Jagmeet Singh

Saturday February 20, 2021

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

MPs vote to label China’s persecution of Uighurs a genocide

Parliament today accused the Chinese government of carrying out a campaign of genocide against Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims.

February 12, 2021

A substantial majority of MPs — including most Liberals who participated — voted in favour of a Conservative motion that says China’s actions in its western Xinjiang region meet the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.

The final tally was 266 in favour and zero opposed. Two MPs formally abstained.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and almost all of his cabinet colleagues were absent for the vote. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau was the only cabinet minister present. When it was his turn, he said he abstained “on behalf of the Government of Canada.” 

The motion also calls on the government to lobby the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games out of Beijing.

It was passed over the strenuous objections of Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu, who denounced the vote as meddling in China’s internal affairs.

June 3, 2015

Media reports and academic and UN experts have accused China of imprisoning Uighurs in concentration and “deradicalization” camps and targeting them for forced labour, sexual violence, population control methods and sweeping surveillance. China’s foreign ministry has denied the accusations.

The motion calls on the government to officially adopt the position that China is engaged in genocide, and to coordinate a response with the U.S. and other allies.

While it’s not clear what impact — if any — the non-binding resolution will have on the Liberal government’s approach to China, it threatens to inflame relations between the two countries at a time when they’re already tense due to the arrest of Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities over two years ago, and China’s subsequent imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

In a statement posted to the Chinese embassy’s website prior to the vote, Cong insisted the reports of Uighur persecution are based on lies.

November 20, 2020

Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, called on the United Nations in November to investigate whether China’s persecution of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang constitutes genocide.

Despite these calls, Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have been reluctant to use the word “genocide” to describe China’s actions against the Uighurs. Last week, Trudeau said the word is an “extremely loaded” one and he is not prepared to use it at this point.

In question period today, Garneau said the government takes allegations against China “very seriously” and has raised its concerns directly with the Chinese government.

Garneau said Canada wants independent investigators to go into China to document abuses and is working with international partners to gain access to the region. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday January 19, 2021

January 19, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 19, 2021

Canadian politicians have been scared straight by Donald Trump’s raging exit. Will it last?

Racism is definitely not a good trait for a politician. Nor is an inability to read the room. 

October 3, 2019

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet has been accused of both after his drive-by smear of new federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. 

The most harsh condemnation came from Justin Trudeau on Friday, pronouncing himself incredulous that a party leader would wade into “insinuations” about Alghabra, who is a Muslim, after what everyone witnessed in Washington last week.

Blanchet, the prime minister said, was “playing dangerous games around intolerance and hate” when purporting to be asking mere questions about Alghabra and Islamic political activism.

Trudeau’s link to events in Washington reflects a larger phenomenon rattling through Canadian politics since the Jan. 6 siege of Capitol Hill.

How long it lasts is anyone’s guess, but that mob scene south of the border has prompted some soul-searching among political types in Canada too. 

Many of the ingredients of Donald Trump’s toxic political brand are now being vigorously disowned in Canada — almost at the same speed with which many Republicans are turning their back on the president in the U.S.

June 23, 2020

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has revived a policy of refusal to deal with the Rebel News outlet, which traffics in the same kind of far-right disinformation that feeds Trump’s angry base in the United States. The reassertion of this rule came after a dust-up over O’Toole’s office emailing answers to Rebel questions, which were touted as an exclusive interview. 

Two prominent Calgary women, meanwhile, both from the right of the political spectrum, have publicly denounced Twitter this week — slightly after Trump was banned from the medium, mind you, but in protest against the mob mentality it helps create. 

Danielle Smith, the former leader of Alberta’s Wild Rose party, declared she was walking away from her radio-host job and Twitter, saying: “I’ve had enough of the mob.” 

Meanwhile, Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner penned her own takedown of Twitter, describing it as the “biggest culprit of weaponized misinformation, hate, and the death of rational argument.” Rempel’s piece appeared in an online publication called The Line. 

November 12, 2018

Two other MPs, in that exact cross-partisan spirit, also wrote bluntly this week about how the poisonous politics around the Capitol Hill assault required active resistance in Canada. Liberal MP Anthony Housefather and Conservative MP Scott Aitchison collaborated on a National Post article headlined: “As Canadian MPs, we know our opponents are not our enemies. Let’s not become the U.S.” 

Now, it should be pointed out that a week is a long time in politics and the road to partisan hell is paved with good intentions to be collegial. All of these resolutions to absorb the lessons of Jan. 6 in the U.S. capital could vanish like other New Year’s resolutions — most likely within the first five minutes of Question Period when Parliament resumes later this month.

Right now, it looks like some Canadian politicians have been scared straight by Trump’s fiery exit in the U.S. But it’s not enough to denounce their rivals or Twitter or even Trump — the test of any new resolve will be in whether they’re willing to call out toxic politics when it happens in their own ranks. (Toronto Star) 

 

Tuesday December 2, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 2, 2020

COVID-19 doesn’t care about politics

Remember the Team Canada approach to fighting COVID-19, the one where political parties would put the collective fight above partisan interests? Remember “we’re all in this together?”

October 8, 2020

That was all so yesterday. Today, there is very little non-partisan co-operation between federal parties. And Canadians, too, have become increasingly partisan and divided. 

It was probably all inevitable, but it’s unfortunate, nonetheless. 

Partisanship has entirely replaced bilateral co-operation in Ottawa. The government stands accused of flubbing Canada’s vaccine program. Because of that mismanagement we are at “the back of the line,” according to federal Conservatives.

It is true that the government, and especially the prime minister, have been unnecessary vague about vaccine delivery and rollout details. It is not true that we are at the back of the pack. Canada was the fourth country in the world to strike an agreement with Pfizer, one of the vaccine producers. It was one of the first to sign up with Moderna, another producer.

December 1, 2020

Moderna co-founder and chair Noubar Afeyan, who came to Canada as a refugee from Beirut before he moved to the U.S., says this country is in good shape. In an interview with CBC News, he said “Canada’s not at the back of the line,” adding “Each of the contracts we negotiated — and Canada was among the first to enter into a supply arrangement with Moderna — is individual, and of course the people who were willing to move early on, with even less proof of efficacy, have assured the amount of supply they were willing to sign up to. I know in the case of Canada their number is about 20 million doses.”

It is fair to criticize the Liberals for their communication to date around vaccines, but it is not factual to claim Canada is at the back of the line. However, that is a good example of how partisan strategy has replaced the collaboration that was a welcome feature of the pandemic’s early days. 

November 28, 2020

It is also true that Canada will not get vaccines as quickly as countries like the U.S. and U.K., where vaccines were developed and produced. This country doesn’t have that production capacity. It did at one point. There was publicly owned Connaught Labs, which was privatized under the Mulroney Conservative government in the ’80s. Later, the Harper government cut research and development spending and other pharmaceutical companies closed shop and moved elsewhere. Now that capacity is largely gone, and it needs to be replaced, urgently.

A similar partisan divide exists among Canadians overall, according to recent opinion polling data. In general, Liberal and NDP voter respondents in several different polls were more likely to be primarily concerned about the health impact of COVID-19, while those who identified as Conservative were more likely to be concerned about the economic and business impact. According to polling by the Angus Reid Institute, 89 per cent of respondents who voted Liberal, NDP or Bloc reported regularly wearing masks, while 71 per cent of Conservative voters reported doing the same. 

May 8, 2019

Interestingly, one poll by Leger suggests many Canadians are not so concerned about getting the vaccine at the same time as the U.S. or U.K., where vaccines are produced. Forty-eight per cent said that they were “not that concerned” and feel “a few months won’t make much of a difference,” while 37 per cent said they are worried that we won’t get the vaccine at the same time. 

The point that matters most is this: COVID-19 doesn’t care about our political leaning. It is an equal opportunity virus. And that should unite us more than anything else. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday October 22, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 22, 2020

Canadians don’t need election melodrama

If not for Jagmeet Singh and the NDP and the three members of the Green caucus, Canada would be heading into a federal election today. We are not, and we should be thankful for that.

November 12, 2018

An election campaign, with the federal Parliament adjourned for campaigning, is the last thing the country wants, or needs. The second wave of this pandemic is sweeping across the nation. We need all hands on deck to manage the crisis, and no one needs to be distracted by an election campaign and everything that goes along with that.

But how did we get here? How did we end up on the brink of an election no one wants? 

There’s blame to be apportioned across the board, but the majority of it falls on the governing Liberals and Opposition Conservatives. They joined in a high stakes game of chicken that was not driven by anything other than partisan advantage. 

First, the Conservatives. They launched a motion on Opposition Day that called for establishing a new super-committee to investigate corruption, specifically the WE scandal. It would have had unprecedented power to call not only members of the government and civil service, but people such as friends and relatives. It could have compelled the release of private citizens’ financial records over a 12-year period. That is probably not even legal.

October 23, 2019

It was a massive overreach, especially considering Parliament already has multiple committees that can do that work. And given that this is a minority government, those committees are often dominated by opposition MPs, so the government doesn’t always get its way. 

Further, there is a central hypocrisy in what the Conservatives are saying. They want a committee specifically focused on government corruption, and they publicly declare they do not have confidence in the government. But they also say they don’t want an election. You cannot square that circle.

But the Liberals delivered a surprise — they chose a nuclear response to the Conservatives overreach, saying the motion amounted to a loss of confidence in the government, and therefore would trigger an election. They drew a line in the sand, and they dared opposition parties to cross.

October 28, 2016

There’s no doubt, from a political strategy perspective, that the government outplayed its opponents. But beyond that strategic victory, this brinksmanship isn’t a good look for anyone involved. The government is acting like it has a majority when it doesn’t. The Conservatives wanted to weaponize the committee process for partisan gain. Both were willing to force Canadians to endure an election campaign in a very dangerous time. For that, they should be ashamed.

Thankfully, Singh’s NDP sought middle ground. They proposed a committee that would oversee and investigate all spending and management during the pandemic, including in the WE affair. That is a reasonable mandate for a new committee. We don’t know what the Liberals agreed to in exchange for the NDP’s support against the Conservatives, but don’t be surprised if the end result of this drama fest is something like what the NDP proposed. 

So for now, this melodrama is over. Don’t be surprised when the next game of chicken breaks out, as happened frequently when Stephen Harper’s minority government was challenged repeatedly and dared opposition parties to trigger an election. 

That said, there was ample cynical political gamesmanship on display here. It’s wasn’t pretty. The Liberals and Conservatives should take a long look in the mirror and try to remember what Canadians are dealing with. That’s what matters, not an unnecessary election campaign. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday September 25, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 25, 2020

Feds begin new sitting by boosting COVID-19 recovery benefit

January 23, 2020

The federal government has announced it is increasing one of a trio of promised new COVID-19 aid benefits, to be equivalent to the amount received through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit that will expire at the end of the month, a move that may have secured the political support needed for the Liberal minority to stay afloat.

Kicking off the first full day of the new parliamentary session, the Liberals tabled Bill C-2 to implement the new benefits, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal minority seeks opposition support to avoid a snap election during a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The House of Commons began its as-normal-as-possible sitting for the first time since the pandemic put a pause on regular business back in March. Debate in response to Wednesday’s speech from the throne will continue throughout the day, offering more MPs time to speak to whether they liked what they heard, and if it’ll be enough for them to support the government in a confidence vote.

October 23, 2019

The minority Liberals will need to garner at least some support for the throne speech from across the aisle, or risk seeing their government fall. Early indications were that this support, may not be as secure as the Liberals might like. The Liberals currently hold 154 seats, the Conservatives have 121, the Bloc Québécois hold 32, the NDP have 24, the Green Party has three and there are two Independents and two vacancies.

The speech fixated primarily on how to keep supporting Canadians financially through COVID-19, while repairing inequalities the pandemic has exposed. Billed as “an ambitious plan for an unprecedented reality,” it included a commitment to keep up certain business aid benefits, to create a national child care and job creation plan, and emphasized that Canada has to tackle climate change, systemic racism, and gender inequity.

With the Conservatives already ardently against the speech, and the Bloc Quebecois sounding like they haven’t seen enough yet, but could come around if billions in new health funding is sent to the provinces, the Liberals are looking to the NDP for support.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had said right after the throne speech that he wanted to see CERB extended and a form of paid sick leave implemented. (CTV)