protest

Friday May 18, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 18, 2018

Morneau says government willing to compensate Kinder Morgan against political delays

Canada is willing to write Kinder Morgan — or anyone else who steps up to the plate — a cheque to ensure the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion gets built despite British Columbia’s opposition, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Wednesday.

Morneau said the federal government is willing to compensate the pipeline’s backers for any financial loss due to British Columbia’s attempts to obstruct the company’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

“The indemnification would allow Kinder Morgan to finish what they started, what they received federal and B.C. approval to do,” he said Wednesday morning during a news conference that laid out in broad terms what his government is willing to do to move the project ahead.

Morneau’s statement came just hours before Kinder Morgan Canada’s stakeholders met in Calgary, and offers the company an incentive to proceed with the project just weeks ahead of its potential drop-dead date. Kinder Morgan has threatened to abandon the project if a clear path forward isn’t reached by May 31.

“As a government we need to ensure that the rule of law is respected and that investors have the certainty needed to complete the Trans Mountain expansion project, because it’s in the national interest to do so,” Morneau said.

Morneau said that if Kinder Morgan bails on the project, the government would reimburse any financial losses related to B.C.’s political opposition incurred by any other investor willing to take the project on — as long as reimbursement is “sound and fair and beneficial for Canadians.”

Morneau wouldn’t say if there’s a limit to how much the government is willing to spend to compensate the pipeline’s backer. (Source: CBC) 

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Friday September 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 15, 2017

Bill Morneau pushes back on ‘misinformation’ coming out about proposed tax changes

With Parliament due to resume sitting next week, Finance Minister Bill Morneau is digging in on his proposed tax changes and mounting a campaign against what he calls misinformation about it.

March 23, 2017

The tax changes have been the hot topic of discussion at the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland, where cabinet ministers met for three days this week to prepare for the fall sitting.

It’s not just business groups and opposition Conservatives who’ve been blasting the government in the media; Liberal MPs are increasingly speaking up about their concerns with the proposed changes, including finance committee chair Wayne Easter, who told the Globe and Mail the communication strategy around the reforms was “god-awful.”

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball told cabinet ministers on Tuesday that there’s a “disconnect” between what the government intends and what the public believes about the changes.

In an interview with the National Post, Morneau said he knows people need more information, and he’s working on getting it out ahead of the Oct. 2 deadline on the consultation process.

November 2, 2016

He said once the consultations are done, the government will consider tweaks to prevent “administrative problems” or other unintended impacts down the road.

Asked if he’s worried that the furor over the changes will put a chill on people thinking about starting a business, Morneau said his emphasis is on protecting investments in active business operations.

“Anything we hear that will discourage people from making investments in their active business will absolutely be taken into consideration,” he said. “Again, our goal is to make sure that people have the opportunity to invest and the incentive to invest in their business.”

He said his government is constantly looking at options for small business incentives. “I don’t have anything to announce right now, but that’s something we are always looking at,” he said. (Source: National Post) 

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Thursday September 1, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Thursday September 1, 2016 Protests disrupt Energy East pipeline hearings in Montreal Protesters disrupted the first day of the National Energy Board hearings for the proposed Energy Eat pipeline in Montreal. Montreal mayor Denis Coderre was the first speaker but before he could start a protester charged at the commissioners. Security stopped him but others joined in and the NEB was forced to cancel MondayÕs hearing. ÊÒWeÕll keep in touch to see if we can come tomorrow but again I think the NEB, as I said last Friday, should rethink the way this thing is happeningÊright now,Ó says Coderre. Coderre is against the pipeline and believes the NEB commissioners may have been unfairly influenced. Others like those in New Brunswick, whose refining business would boom, are for the pipeline. Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt says the pipeline will likely go depending on whether your region is in or out of the oilÊbusiness. ÒSome people are saying look we support the pipeline just build it somewhere else. You also have groups who say we donÕt want any pipeline builtÊanywhere because we want to shut down the oil sands.Ó However, the hearings arenÕt political in nature, they are fact-finding because Parliament will make the ultimate decision. Mps will have to weigh the economic benefits of building and operating a 4,500 kilometre pipeline funneling domestic crude to domestic refineriesÊrather than buying and selling oil to and from foreigners and if itÕs worth the environmental risk. (CTV News)Êhttp://calgary.ctvnews.ca/protests-disrupt-energy-east-pipeline-hearings-in-montreal-1.3049817 Canada, protest, anti, oil, sands, Alberta, Energy East, pipeline, train, sea, transport

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 1, 2016

Protests disrupt Energy East pipeline hearings in Montreal

Protesters disrupted the first day of the National Energy Board hearings for the proposed Energy Eat pipeline in Montreal.

Montreal mayor Denis Coderre was the first speaker but before he could start a protester charged at the commissioners.

Security stopped him but others joined in and the NEB was forced to cancel Monday’s hearing.

“We’ll keep in touch to see if we can come tomorrow but again I think the NEB, as I said last Friday, should rethink the way this thing is happening right now,” says Coderre.

Coderre is against the pipeline and believes the NEB commissioners may have been unfairly influenced.

Others like those in New Brunswick, whose refining business would boom, are for the pipeline.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt says the pipeline will likely go depending on whether your region is in or out of the oil business.

“Some people are saying look we support the pipeline just build it somewhere else. You also have groups who say we don’t want any pipeline built anywhere because we want to shut down the oil sands.”

However, the hearings aren’t political in nature, they are fact-finding because Parliament will make the ultimate decision.

Mps will have to weigh the economic benefits of building and operating a 4,500 kilometre pipeline funneling domestic crude to domestic refineries rather than buying and selling oil to and from foreigners and if it’s worth the environmental risk. (CTV News)

L E T T E R S

Sept 9, 2016, Letter to the Editor (Hamilton Spectator) RE: Editorial cartoon (Sept. 1)

How about a sustainability cartoon?

In answer to MacKay’s cartoon last Thursday criticizing the no-sayers (no to pipelines, no to tar sands, etc.), here are some things I say yes to: a stable climate, a stable food supply, stable sea levels, clean air, clean water, renewable energy, a low-carbon economy.

Could we have a cartoon promoting these values instead? Most of which will not be achieved if we keep building pipelines.

Dave Carson, Dundas

 

Tuesday May 5, 2015

Tuesday September 8, 2009Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 5, 2015

Thousands of parents keep kids home from school in sex-ed protest

Parents of thousands of elementary students across Toronto kept their children out of class Monday to protest the sex-ed portion of Ontario’s new health curriculum.

The hardest hit school was Thorncliffe Park Public School, where only about 130 children showed up for class out of the usual 1,350 — or roughly 10 per cent. At nearby Gateway Public School, some 400 students were away, nearly half the usual enrolment. At Valley Park Middle School, some 590 students were absent out of the total 950.

Thursday, February 26, 2015At Fraser Mustard, an all-kindergarten school in Thorncliffe Park, only 90 of 650 students turned up. The sex-ed curriculum doesn’t actually kick in until Grade 1.

“In Grade 1 they should be learning about the ABCs, not sex,” said Thorncliffe Park parent Lubna Awah, who kept her kindergarten son home.

“Boys are boys and girls are girls — why should they learn about a third (gender) in Grade 1?” asked Awah, who said she believes children will be encouraged to question their gender identity as early as Grade 1.

Awah said she learned much of what she is concerned about regarding the new curriculum earlier this spring on a flyer circulated by what she called a “Chinese Christian group,” because she said the school did not educate parents.

The new curriculum, endorsed by a coalition of doctors, educators, mental health experts as long overdue in an age of sexting, easy access to online pornography and a falling age of puberty, includes references to anal and oral sex in the context of warning students these alternatives to intercourse can also be risky because they can spread sexually transmitted disease, yet many protesters said they believe the curriculum encourages such behaviour. Critics have seized onto this, as well as possible explanations about masturbation that teachers would offer if asked by students, as encouraging all these behaviours — something educators have insisted in not the case. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Thursday July 10, 2014

Thursday July 10, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 10, 2014

Rob Ford’s sobriety coach kicked shirtless protester, says officer

A Toronto police officer spotted a member of Mayor Rob Ford’s entourage kicking a protester at a campaign event this morning.

“If you want me to help you out, you can’t be kicking [the protester],” said the uniformed officer to Bob Marier, Ford’s so-called sobriety coach. “I saw you kick him. I saw it happen.”

After the officer scolded Marier, he walked away without saying anything.

The exchange between Marier and the officer was caught on camera by local media.

Marier is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who helps others with addiction problems stave off temptation. He has been travelling with Ford since the mayor’s return to his job after a two-month stint in rehab.

The officer on the scene was watching protesters gathered around the mayor at the Tuesday morning news conference.

The protest was an extension of Ford’s confrontation with a shirtless jogger in East York on Canada Day. Protesters have since followed the mayor, demanding answers from Ford whilst not wearing shirts.

Ford said he wasn’t bothered by the demonstrators — at one point stopping his speech to chuckle — and said “they can protest all they want.”

But his team actively tried to disrupt the gathering, standing in front of signs and confronting the protesters.

The result was a chaotic event.

Doug Ford, the mayor’s campaign manager for the October municipal election, dismissed the protest, accusing the protesters of being members of rival campaigns.

“People see through it,” he said. (Source: Toronto Star)