policy

Thursday May 2, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 2, 2019

Where is your climate change plan? Liberal ministers ask Scheer

The House of Commons resumed sitting on Monday for what’s set to be an intense session before Parliament adjourns for the last time before the federal election will be called, and the governing Liberals came out swinging bright and early against Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

April 2, 2019

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna and Finance Minister Bill Morneau began their day criticizing their main opponent for his lack of a climate plan. Meanwhile, Scheer was elsewhere on the Hill doing the same over the government’s approach to current trade tensions with China.

At issue specifically for the Liberal ministers: Scheer’s lack of a climate change plan, despite his consistent attacks on the government’s imposition of a federal price on carbon — up to $50 per excess tonne by 2022 — in provinces who don’t implement their own. The federal Conservatives say the government’s plan is little more than a “tax grab.”

It was exactly a year ago, on April 29, 2018 during a sit-down interview on CTV’s Question Period, Scheer said that he would be unveiling a climate plan ahead of the 2019 election that will meet the Paris targets without a carbon tax.

September 20, 2016

Asked whether the plan will meet the UN targets for combating climate change, otherwise known as Paris Agreement, Scheer said “of course.”

The Paris agreement sets out an international plan to limit global warming to below two degrees.

“I will unveil a plan that reaches the targets that we have already voted in favour of,” Scheer said at the time.

In June 2017, Scheer and his caucus voted in support of the Canadian government implementing the Paris Agreement, stating it was in the best interest of Canadians and recognizing that climate change is a global issue.

Though, eight months later it was on CTV’s Question Period again where he walked back that promise. He could not commit that his plan would mean the targets, instead he said his plan would have “meaningful reductions.” (Source: CTV News) 

 

Tuesday January 15, 2019

Tuesday January 14, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 15, 2019

What — and who — comes after Rahaf Mohammed?

If Canada were a proud and principled beacon unto the world’s most downtrodden, as so many so often claim, then one might have expected Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun to arrive at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Saturday with relatively little fanfare.

August 8, 2018

Canada resettles tens of thousands of refugees every year, after all, and many are fleeing circumstances just as horrific as the Saudi teenager’s abuse by her family. Canadian government officials are guarding Alqunun’s current whereabouts partly on grounds she might still be in danger even halfway around the world — an idea given credence by Dennis Horak, who was Canada’s ambassador in Riyadh until he was expelled over the summer.

Indeed, Saudi-Canadian relations are not in terrific shape just at the moment, thanks to our public rebukes of its treatment of activists, and granting immediate asylum to the world’s highest-profile Saudi refugee seems unlikely to help matters. One might very reasonably not give a damn about the House of Saud’s amour propre, but Ottawa would clearly prefer to repair those relations. Quite apart from anything else, it would give Canada more-than-zero leverage in lobbying on behalf of those activists — including imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, whose wife is a Canadian citizen.

There were no good reasons to make a big show of Alqunun’s arrival, in other words, and plenty of good reasons not to. Furthermore, Justin Trudeau has been very clear about what he thinks of using refugees as political props. He was at his most thespian back in 2015 when it was alleged Stephen Harper’s office had been sifting through applications from Syrian asylum-seekers in search of potential photo ops.

“That’s DIS-GUST-ING,” Trudeau hissed at a campaign stop in Richmond, B.C. “That’s not the Canada we want; that’s not the Canada we need to build.”

In the end, though, there was Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland with her arm draped around Alqunun, announcing that this “brave new Canadian” would not be taking questions. Luckily, Freeland herself had arrived equipped with some crimson talking points.

December 12, 2018

“I believe in lighting a single candle,” she said. “Where we can save a single person, where we can save a single woman, that is a good thing to do. … And I’d like to also emphasize, this is part of a broader Canadian policy of supporting women and girls in Canada and around the world.”

“Canada is a country that understands how important it is to stand up for human rights, to stand up for women’s rights around the world,” Trudeau chimed in.

It would be well-nigh impossible to argue against hearing, at the very least, Alqunun’s claim for asylum. But at this point, she is certainly also a political prop — a living symbol of the Liberal view of Canada’s place in the world, and an always-welcome opportunity for self-congratulation. (Continued: National Post) 

 

Tuesday October 16, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 16, 2018

Worried You Reek Like Weed? Prelam Has An ‘Odour Eliminator’ For You

The makers of Just’a Drop odour eliminators are stepping into the recreational cannabis market when it becomes legal October 17. Prelam Enterprises will launch the LUKY8 spray that day, which it claims will eliminate, and not just mask, the odour that comes with marijuana smoke.

June 22, 2018

“My goal was to give privacy to those people who will want to experiment because it’s legal all of a sudden,” said Prelam co-founder Luc Jalbert. “I figured there’s going to be millions of people trying it. There’ll be a lot of people buying it in the store because it’s legal, but they don’t want to advertise it, they don’t want their kids to know they had a puff.”

Jalbert said people who don’t traditionally use the substance may want to try it, including Baby Boomers. But as most people know, marijuana has a distinct smell that many may find too strong and obvious.

“Sometimes I’ll be in line at a bank or something and I can smell the cannabis on the guy behind me, it’s like, ‘wow, that’s a very distinct smell’,” Jalbert said. “My objective was to remove that taboo feeling that you could have a joint but you don’t have to advertise it.”

Jalbert said the LUKY8 is unlike other odour elimination sprays in the market because it “encapsulates the molecule [that creates the odour] and actually knocks it out.”

He used a formula aimed at the agricultural sector, he said. The product was researched, designed and manufactured in Moncton.

Users of the product just need to spray the air around them, their clothes or their furniture after consuming marijuana. Once sprayed, the LUKY8, which is safe for pets, will leave a light berry scent. (Source: Huddle Today) 

Tuesday June 19, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 19, 2018

Trump admin’s gyrating story on separating families at the border insults our intelligence

September 8, 2017

Don’t blame us. In response to growing public outrage over family separations at the border, the president said on Friday that he wasn’t responsible for the policy. “I hate the children being taken away,” Donald Trump said. “The Democrats have to change their law. It’s their law.” His sentiments have been echoed by top administration officials and leading Republicans.    

The problem is that such statements are at best misleading and at worst flat out lies. The family separations at the border are a byproduct of decisions by the Trump administration. It speaks volumes that the president and some of his allies are unwilling to own the policy of separating children from their parents — let alone offer a sound legal basis for it.     

December 8, 2015

The president has repeatedly claimed that Democrats are responsible for the family separations that have become a national scandal. But as news outlets such as The Associated Press have pointed out, this is not true. It is Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “zero tolerance” policy, which requires that nearly all unauthorized border crossers be criminally prosecuted, that has led to families being split apart. 

Because minors cannot be sent to adult jails, there are now nearly 11,000 immigrant children <https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/surge-migrant-children-government-shelters-trump-admin-pushes-zero-tolerance-n878601> in government custody without their parents.

January 13, 2018

Yet on Sunday night, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted, “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.”

This statement defies reality — especially given that Homeland Security has published guidelines on its website outlining how such separations take place.

Sadly, prominent Republicans have followed the president’s lead in assigning blame for this inhumane policy. “What is happening at the border in the separation of parents and their children is because of a court ruling,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said at a news conference Thursday. That same day, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted, “I want 2 stop the separation of families at the border by repealing the Flores 1997 court decision requiring separation of families + give DOJ the tools it needs 2 quickly resolve cases.” (Source: USA Today) 

 

 

 

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Wednesday April 18, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 18, 2018

Andrea Horwath defends party’s big-spending platform

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath knows her plan to provide free or low-cost licensed daycare to families across the province will cost billions of dollars, but said the program will become sustainable in the long run.

November 17, 2014

The NDP platform, released Monday, promises to spend $375 million in the first year of the childcare strategy, followed by another $1 billion in the second year. By 2023 the price tag rises to more than $3 billion annually.

Under the plan, families earning less than $40,000 will get free daycare, while those with higher household incomes will pay an average of $12 per day.

The NDP leader told CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Tuesday the idea behind the program is to get more women back into the workforce.

March 20, 2018

“It’s a sustainable plan,” Horwath said. “It’s one that recognizes that some families can pay some money toward childcare, but the lowest-income families simply are not able to afford anything at all.”

Some families could end up paying more than $12 per day, Horwath said, but most will pay less. She was unable to pinpoint the income cutoff that would determine whether a family will qualify for the $12 daily rate.

“Unlike the other plan that’s out there, our plan is one that’s got universal access to childcare. It’s not about how old your little ones are. It’s about how much your family can afford to pay,” she said. (Source: CBC)