mountie

Saturday April 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 30, 2022

Ottawa police chief vows to stop biker rally as city braces for potential protests

February 19, 2022

Ottawa’s police chief has vowed to stop an upcoming biker rally from reaching the city’s downtown core as residents brace for a potential rerun of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” anti-government protests that paralyzed the Canadian capital earlier in the year.

Thousands of bikers are expected to arrive in Ottawa on Friday for the “Rolling Thunder” rally purportedly called in honour of military veterans.

The rally’s organizer, Neil Sheard, has denied that the event is a protest, but prominent anti-vaccine figure Chris Sky has been advertised as a “special guest” speaker, and Veterans for Freedom, a group which opposes public health measures, is also part of the event.

Organizers had planned to march on Parliament Hill on Friday and then meet at the war memorial the following day. But the interim chief, Steve Bell, warned that a “heavy police presence” and road closures would instead greet the bikers.

The city is still reeling from the February protests, when hundreds of commercial trucks blockaded the streets in front of Parliament Hill, honking their horns at all hours of the day and night and defying multiple orders to leave the area.

February 15, 2022

That event began as a protest against public health measures, but quickly transformed into a broader anti-government movement, with protestors calling for Justin Trudeau’s government to face criminal prosecution.

After weeks of disruption, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, permitting officials to freeze bank accounts and suspend the commercial licences of truck drivers involved. On Monday, the federal government announced an inquiry into the use of the rarely-used legislation.

The protests ended after nearly a month when police stormed the blockades and arrested nearly 200 demonstrators. Ottawa authorities later revealed that the demonstrations cost the city more than C$36m (US$28m, £22m).

“I do not want our children, seniors and other vulnerable residents re-traumatized. Our businesses should not be forced to close again,” Ottawa city councillor Catherine McKenney wrote on Twitter Monday.

August 28, 2012

Zexi Li, a downtown resident whose exasperation with non-stop truck honking led to a C$306m class action lawsuit against the convoy, told the Guardian she and others fear that “mistakes will be made again” as officials attempt to prepare for the influx of bikers.

“Without a doubt, there was a loss of trust in the city, in our officials, in the police from the protests. We were just utterly disappointed by the people that were supposed to protect us,” she said.

Sheard warned earlier this week the event could turn into a “free-for-all” as bikers are forced to deviate from a previously planned route after police said they wouldn’t allow vehicles into the downtown core.

“We keep hearing that things never should have gotten as bad as they did if certain steps had been taken from the very beginning,” said Li. “Well, we know what those steps are now. So all the need to do, in theory, is take those steps.” (The Guardian) 

 

Friday April 9, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 9, 2021

Canada’s public health data meltdown

For weeks, Canadians have been casting their envious eyes to Israel, where more than half the country has been inoculated against COVID-19. Israel, less than a quarter the size of Canada, has administered nearly twice as many doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

December 11, 2020

The Middle Eastern country has some innate advantages: It is small and centralized, and offered top dollar to ensure vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna would come fast, and in large volumes. But geography and money aren’t the reason why Israel is outpacing Canada by 10-to-one.

Israel has the vaccines because it has the data.

In its shrewd deal with Pfizer, Israel offered to turn the country into one giant clinical trial: Providing the vaccine manufacturer unprecedented large-scale visibility as to the vaccine’s efficacy. It’s all made possible because of the country’s state-of-the-art information technology and robust national vaccination database.

The rest of the world is currently benefiting from that incredibly granular information.

December 21, 2016

Canada could never have struck such a deal. Its health technology is, charitably, a decade out of date. It lacks the ability to adequately track infectious disease outbreaks, efficiently manage vaccine supply chains and storage, quickly administer doses, and monitor immunity and adverse reactions on a national basis.

Even though all the shipments of vaccines arriving in Canada come with scannable barcodes, to make tracking and logistics easier—with some manufacturers even barcoding the vials themselves—no Canadian province can scan them. In many provinces, pharmacies can’t access the provincial vaccine registry. Provinces do not automatically submit reports on COVID-19 cases or vaccines into the federal system, and must submit reports manually. Many crucial reports are still submitted by fax: Where fax has recently been phased out, they have been replaced by emailed PDFs.

March 31, 2021

Ours is a dumb system of pen-and-paper and Excel spreadsheets, in a world quickly heading towards smart systems of big data analytics, machine learning and blockchain. It’s unclear how Ottawa will be able to issue vaccine passports, even if it wants to.

At the core of the omnishambles is a simple fact that Canada has no national public health information system, but 13 different regional ones. Many of those regional systems have smaller, disconnected, systems within: Like a Russian nesting doll of antiquated technology.

But there’s good news: It doesn’t have to be this way. In some parts of the country, real progress is being made. Small technology start-ups are figuring out cheap, scalable and innovative solutions. In some provinces, progress can be as simple as updating operating systems.

If we are ever going to build efficient, cost-effective, and effective health infrastructure, Ottawa needs to take the lead. We need to abandon the idea that federalism requires us to have each sub-national government run entirely independent, walled-off, health databases.

We need data sharing. We need shared infrastructure. We need a national public health system. (Continued: MacLean’s) 

 

Friday July 17, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 17, 2018

Mexico and Canada insist on NAFTA as a 3-way deal

June 29, 2016

Canadian and Mexican officials insisted on Wednesday that the North American Free Trade Agreement remain a trilateral pact  and reiterated their opposition to U.S. calls for a so-called “sunset clause” that could end the deal after five years.

After a meeting in Mexico City, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said they remained optimistic about negotiations to revamp the 24-year-old trade pact.

Talks began last August but stalled in the run-up to the Mexican presidential election. That was due, at least in part, to U.S. demands for sweeping changes in the auto sector and for a sunset clause, which would put the deal forming one of the world’s largest trading blocs up for renewal every five years.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the pact if he cannot renegotiate it to better serve his country’s interests.

Freeland and Guajardo struck an upbeat tone, with Guajardo saying about two-thirds of the agreement has been ironed out.

January 24, 2018

In Washington on Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue raised the prospect that NAFTA could be negotiated separately with Canada and Mexico, in order to reach an agreement first with Mexico by September.

Although Mexican officials are heading to Washington this  week to meet with their U.S. counterparts, Guajardo stressed  that a deal between all three countries remained the goal.

“The fact that we are going to Washington to participate in bilateral talks is to reinforce the concept of the trilateralism of this agreement,” he said. “The essence of this agreement is trilateral, and it will continue being trilateral. (Source: CBC) 

 

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Tuesday June 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 27, 2017

Canada’s Self-Loathing150

July 1 is Canada’s 150th anniversary, but nobody seems particularly eager to join the party. The muted attempts at celebration have so far produced either awkwardness or embarrassment. A giant rubber duck, six stories tall, is supposed to arrive in Toronto Harbor on Canada Day, but its imminent appearance has been greeted by outrage over costs and suspicions of plagiarism. In March, the CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster, began televising a documentary series called “The Story of Us” to the almost instantaneous howling of Quebec and Nova Scotia politicians at what they regarded as significant omissions in our supposedly collective narrative. Resistance 150, an indigenous political movement, is planning to disrupt the anniversary itself.

June 22, 2017

The principal excitement of our sesquicentennial so far has been the fury of national self-critique it has inspired.

The irony is that Canada, at the moment, has a lot to celebrate. Our prime minister is glamorous and internationally recognized as a celebrity of progressive politics. We are among the last societies in the West not totally consumed by loathing of others. Canada leads the Group of 7 countries in economic growth. Our cultural power is real: Drake recently had 24 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time — for one shining moment he was nearly a quarter of popular music. Frankly, it’s not going to get much better than this for little old Canada.

So why is Canada so bad at celebrating itself? The nationalism that defined the country during the last major anniversary, the centenary in 1967, has evaporated. The election of Justin Trudeau has brought a new generation to power, a generation raised on a vision of history more critical than laudatory. We dream of reconciliation with the victims of our ancestors’ crimes rather than memorialization of their triumphs. (Continued: New York Times) 

Letter to the Editor, Hamilton Spectator, July 3, 2017
 
Cartoon didn’t do justice to Canada 150

RE: Celebrating Canada then and now, (editorial cartoon June 27)

During this year of celebrating Canada, it was very disappointing to see such a negative and incorrect editorial cartoon about how Canadians feel during this, our 150th birthday celebratory year.

I am not saying that there are some Canadians who have negative or frustrated feelings with various situations in our country, but those feeling were also present in 1967.

But if you are supposed to represent the majority of Canadians, then you are so far off the mark. Canadians are thrilled to be celebrating our country from sea to sea whether on the Via Rail 150 pass or the Parks Canada 150 pass.

Small communities are having street parties and large communities are having festivals. Big or small, loud or quiet, we are all proud to be Canadian. So fly that flag right side up and with dignity. True North Strong and Free!

Sheila Drury, Mount Hope

 

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Wednesday September 12, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday September 12, 2012

3,100 citizenships ordered revoked for immigration fraud

The federal government has started the process of revoking the citizenship of 3,100 people suspected of lying to become Canadians.

Speaking at a news conference on Ottawa Monday, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the federal government is “applying the full strength of Canadian law” to crack down on individuals suspected of obtaining citizenship fraudulently or falsifying information required for permanent residency.

“Canadian citizenship is not for sale,” Kenney told reporters. “We are taking action to strip citizenship and permanent residence status from people who don’t play by the rules and who lie or cheat to become a Canadian citizen.”

CBC News has learned cabinet has revoked the citizenship of 19 out of the 3,100 people using cabinet orders so far. The orders in council do not include the names of the individuals and the government will not release the names.

To date, letters have been sent to at least 500 of the 3,100 or so citizens suspected of fraud. Individuals may appeal to the Federal Court to stop the process.

If they don’t respond to their letters, requests to revoke citizenship go to cabinet. The entire process is expected to take months.

This crackdown on fraudulent citizenships is part of an investigation into some 11,000 people who may be lying to apply for citizenship or maintain permanent resident status.

Kenney’s department is working closely with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian offices abroad to track down suspicious cases. (Source: CBC News)