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Tuesday November 29, 2022

Trudeau government unveils long-awaited plan to confront an ‘increasingly disruptive’ China

Canada’s long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy describes China as “an increasingly disruptive global power” on the world stage — a social and economic force that’s too big to ignore but is also increasingly focused on bending international rules to suit its own interests.

November 16, 2022

Using some surprisingly blunt language, the strategy says the Canadian government needs to be “clear-eyed” about China’s objectives in the Far East and elsewhere. It promises to spend almost half a billion dollars over five years on improving military and intelligence co-operation with allies in the region.

“China’s rise, enabled by the same international rules and norms that it now increasingly disregards, has had an enormous impact on the Indo-Pacific, and it has ambitions to become the leading power in the region,” says the 26-page document, which was provided to the media in advance of its formal release in Vancouver on Sunday.

“China is making large-scale investments to establish its economic influence, diplomatic impact, offensive military capabilities and advanced technologies. China is looking to shape the international order into a more permissive environment for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.”

The strategy document also says that “China’s sheer size and influence makes co-operation necessary to address some of the world’s existential pressures, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, global health and nuclear proliferation.”

In that respect, Canada’s foreign policy blueprint mirrors the approaches taken by its closest allies, including the United States, which last February released its own vision for engagement in the region.

The new strategy document, however, appears to reflect the lessons of the bruising international clashes that have driven relations between Canada and China into the deep freeze: the arrest and extradition fight involving Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou; China’s retaliatory detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig; and even the lecture Chinese President Xi Jinping recently delivered to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — an event caught on camera. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday June 28, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 28, 2022

Equitable abortion access now

The U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion ruling was not a surprise. But it was stunning all the same.

Stunning for the fact the court actually reversed its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, upending almost 50 years of constitutionally-protected access to abortion. It’s disturbing for its impact on gender rights. And it’s deeply upsetting for the immediate practical effect it now has on individuals seeking the procedure.

May 23, 2014

We knew it was coming, thanks to the leak of a draft ruling in May. Those who held out faint hope that the outcry that followed that revelation might prompt the top justices to rethink or water down their ruling were left disappointed. They did not.

The decision removes the protection which had guaranteed access to abortions. With that protection gone, it’s now up to each individual state to determine the legality of the procedure. In more than a dozen states, abortion is now illegal as a result of the decision. Other states, like California, are looking for enshrine the right to abortion. And in many others, the fate of the procedure will hinge on protracted political debates.

In their dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan declared that the majority refused to consider the “life-altering” consequences of reversing the law.

“After today, young women will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had. The majority accomplishes that result without so much as considering how women have relied on the right to choose or what it means to take that right away,” they wrote.

Friday June 10, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 10, 2022

Easier to use than lose the monarchy

June 11, 2016

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations have come and gone in this country without a lot of the Canadian public even realizing they were ever even here. In the United Kingdom, a four-day feel-good holiday saw 2,000 street parties, rock concerts and thousands of jubilant Brits cheering the monarch outside Buckingham Palace. Our Commonwealth cousins, the Australians, enthusiastically kicked up their heels in four days of festivities, too, as landmarks across their antipodean nation were bathed in royal-purple lights, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lit a special Commonwealth beacon and an island was renamed in Elizabeth’s honour. But in Canada, the loudest sounds came from crickets.

The best you can say about the federal government’s underwhelming response is that it was a foolproof cure for insomnia. Yes, there was a three-day whirlwind tour in May of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, that saw them stop in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ottawa and the Northwest Territories but, strangely, get nowhere near any of the country’s very biggest cities. Ho hum. If the government had deliberately set out to stage a mainly invisible non-event, it could not have succeeded better, something John Fraser, of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada called “embarrassing.”

July 11, 2020

Fraser may be in the minority. An Angus Reid poll from April reported that 51 per cent of respondents oppose this country continuing as a constitutional monarchy, though most by far personally admired the Queen. Yet despite such ambivalent views, there are strong reasons to conclude Canada just missed out on several nationally-unifying opportunities. First — and whatever the future holds for the Canadian Crown — we squandered the chance to properly commemorate Elizabeth’s extraordinary achievement of being the longest reigning monarch in not just British but Canadian history. It was an ungenerous move on Ottawa’s part.

The beating heart of this jubilee is a woman who has committed her life to public service since 1952 and continues to make a few public appearances at the age of 96. As Canada’s head of state, she has done everything this country has asked of her for 70 years, ever since Louis St. Laurent was prime minister. To be sure, Canada has changed phenomenally since she ascended the throne; but she remains a living symbol of our shared traditions and values as well as a cornerstone of Canadian democracy.

January 13, 2020

That brings us to Point 2: Had Ottawa marked this jubilee with more than indifference it could have reminded Canadians that we remain a constitutional monarchy. The Crown is embedded in the warp and woof of our political fabric and speaks to the deliberate division between our Head of State (the Queen) and the head of government (Justin Trudeau). Power, legally speaking, resides in the Crown even though the Queen and her representative, the Governor General, use it rarely and only in urgent situations. But while the PM and his government wield the power, they do so only with House of Commons majority support. They are ephemeral. The Crown is permanent, or at least it has been throughout the 155 years of Canadian Confederation.

Time, of course, frays many traditional bonds. And with the ongoing reckoning with a colonial past that too often devastated Indigenous Peoples, the old bonds, symbols and ways are increasingly being questioned and, in some cases, tossed. But those who would criticize the monarchy in this country face an uphill slog if they want to dump it. For starters, we’d have to decide what should replace the monarchy. Do we elect a governor general in a nationwide vote? Sounds complicated. How about a republic, with an all-powerful president as head of state — someone who might turn out to be a Donald Trump? Oops.

July 24, 2019

And even if someone came up with a reasonable alternative, divesting ourselves of the Crown could never happen without the approval of the House of Commons, Senate, and every provincial legislature. That constitutional bar’s almost impossible to clear. And remember: When the changes proposed in the Meech Lake accord failed to achieve this in the 1990s, the result was a national unity crisis, a near-miss for Quebec separation and the destruction of the old Progressive Conservative party. Want to dance through this mine field again?

As a respected and, in some quarters, beloved monarch heads into her final years, perhaps we should have these discussions. But people should speak up with their eyes wide open. A little clear foresight might convince us to find new ways to use the Canadian monarchy rather than try to lose it. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday October 14, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 14, 2021

US to reopen Mexico Canada land borders for fully vaccinated travellers

The US has said it will reopen its land borders with Mexico and Canada to fully vaccinated travellers from November.

August 28, 2021

It means those sealed out of the US because of the pandemic can enter – for any reason – using land and ferry crossing points.

Unvaccinated travellers will still be banned from entering the US from Mexico and Canada by land. Air travel is allowed with a negative Covid test.

The US has curbed travel from Mexico and Canada since March 2020.

“We are pleased to be taking steps to resume regular travel in a safe and sustainable manner,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

Currently, most non-US citizens who have been to the UK, China, India, South Africa, Iran, Brazil and a number of European countries within the past 14 days are not allowed into the US.

July 22, 2021

But those rules will also be lifted in November, the Biden administration announced last month.

Essential travellers, including students, truck drivers, US citizens and healthcare workers were never banned from crossing land borders. However from January 2022, they will also need to show proof of vaccination to get into the US from Mexico or Canada.

“This approach will provide ample time for essential travellers… to get vaccinated,” the Department of Homeland Security said.

An exact date in November has not yet been announced, but will be “very soon”, an official told Reuters news agency.

April 18, 2020

Canada opened its border to fully vaccinated travellers from the US on 9 August. Mexico’s border has remained open throughout the whole pandemic.

A controversial law which allows the US to swiftly expel undocumented migrants to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in holding facilities will stay in place, US media reports. The border legislation, known as Title 42, has cut off access to asylum for hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to enter from Mexico.

News of the reopening has drawn praise from US lawmakers with constituencies along the Canadian border.

Among them was Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ Senate Majority Leader.

Redbubble Merch

“Kudos to President Biden for doing the right thing and increasing cross border travel between Canada and the US,” he said.

“This reopening will be welcome news to countless businesses, medical providers, families, and loved ones that depend on travel across the northern border,” added New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

The announcement of new rules in September was a surprise to many – coming days after the US government said it was not the right time to lift restrictions.

The US has recorded some 44.5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and more than 716,000 deaths. (BBC) 

 

Saturday March 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 20, 2021

Biden Takes First Jab At Vaccine Diplomacy, Sharing Doses With Mexico, Canada

Under pressure to share AstraZeneca vaccine doses not yet being used to inoculate Americans, the Biden administration is finalizing plans to loan millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada. It’s a first foray into vaccine diplomacy for the Biden administration, weeks after global competitors China and Russia began using vaccine doses to exert influence.

March 13, 2021

The U.S. government has contracts to buy hundreds of millions more vaccine dosesthan there are people living here, but with most of those doses not yet delivered and Americans still struggling to get vaccination appointments, the Biden administration has so far focused on making sure Americans get vaccinated first. 

While AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been approved for use in many other countries, including Mexico and Canada, it still hasn’t been given emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So, the White House announced it is working through the technicalities to loan 2.5 million doses to Mexico and 1.5 million doses to Canada from its stockpile of 7 million doses. 

“This action will allow our neighbors to meet a critical vaccination need in their countries, providing more protection immediately across the North American continent,” said Jeff Zients, White House coronavirus coordinator.

February 9, 2017

While the United States has vaccinated more than 12% of its population according to Johns Hopkins data, Canada has vaccinated only 1.7% of its population and Mexico only 0.5%.

Zients said the loans will be repaid through dose deliveries from AstraZeneca later in the year. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said many countries have asked to borrow from the stockpile, but said it’s not yet clear whether other requests may be granted.

After briefly pausing vaccinations with AstraZeneca in Europe due to concerns about blood clots developing, health officials there this week announced they believe the vaccine to be safe and effective and resumed administering the vaccine. (NPR)