power

Wednesday November 10, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 10, 2021

Boris Johnson appeals to delegates to ‘get on and do it’ as COP26 climate talks stall

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on leaders and delegates to just “get on and do it” as the COP26 climate talks appear to have stalled.

November 28, 2015

A draft of a summit agreement was published on Wednesday by the COP26 presidency. It includes language that says the world should be aiming to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and acknowledges the role of fossil fuels in the climate crisis, a first for the annual Conference of the Parties on climate.

If the draft is agreed in current form, it could pave the way for deeper emissions cuts by the end of next year.

But details of opposition by Saudi Arabia, among other fossil fuel producing nations, have emerged and appear to be a major hurdle in progressing.

December 16, 2019

“Now is the time for everyone to come together and show the determination needed to power on past the blockages,” Johnson said in a press conference Wednesday, acknowledging that there were still gaps between what different nations want in the final text.

The document is not final and COP26 delegates from nearly 200 countries will now negotiate the details over the next few days. Consensus from all nations is required.

Typically draft COP agreements are watered down in the final text, but there is also a chance that some elements could be strengthened, depending on how wrangling between countries pans out.

Here’s what’s in the draft: (Continued: CNN) 

 

Wednesday September 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 22, 2021

Trudeau stays in power but Liberals fall short of majority

August 14, 2021

This is Mr Trudeau’s third federal election win, but his critics say the poll was a waste of time.

The Liberals are projected to win 158 seats, short of the 170 seats needed for the majority Mr Trudeau was seeking with his early election call.

The Conservatives have held onto their main opposition status and are expected to win about 122 seats.

“There are still votes to be counted but what we’ve seen tonight is millions of Canadians have chosen a progressive plan,” Mr Trudeau told supporters in Montreal in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“You elected a government that will fight for you and deliver for you,” he said.

The election, which took place during a fourth pandemic wave in Canada, was the most expensive in the country’s history, costing some C$600m ($470m; £344m).

The projected results suggest a parliament strikingly similar to the one elected just two years ago in 2019.

Federal Election 2021

The snap election call, sending Canadians to the polls for the second time in two years, was widely seen as a bid by Mr Trudeau to secure a majority government and he struggled to explain why a campaign was necessary. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole suggested it was a waste of time and money.

“Canadians sent him back with another minority at a cost of $600m and deeper divisions in our great country”, he told reporters.

Mr Trudeau maintained that the election gave the incoming government a clear mandate in moving forward.

But over the course of the campaign, he struggled to convince voters of the need for an election, which also coincided with rising Covid-19 case loads due to the Delta variant.

Separately he was also heckled by anti-vaccine protesters on the campaign trail, with some shouting they would refuse the Covid jab. (Continued: BBC) 

 

Saturday May 12, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 12, 2018

NDP suspends Quebec MP Christine Moore in wake of inappropriate conduct allegations

November 6, 2014

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has temporarily suspended Quebec MP Christine Moore from her duties with the party and ordered an investigation after a veteran of the war in Afghanistan accused her of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

The allegations against Moore are the latest to rock the third-place party. Singh expelled another MP from caucus last week following a three-month investigation that was sparked by a complaint from Moore.

In an interview, retired corporal Glen Kirkland said Moore first approached him after he testified before a parliamentary committee in June 2013, where he had been asked to speak on the treatment of ill and injured soldiers.

January 31, 2018

Kirkland was wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2008 while driving a light-armoured vehicle that was hit by recoilless rifle fire. The shot killed three other soldiers and left Kirkland with severe injuries, including a damaged pancreas and right eye, crushed vertebrae, bleeding in the brain and PTSD.

Kirkland did not want to get into specifics Tuesday. But he did tell the CBC that Moore followed him back to his hotel and continued to send explicit messages, even turning up unannounced at his Manitoba home before he forcibly told her to stop.

January 26, 2018

“I’m not claiming rape or anything,” Kirkland, who is now a real estate agent in Brandon, Man., told CP. But, he said, “she was inappropriate. She used her position of power and authority to get what she wanted.”

In a statement released Tuesday, Singh said Moore will remain a member of caucus pending the results of an investigation, but that she is being temporarily relieved of her duties on committees and other party matters.

“I take these allegations very seriously and I will be appointing an independent investigator to conduct a fair and full examination,” Singh said. (Source: Edmonton Journal) 

 

Wednesday January 31, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 31, 2018

#MeToo’s moment on Parliament Hill suggests another way more women could change politics

The great unravelling continues. And as it does, it reveals the difficult truths about sexual misconduct by those who occupy the institutions of Canadian political power.

Beyond the question of what might be revealed next, there is the question of what must change to ensure this moment is never relived.

At noon on Monday, a day after another report of sexual misconduct allegedly perpetrated by one of its members, the House of Commons turned its attention to Bill C-65, legislation to implement new rules and processes for dealing with sexual harassment in federally regulated workplaces.

“We have been powerfully reminded in Canada and indeed around the world that harassment and violence remain a common experience for people in the workplace,” Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said. “Parliament Hill, our own workplace, is especially affected.”

She proceeded in greater detail.

“Parliament Hill features distinct power imbalances, which perpetuates a culture where people with a lot of power and prestige can use and have used that power to victimize the people who work so hard for us,” she said. “It is a culture where people who are victims of harassment or sexual violence do not feel safe to bring those complaints forward. It is a place where these types of behaviours, abusive and harmful, are accepted and minimized and ignored.”

Three hours later, MPs unanimously agreed to pass C-65 at second reading and send it immediately to a committee for further study.

The bill is, in Conservative MP Michelle Rempel’s words, “a positive step in the right direction.” But, in and of itself, C-65 “will not correct all the issues associated with the current state of affairs,” she said. 

So more must change, including perhaps the most obvious: the number of women who currently occupy seats in the House of Commons. (Source: CBC)

 

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Monday November 13, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday November 13, 2017

Who’s next? High anxiety in Hollywood amid sexual harassment allegations in the industry

The curtain has been pulled back, and, oh, is it messy.

November 9, 2017

Hollywood has always revelled in scandal. The rumour. The whisper. The unfortunate photograph. The apology and return to grace. But the recent sex abuse stories have turned into a parade of tawdry violations and twisted passions, the stuff of movies acted out in real lives against the unglamorous air of disgrace, endless transgressions that even Ray Donovan, Showtime’s half-shaven mercurial fixer, couldn’t clean up with all his hush money and muscle.

The rape and sexual abuse allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, James Toback and others have shattered the awards-season aplomb in a town that imagines itself bold and freewheeling but prefers the tempered and scripted. The entertainment industry has slipped into a multi-polar catharsis of emboldened women, nervous men, threatening lawyers, broken deals, spoiled careers and the uncertainty that comes when cracks run like lightning through facades.

May 25, 2011

“I think the industry is forever changed,” said Marcel Pariseau, a publicist whose clients include Scarlett Johansson and Olivia Munn, one of six women who accused Ratner of sexual misconduct in the Los Angeles Times last week. “Every morning we wake up and we don’t know what’s going to be next. You’re almost afraid to get on your gadget to see what the new story is.”

“No one is going to be going to a producer or director’s hotel suite anymore,” he added. “All meetings will be done with somebody else in the room for protection for both sides. It’s a defining moment. It’s vigilance.”

November 19, 2014

Instagram accounts are being scrubbed, Facebook pages edited, publicists consulted and memories jogged about what might have happened where and with whom on that blurry night years ago. The cocktail circuit is jittery; the Oscar buzz feels a bit listless. Talent agencies are dropping clients and scouring their own houses. Studios are pruning relationships, firing executives hours after an allegation is made public. (Source: Toronto Star)