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Thursday March 2, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 2, 2023

Trudeau slaps down questions about public inquiry into election meddling

February 25, 2023

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed back at questions Friday about calling a public inquiry into claims that Beijing interfered in Canada’s recent elections, telling reporters that the probes already underway are sufficient.

Trudeau is under pressure from his political opponents to launch an inquiry after media reports citing unnamed sources said the Chinese communist regime has co-opted some Canadian politicians. A Commons committee passed a motion Thursday in an attempt to compel the government to act.

Speaking to reporters at a child care announcement in Winnipeg, an animated Trudeau said his government has been seized with the issue of foreign interference for years and put in place a system to actively monitor meddling by China and other bad actors.

When asked why he won’t call an inquiry now, Trudeau said senior public servants working on the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP) already have reviewed the 2019 and 2021 campaigns and concluded that, while there was some Chinese interference, those actions did not compromise the final outcomes.

During the news conference, Trudeau appeared to be annoyed by reporters repeating questions about the calls for an inquiry.

February 20, 2021

Former senior public servant Morris Rosenberg released his review of the 2021 campaign earlier this week.

He found that the Government of Canada did not detect foreign interference that threatened Canada’s ability to hold free and fair elections in 2019 and 2021. He also offered a series of recommendations meant to prevent foreign interference in the future.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said the Rosenberg report isn’t credible because Rosenberg previously held a role with the Trudeau Foundation, a non-profit named for the prime minister’s father. That foundation also received a $200,000 donation from an individual with ties to China’s government — money that was returned this week.

Trudeau said Friday the public service picked Rosenberg for the job — and his government had no role in the appointment.

December 5, 2017

Trudeau also pointed out that the House of Commons procedure and House affairs committee is also in the midst of its own probe and the top-secret National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), which was created by the Liberal government, is reviewing all of the intelligence about the 2021 vote.

“All of these processes are going on and demonstrate the seriousness with which this government and this country needs to take the question of foreign interference,” Trudeau said.

“Canadians can have confidence in our institutions, in our democracies and our ability to defend ourselves.” (CBC) 

 

Saturday February 18, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 18, 2023

Emergencies Act report finds Trudeau met threshold to shut down convoy protest

February 10, 2022

Police dysfunction, stubborn politics and a failure of federalism turned last winter’s “Freedom Convoy” protests into a national crisis that warranted the first-ever use of the Emergencies Act, Ontario Justice Paul Rouleau concluded in a much-anticipated report.

Rouleau determined — “with reluctance” — that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government met the “very high threshold” to trigger the act and create a host of extraordinary police powers to quash the protests. But Rouleau also called the protests “legitimate,” and blamed government leaders and police for failing to “properly manage” the demonstrations against COVID-19 health measures, which he described as a predictable response to a disruptive pandemic.

“Had various police forces and levels of government prepared for and anticipated events of this type and acted differently in response to the situation, the emergency that Canada ultimately faced could likely have been avoided,” Rouleau wrote in the report, which was released Friday. “Unfortunately, it was not.”

October 27, 2022

Rouleau blamed the police for a “series of failures” that “contributed to a situation that spun out of control.” He called the crisis a “failure of federalism,” concluding that — at least sometimes — political leaders from different levels of government did not “rise above politics and collaborate for the common good.”

Rouleau also singled out Trudeau for using inflammatory language when he said during the crisis that protesters were part of a “fringe minority” with “unacceptable views.” This made the situation worse by “further embittering” protesters towards government authorities, Rouleau wrote. Even though Trudeau may have been referring to racist and extremist messages — Nazi and Confederate flags were spotted at the Ottawa protest — Rouleau wrote the prime minister should have acknowledged “the majority of protesters were exercising their fundamental democratic rights” to denounce what they saw as government overreach.

February 15, 2022

Speaking later on Parliament Hill, Trudeau expressed regret about his words about convoy protesters for the first time.

“I wished I’d have said that differently,” he told reporters.

He added that there is still a “very small number of people in this country who deliberately spread misinformation that led to Canadians’ deaths” during the pandemic.

Trudeau also recognized that governments, including his own, could have worked better together during the crisis. He pledged to carefully study and respond to Rouleau’s 56 recommendations — which call for better intelligence-sharing between police agencies, changes to the Emergencies Act and improved government transparency, among other things — within six months.

February 19, 2022

“We didn’t want to have to invoke the Emergencies Act. It’s a measure of last resort. But the risks to personal safety, the risk to livelihoods and, equally, the risk of people losing faith in the rule of law that upholds our society and our freedoms — those risks were real, and responsible leadership required us to restore peace and order,” Trudeau said.

In Calgary, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — who expressed support for convoy protesters during the crisis — accused Trudeau of fomenting the crisis by making COVID-19 vaccines a political issue in the 2021 federal election.

“He thinks that if you’re afraid of your neighbour, you’ll forget that you can’t pay your rent. If you’re afraid of a trucker, you might forget that you’re hungry and take your eyes off of the guy who caused the problem in the first place,” Poilievre said, blaming the prime minister for inflation and a host of other problems. (The Peterborough Examiner) 

 

Thursday May 9, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 9, 2019

Canadian immigration system ‘not equipped’ to handle influx of irregular migrants: auditor general

The Canadian immigration system is not flexible enough to handle the influx of irregular migrants that began in early 2017, according to the country’s auditor general.

August 22, 2018

A lack of information sharing and use of outdated technologies by the three federal bodies responsible for processing asylum claims has compounded the problem, leaving those agencies unable to process claims in the required time frames, according to the spring report by the auditor general.

“Overall, we found that Canada’s refugee determination system was not equipped to process claims according to the required timelines,” wrote auditor general Sylvain Ricard in his spring report.

“Since the system was not flexible enough to respond in a timely way to higher claim volumes, the 2017 surge of asylum seekers led to a backlog and increased wait times for refugee protection decisions.”

July 17, 2018

Since early 2017, roughly 40,000 migrants have crossed the border irregularly from the United States into Quebec.

Nearly two-thirds of the asylum claims during that time were postponed because of issues within the control of the government, leading to delays lasting months, which have yet to be resolved.

Much of that backlog comes as the result of a lack of information sharing between the Canada Border Services Agency, Immigration and Refugees Canada and the Immigration and Refugee Board, the auditor general said.

The report also warned that if current funding and procedures continue, wait times for asylum applications could more than double by 2024.

December 7, 2016

That would see applicants wait up to five years for a decision.

The former Conservative government passed legislation in 2010 and 2012 aimed at reducing that backlog by setting mandatory time frame requirements for processing asylum claims that said hearings for most applicants had to be scheduled within 60 days.

But the report found that the influx of irregular migrants “outstripped” the capacity of officials to process them within those time frames and added that, “As a result, at the time of our audit, the system faced a backlog of unresolved claims that was worse than in 2012, when the system was last reformed.” (Source: Global) 

 

Saturday February 7, 2015

Saturday February 7, 2015Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 7, 2015

Radical bus boost pitched as riders left in the cold

Council will mull an ambitious 10-year strategy to expand transit even as overcrowded buses leave more riders at the curb each year.

Complaints about buses whizzing by stranded riders jumped from 174 to 250 between 2011 and 2013, The Spectator learned via a Freedom of Information request. Driver “customer service” complaints also rocketed to 503 in 2013 from 290 the previous year.

The city was on track for 200-plus complaints again based on partial 2014 data, with at least 50 of the “pass-bys” reported on routes along the B-line, including King, University and Delaware — despite a $3-million budget boost in 2011 aimed at the busy corridor.

The LRT waiting game gallery

The LRT waiting game gallery

Transit blogger Jason Nason said only a fraction of bypassed riders register a formal complaint and suggested more and longer buses are desperately needed on several routes. “I would say sarcastically the current strategy seems to be ‘do nothing’ and wait for ridership to drop, which I guess would also solve your overcrowding.”

A new 10-year transit proposal from HSR director Dave Dixon acknowledges the city needs to spend millions of dollars fixing existing “deficiencies” like pass-bys before switching gears to expand the bus network and ramp up rapid transit.

Dixon wouldn’t discuss the strategy before Friday’s budget meeting, but his presentation, posted online, says the city should raise fares, add $6 million to the transit budget, hire 50 new people and buy 25 extra buses by 2016.

Over 10 years, the bus budget could grow by $51 million, add 336 hires and 126 buses. The report outlines several reasons for urgent investment in the bus system.

Ridership in Hamilton is stalled at about 21 million and Dixon’s report says trips per person have fallen slightly since 2006 to 45, meaning the HSR has lost ground on its goal of 80-to-100 trips per person by 2025.

By comparison, municipalities like York Region, London and Brampton have spent more on transit and watched trips per person explode by double-digit percentages. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Wednesday February 22, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday February 22, 2012

McGuinty steers into troubled, unnavigated waters

When the legislature opens for business on Tuesday, Dalton McGuinty will confront one of the most troubled periods in provincial history.

With a $16-billion deficit, a debt of about $250 billion, a sputtering economy, a weak job market and the danger of a credit rating downgrade, the 40th Provincial Parliament couldn’t be sitting at a more important time.

The challenges facing Ontario would be daunting for a majority government. Throw a minority government into that volatile mix, with the Drummond report hanging over his head, and McGuinty’s task becomes herculean.

Analysts say McGuinty’s situation is unique. What voters conjured up last Oct. 6 last year, is not the minority of 1985 when Liberals and New Democrats signed an accord and took power from Conservative Frank Miller, giving government to David Peterson. Nor is it 1975 and 1977 when Bill Davis led two Conservative minorities with relative ease in the face of a divided opposition.

The political environment today is more fractured and more partisan, with the Opposition Progressive Conservatives and the NDP united in their determination to give the Liberals no breathing room.

Worse still, worries about the economy have left cranky Ontarians in no mood to cut the government any slack. McGuinty not only has to walk a political tightrope in the legislature, he has to make sure whatever tough medicine he prescribes to revive the economy doesn’t lead to social unrest.

With 53 seats to the PC’s 37 and 17 for the NDP, McGuinty may have a “strong minority,” but it is not enough to give him control of his own destiny. (Source: Ottawa Citizen)