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Thursday September 15, 2022

September 15, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 15, 2022

Canada’s federal holiday to mourn the Queen leaves a patchwork of confusion

September 9, 2022

On Canada’s east and west coasts, schools and government offices will be closed on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral. But in the two most populous provinces, employees will be at work – unless they are federal employees. Banks and other federal industries, however, have been given the option to close – or to remain open.

On Tuesday, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, declared 19 September a federal holiday. But the ensuing chaos of determining who qualifies for the holiday has left workers confused across the country.

The prairie province of Saskatchewan will remain open for businesses. In neighbouring Manitoba, only government employees will have the day off. But in Prince Edward Island on the Atlantic coast, a full statutory holiday has been declared, with provincial authorities ordering businesses to close or pay their employees time and a half.

“Declaring an opportunity for Canadians to mourn on Monday is going to be important,” said Trudeau, during a cabinet retreat in the province of New Brunswick – which will close schools and government offices. “For our part we will letting federal employees know that Monday will be a day of mourning where they will not work.”

June 9, 2022

In Canada, nearly 90% of workers fall under provincial jurisdiction, and in not declaring the holiday a general holiday, the federal government has left a patchwork of confusion.

Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador have opted to give workers a public holiday.

Quebec, which has long been skeptical of the monarchy, was the first to rule out a public holiday after Trudeau’s announcement.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said workers would not get a holiday – but could instead observe a “moment of silence”.

“This will give all Ontarians an opportunity to reflect on the remarkable life of Queen Elizabeth II and her unrelenting commitment to service and duty,” the premier, Doug Ford, said in a statement.

The British Columbia premier, John Horgan, said in a statement he would “follow the lead of the federal government and join with other provinces in observing the national day of mourning” – referring to four other provinces that took a similar approach.

June 27, 2017

On Wednesday, Toronto’s transit commission announced it too would pay tribute to the late queen on Monday by pausing all service for 96 seconds.

The commission said the stoppage of subways, buses and streetcars would be part of the city’s “coordinated tribute” to Elizabeth and that service would “resume immediately” after the brief period of silence.

Small business advocacy groups had been critical of a possible national holiday, arguing the announcement left little time to prepare, arguing a stoppage of work could cost the country billions.

And in British Columbia, the teacher’s union said the timing was poor, given an upcoming holiday at the end of September as teachers work to get students settled back in school.

“It’s very unusual to have a part-holiday that only really applies to public sector workers,” Bruce Hallsor of the Monarchist League of Canada told CTV News. “She was everybody’s Queen – she wasn’t only the Queen of public sector workers.”

Only one province, Alberta, has not yet announced whether it will make the state funeral a public holiday. (The Guardian)

Wednesday September 24, 2019

October 2, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 24, 2019

‘How dare you’: Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg scolds world leaders at UN climate talks

Scolded for doing little, leader after leader promised the United Nations on Monday to do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels.

December 1, 2015

As they made their pledges at the Climate Action Summit, though, they and others conceded it was not enough. And even before they spoke, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg shamed them over and over for their inaction: “How dare you?”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres concluded the summit by listing 77 countries that committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, 70 nations pledging to do more to fight climate change, with 100 business leaders promising to join the green economy and one-third of the global banking sector signing up to green goals.

“Action by action, the tide is turning,” he said. “But we have a long way to go.”

June 2, 2017

Businesses and charities also got in on the act, at times even going bigger than major nations. Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced Monday that his foundation, along with The World Bank and some European governments, would provide $790 million in financial help to 300 million of the world’s small farmers adapt to climate change. The Gates foundation pledged $310 million of that.

“The world can still prevent the absolute worst effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing new technologies and sources of energy,” Gates said. “But the effects of rising temperatures are already underway.”

As the day went on Monday and the promises kept coming, the United States seemed out in the cold.

Before world leaders made their promises in three-minute speeches, the 16-year-old Thunberg gave an emotional appeal in which she scolded the leaders with her repeated phrase, “How dare you.”

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” said Thunberg, who began a lone protest outside the Swedish parliament more than a year ago that culminated in Friday’s global climate strikes.

November 28, 2015

“I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.

Thunberg told the UN that even the strictest emission cuts being talked about only gives the world a 50 per cent chance of limiting future warming to another 0.4 C from now, which is a global goal. Those odds, she said, are not good enough.

“We will not let you get away with this,” Thunberg said. “Right now is where we draw the line.”

As this all played out, scientists announced that Arctic sea ice reached its annual summer low and this year the ice shrank so much it tied for the second lowest mark in 40 years of monitoring. (Hamilton Spectator)

Friday July 26, 2019

August 2, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 26, 2019

‘Stop harassing citizens’: Brantford police receive angry response to Amber Alert

Stop unnecessary and health damaging alerts to people asleep. Respectfully, do your job and stop harassing citizens. What in the **** are you thinking?

These are just a sample from the flood of angry messages Brantford, Ont., police have received after issuing an Amber Alert overnight Thursday to help find a two year-old girl who investigators say was abducted by her estranged father.

The child was ultimately found safe in Hamilton and returned to her mother, but the police service says complaints from the public have continued to roll in by email and through calls to 911, and dispatch.

One person has even called them about the alert 11 times and is now being investigated for a potential public mischief complaint, according to police.

The response has been so overwhelming, Insp. Scott Williams with the investigative support branch issued a statement addressing concerns about the use of Amber Alerts. He described them as a way to quickly spread the word about an abducted child who may be in danger.

“The main objective of the Amber Alert is always the safe return of the child,” he explained.

“Time is critical in saving the lives of abducted children, and with time comes a growing geography of concern. Once a child is abducted there is no way to determine the exact location the abductor is headed.”

Williams says the investigating began before the alert went out and continued after it was issued. Police follow strict guidelines that ensure Amber Alerts are used appropriately, he said, adding the decision to send an emergency broadcast to the entire province is never taken lightly.

Backlash has followed every Amber Alert issued in Ontario this year, though the broadcasts also have plenty of supporters.

A petition has even been launched calling for the Ontario government to fine people who call emergency dispatchers to complain about broadcasts of Amber Alerts. (CBC)

Tuesday November 6, 2018

November 13, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 6, 2018

‘Full Trumpism’: President’s apocalyptic attacks reach new level of falsehood

President Donald Trump is painting an astonishingly apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic control in the campaign’s final days, unleashing a torrent of falsehoods and portraying his political opponents as desiring crime, squalor and poverty.

August 18 2017

As voters prepare to render their first verdict on his presidency in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump is claiming that Democrats want to erase the nation’s borders and provide sanctuary to drug dealers, human traffickers and MS-13 killers. He is warning that they would destroy the economy, obliterate Medicare and unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere. And he is alleging that they would transform the United States into Venezuela with socialism run amok.

April 13, 2018

Trump has never been hemmed in by fact, fairness or even logic. The 45th president proudly refuses to apologize and routinely violates the norms of decorum that guided his predecessors. But at one mega-rally after another in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump has taken his no-boundaries political ethos to a new level — demagoguing the Democrats in a whirl of distortion and using the power of the federal government to amplify his fantastical arguments.

In Columbia, Missouri, the president suggested that Democrats “run around like antifa” demonstrators in black uniforms and black helmets, but underneath, they have “this weak little face” and “go back home into Mommy’s basement.”

February 25, 2017

In Huntington, West Virginia, Trump called predatory immigrants “the worst scum in the world” but alleged that Democrats welcome them by saying, “Fly right in, folks. Come on in. We don’t care who the hell you are, come on in!”

And in Macon, Georgia, he charged that if Democrat Stacey Abrams is elected governor, she would take away the Second Amendment right to bear arms — though as a state official, she would not have the power to change the Constitution.

Unmoored from reality, Trump has at times become a false prophet, too. He has been promising a 10 per cent tax cut for the middle class, though no such legislation exists. And he has sounded alarms over an imminent “invasion” of dangerous “illegal aliens,” referring to a caravan of Central American migrants that includes many women and children, is travelling by foot and is not expected to reach the U.S.-Mexico border for several weeks, if at all.

With his breathtaking cascade of orations, tweets, media appearances and presidential actions, Trump has dictated the terms of the political debate in the final week of the campaign even though he is not up for reelection for two years. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Friday May 20, 2016

May 19, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 20, 2016

Justin Trudeau apologizes for ‘failing to live up to a higher standard’

A repentant Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Thursday morning for the third time in two days for a physical encounter with two opposition MPs that resulted in a melee on the floor of the House of Commons the day before.

June 20, 2015 – Magna Harper

“I apologize to my colleagues, to the House as a whole and to you, Mr. Speaker, for failing to live up to a higher standard of behaviour. Members, rightfully, expect better behaviour from anyone in this House. I expect better behaviour of myself,” the prime minister said in the Commons after he apologized directly to two opposition Mps.

Trudeau’s apology came as members of Parliament debated a privilege motion by Conservative MP Peter Van Loan on “the physical molestation” of a female MP in the House of Commons.

MPs agreed as debate resumed after question period to send the matter to a committee — a decision supported by Trudeau hours earlier.

Wednesday November 25, 2015Wednesday November 25, 2015

November 25, 2015 – Hereditary monarchs

On Wednesday, Trudeau walked across the aisle and into a clutch of NDP MPs where he took Conservative Party whip Gord Brown by the arm, elbowing NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau in the process. The prime minister “unreservedly” apologized for the physical contact which he said was “unacceptable.”

The incident took place just as some MPs were trying to stall a contentious vote to limit debate on Bill C-14, the government’s assistance in dying bill.

“No amount of escalation or mood in this House justifies my behaviour last night. I made a mistake, I regret it. I am looking to make amends,” Trudeau said on Thursday.

“I fully hear the desire… of a number of members across the House including the leader of the Official Opposition that we take concrete measures to improve the way the tone functions in this House and the way this government engages with opposition parties as well.”

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday August 25, 2015 The Growing Power of the PMO In 2006, Stephen Harper rode into Ottawa with a mandate to clean up the ethical wreckage of the Liberal sponsorship scandal. The Conservative Party leader moved quickly as the prime minister of a minority government. He banned corporate and union donations, and lowered the individual donation limit to $1,000. He toughened federal lobbying rules, created the Parliamentary Budget Office and gave additional powers to the Ethics Commissioner. His goal, he said over and over, was to return accountability to Ottawa. And he did that, to a degree. His reforms have helped bring the federal government up to date on important issues of political financing and budget oversight. Not surprisingly, though, Mr. Harper failed to target the real source of OttawaÕs accountability crisis. As the trial of Mike Duffy has reminded us, the greatest threat to responsible government in Canada is none other than the Prime MinisterÕs Office. Over the past 40 years, the PMO has morphed into a parasite on the body of Parliament that prospers by sucking the democracy out of its host. The court-documented efforts by Nigel Wright, the former chief of staff to Mr. Harper, to control the Senate from inside the PMO are outrageous only because they have been exposed by Mr. DuffyÕs lawyer. The real scandal lies below the surface, where the PMO uses its toxic tentacles to neutralize every part of government that might compete with it for power, so that today we are ruled by an imperial prime minister, unaccountable to anyone or anything. Do not blame Mr. Harper alone for this. The expansion of the PMO began under Pierre Trudeau, and every prime minister since then has been responsible for increasing its malignant grip on Parliament. Brian Mulroney was the first to name a Òchief of staffÓ and elevate that person above the principal secretary who was, up till then, the highest unelect

August 25, 2015 – Otto Von Harper

“I am apologizing and asking members to understand how contrite and regretful I am over my behaviour,” Trudeau said again later.

“I wield full responsibility for my poor choices last night, and I ask for Canadians’ understanding and forgiveness.”

The prime minister spoke Thursday after Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose said in a scathing statement in the Commons that Trudeau’s behaviour was “out of line” and “unbecoming of a leader.”

“He had no business on this side of the House, he had no business anywhere but on his own seat. Everything he did from the moment he rose from his seat was unnecessary and unsettling,” Ambrose said on Thursday. (Source: CBC News)