Narrows also is pushing for federal help for remediation of the polluted English-Wabigoon River system and better compensation for people affected by the toxic element.

Animated!

In a video posted to the Council of Canadians’ verified Facebook page Wednesday evening, a woman is shown standing in front of the stage where Trudeau is standing; she appears to unfurl a banner that references the prime minister and compensation for the “mercury crisis.” She is heard saying “people in Grassy Narrows are suffering from mercury poisoning, you committed to addressing this crisis,” while appearing to be removed from the room.

Trudeau, still on the stage, is heard saying, while facing the direction in which the woman was taken out of the room, “Thank you for being here, thank you very much for your donation tonight, I really appreciate it,” which draws cheers and applause from the crowd.

The Grassy Narrows protest in Toronto was at the Omni King Edward Hotel, where Trudeau was scheduled to appear at a Laurier Club donor “appreciation event.”

Former Indigenous services minister Jane Philpott pledged in late 2017 that Ottawa would fund the development and construction of a treatment facility for people exposed to mercury-related illnesses in Grassy Narrows. A number of studies have linked  the comparatively poor health of people in the community to the dumping of mercury-contaminated effluent by Reed Paper, former owners of the mill in Dryden, into the river where members of the First Nation have traditionally fished.

The dumping also affected Wabaseemoong, another First Nation, about 100 kilometres northwest of Kenora. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Wednesday March 27, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 27, 2019

Morneau says fate of Wilson-Raybould, Philpott ‘will come down to caucus’

March 8, 2019

The decision about whether former ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott will remain in the federal Liberal fold is up to caucus, says Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Morneau made the comments Tuesday in Vancouver while on a tour to tout the new federal budget.

“It’s really not up to me to decide,” said Morneau, when asked if the pair should remain in caucus.

“They’ve said that they believe that they still want to follow what our Liberal Party has been doing. I think we’ve made enormous strides over the last few years, but it will come down to caucus to come to that conclusion.”

February 9, 2019

Wilson-Raybould, who quit cabinet on Feb. 12 over allegations the Prime Minister’s Office pressured her inappropriately to intervene in the corruption prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, has told her constituents she plans to run in the October federal election as a Liberal.

Morneau said he hasn’t spoken to Wilson-Raybould or Philpott because he’s been “busy through the process” of rolling out the budget but added that despite the rift, his sense was that MPs across caucus remain united and positive.

“They’re feeling good about the program, they’re feeling good that we’ve been invested in middle-class Canadians and they can see that this budget is going to do that as well, and there will always be people that have a different point of view,” he said.

February 16, 2019

Morneau also said he believes his office did not overstep its role in dealing with the SNC-Lavalin case, which he said includes thinking through the economic implications of policy decisions.

“I’ve been pretty clear in saying I didn’t really have any interactions with Jody Wilson-Raybould on this issue,” he said.

“She approached me at one stage to say our offices were talking. In my view, that’s appropriate for them to be talking. Of course, we’ve had a broader discussion about this, and the prime minister has been pretty clear in terms of our discussions and in terms of the fact that we followed the rule of law all the way through.” (Source: Global News) 

 

Thursday March 21, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday March 21, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 21, 2019

Morneau’s budget speech drowned out by shouts of ‘let her speak’

After a delay in the House of Commons, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau was finally able deliver his budget speech this evening — even though nobody could hear it at first.

Morneau tabled his government’s 2019 budget just before 4 p.m., getting around a threat by the Opposition Conservatives to stir up a disruption because Liberal MPs on the justice committee had shut down an investigation into the SNC-Lavalin affair.

But his budget speech was delayed by procedural votes. When he did stand to speak, he was drowned out by Opposition MPs banging on their desks and chanting “let her speak” — a reference to Jody Wilson-Raybould, whose resignation from cabinet last month over the SNC-Lavalin controversy has left the government on the defensive for weeks.

Per tradition, Morneau was set to deliver his budget speech just after the markets closed, but it was delayed by a vote on a motion to allow MPs studying fisheries to travel.

The Conservatives had threatened all day to disrupt the vote in hopes of delaying Morneau’s speech to make a point about the justice committee.

However, Morneau shocked many observers when he rose in the House and tabled the budget document anyway. That meant the lockups — where reporters and stakeholders were anxiously waiting for clearance to file their work — were released on time and the contents of the budget were made public.

The Tories went ahead with their delaying tactics, which included having a number of Tory MPs voting both for and against the motion. MPs also rose on points of privilege and points of order, further delaying Morneau’s speech.

When the finance minister began speaking around 5 p.m. ET, he was drowned out by thunderous noise.

Speaker Geoff Regan tried to intervene multiple times with calls for order, but those requests were disobeyed.

Conservative MPs eventually walked out of the Commons, with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer calling the justice committee’s decision “an assault on democracy.”

The justice committee was looking into allegations the Prime Minister’s Office and other officials inappropriately pressured Jody Wilson-Raybould, justice minister and attorney general at the time, to allow Quebec engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to avoid criminal prosecution on bribery charges providing it met certain conditions in a remediation agreement.

After about two hours, members of the Conservative Party and the NDP emerged and said the Liberals — who hold the majority on the committee — voted in favour of a motion to “consider the meetings on this topic to be concluded.” (Source: CBC) 

 

Wednesday March 20, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 20, 2019

An unusually eventful budget day sets the stage for the coming election

Bill Morneau’s fourth budget is in the books, and that’s a good thing since he didn’t get a chance to deliver his speech in the Commons on Tuesday because of the din made by Conservative MPs determined to keep the public’s attention on the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Howdy Doodie Andy Scheer

The Conservatives jeered. They pounded their desks and they chanted “let her speak” in reference to their demand that former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould re-appear before the justice committee to discuss why she resigned.

Undeterred, the finance minister gamely plowed on, incapable of being heard on radio and television broadcasts, or even by his own mates on the government benches.

So let’s recap here.

Morneau’s fourth budget is not only the last instalment of the Liberals’ relentless pursuit of middle-class voters before the October election, it was a road map showing exactly which voters the party needs for another election win.

Millennials. Seniors. Blue-collar workers are all targeted for new spending, whether it’s help buying a first home, enhancements to the Canada Pension Plan or money for training. Mix in the Canada Child Benefit from Morneau’s first budget and from cradle to the grave, this government is putting more money in Canadians’ pockets.

As usual, Morneau didn’t call it spending. He never has.

Throughout his news conference in the budget lockup, the finance minister referred to investments, the need to continue to invest in Canadians even if it meant blowing by the campaign promise four years ago to balance the books by now.

March 2, 2019

The Conservatives hammered at the failure to present a plan to return to budget balance, but only as an afterthought.

Party Leader Andrew Scheer seemed far more interested in portraying the budget as a blatant attempt to deflect attention away from the role Justin Trudeau and his office played in trying to stop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on fraud and corruption charges.

Scheer never said what the Conservatives would offer as an an alternative. Never said how his party would balance the books.

It all made for an unusually eventful budget day. A Liberal financial plan tuned into the anxiety voters might be feeling in advance of an election. The main opposition party honed in on keeping a scandal alive as long as they can. New Democrats and the Greens anxiously competing for any slice of the progressive vote they can peel away.

An election may still be six months away. The campaigning is already well under way. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Tuesday March 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 19, 2019

Education changes are more and less than they seem

If you were among those who felt anxiety about the Ford government’s education reforms, you probably heaved a sigh of relief when they were finally rolled out last week.

March 13, 2019

The government made noises about changing or even killing all-day kindergarten, but ultimately ended up supporting it, at least so far. It didn’t mandate larger class sizes for early year students.

After vilifying and killing the previous government’s sex education curriculum, the government ended up restoring virtually all of the elements from the curriculum it professed to hate. The new-not-new curriculum covers most of the same ground, which is bound to make social conservatives angry, since they threw their support behind Ford’s PC party leadership in part because he pledged to kill sex-ed. But while that segment of Ford’s base must feel betrayed, students will be better served, and parents — most of whom supported the modern curriculum — will be happy with the outcome.

A “back to basics” math curriculum is also in the reforms. There are mixed opinions on that, but the fact is math scores were trending downward, so some changes are appropriate.

February 8, 2019

Then there’s the classroom cellphone ban, which is almost entirely symbolic since most school boards have local policies that are working. It’s also probably unenforceable, but if it does no real good, it also does no real harm.

Although maintaining current class size caps from kindergarten to Grade 3, Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced that an average of one student will be added to classes in Grades 4 to 8, which average high school class sizes increasing from 22 to 28. That sounds reasonable.

Not so fast. While Thompson said “Not one teacher — not one — will lose their job because of our class size strategy,” many education experts disagree. The government says any teacher reductions will be realized through retirement and attrition, but the fact remains that at the end of the rollout, there will be thousands fewer teachers in the system than there are today.

In fact, a Toronto District School Board document reveals the class sizes will mean the loss of approximately 800 high school teaching positions, along with 216 in Grades 4 through 8. The same report states that with the government’s earlier round of cuts — $25 million for special programs — 82 high school positions will disappear. Estimates are that total job losses through attrition will be between 16,000 and 18,000.

Then there’s the fact that class sizes aren’t what the seem. While the government funds for an average of 22 students, the reality is that classes often reach 30 or more to accommodate smaller specialized classes. Union officials are predicting these changes will mean class sizes of 40 in some cases.

Then there’s this. Arbitrarily increasing class sizes will lead to collective bargaining with teacher unions and boards getting off to a terrible start before negotiations even begin. In many cases local agreements include class size provisions, so unions will be fighting the provincial-controlled changes from the start.

These reforms may not be all bad, but they’re certainly not all good, and they open the door to stormy weather in our education system. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)