2016.09.30
Friday | Vendredi
PARLINFO
Information actuelle et historique sur les
parlementaires et le Parlement
Des bases de données interrogeables et des faits
concernant les gens et les événements qui ont façonné
le Parlement depuis 1867. Parcourez les biographies et
les photos des parlementaires et trouvez des réponses
aux questions fréquemment posées au sujet du régime
parlementaire.
 PARLINFO - Accueil
 Suivez @BdPInformation sur Twitter!
PARLINFO
Current and Historical Information About
Parliamentarians and Parliament
Searchable databases and facts about important events
and people that have shaped Parliament since 1867.
Consult biographies and photos of parliamentarians and
find answers to frequently asked questions about the
parliamentary system.
 PARLINFO – Home
 Follow @LoPInformation on Twitter!
QUORUM TEAM | L’ÉQUIPE DE QUORUM :
D. Bosnjak, C. Gingras, C. Gravel
Issue | Numéro : 2143
CONTACT US | POUR COMMUNIQUER AVEC NOUS :
613-995-1166
library@parl.gc.ca / biblio@parl.gc.ca
Subscribe / Abonnez-vous
QUORUM
TABLE OF CONTENTS / TABLE DES MATIÈRES
Friday, September 30, 2016 / vendredi, 30 septembre 2016
[News / Nouvelles]
Health ministers spar over accord ................................................................................................................................................................ 1
Transferts aux Provinces - Dialogue de sourds entre ministres de la Santé ................................................................................................. 1
Les dépenses gouvernementales sont les plus élevées en six ans, selon le DPB ......................................................................................... 2
Temps, students trim PS payroll as spending swells.................................................................................................................................... 3
Trudeau losing budget wiggle room ............................................................................................................................................................ 3
Senate set to decide whether to sue former senators in expense dispute ..................................................................................................... 4
Dominic LeBlanc montré du doigt pour sa participation dans une soirée-bénéfice ..................................................................................... 5
Giorno strikes back at Trost ... again ........................................................................................................................................................... 5
Ontario MP Erin O'Toole to explore Conservative leadership bid .............................................................................................................. 6
Obhrai rips Leitch's Canadian values pitch as 'fear-mongering' in new video ............................................................................................. 7
Leitch's manager steps out of the shadows .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Watchdog approves of anti-terror tactics ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
CSIS suspends some bulk data mining programs pending new guidelines ................................................................................................. 8
Terrorisme - Un suspect armé vaut mieux qu'une enquête avortée, selon des experts ................................................................................ 9
Le journaliste kidnappé blâme les autorités canadiennes........................................................................................................................... 10
Military planning to provide air transport for French counter-terror mission ............................................................................................ 11
Africa is no 'Kumbaya' mission ................................................................................................................................................................. 11
Veterans Affairs' gave senior staff hefty bonuses ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Arms deal an act of friendship, Saudis say ................................................................................................................................................ 13
Canada-Russia Arctic conference set despite Syria, Ukraine differences .................................................................................................. 14
Liberals plan Arctic co-operation with Russia, but more northern work needed ....................................................................................... 15
Révocation de la citoyenneté ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16
PM's top adviser compares Maryam Monsef criticism to U.S. 'birther' movement ................................................................................... 16
Ottawa aims to ease Syrians' integration ................................................................................................................................................... 17
Prime Minister Trudeau leads Canadian delegation in Israel for Peres funeral ......................................................................................... 18
Liberal MPs drop probe of alleged leak to press ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Information sharing could help court backlog, Senate committee hears ................................................................................................... 19
Bill would vanquish 'zombie' directors ...................................................................................................................................................... 20
Le gouvernement fédéral resserre les règles pour les licenciements massifs ............................................................................................. 20
Shrinking media a 'worrisome' trend ......................................................................................................................................................... 21
Ex-NDP staffer asks court to nullify NDP collective agreement ............................................................................................................... 22
Ministers face a fundamental dilemma in adopting a national carbon price .............................................................................................. 23
Halifax MP gets carbon emissions motion passed ..................................................................................................................................... 24
ii
Federal approval just one of many hurdles for $11.4B LNG project ......................................................................................................... 24
Top court won't wade into Enbridge Gas lawsuit ...................................................................................................................................... 25
$450M being pumped into B.C. water projects ......................................................................................................................................... 26
Churchill gets a port in the storm ............................................................................................................................................................... 27
Eskasoni to provide bottled water for Potlotek First Nation ...................................................................................................................... 28
First Nations without claims are hindered ................................................................................................................................................. 28
Mayors to pressure Ottawa to address housing crisis ................................................................................................................................ 29
Ottawa et les provinces se penchent sur la sécurité des cyclistes .............................................................................................................. 30
Les Canadiens veulent l'étiquetage des OGM............................................................................................................................................ 30
Bishops ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 31
Net speed faster than touted, report says ................................................................................................................................................... 32
[Commentaires / Comments]
Can the House and the Senate learn to get along? ..................................................................................................................................... 33
Unanimous in this ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 33
Liberal commitment to new beginning under fire ..................................................................................................................................... 34
Frosty relations .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 35
Role of journalists key in furthering reconciliation in Canada .................................................................................................................. 36
Monsef witch hunt pointless, nasty ............................................................................................................................................................ 37
Does the Conservative party need a leader, or a time-out? ........................................................................................................................ 37
Scheer numbers .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Pick a side on anti-terror law ..................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Close the gap ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 40
Dion vs. Putin ends predictably ................................................................................................................................................................. 40
MP guts bill to save it ................................................................................................................................................................................ 41
Yes, please, to real metadata legislation .................................................................................................................................................... 42
The inequality problem in Canada isn't as big as you think ....................................................................................................................... 43
Legalizing pot will achieve one thing ........................................................................................................................................................ 43
A fine balance ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 44
Faulty glue could unstick EU trade deal .................................................................................................................................................... 45
Ah, nostalgia - the premiers are flaying another prime minister ................................................................................................................ 46
The bluster on health-care funding ............................................................................................................................................................ 47
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
1
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
News Page:
Health ministers spar over accord
Philpott says she won't 'squabble' over health-care
negotiations while Quebec counterpart insists
provinces need increased funding
By DANIEL LEBLANC, BILL CURRY - OTTAWA
Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette quickly nixed any
possibility of a ceasefire in the continuing dispute over a new
health accord, accusing the federal government of trying to
"trap" the provinces into a cut-rate deal.
Dr. Barrette and his federal counterpart, Jane Philpott, shared
the same stage at a medical conference in Ottawa on Thursday,
but showed they are far from being on the same page.
Dr. Philpott launched into her speech by saying the
government and the provinces need to find common ground to
improve services in areas such as home care and mental health.
"If you think that I am here to squabble, you will be
disappointed," Dr. Philpott said at the event, organized by
think tank Canada 2020 and the Canadian Medical
Association. Speaking immediately afterward, Dr. Barrette
ratcheted up the rhetoric, launching into a long presentation to
show how provinces such as Quebec do not have any fiscal
leverage to improve services in Ottawa's areas of concern.
"The ongoing discussions on a new health accord are off to a
bad start, because they are based on issues [such as home care],
while what we really need to talk about is funding," Dr.
Barrette said. Canada's provincial governments are applying
increasing pressure on the federal government to boost its
annual cash transfers beyond next year's planned increase of 3
per cent.
Ontario's Liberal government - a traditional ally of the Liberals
in Ottawa - said it "cannot support" the federal position
heading into discussions on a new accord on Oct. 18. "For
Canada's health-care system to remain sustainable, the federal
government must play a larger role in covering the costs of
health care," Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said in a
statement.
In a recent letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the
provinces called for a meeting "dedicated solely to long-term
health-care financing," ahead of another first ministers meeting
on the environment later in the year. The underlying threat in
the letter was that the provinces will balk at a deal on climate
change if they do not come to terms on a new health accord.
The other option offered by the provinces was to keep existing
transfers in place for another year. As it stands, annual
increases in health transfers of 6 per cent a year, which have
been in place since 2004, are due to fall next year to as low as
3 per cent.
One of the difficulties in the runup to negotiations is that Dr.
Philpott said her mandate is to improve the delivery of
homecare services in Canada, with no sway over funding
matters.
"The finances I will leave to the Finance Minister and the first
ministers," she told reporters after her speech. "My goal is to
make sure Canadians are healthy and get better health care."
Dr. Philpott rejected the notion that Ottawa is impinging on
provincial jurisdictions by pushing for improved home care,
stating "this is about us being a contributor, about us being a
facilitator.
"The facts simply don't support the notion that the major issues
facing our health system will be solved simply by tossing more
money at the system.
"We have an obligation as the government of Canada to do
more than simply open the federal wallet," she said.
Dr. Barrette responded that because of infrastructure and
personnel costs, Quebec's healthcare system grows by 3 per
cent a year before any new or improved services are factored
in. He said better home care is a clear priority for his
government, but that Ottawa needs to put more money on the
table before Quebec agrees to talk about anything else.
"Talking about conditions is their way not to talk about
funding," he told reporters. "It's a trap."
In his speech, Dr. Barrette cautioned that "innovation" is a
buzzword that often leads to increased health-care costs. He
said Ottawa is offering $232-million a year in increased
funding for home care - or about 5 per cent of Quebec's need.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Le Devoir ()
ACTUALITÉS Page: A2
Transferts aux Provinces - Dialogue de
sourds entre ministres de la Santé
Hélène Buzzetti
Le fossé ne peut pas être plus béant entre Ottawa et Québec.
Alors que la ministre fédérale de la Santé clame que les
problèmes du système ne seront pas réglés seulement en "
ouvrant le portefeuille fédéral ", son homologue québécois
s'entête à dire que toute négociation doit débuter par une
augmentation du financement d'Ottawa. Et ce, même si les
provinces plafonnent leurs propres contributions.
Jane Philpott et Gaétan Barrette ont tous deux pris la parole
jeudi au Sommet sur la santé Canada 2020 à Ottawa. Si Mme
Philpott a tendu une branche d'olivier à M. Barrette, celui-ci a
répliqué par une présentation didactique, à la limite de la
condescendance, sur ce qu'impliquait son travail.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
2
" Pour ceux qui lisent les journaux et s'attendent à de la
chicane, vous serez déçus, a lancé d'entrée de jeu la ministre
fédérale. Nous n'avons pas d'affaire à dire au Québec, ou à
toute autre province ou territoire, comment ils devraient fournir
les services de santé. Mais on peut parler de ce que les
Canadiens veulent. "
Selon elle, le système de santé canadien est morcelé et
inefficace et il est faux de croire " que les problèmes majeurs
du système pourront être réglés seulement en y jetant plus
d'argent ". " Le Canada est parmi les pays consacrant le plus
d'argent aux soins de santé au monde et pourtant, il n'obtient
pas les résultats auxquels les citoyens s'attendent. " Elle
aimerait voir des améliorations, notamment, en soins à
domicile.
La réponse de M. Barrette ne pouvait pas être plus claire.
Après avoir annoncé à l'auditoire qu'il allait leur montrer ce
que c'est que d'être dans ses souliers, il a illustré avec une
présentation PowerPoint comment, même en gelant les
dépenses, le budget de la santé augmente chaque année de 1 %.
Conclusion : Ottawa est irréaliste s'il croit pouvoir élargir les
services offerts avec la maigre augmentation du financement
proposé. " Les discussions qu'il y a actuellement sur un nouvel
accord en santé sont un peu mal parties. [...] On doit d'abord
financer les services déjà offerts avant de se lancer dans de
nouveaux programmes. "
Refiler la facture à Ottawa ?
Le gouvernement libéral s'engage à hausser ses transferts aux
provinces de 3 % par année à partir de 2017. Il promet en plus
d'injecter 3 milliards de dollars sur quatre ans pour les soins à
domicile. Les provinces réclament plutôt que les transferts
continuent à croître de 6 % comme c'est le cas depuis 2004.
Pourtant, les provinces n'augmentent pas leurs dépenses
d'autant. Les données compilées par l'Institut canadien
d'information en santé (un organisme non partisan financé par
Ottawa et les provinces) montrent que le taux de croissance
annuel des dépenses provinciales en santé plafonne depuis
2011. S'il a régulièrement atteint 7 % de 2000 à 2010, il n'a
jamais dépassé les 3,8 % depuis. (Voir tableau) Pourquoi
Ottawa devrait-il, lui, maintenir le rythme ? Pour faire du
rattrapage, selon M. Barrette.
Ottawa n'éponge que 21 % des coûts totaux du système.
L'objectif est qu'il atteigne 25 % d'ici 10 ans. " Pour faire cela,
[....] il faut maintenir le taux de croissance des transferts à 6 %.
Baisser actuellement les transferts à 3 %, c'est un mauvais
timing ", a-t-il dit alors qu'à l'écran s'affichait la phrase " BAD
TIMING TOTAL ".
N'est-il pas ironique que son gouvernement, qui a atteint
l'équilibre budgétaire, s'astreigne à un taux de croissance
moindre que celui exigé d'Ottawa, dont le déficit anticipé cette
année est de 29 milliards ? " C'est votre opinion que le
gouvernement fédéral est en déficit par-dessus la tête. Le
gouvernement fédéral, proportionnellement à sa situation
budgétaire, a un déficit qui est beaucoup moins important que
le nôtre. " Vérification faite, le déficit de Québec n'a jamais
dépassé les 4 % de son budget depuis 2009. A Ottawa, il sera
de 9 %.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Presse Canadienne ()
Page:
Les dépenses gouvernementales sont les
plus élevées en six ans, selon le DPB
OTTAWA _ Le directeur parlementaire du budget (DPB)
affirme que les dépenses du gouvernement libéral pour les trois
premiers mois de l'exercice financier ont atteint leur plus haut
niveau depuis au moins six ans.
Certaines de ces dépenses sont toutefois liées à des
engagements pris par le précédent gouvernement conservateur,
lit-on dans le rapport du DPB, publié jeudi.
Jean-Denis Fréchette y précise que les dépenses du
gouvernement Trudeau ont été 5,7 pour cent _ ou près de 3,4
milliards $ _ plus élevées au premier trimestre de l'exercice
2016-2017 qu'à la même période l'année précédente.
Les dépenses gouvernementales pour le premier trimestre se
sont élevées à 62,9 milliards $, alors qu'elles avaient été
d'environ 59,5 milliards $ à la même période, l'an dernier.
Une bonne partie de ces dépenses, incluant une somme
supplémentaire de 1,22 milliard $ pour les prestations pour
enfants, vient cependant du gouvernement conservateur
précédent.
Cependant, une augmentation additionnelle de 1,22 milliard $
est attribuable à une hausse de 19 pour cent des dépenses en
infrastructures.
Le rapport de M. Fréchette indique que la forte hausse,
catégorisée parmi les subventions et contributions accordées
aux entités extérieures, est "sans précédent" comparativement
aux dernières années.
Les libéraux se sont engagés à verser 11,9 milliards $ pour les
infrastructures à travers le pays au cours de l'exercice financier
actuel, dans le but de stimuler l'économie. Il est cependant
difficile de préciser quelle partie de ces dépenses est liée à des
engagements pris par les libéraux et quelle autre vient des
anciens engagements des conservateurs.
Les dépenses gouvernementales en infrastructures sont
difficiles à analyser puisqu'elles sont effectuées sur de longues
périodes et que les divers fonds et projets sont constamment
reformulés et réannoncés.
Les données de 2016 sur les infrastructures ne seront pas
disponibles avant plusieurs mois, mais les plus récents chiffres
du gouvernement indiquent que seulement six des 862 projets
approuvés jusqu'à maintenant ont été effectivement lancés.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
3
Les libéraux ont malgré tout assuré qu'ils voulaient financer
plus rapidement que dans le passé les projets d'infrastructures,
afin de stimuler l'économie.
"Il y a davantage de pression pour faire sortir l'argent, a
souligné l'assistant du DPB, Mostafa Askari. Il y a donc une
approche différente quant à la façon dont le gouvernement gère
ces fonds."
Le DPB a également soutenu que les dépenses de
fonctionnement avaient grimpé de 3,6 pour cent au premier
trimestre, comparativement au trimestre précédent, et ce,
malgré une réduction des coûts de la main-d'oeuvre.
Le rapport indique aussi que les dépenses en immobilisations
directes du gouvernement ont reculé de 10,5 pour cent, une
baisse attribuable à la complexité de l'échéancier d'acquisition
au ministère de la Défense nationale.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
CITY Page: A1 / FRONT
Temps, students trim PS payroll as
spending swells
Kathryn May
The federal government is scrimping on payroll costs by hiring
cheaper student and casual workers as spending this fiscal year
hits a six-year high, says a new report by the budget watchdog.
The report, released by Parliamentary Budget Officer JeanDenis Fréchette, found the Liberal government's expenditures
were 5.7 per cent higher - nearly $3.4 billion - in the first
quarter of the 2016-17 fiscal year compared with the same
period the previous year.
First-quarter spending reached $62.9 billion. Over the same
three month period last year, the government paid out about
$59.5 billion, the analysis found.
But that spending wasn't showered on Canada's public
servants. Compensation costs - which account for more than
two-thirds of operating costs - actually declined 1.3 per cent or
$120 million as other operating costs inched upwards.
The dip is a combination of the impact of the Conservative-era
job cuts and operating freezes and a significant shift to cheaper
temporary employees.
This decrease is the latest in a three-year decline, taking
firstquarter employee costs to $8.55 billion, a level last seen
five years ago.
But the PBO argues this decrease has little to do with fewer
public servants. The number of public servants has fallen since
its peak of 283,000 in 2010, before the Tory cuts, to about
257,000 people over the past two years. Rather, the report
points to a shift to hiring fewer full-time permanent employees
and a growing reliance on term, casual and student
employment.
The number of full-time employees dipped 1.4 per cent
between March 2014 and March 2015. At the same time, the
hiring of term workers jumped 9.3 per cent. Casuals increased
8.3 per cent and students rose 6.0 per cent. This hiring shift
comes at a time when the government has turned up the
pressure for baby boomers to retire so a new generation of
millennials can be hired.
Hiring temporary workers gives departments more flexibility
and saves money on pensions and benefits and the annual
increments permanent employees receive every year.
Every job in the public service has a pay range. Newcomers
start at the bottom and work their way up that range, each year
getting an increment worth between 3.5 per cent to four per
cent of salary.
The $45-billion compensation bill is one of the government's
biggest single costs. Wages and salaries account for about $32
billion. A 2012 PBO report on compensation estimated the
average federal employee costs taxpayers $114,100 when
pensions and benefits are rolled in.
The government and 18 unions have been locked in a
contentious round of collective bargaining for two years,
stalled by the government's push to replace the existing sickleave regime with a shortterm disability plan.
The largest union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has
tabled a proposal seeking a more than nine-per-cent raise over
three years.
The Liberals haven't made an offer since taking over the reins
for collective bargaining, but the 1.5-per-cent increase the
Tories offered over three years is still on the table.
A one-per-cent-a-year wage hike would increase the wage bill
by $300 million a year.
The unions had high hopes when the Liberals promised to
bring back fair collective bargaining that the Tories' sick leave
proposal would be taken offthe table or significantly improved.
The Liberals have improved that proposal, but it remains on
the table.
The Liberals also plan to continue the Tory policy that
departments will have to retroactively fund any wage increase
out of existing budgets for 2014-15 and 2015-16, when the last
operating freeze was in place.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
National Post (ALL_BUT_TORONTO)
FINANCIAL POST Page: FP1 / FRONT
Trudeau losing budget wiggle room
Agenda at risk over softening revenue picture
Theophilos Argitis
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
4
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's fiscal leeway is shrinking just
as demands for spending are beginning to mount.
The finance department has completed its latest survey of
private sector economists and the numbers paint a worsening
picture for national income and revenue. Compared with
forecasts they gave for the March budget, the economists
project almost $50 billion less in nominal output - the best
indicator of revenue - over the next two years. That's a
markdown of more than one per cent off Canada's $2 trillion
economy.
A weakening revenue outlook means budget reserves are being
eroded quickly and Trudeau's finance minister, Bill Morneau,
won't have much wiggle room to accommodate calls for more
funding for things like infrastructure - or requests for
additional spending from cabinet colleagues or provinces without running even higher deficits. Morneau's department
has already begun work on next year's budget due sometime
early in 2017, while an update of the 2016 plan is expected in
November.
"Since the last budget we've seen income growth coming in
that's softer than expected at the time of the 2016 budget," said
Craig Alexander, chief economist at the Conference Board of
Canada and one of the survey contributors. "This will have an
impact on tax revenue growth."
While the department declined to provide the results of its
survey, Bloomberg News gathered forecasts independently
from 10 of the banks and research groups that took part.
Pressure to increase spending is beginning to grow even with
the government already projecting $120 billion in deficits over
the next six years. Calls for more government stimulus are
growing, for example, given the weak economic outlook.
Morneau is also in the part of the budget cycle when cabinet
ministers and other stakeholders make their funding requests,
which in this government's case are poised to be substantial
given Trudeau's ambitious agenda. Provincial governments,
meanwhile, are pressing Trudeau to increase health-care
funding. The finance department's economist surveys - up to
four a year - form the basis of its own economic forecasts, and
this month's poll is the last before the fall fiscal update. At a
press conference Sept. 26 in Ottawa, Morneau declined to say
when the update will be released and whether it will include
additional measures to spur the economy.
"We're working towards giving Canadians a good
understanding of our economic situation this autumn and we'll
get to it and we'll let you know as soon as we have an exact
date," Morneau told reporters at the start of public
consultations for next year's budget. To be sure, the
government has budgeted reserves for exactly this
slowergrowth contingency, but those set-asides are being
tapped into quickly.
In his March budget, Morneau assumed a much slower growth
outlook than the one economists were projecting. The tactic
effectively gave him a $6-billion annual revenue cushion
against any slowdown. But using the finance department's own
revenue collection assumptions, it looks like Morneau has less
than half of that cushion left to him for the next two years.
In some ways, the weaker economy is a vindication for
Morneau, who was criticized following his budget for being
overly cautious and unnecessarily inflating deficit projections.
Canada's budget watchdog for example claimed the risk
cushion was excessive and made it more difficult for Canadian
lawmakers to accurately scrutinize public finances.
"We put forth our budget using conservative projections in
terms of economic growth," Morneau said at the press
conference. "We also put in a factor for risk, because we saw
that there were real downside risks in the economy. What we're
seeing now is that the global economy is challenged."
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Canadian Press Newswire ()
Page:
Senate set to decide whether to sue former
senators in expense dispute
OTTAWA _ The Senate committee that polices spending in
the upper chamber will soon decide whether it is worth the cost
to sue seven former senators
The Senate has threatened to take the seven to court in a bid to
recoup more than $528,000 the auditor general deemed to have
been improperly expensed to taxpayers.
Among the expenses are travel, hospitality and housing claims
that the other 23 senators named in the 2015 report from
Michael Ferguson subsequently paid back.
The committee was told today that outside lawyers are
finalizing the statements of claim against each of the seven and
will also provide the committee with a cost breakdown to see if
the legal costs would outweigh the money that could be
recouped.
One case would involve the estate of the late Rod Zimmer,
whose $176,000 bill was the highest total flagged in Ferguson's
audit.
The Senate's law clerk says there is no timeline for a decision.
Senators were told the RCMP has closed files on all 30
senators named in Ferguson's audit and won't pursue any
criminal investigations any.
Ferguson's audit identified almost $1 million in problematic
expenses that should be repaid, detailed a litany of oversight
issues in how the Senate managed expense claims and called
for ''transformative change'' to fix systemic problems in the
upper chamber.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
5
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Radio-Canada.ca: Acadie ()
Page:
Dominic LeBlanc montré du doigt pour sa
participation dans une soirée-bénéfice
Les conservateurs accusent le ministre des Pêches et des
Océans du Canada, Dominic LeBlanc, d'être en conflit
d'intérêts pour avoir accepté de prendre part à un événement
organisé par un cabinet d'avocats et une firme de
communication qui font affaires avec des entreprises de la
famille Irving. La leader de l'opposition officielle en Chambre,
Candice Bergen, affirme que la présence du député de
Beauséjour à événement « exclusif » est problématique en
raison de ses liens personnels avec la famille Irving, et de son
rôle en tant qu'homme de confiance du premier ministre sur les
questions de litiges au sein du Cabinet. « Quand un grand
cabinet d'avocats l'appelle pour lui demander d'être l'invité
d'honneur d'une réception et qu'il se vante d'avoir un conseiller
du premier ministre, il devrait y avoir quelques sonnettes
d'alarme », a-t-elle dit. Or, M. LeBlanc a confirmé qu'il avait
eu l'autorisation de la commissaire aux conflits d'intérêts et à
l'éthique avant d'assister à l'événement qui se tiendra à Toronto
le 5 octobre. La réception est coorganisée par le cabinet
d'avocats Cox & Palmer la firme de communication m5. Le
site web du cabinet Cox & Palmer, qui a plusieurs bureaux en
Atlantique, dont à Moncton, soutient que les avocats
spécialisés en droit maritime et des pêches offre des services à
plusieurs clients. Le site web de la firme m5 énumère plusieurs
clients, y compris J.D. Irving Ltd et Irving Oil. La compagnie
m5 est aussi établie dans les provinces atlantiques. M. LeBlanc
soutient qu'il ignore qui sont les clients confidentiels de Cox &
Palmer, et a accusé les conservateurs de « fabriquer » une
fausse histoire. Le ministre LeBlanc affirme qu'il a d'abord
communiqué de façon proactive avec la commissaire aux
conflits d'intérêts et à l'éthique, Mary Dawson, dès qu'il a reçu
l'invitation et qu'elle lui a signifié par écrit qu'il était « tout à
fait approprié » d'y assister. Un courriel de son bureau à
l'attention de M. LeBlanc indique que « sur la base des
informations fournies, il n'y a pas de problème avec votre
présence comme conférencier invité à l'événement de Cox &
Palmer ». Lorsqu'il a été nommé au cabinet l'année dernière en
tant que leader parlementaire du gouvernement, M. LeBlanc
révélé qu'il avait une amitié personnelle avec Jim Irving, grand
patron de J.D. Irving Ltd. Après une rencontre avec la
commissaire aux conflits d'intérêts et à l'éthique, Dominic
LeBlanc a accepté de se récuser des discussions du Cabinet ou
des décisions qui pourraient avoir une incidence sur les
entreprises de la famille Irving. Jeudi, le ministre a dit qu'il
voyait l'événement de la semaine prochaine comme une
occasion d'expliquer comment le gouvernement libéral investit
de « façon historique » dans le Canada atlantique. Mais le
député conservateur Blaine Calkins s'est demandé pourquoi le
ministre allait vanter les efforts du gouvernement pour stimuler
les provinces de l'Est dans un événement qui a lieu au centre
du Canada.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
iPolitics ()
Page:
Giorno strikes back at Trost ... again
BJ Siekierski - Ontario
With their debate on Power & Politics having fallen through,
Guy Giorno - Stephen Harper's former chief of staff - took to
Facebook again Thursday to address Conservative MP and
leadership candidate Brad Trost's continued attacks on his
relocation expenses.
Speaking in the House of Commons foyer Wednesday, where
Giorno suspects Trost has immunity, Trost reiterated that he
believes Giorno was the only Harper government staffer who
"charged a high amount of money over, what, nine years in
government".
"Again, he didn't do anything ethically wrong. Positive he was
within the rules in what he did. But the thing is, as a
Conservative, we have to do better. And that's what he should
have realized. Maybe it was by accident he did it, but he still
should do better than the Liberals," Trost said.
In his latest lengthy Facebook rebuttal, Giorno details all
Trost's "generous perqs" as an MP and how his making use of
those makes it hypocritical for him now to "impose one
morality" and "practise another" - particularly since many
public servants take a pay cut (and here Giorno includes
himself) when they leave the private sector.
Along the way, Giorno suggests that Trost's annual MP salary
of $170,400 is far more than he could earn outside Parliament
and notes that Trost sees no problem expensing even the most
trivial amount of money - like a $2.60 purchase at Dollarama
in January.
Giorno's full post is below:
"I had intended not to comment on this issue any more, but
yesterday Brad Trost attacked me again, this time from the
foyer of the House of Commons where arguably he has
immunity for what he says.
"It is important to put the issue in context. Brad Trost collects a
salary of $170,400 per year. This is more than three times the
average Canadian wage. But more important is the fact that
Mr. Trost, like many in Parliament, has drawn a larger salary
as an MP than he ever earned in the private sector. When he
leaves politics his market value will surely be much lower than
his current tax-funded take.
"In short, working in Ottawa has increased Brad Trost's
income and financial security. This is aside from the generous
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
6
perqs enjoyed only by MPs and by no other Canadian in either
the public sector or the private sector.
"On the other hand, both times that I left the private sector for
government, I took a significant pay cut. I don't bemoan that
fact.
"I am not complaining. It's about public service and I made a
conscious choice. Many others, including many of the current
public servants whose relocation expenses are being
questioned by Brad Trost, have also taken significant pay cuts.
"This is relevant context. Mr. Trost, who sits in Parliament
collecting a bigger pay cheque than he ever earned outside, or
ever could earn outside, is comparing himself to people who
absorbed significant income losses to leave the private sector.
Mr. Trost, who like most MPs enjoys higher income through
public service, is telling public servants who already sacrificed
financially they need to sacrifice more.
"It's one thing to accept a pay cut. It is another to lose money
on the relocation. Mr. Trost's position is that, in addition to
taking a big salary cut, government employees, like I was,
should lose money when relocating. If relocation costs $35,000
then an employee should pay $5,000 personally. That's his
public position.
"He is entitled to his opinion, but it is pretty rich when you
consider that MPs like Brad Trost never do likewise. Brad
Trost doesn't have to pay personally for the expenses of public
office, but has no problem telling others to dig into their own
funds.
"He collected a big pay raise to work in Ottawa, and is telling
those who accepted pay cuts to pay personally for costs
associated with government service. His travel and
accommodation are paid for by taxpayers, so relocation is not
an issue for him, but he is judging those who don't enjoy travel
and accommodation perqs and therefore need to relocate. He is
entitled to expense the most trivial amount, and he does (like
$2.60 at Dollarama, Jan. 8/16), but he is telling other public
servants we need to pay expenses out of our own pockets.
"One news report said I want Brad Trost to pay back his
expenses. I've never said that. What I have said is that he
preaches one thing while applying a different standard to
himself.
"A lot of Canadians are tired of politicians who want to impose
one morality on us, but practise another. I know that I am."
2016 ipolitics.ca
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
CBC.ca: Canada ()
Page:
Ontario MP Erin O'Toole to explore
Conservative leadership bid
Durham MP Erin O'Toole has resigned as Conservative public
safety critic to explore a bid for the leadership of the party.
"I believe the future of our party is bright," he wrote in his
resignation letter to interim Conservative Leader Rona
Ambrose.
"We do not need a new leader to fix us, because we are not
broken. We do not need a leader to unite us, because we are
not divided. That so many of us want to lead is proof of our
shared belief in the party's future."
- ANALYSIS | Crowded Ontario field could have big impact
on Conservative leadership race
He said he held off on resigning his critic role so he could
contribute to a committee study on operational stress injury.
His letter said he has started to assemble a team to explore his
leadership.
O'Toole had previously run for the interim leadership of the
Conservatives, but lost to Ambrose. He thanked her for her
contribution to the party.
O'Toole was first elected to the House of Commons in a
byelection 2012. He served in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
cabinet as minister of veterans affairs and parliamentary
secretary for international trade.
Prior to politics, O'Toole was a lawyer for Proctor & Gamble
and an air navigator in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The Conservatives are expecting to choose their new leader in
May 2017.
The contenders, so far
Candidate who has declared, registered and paid the full fee:
Michael Chong.
Candidates who have declared and registered: Maxime
Bernier; Tony Clement; Kellie Leitch; Deepak Obhrai; Andrew
Scheer.
Potential candidates who have declared only: Dan Lindsay;
Pierre Lemieux; Adrienne Snow; Brad Trost.
Expected to declare soon: Chris Alexander; Steven Blaney;
Erin O'Toole.
Others who have mused about running but not declared: Kevin
O'Leary; Rick Peterson; Lisa Raitt.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
7
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
iPolitics ()
Page:
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
National Post (ALL_BUT_TORONTO)
CANADA Page: A5
Obhrai rips Leitch's Canadian values
pitch as 'fear-mongering' in new video
Leitch's manager steps out of the shadows
Janice Dickson - Ontario
Conservative leadership candidate Deepak Obhrai is railing
against his opponent Kellie Leitch's proposal to screen new
immigrants for "anti-Canadian values" and says the barbaric
practices tipline, which she championed during the 2015
election campaign, is an example of her misplaced priorities.
In a video posted to his campaign website,
electdeepakobhrai.com, Obhrai said Leitch's proposal to screen
new immigrants is "unCanadian, anti-human rights and a
misplaced priority."
Leitch's call for Canada to screen immigrants for "antiCanadian values" set off a firestorm of criticism - some of it
coming from members of her own party.
Obhrai said there is no crisis regarding "so called barbaric
practices in this country because we have laws and freedom
and protection."
In a release issued Thursday afternoon, Obhrai's campaign
writes that Leitch's proposal distracts from the need to address
a real threat to Canada: "home grown terrorism."
"I believe this debate is fear mongering ... anti-human rights
and a very un-Canadian response to an issue that in my opinion
does not exist. The real threat to Canada is home-grown
terrorism," he said in the video.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY3ZVuVUKi0#
action=share[/embed]
Obhrai said that, a few years ago, a mother came to talk about
her son who had become radicalized, and who had gone to
Syria to fight for ISIL. He was killed there.
Obhrai said the woman was worried about Canadians
becoming radicalized and she has since started two
organizations to prevent radicalization - Extreme Dialogue and
Mothers for Life.
"I say this proposal is anti-human rights because people
coming to our country are seeking the freedom that we're
providing them."
Obhrai's proposing to set up a community-driven centre with
appropriate funding to address home-grown terrorism.
"The Centre will focus on community-based approaches to
develop programmes to address this threat," states his release.
2016 ipolitics.ca
Jason Fekete
Nick Kouvalis, the political mastermind behind Conservative
MP Kellie Leitch's leadership bid, is defending her campaign's
tactics, proposed values test for newcomers and all-out assault
on rival candidates.
But Kouvalis, the Ontario MP's campaign manager and a
master of wedge politics, says she's the boss and he isn't
pulling the strings behind the scenes.
"My job is very simple. It's to build a campaign around what a
candidate wants to run on," the 41-year-old said. "This is her
campaign. This is what she stands for. And I know people want
to say, 'That's Nick doing this and Nick doing that.' Everybody
in this campaign has a campaign manager. Everybody does. I
don't know what the other campaign managers are doing, but I
know what I'm doing, I'm helping Kellie win - and she's
winning."
The seasoned pollster and guru behind the successful mayoral
campaigns of John Tory and Rob Ford usually likes to keep out
of the spotlight. But he thrust himself forward late Wednesday
with a fundraising email sent out in his name.
This assailed newly declared leadership candidate Andrew
Scheer as an "outof-touch elite" because he launched his
campaign at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa.
Leitch, a former cabinet minister in the Conservative
government who's also a part-time pediatric orthopedic
surgeon, said Thursday in an interview she's in charge of her
campaign and directing where it goes.
"Let me be really clear - I make my own decisions," she told
the Ottawa Citizen. "I make my own decisions in the operating
room and I make my own decisions for the direction of my
campaign."
The fundraising email, which did not mention Scheer's name,
also took a shot at him for trying to "score media points by
attacking another Conservative."
This was a reference to his comments on Leitch's values test
that he doesn't think it's "practical or preferable that we police
what's going on in people's minds." The tone of the fundraising
email and the campaign have observers wondering whether the
bid reflects Kouvalis' tried-and-true political tactics, rather than
the loving pediatric surgeon who operates on children.
"I hear you," Leitch said, about the perception the campaign
doesn't portray her compassionate side.
Wedge Politics
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
8
She acknowledged she has a big team helping her on strategy,
but insisted ultimately she decides the tone, tactics and
substance of her campaign.
"I believe in a strong Canadian identity, I believe in a set of
core values," she said. "I think you can have a balance of being
strong and making your own decisions, and at the same time
being compassionate."
Kouvalis said he loves working for Leitch because she's smart,
works hard, is a fundamental conservative and "willing to
stand up against all of the pushback on this."
Indeed, there has been pushback in her party and caucus.
Fellow candidates like Maxime Bernier, Michael Chong, Tony
Clement, Deepak Obhrai and Brad Trost have all spoken out
against her proposal to screen immigrants, refugees and
visitors for "anti-Canadian values." Chong has called it
"dogwhistle politics."
But Kouvalis points to repeated polls he says clearly show "a
super majority" of Canadians interested in some type of
screening for immigrants, refugees and visitors.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
NEWS Page: A8
Watchdog approves of anti-terror tactics
Report says spy agency cases on possible security
threats 'all complied' with policies
Tonda MacCharles Toronto Star
The civilian watchdog committee that oversees Canada's spy
agency is giving a cautious thumbs-up to CSIS for its exercise
of newly acquired anti-terror powers under Bill C-51, the
controversial law passed last year that the Liberal government
says it will amend.
Pierre Blais, chair of the Security Intelligence Review
Committee (SIRC), said in an interview that CSIS appears to
have used in a responsible manner its warranted and
unwarranted powers of threat disruption and informationsharing.
Under Bill C-51, passed by the previous Conservative
government in 2015, the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS) was given wide-ranging ability to disrupt or
reduce threats to Canada's national security, inside or outside
Canada.
The only limits on the new power are that CSIS must not cause
death or bodily harm, obstruct justice, or violate an individual's
sexual integrity.
If any steps that CSIS proposes to take might violate
Canadians' charter rights, the spy agency is required to go to
court to seek a judicial warrant for the activity.
In its 2015-16 annual report, tabled Thursday in Parliament,
SIRC said CSIS has put in place appropriate policies,
procedures and mandatory training to guide its agents on
intervening to disrupt threats - "however this is still a work in
progress."
The report recommended that CSIS formalize consultation
with other affected departments, such as Global Affairs, when
threat reduction activity could overlap their areas or raise
concerns for their operations.
The watchdog examined all 24 instances to date where CSIS
acted to disrupt perceived security threats, and said "all
complied with the CSIS Act, ministerial direction and
operational policies." It reported no judicial warrants were
issued and no applications for such warrants were refused.
However, it also urged that CSIS develop a "mechanism for
tracking best practices and/or lessons learned for all threat
reduction activities."
While overall the SIRC annual report is positive, it raised a red
flag about the way in which CSIS routinely collects, retains
and uses "bulk data sets" about Canadians or perceived
national security threats.
SIRC said CSIS itself had documented a risk of overcollecting.
The report said "a governance framework was drafted two
years ago, but that it had not yet been finalized."
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
News Page:
CSIS suspends some bulk data mining
programs pending new guidelines
By COLIN FREEZE Canada's domestic spy service has halted its "bulk collection"
of data after criticisms were raised within government about
the lawfulness of such techniques.
A watchdog agency's new report about the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service speaks of littleknown CSIS data-mining
programs, and of how some have recently been suspended
because of a lack of clear rules and guidelines surrounding
them.
CSIS is said to have wanted to leverage big pools of data "to
identify previously unknown individuals of interest by linking
together types of information that have mirrored threat
behaviour," according to the report. But after concerns raised
in the report, "CSIS agreed to halt ingesting bulk data sets
pending" new rules.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
9
These findings are from the Security Intelligence Review
Committee (SIRC), the watchdog agency that tabled its annual
report in Parliament on Thursday.
The cryptic discussion of CSIS's "data management and
exploitation activities" is intriguing on several levels. Talk of
spies "ingesting" data in "bulk" has had connotations of
intelligence officials indiscriminately amassing citizens'
telecommunications records. Yet CSIS officers, who work to
track terrorists within Canada, are generally understood to
handle cases one wiretapping warrant at a time. This makes
them more like conventional police detectives than the
foreignfocused signals-intelligence - or "sigint" - spies who
deal in volume.
On Thursday, a CSIS spokeswoman said the agency engages in
a different kind of "bulk." "The collection referred to in the
SIRC report is not the same collection that is sometimes done
by sigint agencies," said Tahera Mufti.
She said what was at issue was CSIS collecting "data sets like
maps, foreign telephone directories and airport codes." She did
not explain how such data pools would help CSIS track
terrorists.
The fundamental critique of SIRC, which won't speak to what
kind of data it is referring to, is that CSIS has been amassing
records at rates that may push past the parameters of federal
law. Under its 1984 act, the spy agency can only collect
information that is "strictly necessary" to preserve national
security.
SIRC says the spy agency it watches keeps two kinds of
records. "Referential" data sets are less inherently sensitive,
and acquired through publicly available means. This probably
means CSIS is buying material from "Big Data" brokers who
routinely sell similar material to corporations.
But CSIS also independently acquires "non-referential" data.
SIRC regards such records as relatively intrusive "as they
contain bulk information on a wide variety of individuals," the
report says. "However, these can only be retained if they are
assessed as being relevant to an ongoing, mandated
investigation."
If CSIS wants to dredge up any data in bulk, SIRC says there
needs to be compelling reasons.
"If there is no reasonable alternative to bulk collection, CSIS
needs to provide an objective assessment of how closely
connected the bulk information is to intelligence of value,"
reads the report.
This week, the federal Privacy Commissioner called for
Parliament to pass new laws after finding Canada's other
intelligence agency had been careless with records about the
logged telecommunications of Canadians.
Communications Security Establishment (CSE), a
foreignfocused "sigint" agency, says that whenever it collects
Canadians' telecommunications trails, it does so only
"incidentally." That's because it is pursuing foreign records in
enormous volumes.
While CSIS and CSE have vastly different mandates, they also
have adjacent headquarters. They can team up if a Federal
Court judge endorses a joint operation.
In 2013, the former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward
Snowden leaked documents to the media about the bulk
collection of American citizens' telecommunications trails.
One revealing record showed CSE's and CSIS's U.S
counterparts teamed up to acquire Americans' phone bills,
thanks to sweeping warrants signed in secret courts.
The United States "targets the communications of everyone. It
ingests them by default," Mr. Snowden said.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Le Devoir ()
ACTUALITÉS Page: A5
Terrorisme - Un suspect armé vaut mieux
qu'une enquête avortée, selon des experts
Marie Vastel
Un citoyen soupçonné de terrorisme par les autorités devrait-il
pouvoir conserver ses armes à feu ? L'opposition scande que
non. Mais les experts précisent que le bien d'une enquête peut
justifier de ne pas intervenir pour éviter d'alerter l'individu.
La nouvelle en a fait sourciller plusieurs : un jeune Montréalais
soupçonné d'être allé en Syrie et d'adhérer à des idéologies "
extrémistes islamistes " a pu conserver son permis de
possession d'armes à feu pendant deux ans et demi et même
s'acheter deux nouvelles armes entre-temps, révélait La Presse
jeudi. Le jeune homme ne fait pas l'objet d'accusations, mais la
GRC a obtenu en 2012 un permis de perquisition et d'écoute
téléphonique. Son permis d'armes à feu a été révoqué début
2015.
" A partir du moment où on a une enquête qui est ouverte, on
devrait pouvoir restreindre les permis d'acquisition d'armes à
feu. Et selon le résultat de l'enquête, on peut le redonner par
après ", a réagi le conservateur Pierre Paul-Hus. " C'est
inacceptable ", a renchéri le bloquiste Luc Thériault.
Acte volontaire
La Gendarmerie royale n'a pas précisé quelles étaient les règles
en vertu desquelles le contrôleur des armes à feu d'une
province pouvait révoquer le permis de possession d'armes à
feu d'un citoyen. La Loi fédérale sur les armes à feu stipule que
le contrôleur peut le faire " pour toute raison valable ",
notamment après une condamnation pour une infraction
criminelle.
Or, deux experts en sécurité nationale estiment que la GRC
pourrait très bien avoir volontairement évité d'intervenir auprès
du jeune Montréalais afin de protéger l'enquête en cours. "
Retirer l'arme à feu de quelqu'un peut perturber une enquête
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
10
terroriste en alertant la personne ", explique Stephanie Carvin,
analyste en sécurité nationale et professeure adjointe à
l'Université Carleton. " Au fil d'une enquête, vous voulez
découvrir plusieurs choses : l'individu est-il un loup solitaire
ou fait-il partie d'une cellule terroriste ? Avec qui échange-t-il
? " Des informations impossibles à dénicher si le suspect prend
peur et change son comportement. D'apprendre que la police
est sur ses traces pourrait aussi le mener à précipiter un acte
dangereux, note Mme Carvin.
" Il y a toute une panoplie de raisons pour lesquelles il peut
être préférable, en guise de compromis, de décider qu'on laisse
aller ", corrobore Christian Leuprecht, professeur au Collège
militaire royal de Kingston et à l'Université Queen's.
Le gouvernement libéral prépare une réforme de la loi
antiterroriste des conservateurs (C-51). Les libéraux pourraient
en profiter pour baliser la possession d'armes d'individus
soupçonnés d'intentions terroristes, selon Stephanie Carvin.
Elle cite le cas d'un jeune Torontois qui a été soumis à une
ordonnance de ne pas troubler la paix au printemps dernier. Il
possédait un fusil d'assaut que la police n'a pas réussi à
retrouver lorsqu'elle a mené une perquisition chez lui. Le père
du jeune homme l'avait détruit avant de le jeter. Une
ordonnance de ne pas troubler l'ordre public pourrait par
exemple mener à une suspension automatique du permis de
possession d'armes à feu, suggère l'analyste.
Mais son collègue M. Leuprecht rétorque qu'il ne faudrait pas
non plus alourdir le fardeau de la preuve pour obtenir une telle
ordonnance en forçant la police à justifier non seulement de
leur imposer certaines conditions, mais en outre de leur retirer
leur arme. " Si l'objectif d'une ordonnance de ne pas troubler la
paix est d'intervenir rapidement si l'on croit qu'un individu
menace la sécurité publique, il va sans dire qu'on ne veut pas
rendre ces ordonnances plus compliquées qu'elles le sont déjà.
" Christian Leuprecht est d'avis qu'il vaut mieux conserver une
marge de manoeuvre puisque le contexte de toutes ces
enquêtes diffère.
Justin Trudeau n'abandonnera pas les bains de foule
Justin Trudeau a beau s'être fait prendre en photo avec un
jeune soupçonné de terrorisme, il n'a pas l'intention de cesser
de prendre des bains de foule partout au pays. Lors d'une
activité publique à Montréal en décembre dernier, le premier
ministre a pris un égoportrait avec un Montréalais ayant fait
l'objet d'une enquête antiterroriste, a révélé La Presse. Le jeune
homme serait aujourd'hui complètement réhabilité. De l'avis du
conservateur Pierre Paul-Hus, cet incident confirme que le
premier ministre devrait " restreindre ses mouvements ", car "
il met sa propre sécurité en danger et la sécurité des gens qui
l'entourent " en voulant " se promener dans les foules faire des
selfies ". Le bureau du premier ministre a refusé de
commenter. Mais en coulisse, on rappelle que Justin Trudeau
tient à participer à des événements publics pour y rencontrer
les Canadiens. Et ce, sans les trier sur le volet.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
La Presse+ ()
ACTUALITÉS Page:
Le journaliste kidnappé blâme les
autorités canadiennes
Égoportrait avec Justin Trudeau
Vincent Larouche
Un journaliste américain kidnappé et torturé en Syrie en
2013 a été troublé hier en voyant un des suspects ciblés par la
police dans son dossier prendre librement un égoportrait avec
le premier ministre Justin Trudeau.
Troublé, mais pas surpris. Matthew Schrier croit depuis
longtemps que les autorités canadiennes ne prennent pas assez
au sérieux les crimes dont il a été victime.
« La photo avec le premier ministre qui pose avec un terroriste
ne me surprend pas, puisque je n'ai jamais été contacté par un
enquêteur au sujet de mon dossier. L'absence de résultats et de
transparence des autorités canadiennes est aussi troublante et
embarrassante que la performance de travail des gardes du
corps chargés de protéger le premier ministre », a-t-il confié
hier.
La Presse a rapporté hier qu'un individu qui fait l'objet d'une
enquête active de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada parce qu'il
est soupçonné d'être mêlé à la prise d'otages de Schrier et d'un
autre journaliste américain a réussi à s'approcher de M.
Trudeau pour prendre un égoportrait avec lui alors qu'il
accordait une entrevue à Radio-Canada près d'une station de
métro de Montréal, en décembre dernier. La prise d'otages
avait été orchestrée par le Front al-Nosra, groupe lié à AlQaïda.
La Presse a choisi de ne pas nommer le suspect, puisque nous
sommes incapables, à cette étape-ci de notre enquête, de
confirmer son degré d'implication dans les événements
survenus en Syrie et puisqu'il ne fait l'objet d'aucune
accusation criminelle.
Trudeau ne veut pas s'enfermer
De son côté, le premier ministre Justin Trudeau n'a pas
l'intention de changer son style. Il continuera à prendre des
bains de foule et à aller à la rencontre des Canadiens, comme il
le fait depuis son entrée en politique, même si cela donne lieu à
des événements inusités qui soulèvent des questions au sujet de
sa sécurité.
Le bureau du premier ministre a refusé de commenter cette
affaire, affirmant que la GRC est chargée d'assurer la sécurité
de M. Trudeau. Mais dans l'entourage du premier ministre, on
a fait valoir que M. Trudeau comptait bien continuer à
rencontrer les Canadiens comme il le fait depuis son élection
en octobre 2015.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
11
« On ne va pas commencer à l'enfermer dans son bureau et
l'empêcher d'aller à la rencontre des Canadiens. »
_ Une source dans l'entourage de Justin Trudeau
Au bureau du ministre de la Sécurité publique, Ralph Goodale,
on s'est montré aussi prudent. « La GRC a pour mandat de
fournir une protection personnelle au premier ministre, à sa
famille et à leurs résidences officielles, et ce, en tout temps. [_]
Les mesures de sécurité mises en place par la GRC pour le
premier ministre et sa famille sont fondées sur le
renseignement et correspondent à l'évaluation faite de la
menace. »
Ni le ministre de la Sécurité publique ni la GRC n'émettront de
commentaires sur ces mesures de sécurité visant à assurer la
sécurité du premier ministre et de sa famille », a indiqué Scott
Bardsley, attaché de presse de M. Goodale.
2016 La Presse+
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Canadian Press Newswire ()
Page:
Military planning to provide air transport
for French counter-terror mission
OTTAWA _ As the Liberal government contemplates which
United Nations peacekeeping mission to join, the Canadian
military is gearing up to support a major French counterterrorism operation in northern Africa.
Defence officials say planning is underway for Canada to send
military transport aircraft to help France in its fight against
Islamic militant groups in five countries: Mauritania, Mali,
Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
About 3,000 heavily armed French troops have been hunting al
Qaeda-linked fighters in the region, called the Sahel, since
August 2014. Code-named Operation Barkhane, the mission
has also been recently tasked with supporting UN
peacekeepers in Mali if required.
National Defence spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said plans
have not been finalized, but Canadian transport planes are
expected to move French troops and equipment into the region.
Canadian military aircraft carried nearly 40 tonnes of
equipment between France and Africa with three different
flights last year. They also flew French armoured vehicles,
medical supplies and ammunition into Mali in early 2013.
French officials have repeatedly praised Canada's assistance.
The difference this time is that the Liberal government is
considering whether to send Canadian peacekeepers to Mali,
where the UN has been conducting a peacekeeping mission in
parallel with the French counter-terrorism operations.
The peacekeeping mission is intended to stabilize the country
after the Malian government and Tuareg rebels signed a peace
agreement last year. The Tuaregs, a traditionally nomadic
people who live in the north of Mali, had launched an uprising
in 2012 aimed at gaining independence.
But the peace deal has been marred by fighting between
competing Tuareg groups and by the presence of several
Islamist militant groups, including al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb and the related Ansar Dine. Complicating matters is
the fact drug trafficking to Europe is the only source of income
for many locals.
The UN Security Council at the end of June agreed to beef up
the peacekeeping mission's mandate to better protect its blue
helmets in Mali, where more than 100 have died since 2013. It
also opened the door to French forces from Operation
Barkhane helping peacekeepers if they find themselves in
trouble.
The Liberal government has said it will commit up to 600
troops to UN peacekeeping operations. It has not said where
they will be deployed, though officials from National Defence,
Global Affairs and the RCMP conducted a ''reconnaissance
mission'' to Mali last month.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan would not say Thursday when
the government will make a decision on where to send
peacekeepers, but he said addressing terrorism is one aspect of
bringing peace and stability to a region like the Sahel.
''If you want to try to bring peace into an area, we can't have a
terrorist organization and radical groups undermining some of
those efforts as we try to ease the tensions for various other
conflicts as well,'' he said. ''It has to be addressed.''
Some of the other UN missions that Canada could join are in
the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, South Sudan and Colombia.
_ Follow ?leeberthiaume on Twitter
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
CANADA Page: N1 / FRONT
Africa is no 'Kumbaya' mission
ex-officer
Matthew Fisher
A soldier who served with Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire during the
Rwandan genocide is deeply worried the Trudeau government
is about to step into another UN peacekeeping quagmire that
could have grave consequences for the mental health of troops.
"The Kumbaya thing will not work, especially in Africa," said
Stéphane Grenier, who founded Mental Health Innovations
Consulting after retiring from the Canadian Forces four years
ago as a lieutenant-colonel. This followed deployments to
Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Haiti.
"We have historically made the same mistakes again and again.
History will repeat itself because people will not be properly
prepared to go overseas." The African mission would also
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
12
create unrealistic demands because discussions in Ottawa are
taking place with a poor understanding of the true situation
there, said the former armoured corps and public affairs
officer.
"I don't want to play with words such as peacekeeping,
peacemaking or peace enforcing, but I think that it is very
naive to think that the peacekeeping concept can be
implemented in 2016 and going forward," he said.
"The Kumbaya thing will not work, especially in Africa."
Compounding the problem in past doomed missions was that
the UN did not provide strong support for troops in the field.
"Is there any indication the UN is better equipped today to
govern military forces trying to implement what are impossible
mandates?," he asked.
"I don't think so. Until that is fixed, history will repeat itself."
Grenier became a passionate advocate for mental health after
witnessing shocking barbarism when more than one million
Rwandans were slaughtered in the 1994 genocide.
What Canada was most lacking, he said, was training for
soldiers, diplomats and other government workers to deal with
what he called the moral conflicts that arise on such missions.
"Because our soldiers are Canadian, and mostly raised in
Canada, they live their lives according to a moral compass that
is calibrated to Canadian values, to a sense of what Canadians
think is right or wrong. When you put them in another country
which has a very different perception of what is right or wrong,
there is an issue.
"There is no way right now to adjust our moral compass to that
other reality. The principles that we establish for our missions
don't apply there. It becomes a real challenge to maintain your
moral compass."
Grenier spoke of standing beside a boy as the youngster was
shot by Hutu paramilitaries in Rwanda and the mental anguish
some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan suffered after hearing
the cries of boys being abused by local troops at their joint
base.
"All the resiliency training and briefings in the world do not ...
help us to recalibrate our compass for things like that," he said.
"That is the starting point for understanding the challenge to
successfully prosecute a mission in a place like Africa and to
get everyone back home safe and sane, not only from the
battlefield but the mental battlefield."
Nor do governments calculate the true cost of these missions.
"We do the simple math of fuel, beans, boots and bullets, and
are satisfied with that answer. The cost in the mental health of
the troops only becomes obvious 20 years later. We have never
grasped that."
Grenier's new battle space is mental health in the workplace.
He works with police and paramedics to combat the on-the-job
stresses they face daily.
Although Grenier has great respect for Dallaire, he feels the
general's fame sometimes diverts attention from the problems
of other troops who witnessed murder and mayhem.
"Countries need heroes and he became one. But all the
attention that he has had, had the perverse effect of taking
attention from the issue," he said.
"The mistake that is made is that people listen to Gen. Dallaire,
when people like him have no trouble getting a psychiatrist to
support and treat them. That is not the case for soldiers at the
bottom of the chain ... "His experiences are not representative
of what the masses experienced. That is not his fault. He has
tried to include others and has invited them to speak in Ottawa,
but people there would rather hear from a celebrity."
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
CANADA Page: N3
Veterans Affairs' gave senior staff hefty
bonuses
Cash handed out while jobs cut, offices closed
David Pugliese
Senior Veterans Affairs bureaucrats were paid, on average,
almost $15,000 each in bonuses even as they cut public service
jobs, closed offices and faced off with wounded soldiers fed up
with poor service from the department.
The 63 executives received, on average, $14,778 in bonuses
during the government's 2014-2015 fiscal year, according to
newly released figures provided to the Senate. The maximum
bonus awarded was $34,682.
The cash was paid out as "at risk pay," which means the
bureaucrats achieved results in their jobs. Such payments were
up slightly from the 2013-2014 fiscal year when 58 executives
received at-risk pay, the figures noted. The average award
during that period was $14,322.
In addition, in 2014-2015, eight of the top bureaucrats also
received their regular bonuses; that cash payout averaged
$5,555 each. That type of bonus had also increased since 20132014 when only five executives received such payments. Then
the average amount was $4,180.
The information provided to the Senate doesn't include details
on who received the cash but it has traditionally been the
deputy minister, assistant deputy ministers and other
executives.
The figures do show that from 2005 to 2015 the maximum
amounts being paid for at risk bonuses almost doubled,
jumping to $34,682 from $17,430.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
13
The number of non-executives who received performance pay
also increased from 25 in 2005 to 53 in the 2014-2015 fiscal
year. Their average payout was $5,323.
Liberal senator Percy Downe, whose question to the
government resulted in the information being released, said he
was surprised and disappointed about the payments.
The past decade has seen numerous complaints from veterans
about poor treatment from the department.
Those include breaches of their privacy by Veterans Affairs
senior bureaucrats and denial of claims.
"It was a time when the department was having significant
problems, closing offices, restricting benefits," Downe said of
the period covered by the payments.
"The Privy Council Office decided that all these efforts were to
be rewarded with bonuses, which would not only be shocking
to veterans and their families but to most Canadians."
Downe said the bonuses also count toward a bureaucrat's
pension, "so they are not only cash in hand, they are cash
forever as a percentage of your pension." In March, Veterans
Ombudsman Guy Parent released a report saying that families
of ex-soldiers are kept in the dark about available programs
and no one at Veterans Affairs is providing them with
information.
Parent pointed out there is a lack of "direct and proactive
communication with families" by the department.
Previously Parent raised questions about how Veterans Affairs
treated families of former soldiers affected by the spraying of
Agent Orange. He described the treatment as "scandalous"
after federal bureaucrats denied the financial claims of spouses.
Another of his reports pointed out that some of Canada's most
severely injured soldiers were not being told by Veterans
Affairs about all of the benefits they were eligible to receive.
During the Conservative government, the senior bureaucrats at
Veterans Affairs oversaw the shutdown of nine offices across
the country that provided support to former soldiers. That
policy sparked outrage among veterans.
The Liberal government is reopening the offices.
Downe said he believes the payouts send the wrong message.
There has been a lack of leadership from the department's
senior bureaucrats, who live in Ottawa, while the department
headquarters is in Charlottetown, P.E.I., he added.
"There is a disconnect between the leadership the department
requires and the leadership they're getting," said Downe, who
has a home in Charlottetown. "And when you see these
bonuses, you wonder what these payments are all about."
Information is not yet available for the latest round of bonuses.
dpugliese@postmedia.com Twitter.com/davidpugliese
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
News Page:
Arms deal an act of friendship, Saudis say
Envoy insists LAVs pact given to Canada to enhance
relations, but critics argue Riyadh buying silence of
West with lucrative contracts
By STEVEN CHASE, ROBERT FIFE - OTTAWA
Saudi Arabian officials say the controversial $15-billion
Canadian deal to supply Riyadh with weaponized armoured
vehicles should be seen as a goodwill gesture by the Islamic
kingdom to cement its friendship with Canada.
They are also denying the authenticity of reports that show
older Canadian-made combat vehicles taking part in the
Yemeni war - a use for the machines that was not contemplated
when Canada sold them to Saudi Arabia to maintain internal
security.
Saudi Arabia's chief envoy told The Globe and Mail that the
General Dynamics LAV contract, personally approved for
export by Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion in April, is
an act of friendship.
"This contract has been given to Canada to improve the
relations and enhance the relations," Ambassador Naif Bin
Bandar al.
Sudairi told The Globe during a media event at the Saudi
embassy in Ottawa on Wednesday evening. "So we have to see
this contract from this perspective - co-operation."
The Saudi declarations of goodwill come as Riyadh's
relationship with the United States is under increasing scrutiny.
This week, Republicans and Democrats in the House and
Senate voted by large margins to override a presidential veto
and allow the passage of legislation that permits families of the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S.
courts for its alleged role in the event.
Fifteen of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens but Riyadh
denies any role in the attacks and had threatened to punish the
U.S. economically if the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism
Act passed
The motive behind Riyadh awarding deals such as the one
Ottawa brokered - the largest advanced manufacturing export
contract in Canadian history - has been questioned by experts,
including one of Mr. Dion's top advisers. Just weeks before he
joined the ministers' office last March, Jocelyn Coulon wrote
in LaPresse that Saudi Arabia has "bought the silence" of
Westerners by awarding them "juicy" contracts to supply it
with military and civilian goods.
A memorandum written by the department of Global Affairs in
the spring said that, among other reasons, Ottawa should
approve the LAV export deal to help the kingdom defend itself
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
14
- even though human-rights advocates warned the armoured
vehicles could be used for offensive purposes in Yemen and
against Saudi citizens.
Canada's export-control rules for weapons shipments are
supposed to require Ottawa to restrict arms exports to countries
such as Saudi Arabia, that have "poor human-rights records."
Saudi Arabia, regularly ranks among the "worst of the worst"
on human rights by U.S. watchdog Freedom House.
Abdullah al-Rabeeah, a senior adviser to the Royal Court who
also runs King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre,
said the critics are wrong about Saudi intentions in buying the
LAVs, calling the contract a way to "open jobs ... and [build]
bridges with Canada."
"It is very easy to criticize when you are 4,000 or 5,000, 6,000
miles away," Dr. alRabeeah said, urging The Globe to reach
out to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh: "I am sure they have
information that will be credible."
Mr. al-Rabeeah flatly denied that older Canadian-made LAVS
are deployed in the fight against Houthi rebels as Riyadh tries
to alter the outcome of a civil war in neighbouring Yemen.
"Those light armoured vehicles are not actually suitable for the
conflict in Yemen and for what is happening in Yemen. These
are for the Royal Guard, which is an internal use. To my
knowledge, they have not been used in Yemen," he said.
He also said those LAVs have not been used against the Shiite
minority in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia who have
engaged in street fights with the Saudi security forces.
The Saudi ambassador, who had Mr. Dion to the embassy for
dinner just before the Foreign Affairs Minister approved the
export contract, appeared annoyed at the persistent questions
about the LAV contract and Saudi's much documented record
of human-rights abuses.
"Why are you only talking about this contract? We have many
other contracts like Bombardier or SNC-Lavalin," he snapped.
When asked if the kingdom plans to buy more Canadian-made
LAVs, Mr. al-Sudairi replied: "I think we have enough."
Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International
Canada, said Western countries, including Canada, are making
a huge mistake by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, which
stands accused of mounting indiscriminate air strikes that have
hit schools, hospitals and mosques in Yemen.
"We are not at all assuaged by assertions that this is just a
goodwill gesture to Canada," Mr. Neve said. "The bottom line
is that military equipment is making its way from Canada to
Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia is leading a military
intervention in Yemen that is replete with war crimes."
The Saudi denial about the use of the LAVs in Yemen has
been contradicted by information published on social-media
sites.
Photos on the official Twitter site of the Saudi National Guard
in late 2015 showed columns of combat vehicles moving near
the Yemeni border that were identified by experts contacted by
The Globe as Canadian-made LAVs.
At least one video of wartime footage posted on YouTube also
showed what appears to be a disabled Canadian-made LAV,
presumably abandoned by Saudi troops in Yemen.
On May 11, 2016, The Globe and Mail also reported on video
evidence of LAVs being used to suppress protests in Saudi
Arabia's Eastern Province. While the origin of the vehicles is
unclear, these reports deepen Amnesty's concern that
Canadian-made LAVs could be misused.
Saudi Arabia has come under widespread criticism for its
conduct in the air war in Yemen.
The United Nations has accused the Saudi-led coalition of a
breach of international law for air strikes against civilian
targets.
Dr. al-Rabeeah insisted his country applies the "principles of
humanity" in the conflict and spends about $500-million (U.S.)
on relief efforts in Yemen, although he acknowledges Saudi
pilots have made mistakes in targeting.
"They do their best to avoid hitting civilian targets as best they
can," he said. "Some of them were co-ordinates that were
given wrongly to the coalition and I am sure in any conflict
there will be mistakes but I know, as a fact, there is no
intention at the level of the government or the nation of Saudi
Arabia to harm the people of Yemen."
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Canadian Press Newswire ()
Page:
Canada-Russia Arctic conference set
despite Syria, Ukraine differences
OTTAWA _ Canada and Russia will hold a joint conference
on Arctic co-operation next month in Ottawa, despite
differences over Syria and Ukraine.
Pam Goldsmith-Jones, parliamentary secretary to Foreign
Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, said Canada profoundly
disagrees with Russia's conduct in Ukraine and Syria.
But the two countries have to talk because between them they
control three quarters of the Arctic _ Russia, half and Canada a
quarter.
''Preventing scientists from these countries from talking to one
another is irrational. Our government wishes to be rational,''
she said in a speech Thursday at Carleton University in
Ottawa, where the November conference will be held.
''We wish to establish links with Russia _ cautiously _ because
we believe that that serves the interests of Canadians and
Russians,'' she added, as well as ''those in Ukraine and Syria.''
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
15
Russia backs separatist rebels in Ukraine's east after annexing
its Crimea region in 2014, while its military supports Syrian
President Bashar Assad in his country's long-running civil war.
Goldsmith-Jones was standing in for Dion, who was called
away to join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Jerusalem for
Friday's funeral for Israeli statesman Shimon Peres.
Dion has said in the past that Canada must re-engage Russia
because of its shared interest in the North.
But the new Liberal government has said little about Arctic
strategy. The speech Goldsmith-Jones delivered emphasized
addressing climate change and the well-being of indigenous
people living there.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper highlighted the Arctic
in both domestic and foreign policy, making an annual August
trip there.
But his government also distanced itself from Russia in the
Arctic after its controversial involvement in Ukraine.
The Conservative opposition has been highly critical of the
new Liberal approach to engage Russia, accusing it of ''cozying
up'' to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dion and Trudeau aren't shying away from expressing their
displeasure with the Russians as part of their renewed
engagement, Goldsmith-Jones said.
''They both signalled our profound disagreement with some of
Russia's policies in Ukraine and Syria. But we also said 'we
want to talk with you'.''
Leona Aglukkaq, the former Conservative MP for Nunavut
who was environment minister in the previous government,
declined comment on the plan to re-engage Russia. But she
called on the government to establish a northern strategy.
''When I was in government, we had a northern strategy that
we introduced that dealt with the challenges the Arctic Council
identified 20 years ago, and what is that policy now?'' she
asked in an interview on the sidelines of Thursday's gathering.
Goldsmith-Jones said the Liberals are focused on promoting
the ''responsible extraction of resources'' while preserving a
fragile ecosystem.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Canadian Press Newswire ()
Page:
Liberals plan Arctic co-operation with
Russia, but more northern work needed
OTTAWA _ A conference on Arctic co-operation with Russia
is one of the first moves the Liberals have made in a region the
prime minister loves to visit but has said little about.
''The government has been pretty silent and cautious on its
Arctic policy so far,'' said John Higginbotham of the Centre for
International Governance Innovation at Carleton University,
where the announcement was made Thursday at talks on
northern initiatives.
Justin Trudeau campaigned in Iqaluit during last fall's election
and spoke fondly of his memories visiting the North with his
father.
In March, he co-signed a statement with U.S. President Barack
Obama committing Canada to broad policies on environmental
leadership. The Liberals are also reviewing the unpopular
Nutrition North program, which subsidizes food shipping to
the Arctic in an effort to reduce the high cost of groceries.
Unlike his Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper, who
committed his government to resource development and
military readiness in a ''use it or lose it'' Arctic plan, Trudeau
has released no overarching policy on northern sovereignty,
economic development or international co-operation.
It's about time he did, said Higginbotham, whose group has
just released policy papers by some of Canada's Arctic experts.
''It is a call for leadership from the federal government,'' he
said.
Even policies that Ottawa has advanced, such as its climate
change initiative, need to be adjusted for the Arctic, said
Higginbotham.
''The idea of raising the price of carbon for the Arctic when
you've already got dozens of small communities living on the
edge of the costs of climate change and highly expensive
energy, it's not necessarily the answer.''
Old models of northern development that depend on resource
megaprojects are of limited use these days, said one of the
policy papers by Carleton University professor Frances Abele.
''It will not kick-start the motor of northern economic
development, nor will it establish the conditions necessary for
resilient and balanced northern economies,'' the professor
wrote. ''Indeed, if such were to be the result, one would expect
that the engine would be running by now.''
Resources are unstable and can bring high social and
environmental costs, said Abele, who suggested small northern
economies should instead look for growth in renewable
industries such as fishing or tourism.
Michael Byers, an international law professor, suggested in his
paper that Canada really needs to deal with most countries not
recognizing its control over the Northwest Passage.
''NATO tensions with Russia provide a new reason to resolve
the legal dispute between Canada and the United States,'' wrote
Byers, who is with the University of British Columbia. ''With
the sea ice melting, foreign ships coming, and Russia up to
mischief, it is time to resolve the NWP dispute.''
Governments need to start working together _ all the way from
local municipalities to First Nations councils, territories and
nations, Duane Smith, former head of the Inuit Circumpolar
Council, wrote in another paper.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
16
''All the (government) departments that have responsibilities in
the Canadian Arctic should sit down as one group with the
Inuit organizations and try to develop a common approach,'' he
said.
''The government has Canada's northern policy, but nobody
really knows how to go about implementing it.''
_ By Bob Weber in Edmonton. Follow him on Twitter at
?row1960
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Presse Canadienne ()
Page:
Révocation de la citoyenneté
le Sénat pourrait amender le projet de loi
OTTAWA _ Le Sénat pourrait écourter une bataille judiciaire
intentée contre le gouvernement Trudeau.
Lundi, l'Association des libertés civiles de la ColombieBritannique (ALCCB) et l'Association canadienne des avocats
et avocates en droit des réfugiés (ACAADR) annonçaient une
contestation judiciaire de la loi qui permet de révoquer la
citoyenneté de tout immigrant soupçonné d'avoir fait une
fausse déclaration pour entrer au Canada.
Les deux groupes reprochent à la loi C-24 _ adoptée sous le
gouvernement conservateur _ de ne prévoir aucun mécanisme
d'appel pour les gens visés par des allégations de fausses
déclarations.
Or, le gouvernement libéral a déposé un projet de loi, C-6,
pour modifier C-24. Mais le gouvernement s'est contenté de
faire disparaître la clause qui permet de révoquer la citoyenneté
pour des raisons de sécurité nationale. Il n'a pas touché à la
question des fausses déclarations et à l'absence de mécanismes
d'appel, d'où le recours à la Cour fédérale.
Jeudi après-midi, le ministre responsable de C-6, John
McCallum, a annoncé que les sénateurs qui ont entrepris
l'étude du projet de loi après son adoption aux Communes,
cette semaine, auront à contempler des amendements dans le
sens réclamé par les deux associations.
"Il est possible que le Sénat présente un amendement pour
donner un mécanisme d'appel plus puissant dans les cas de
révocation de la citoyenneté", a déclaré le ministre de
l'Immigration, des Réfugiés et de la Citoyenneté, à sa sortie des
Communes.
Le ministre McCallum a cité le discours de la sénatrice qui
parraine C-6 dans l'autre chambre, Ratna Omidvar, annonçant
que c'était maintenant "une option possible que le Sénat
considère".
En entrevue téléphonique, la sénatrice Omidvar reprenait
l'analogie présentée en début de semaine par les deux
associations qui se sont tournées vers les tribunaux.
"Quand je reçois une simple contravention, je peux la porter en
appel. Perdre sa citoyenneté, c'est très, très sérieux. Donc, il
faut avoir une possibilité d'appel", a-t-elle insisté.
Étant donné la composition du Sénat _ 40 conservateurs, 21
libéraux indépendants et 23 non-affiliés _, le sort de C-6 et de
ses futurs amendements demeure incertain.
À l'ALCCB, on fait remarquer que le recours judiciaire ira de
l'avant puisqu'en ce moment, une soixantaine de personnes par
mois continuent de recevoir un avis de révocation de leur
citoyenneté en raison d'allégations de fausses déclarations.
Ces gens n'ont aucun mécanisme d'appel en ce moment et n'en
auront pas tant qu'un éventuel C-6 amendé ne deviendra pas
loi.
"Nous serions très contents (...) si le ministre décidait d'arrêter
les révocations, en attendant", a souligné le directeur de
l'ALCCB, Josh Paterson, joint au téléphone.
"Ce serait génial d'avoir ce résultat sans que nous nous
retrouvions tous en cour et que le gouvernement soit obligé de
se lever devant un juge pour défendre la pratique qu'il a déjà
reconnue comme injuste", a-t-il fait remarquer.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
CBC.ca: Canada ()
Page:
PM's top adviser compares Maryam
Monsef criticism to U.S. 'birther'
movement
The prime minister's top adviser is comparing questions about
Maryam Monsef's family history to the racially charged
"birther" movement in the United States.
Gerald Butts, principal secretary to Justin Trudeau, used social
media to make the link between criticism of the Liberal cabinet
minister and a campaign that falsely claimed that U.S.
President Barack Obama was not born in America.
Butts specifically called out the Globe and Mail on Wednesday
evening after it published an editorial about Monsef online.
The editorial appeared in Thursday's newspaper.
"The Globe and Mail endorses a homegrown Canadian birther
movement. Breathtaking," Butts tweeted.
He also alluded to race being a factor in the overall questioning
and criticism of Monsef that has taken place mostly online.
"Canada's full of people whose parents & grandparents were a
little loose about their birthplace. My gramma was at times
Polish, Ukrainian ... Czech or Russian. My dad's family was
the artfully termed *Scotch-Irish*. Funny how nobody asked
them questions. Wonder why?" Butts tweeted Wednesday
night.
Butts continued to engage on the topic on Twitter on Thursday.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
17
Last week, Monsef acknowledged that she was born in Iran,
not Afghanistan, as she had long claimed.
The minister says she only learned the truth from her mother
after the Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife
started asking questions about her family history.
"My mother never talked about the unspeakable pain that
conflict and terror inflicted on her. This week, my sisters and I
asked her to relive that pain," Monsef said in a statement.
In Thursday's editorial, the Globe calls on Monsef to offer up a
fuller explanation as "the story she has told so far is
incomplete."
"The implication in Ms. Monsef's story is that her mother was
the sole keeper of this family secret. But it is clear that others
knew or claimed to know otherwise, which is how Ms. Monsef
came to be asked about this matter in the first place."
Last Friday, CBC News asked the minister about how this
story became public, and whether other people knew of her
family history.
"I think that is a conversation that is best held with the Globe. I
found out mostly when they did," Monsef replied.
CBC News asked for clarification on what Monsef meant by
"mostly."
"I was referring to learning first of the matter from Mr. Fife's
inquiry, and then putting the question to my mother who
confirmed these details to me. I have been very forthcoming
about this experience with Canadians and these details were all
covered in the Globe story," Monsef later said in a statement.
Divisive debate
Columnists and academics alike are weighing in on whether
Monsef's past is worthy of public discussion.
"Maryam Monsef is an Afghan, a Canadian, a refugee and a
survivor of one of the most brutal civil wars of the modern era.
Nothing about her story is even remotely controversial or
unusual," Aisha Ahmad, a senior researcher at the Global
Justice Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, told the
University of Toronto News.
Maclean's Terry Glavin wrote "just how would being born
among Iran's viciously oppressed Afghan refugees at a time of
pitiless barbarism somehow diminish the poignancy of the
circumstances surrounding Monsef's childhood and her
eventual flourishing on the Canadian federal scene, or make
her any less Afghan, or any less a refugee, or any less
deserving of sympathetic notice as a refugee success story?"
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
NEWS Page: A4
Ottawa aims to ease Syrians' integration
Up to $250,000 set aside to help reduce barriers
Alex Boutilier Toronto Star
With more than 30,000 Syrian refugees facing serious barriers
to employment and integration in Canada, the federal
government is searching for fresh ideas to help newcomers join
their communities and the labour force.
Documents posted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Canada Thursday show the department is planning to spend as
much as $250,000 for new studies on how best to integrate
Syrian refugees into their new community.
"It is well documented that newcomers face a number of
barriers in finding employment that is commensurate with their
skills and experience. Refugees, in particular, may have more
difficulty integrating into the Canadian labour market when
compared to other categories of immigrants," the documents
read.
"Refugees face many employment barriers such as lack of
Canadian or other relevant work experience, lack of
professional networks, and unfamiliarity with Canadian
workplace culture."
Canada had accepted 30,000 Syrian refugees by the end of
July, with more expected to arrive by the end of the year.
While the Liberal government received praise for rapidly
bringing in more refugees, there is growing concern that
providing services and support for newcomers will be as big a
logistical challenge.
Over the summer, the Senate's committee on human rights
warned of urgent needs facing newcomers - for language
training, for mental health support after fleeing a war zone and
the financial burdens refugees face upon arrival in their new
country.
"Canadians are justly proud that more than 28,000 Syrian
refugees have arrived here to date," wrote senators Jim
Munson and Salma Ataullahjan in July. "While our committee
shares in this pride we also note the challenge has barely
begun."
In the documents released Thursday, the department
acknowledged some of those concerns, particularly around
supporting Syrian youth make a new life in Canada.
Those youth will be specifically targeted for new programs,
with the government looking at how best to integrate children
into a new school environment, or even a mobile app to
advertise services and resources.
"Syrian refugees, like many newcomers to Canada, experience
barriers to information, services and supports to help with their
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
18
settlement process, and a lower-barrier, mobile digital tool is
an effective solution," the documents read.
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Canadian Press Newswire ()
Page:
Prime Minister Trudeau leads Canadian
delegation in Israel for Peres funeral
TEL AVIV, Israel _ A Canadian delegation headed by Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in Israel for the state
funeral of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli president and prime
minister.
Trudeau was joined by former prime minister Jean Chretien,
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and interim
Conservative leader Rona Ambrose.
Also in tow was Rafael Barak, Israel's ambassador to Canada,
and representatives of Canadian advocacy groups such as the
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B'Nai Brith Canada and
the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee.
The Canadian delegation arrived in Israel early Friday for the
funeral of Peres, who died Wednesday at age 93.
They were expected to be joined for the service in Jerusalem
later Friday by former prime minister Stephen Harper, who
opted for a commercial flight instead of travelling with
Trudeau's delegation.
Harper's staunch support for Israel became a hallmark of his
administration. In 2014 Harper declared in a memorable
address to the Israeli parliament: ''Through fire and water,
Canada will stand with you.''
Harper's support may have been more vocal, but Trudeau's has
been no less unwavering, advocates for Israel say.
''Prime Minister Harper was known for being very vocal about
his support for Israel. But from a foreign policy perspective
and a government policy perspective ? the Trudeau
government has proven to be a great friend of Israel as well,''
said Martin Sampson, spokesman for the Centre for Israel and
Jewish Affairs.
In February 2008, eight months before he was first elected to
the House of Commons, Trudeau travelled with a very small
delegation, sponsored by Sampson's centre. The entourage
included Montreal businessman Stephen Bronfman, who
would go on to become his leading political fundraiser.
''It was trip that made an enormous impression on Mr.
Trudeau,'' Sampson said. ''I believe it's part of the reason he
has remained so supportive of Israel.''
Bronfman's grandfather, Samuel, who built his family's
Montreal business empire, helped Peres broker a deal for
surplus Canadian artillery in the 1950s. In the years to come,
Peres would become close to successive prime ministers,
including Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney, as well as
Harper.
Jasmin Habib, an Israeli-born political science professor at the
University of Waterloo, said the large entourage that Trudeau
assembled for Peres's funeral shows the high regard in which
Canada's current prime minister holds the Jewish state.
''It's a continuation of what the policy was and has been for the
last 20 years, certainly,'' she said.
Prior to their departure, Chretien called Peres a friend, ''a great
guy'' and ''a great public servant.''
''When I quit, he gave me hell; (he) said, 'Winners never quit,'
and he never quit,'' Chretien said.
Dion said Trudeau wanted the Canadian delegation to be nonpartisan.
''The whole country of Canada is supporting the whole country
of Israel and the prime minister wanted that to be very clear,''
Dion said.
Ambrose echoed Dion's message of unity ahead, calling Israel
''a beacon of pluralism and democracy in a very difficult part
of the world.''
''All the more important for all of us, no matter what political
party we come from, to attend these kind of events and honour
a legacy like Shimon Peres.''
Peres served two terms as Israeli prime minister and was also
the country's president. He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize
with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat for negotiating the short lived Oslo
Accords peace deal.
Other world figures planning to attend the funeral include U.S.
President Barack Obama, former U.S. president Bill Clinton,
Prince Charles and the presidents of France, Germany and
Poland.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was also invited, but declined due to
a family commitment.
Trudeau was also to have brief meetings Friday with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven
Rivlin.
--By Mike Blanchfield in Ottawa and Kristy Kirkup in Tel
Aviv
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
CITY Page: A6
Liberal MPs drop probe of alleged leak to
press
Kady O'Malley
Add another manila folder to the stack of unsolved political
mysteries: Over the objections of the opposition, the procedure
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
19
and House affairs committee has officially wrapped up its
investigation into the alleged leak of the proposed new laws on
physician-assisted dying.
The question was referred to committee last spring after House
Speaker GeoffRegan agreed with then-Conservative House
leader Andrew Scheer that there were grounds to find a prima
facie breach of privilege, with the committee charged to
determine whether such a breach had taken place.
Since then, the committee has heard from several
parliamentary law experts, including acting Commons clerk
Marc Bosc and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, who
assured MPs that she was confident that no one in her office
was responsible for the alleged leak.
The investigation was put on hold during the summer recess,
and when MPs returned, it became clear that the Liberals were
ready to move on, and would use their majority at the table to
do so.
Liberal MP Arnold Chan, who has acted as de facto
government representative throughout the probe, said he and
his colleagues haven't been persuaded that a draft copy of the
bill itself found its way into the hands of a Globe and Mail
reporter before it was tabled in the House.
As he pointed out Thursday, simply dropping hints to reporters
on what may or may not be in a legislative package is not, in
itself, a breach of privilege, even if the source is, as the Globe
described, someone "with knowledge" of the bill.
Not surprisingly, the Conservatives and lone New Democrat
committee member David Christopherson seem to feel there
are a few unanswered questions.
Conservative MP Blake Richards, who, alongside his colleague
Jamie Schmale, warned the Liberal contingent that "dark
clouds" would continue to hang over the government as long as
the source of the leak remains unnamed.
But the Liberals voted down motions to explore the issue
further. The only remaining recourse was the traditional
outraged press release, which proclaimed Richards to be
"disappointed" that the governing Liberals had "shut down
efforts to investigate leak."
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Saskatoon Star Phoenix (EARLY)
CITY & REGION Page: A3
Information sharing could help court
backlog, Senate committee hears
Betty Ann Adam
Government agencies need to improve information sharing
with each other to keep mentally ill people out of the courts
and corrections systems, a Senate committee looking into court
delays heard in Saskatoon Thursday.
"We have too many people going into the criminal justice
system that have no business being there ... Their presence is a
reflection of the failure of other parts of the system to
adequately serve their needs," said Norm Taylor, an expert on
the HUB model of social services and police partnerships that
provide rapid interventions for people at risk.
Senator Bob Runciman, chair of the committee on legal and
constitutional affairs, agrees but said no one has been able to
show evidence of the links between people poorly served by
mental health and social services systems and the backlog of
cases in the court system, which is the focus of the committee's
ongoing cross-country tour.
Runciman said he's frustrated with a lack of consistency from
province to province in gathering information to find out what
works best for speeding up the system.
Experts point to restorative justice measures, such as
specialized domestic violence courts intended to divert family
problems to counselling and other supports, but no one has
been able to say what the recidivism rate is in such cases, he
said.
"They don't have that data even though they've been in
operation for eight years," Runciman said.
"We simply don't have the data collection ... It's hard to
measure how useful (they are)," he said.
Taylor says plenty of data is gathered by human services
agencies working in areas such as education, health care,
mental health, housing and policing, but they operate in silos,
unable to use each other's information to best serve the clients,
he said.
"The mechanisms for linking it is not developed," he said.
Taylor's company examined 24 pieces of legislation and found
that all of them allow sharing of information between
government agencies in circumstances where an individual's
well-being is at serious risk.
Too many front-line professionals don't understand the
legislation well enough to know when they can share
information, so they err on the side of caution, he said.
Researchers in Saskatchewan and Ontario have worked with
privacy commissioners and consulted privacy experts to arrive
at a set of disciplines that prove workers can share information
without violating privacy laws.
Those principles can be used to allow public policy-makers to
gather evidence about what interventions really do divert
people from the court system, he said.
Runciman said he looks forward to hearing from Canada's
privacy commissioner as the committee continues its work.
The Senate Committee heard from lawyers, university
professors and representatives of the Saskatchewan
government, the police and non-governmental organizations.
In August, the committee released an interim report on court
delays in the criminal justice system in Canada. In this report,
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
20
the committee made recommendations to fill 51 federal
judicial vacancies, modernize the court system and improve
case management practices.
The committee will release a final report in March 2017.
badam@postmedia.com twitter.com/SPBAAdam
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
National Post (NATIONAL)
FINANCIAL POST Page: FP1 / FRONT
Bill would vanquish 'zombie' directors
Barbara Shecter
The federal government has taken a concrete step towards
killing off "zombie" directors - board members who can
remain with corporations despite receiving support from fewer
than half the shareholders.
A bill tabled in Parliament Wednesday will require public
companies governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act
to have majority voting for directors. Under the legislation,
shareholders would be given the option of voting for or against
a director, rather than the current standard where votes are
either made in favour or withheld.
In the absence of a majority-voting requirement, a director in
an uncontested election simply needs one vote in favour to be
elected.
The amendments to the Act would also require all federally
registered public companies to disclose the gender composition
of their boards and senior management, and their diversity
policies.
Those amendments are intended to increase diversity and the
representation of women on corporate boards and in senior
management.
The Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG), whose
members include many of the country's largest pension funds
and money managers, has been pushing for more than 10 years
for a law to require majority voting for directors.
At the same time, the coalition, which seeks to give
shareholders a greater voice at the corporations they own,
lobbied the Toronto Stock Exchange. In 2014, Canada's main
exchange began requiring all TSX-listed companies - except
those that are majority-controlled - to adopt majority-voting
provisions that require directors to tender their resignations
immediately if less than 50 per cent of the votes are cast in
their favour.
However, there are limitations, which have been criticized by
some experts, including a provision that allows a board to
reject the resignation of a director if there are "exceptional"
circumstances that require his or her continued participation.
These board members have been termed "zombie" directors by
governance professionals because of their ability to carry on
after being defeated in a majority vote.
In a report compiled last November, law firm Davies Ward
Phillips Vineberg LLP found only one director had resigned
within 90 days of a failed vote, while nine others were
permitted to remain on their boards despite have failed to win
majority support from shareholders.
In one example cited by the Davies report, five of seven
directors at Spyglass Resources Corp. were rejected by a
majority of shareholders, but they were kept on after the
board's governance, human resources, and compensation
committee said losing them as the company was commencing
substantial investments during a severe downturn in the oil and
gas industry would ultimately harm the firm and its
shareholders. One director was able to resign at his request.
Stephen Erlichman, executive director of the CCGG, said his
group hopes provincial legislators follow Ottawa's lead this
week, and amend their own statutes so all public companies
across Canada will have the new higher standard.
"When these amendments are enacted, the federal government
will have made many of the important changes required to
bring Canada's federal corporate laws to 'best in class' global
standards," Erlichman said.
The new bill, tabled in the House of Commons by Innovation,
Science, and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains,
would also require votes for individual directors, rather than
slate voting in which all directors are either elected or defeated
in a single vote.
"The bill introduces amendments that will increase shareholder
democracy and participation, support the push to increase
women's participation on corporate boards and in senior
management, and improve corporate transparency," the
ministry said.
bshecter@postmedia.com Twitter.com/batpost
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Presse Canadienne ()
Page:
Le gouvernement fédéral resserre les
règles pour les licenciements massifs
Ottawa est prêt à resserrer les règles afin que les grandes
entreprises sous réglementation fédérale puissent plus
difficilement procéder à des licenciements massifs sans
avertissement.
Les exigences pour les entreprises se préparant à effectuer un
licenciement collectif ont été discrètement révisées, des hauts
fonctionnaires et la ministre du Travail, MaryAnn Mihychuk,
craignant que les règles conçues pour les circonstances
exceptionnelles ne soient utilisées trop souvent.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
21
La version finale des règles n'a pas encore été produite, mais
leur objectif est de s'assurer que les employeurs prendront les
mesures nécessaires pour aider les employés touchés par les
licenciements à trouver un autre emploi et à recevoir les
indemnités de départ auxquelles ils ont droit.
Les règlements fédéraux sur le travail stipulent que les
entreprises doivent aviser le gouvernement fédéral 16 semaines
avant de licencier 50 travailleurs ou plus sur une période de
quatre semaines. Pendant ce temps, les employeurs doivent
également mettre sur pied un comité employés-employeur pour
aider, dans la mesure du possible, les travailleurs touchés à
trouver un nouvel emploi.
Les entreprises peuvent demander à se soustraire au règlement
dans des circonstances exceptionnelles, et jusqu'à maintenant,
n'avaient qu'à offrir des raisons génériques pour appuyer leur
requête.
Lorsque les autorités fédérales ont examiné les dizaines de
requêtes à cet effet reçues au cours des dernières années, elles
ont remarqué une tendance permettant de croire que ces
demandes d'exemption étaient faites beaucoup trop souvent,
surtout dans les secteurs bancaire et des télécommunications.
Les exemptions pourraient bientôt être refusées si une
entreprise en a déjà reçu une dans les six mois précédents, et
les sociétés devront donner des renseignements beaucoup plus
détaillés sur le nombre et le type de travailleurs touchés. Elles
devront également fournir les raisons économiques et
financières expliquant le licenciement.
Le gouvernement espère que ces nouvelles règles permettront
aux travailleurs d'anticiper davantage à quel moment les
licenciements surviendront.
Les détails des nouvelles règles sont contenus dans des
documents fournis au plus haut fonctionnaire de la division du
travail d'Emploi et Développement social Canada, obtenus par
La Presse canadienne en vertu de la Loi sur l'accès à
l'information.
Cette semaine, le Nouveau Parti démocratique a fait pression
sur le gouvernement libéral afin qu'il interdise l'utilisation de
briseurs de grève pendant les conflits de travail dans les
entreprises sous réglementation fédérale, comme les banques,
les sociétés ferroviaires et les entreprises de
télécommunications.
Un projet de loi d'initiative parlementaire visant à interdire
l'utilisation de ces travailleurs a été rejeté en deuxième lecture,
mercredi soir, par un vote de 217 contre 47.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
NEWS Page: A8
Shrinking media a 'worrisome' trend
Business model is at risk, Torstar chair tells MPs
studying state of business
Bruce Campion-Smith Toronto Star chief
Canadian media are facing a "crisis" as market forces shrink
newsrooms, leaving fewer journalists to report the news vital
to a vibrant democracy, the chair of Torstar warns.
John Honderich, chair of the board of Torstar, had blunt words
Thursday for MPs studying the state of media in Canada.
"My message to you is a simple one: There is a crisis of
declining good journalism across Canada and at this point we
only see the situation getting worse," Honderich told MPs on
the Canadian Heritage committee.
He said newspapers across the country have cut their ranks of
journalists, resulting in diminished political and community
coverage and less investigative journalism.
"If you believe, as we do, that the quality of a democracy is a
direct function of the quality of the information citizens have
to make informed decisions, then this trend is very
worrisome," he said.
Torstar publishes the Toronto Star, the country's largest daily
circulation newspaper, along with the Metro chain of
newspapers distributed nationwide and the Metroland chain of
newspapers serving more than 100 communities.
Honderich noted that readership remains vibrant - both for
newspapers and their digital offerings. Instead, it's the business
model that has taken a beating.
"The digital revolution plus the advent of the Internet have
fundamentally changed the business model for newspapers," he
said.
Honderich, a former editor and publisher of the Star, recalled
the days when careers advertising brought in $75 million a
year and classified ads filled an entire section of each day's
paper - all advertising that has been lost to the Internet.
"All those revenues paid for a lot of reporters. Without that
revenue, we simply cannot afford as many journalists. Indeed,
the very business model is at risk," he told MPs.
Honderich stressed that Torstar has adapted with the times,
with websites such as thestar.com where online readership is
rising, and Star Touch, a tablet offering.
But he said the structural pressures have been "relentless,"
forcing newsrooms to shrink. By the end of this year, the Star's
newsroom will have 170 journalists, down dramatically from
470 about a decade ago, he said.
Other Torstar papers have suffered similar reductions, he said.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
22
Torstar is not alone in voicing concern. A group of Quebec
media firms representing 148 newspapers this week banded
together to appeal to Ottawa for financial help to help pay their
transition to the evolving digital universe.
"We are going through a storm, which explains why we need a
new way of doing things," Martin Cauchon, the executive
chairman of Groupe Capitales Médias, told the committee.
Cauchon, a former Liberal cabinet minister, told MPs there has
to be a "national debate" about the state of newspapers in
Canada today.
The Quebec coalition urged the committee to look at federal
tax breaks, similar to those handed out to cultural industries.
And it also urged MPs to look at changes to federal copyright
laws to curb the ability of Internet sites such as Facebook and
Google to use Canadian media content without sharing
revenue.
While the Internet giants are fingered as the cause of media
financial woes, two media executives Thursday cited a concern
closer to home.
Honderich said he now considers the digital offerings of CBC
News - "spending incredibly on its website, unlimited
resources" - as the biggest competition to the Star. He raised
the model of the BBC - the British public broadcaster, which
does not accept advertising.
That was echoed by James Baxter, founding editor of iPolitics,
an online news service, who called CBC News an "uberpredator," a publicly funded news website that competes
directly with private media companies.
He called on the federal government to stop funding the CBC's
"massive" expansion into digital-only news in markets where
there is already brisk competition."
He suggested that the CBC's emphasis on digital journalism
defies its original mandate to fill a void in rural areas where
commercial news was not viable.
He said the CBC's digital ambitions have had a "profoundly
chilling effect" on media startups. "That is the biggest single
obstacle to there being a vibrant and innovative marketplace of
ideas in the media space."
Still, Baxter urged MPs to be cautious about offering financial
supports to traditional media.
"I'm not here asking for a handout ... fundamentally, I believe
that preserving the old media is not an option. I want to suggest
you save your money by asking that you not bail out my
competitors," he said.
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
iPolitics ()
Page:
Ex-NDP staffer asks court to nullify NDP
collective agreement
Beatrice Britneff - Ontario
In an Ontario Superior Court hearing held today, a former NDP
staffer and her lawyers were asking a judge to nullify a
collective agreement the NDP had with its former union,
UNIFOR Local 232, on the grounds that employees of
Members of Parliament do not have the right to unionize.
Counsel for Fabiola Ferro - who worked as a parliamentary
assistant to former NDP MP Sylvain Chicoine and is suing him
- is basing the argument on Section 4.2 (e) of the Parliamentary
Employment and Staff Relations Act, or PESRA, a piece of
federal legislation that outlines the rights of employees of
Parliament, including the right to collective bargaining. The
section in question states that PESRA "does not apply to ... the
staff of any other individual Member of Parliament."
Ferro filed a civil lawsuit against her former employer on Nov.
7 , 2014, alleging he did not act on her complaints that she was
subject to harassment and bullying by a male colleague within
months of starting work. Chicoine subsequently countersued
Ferro for defamation.
On April 2, 2015, both Ferro and Chicoine submitted a motion
and cross-motion, respectively, for a summary judgement from
the Ontario Superior Court. In his cross-motion, Chicoine
requests that Ferro's entire claim be dismissed because her
employment with the NDP bound her to a a collective
agreement that provided for arbitration - and so the Superior
Court not does have jurisdiction over her lawsuit.
In response, Ferro's lawyer Andrew Lister argued that Section
4.2(e) of the parliamentary employment legislation - which
dominated the debate and discussion in Thursday's hearing "explicitly prohibits" MPs' staffers from collective bargaining.
Because of this, Lister insisted the "alleged" collective
agreement between UNIFOR 232 and federal NDP caucus
employees, including Ferro, does not exist and never existed or simply "doesn't matter."
"You can't have a collective agreement for people who cannot
be part of a union under this legislation," Lister argued.
James and Alexandre Duggan, Chicoine's lawyers, challenged
that interpretation of the act and said no such prohibition exists
in the legislation.
"There is no legal principle ... that says that a group of
employees can't associate together to negotiate with their
employer or employers," James Duggan said. "It provides for
access for certain employees to legislate collective bargaining.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
23
But it doesn't prohibit contractual relations between a group of
employees and employers."
Jean-Marc Eddie, a lawyer for UNIFOR, presented similar
arguments to those of Chicoine's counsel - adding that the NDP
voluntary recognizes its union.
"What the moving party is attempting to do is have you read
into PESRA that no employees can be represented by a union,"
Eddie said. "PESRA says that the PESRA regime does not
apply to employees of MPs. It doesn't mean that our agreement
is not a valid agreement."
UNIFOR is not a party in this case but it was granted
intervenor status.
Eddie also told the judge that if he were to decide that
UNIFOR's collective agreement with the NDP was null and
void, this would have "serious consequences" for the hundreds
of employees that the union represents.
More background on the Fabiola Ferro v. Sylvain Chicoine
court case is available here.
None of the allegations from either party's lawsuit have been
tested in court.
2016 ipolitics.ca
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
Report on Business Page:
Ministers face a fundamental dilemma in
adopting a national carbon price
By KONRAD YAKABUSKI The only certainty going into next week's meeting of federal
and provincial environment ministers is that carbon prices
must rise far beyond current or contemplated levels to
meaningfully reduce Canada's emissions.
Despite all the happy talk about British Columbia's carbon tax,
Alberta finally seeing the light and the advent of cap-andtrade
in Quebec (and soon Ontario), the truth is that the impact of
such measures on CO2 levels will continue to be marginal
without charging emitters significantly more to pollute.
Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna vows to
plow ahead with a minimum national carbon price, but just
how much actual environmental good (as opposed to political
good) it will do is an open question. If Ottawa only matches
the $16 a tonne that emission credits have fetched in recent
Quebec-California capand-trade auctions, it won't make a
difference. Even matching British Columbia's $30 a tonne
won't move the dial much, and it's unlikely Ottawa will dare
top B.C.'s price.
B.C.'s carbon tax adds less than seven cents to the price of a
litre of gasoline. Yet, "climatecrats" and cheerleaders insist the
tax is responsible for curbing fuel use in the province.
More sober observers have exposed the wishful thinking
involved in such analyses.
Non-carbon-related provincial and federal gasoline taxes add
about 25 cents a litre at the pump without deterring many
drivers.
How does adding seven cents meaningfully change the
equation?
Indeed, the implied carbon price of gas taxes in Canada which were not conceived as climate-change measures approaches or exceeds $100 a tonne in almost every province.
Perhaps the most interesting environmental experiment under
way is in cash-strapped Newfoundland, which just doubled its
gas tax to 33 cents a litre; combined with the 10-cent federal
gas tax, that adds up to an effective carbon price of more than
$180 a tonne, far exceeding any explicit carbon tax. But it may
take a price that high to actually change behaviour.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development "conservatively" estimates that carbon prices
need to be set at a minimum of 30 a tonne (about $45) to offset
the damage caused by climate change. By that measure, you
might argue that Canada's transportation sector already
assumes more than its fair share of the burden in the form of
gas taxes.
The problem is that carbon prices are far too low in other
sectors. An OECD report released this week concludes that 90
per cent of global carbon emissions "are not priced at a level
reflecting even a conservative estimate of their climate cost."
The study, based on data from 41 OECD and G20 countries,
adds that "road transport has relatively high effective carbon
rates," with almost half of the sector's emissions priced above
30 a tonne, mainly by way of gas taxes. The overall "carbon
pricing gap" - the amount global emissions are underpriced exceeds 80 per cent.
Even a global 30-a-tonne carbon price would not be high
enough to meet the Paris climate accord goal of holding
increases in global average temperatures below 2 C. More
muscular measures, such as hard caps on industrial emissions,
would be needed to get there.
The cap-and-trade scheme that Quebec and California jointly
run, and which Ontario is set to join next year, has been a dud
so far. The two most recent quarterly emissions auctions were
woefully undersubscribed - just 10 per cent of available
emission credits found buyers in the May auction and about a
third in the August sale. The latest $12.73-(U.S.)-a-tonne
auction price actually overstates the true value of such credits,
since it reflects a minimum floor price set by regulators. Prices
on the secondary market are well below that level.
Governments have also failed to come close to realizing their
revenue projections from capand-trade, with California raising
only $10-million (U.S.) in the May auction and $8-million in
August - a far cry from the hundreds of millions the state was
banking on.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
24
California's long-term participation in the scheme is clouded
by a court case alleging the auction process constitutes an
illegal tax under state law, which requires that all tax increases
be approved by a two-thirds majority of the state assembly.
And the legislature has yet to greenlight California's
participation in the scheme beyond 2020, raising more
questions about its survival.
All this underscores the fundamental dilemma facing Canada's
environment ministers as they gather to forge a national
climate strategy.
They cannot raise carbon prices high enough to reach Canada's
emission targets without leading to economically damaging
carbon leakage or the displacement of economic activity to
jurisdictions with low or no carbon prices.
The result is that, once the politicians are finished
congratulating themselves, the adoption of a national carbon
price will likely be a symbolic step that gets us little closer to
our climate goals.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Halifax Chronicle Herald ()
NEWS Page: A6
Halifax MP gets carbon emissions motion
passed
Andrea Gunn
Those wanting a piece of the Liberal government's
infrastructure spending pie will have to keep carbon emissions
in mind.
Halifax MP Andy Fillmore's private member's motion
proposing that greenhouse gas emission analyses be
undertaken for all infrastructure projects seeking federal
funding over a certain amount and giving priority to proposals
that help mitigate the impacts of climate change - passed in the
House of Commons 182-84 Wednesday.
The Liberals and NDP supported the motion, while the
Conservatives voted against it.
Fillmore, who has been working on the motion for the better
part of a year, was thrilled to see it passed.
When they're in place, the mechanisms will help Ottawa make
fact-based decisions on infrastructure spending and prioritize
projects that help Canada meet its international targets - all
while building an environmental consciousness within
government.
"We've heard the prime minister say so many times say that a
strong economy and a clean environment are not at odds. In
fact we have to do both, and this goes right to the very heart of
a clean economy and this tremendous infrastructure spending
program that's going to grow the economy."
Fillmore said he will continue working closely with
infrastructure minister Amarjeet Sohi and environment
minister Catherine McKenna to come up with a final
implementation plan that will determine exactly how the
framework will operate.
The original motion said emission analyses would be
conducted on all projects exceeding $500,000 but an
amendment removed the dollar figure. Fillmore said that is
something to be determined, along with what mechanism will
be used to analyze the carbon.
"There are a number of systems out there in the world that are
working really well . . . (that) look at full lifecycle carbon
implications of a project - where the carbon in the project came
from, what carbon will be required to keep the project going in
the future, what's embedded in the construction materials, all
of that." Fillmore said he wants to have the implementation
plan finalized and in place before the federal government doles
out the second phase of its massive infrastructure spending
plan, worth $48 billion.
Not everyone is as tickled as Fillmore with the results of
Wednesday's vote. A release issued by the Conservative Party
criticized the motion for being too vague, and warned of delays
to necessary infrastructure projects while the implementation
plan is crafted.
"There is no doubt that mitigating climate change is a priority
for everyone, but a lot of municipalities already have climate
change mitigation and greenhouse gas reduction plans in
place," said Tory infrastructure critic Dianne Watts in the
release.
"This new additional screening process is only going to add
more red tape to project proposals, and will severely impact
small communities who may not have the resources to submit
these additional costly applications."
Fillmore said setting a threshold will mean many projects in
small communities - things like stadium roof replacements, for
example - will be exempt from the motion's requirements.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Vancouver Sun (FINAL)
FINANCIAL POST Page: C1 / FRONT
Federal approval just one of many
hurdles for $11.4B LNG project
Peter O'Neil
The federal government's approval of Pacific NorthWest
LNG's $11.4-billion project is one of many hurdles to be
overcome before the public sees any of the promised flood of
jobs and tax wealth coming out of B.C.'s Pacific Northwest.
Here's the five top challenges:
MARKETS
Grim, bleak, dismal. Pick your adjective. B.C.'s other major
LNG investors have delayed their final decision to proceed
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
25
because of the grim scenario that was outlined in June by the
International Energy Agency.
The agency, a Paris-based monitor of how the Earth is
powered, put out a five-year projection that had global demand
for natural gas rising 1.5 per cent annually, down from the
previous year's projection of two per cent.
Meanwhile, between 2015 and 2021, global LNG capacity will
soar by 45 per cent as new facilities already under
construction, mainly in the U.S. and Australia, come on line.
The resulting glut is one reason analysts like Ed Kallio, with
Calgary-based Gas Processing Management Inc., predicts that
Petronas, Pacific Northwest's controlling shareholder, will
delay its investment decision until markets improve.
"It's a very tough hurdle to overcome in order to get this
project going," he said, adding that the problem wouldn't be as
severe had Premier Christy Clark not taken so long before
producing in 2014 B.C.'s LNG income tax.
That delay, according to Kallio, resulted in debilitating
uncertainty when global gas markets were far more conducive
to major investments.
POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY
In B.C., the company faces the prospects of a spring election.
Clark's New Democratic Party challenger, John Horgan, has
said Lelu Island, near Prince Rupert, is the wrong location for
an LNG plant.
There is also considerable uncertainty on the other side of the
Pacific, as scandal-plagued Malaysian Prime Minister Najib
Razak is trying to stay politically afloat against a backdrop of
economic problems related to low global oil and gas prices.
That makes the Malaysian-government-owned Petronas, often
used as a cash cow to fund dubious political pet projects,
vulnerable to domestic political pressures. A massive
investment in a Canadian project like Pacific Northwest may
not, therefore, be at the top of his government's short-term
priority list.
"When business decisions are politicized (in Malaysia) you're
in a real mess," Kallio said. "It's a problem in B.C. as well."
THE COURTS
First Nations and environmental groups have launched a wave
of legal challenges that ultimately resulted in a Federal Court
of Appeal order this year quashing Ottawa's approval of the
Enbridge Northern Gateway oil pipeline proposal. Can this
coalition pull it offagain?
"It's only a matter of time before the first lawsuit, and there
will be more than one," said Chris Tollefson, a University of
Victoria law professor who acted for one of the environmental
groups fighting Northern Gateway.
He said the federal review of Northern Gateway, while far
from perfect, was far more legitimate than the assessment done
before Pacific Northwest got approval, he said, noting the lack
of public hearings or the cross-examination of company
officials presenting scientific evidence.
"There was no real ability to confront the proponent's scientific
claims."
CAN A 'POISON PILL' HALT THE PROJECT?
The federal government imposed 190 conditions before the
project can proceed, with potentially the most significant one
being a limit on carbon emissions. In the House
of Commons on Wednesday, Conservative MP Bob Zimmer
said that limitation represents a "poison pill" that could halt the
project.
While Pacific Northwest isn't commenting, B.C. Environment
Minister Mary Polak expressed confidence this hurdle can be
overcome.
"We've been reviewing the conditions, and there's nothing in
the conditions that causes us concern for the viability of the
project," she told reporters.
PIPELINE POLITICS
A major component of the $36-billion Petronas investment is a
$1.7 billion pipeline to be built by Nova Gas Transmission
Ltd., a subsidiary of TransCanada Corp., linking B.C.'s
northeastern gas fields with the LNG terminal at Lelu Island.
The National Energy Board has given TransCanada until next
June to decide whether to proceed.
poneil@postmedia.com Twitter.com/poneilinottawa
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Fredericton Daily Gleaner ()
BUSINESS Page: D4
Top court won't wade into Enbridge Gas
lawsuit
Adam Huras
OTTAWA * The country's top court say it won't wade into a
long-running lawsuit between Enbridge Gas New Brunswick
and the New Brunswick government.
Enbridge wanted the Supreme Court of Canada to order the
province to hand over hundreds of pages of documents as part
of an ongoing multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
The company is embroiled in two legal actions against the
province, worth more than $800 million.
They stem from legislative changes the former Tory
government made that altered a franchise agreement the
province had with Enbridge to deliver natural gas to homes and
businesses.
The current Liberal government has kept the changes in place,
although Energy Minister Rick Doucet said last month the two
sides are in settlement talks to end the two massive actions.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
26
The Supreme Court denied on Thursday an application for
leave to appeal.
The top judges do not give reasons for their decision.
In general, they only take on civil or criminal cases deemed to
be of national importance that might have wider implications
throughout the country.
A provincial judge originally ordered all the documents
disclosed.
But in April, New Brunswick's highest court ruled the
provincial government did not have to hand over 800
documents related to the bigger of the two lawsuits.
Enbridge general manager Gilles Volpé described it as a minor
setback, while also stating that the company will walk away
from New Brunswick if it doesn't respect its contract.
A 20-year contract expires in 2019.
The Court of Appeal said the documents were protected by
privilege, either because they were produced for the provincial
cabinet, whose deliberations are kept secret, or because they
were part of correspondence with lawyers.
During pre-trial disclosure proceedings, the province disclosed
it had 9,686 documents related to the file, but claimed privilege
over 3,606 of them.
That number was later reduced to 800.
Enbridge argues disclosure of the remaining paperwork could
be important to its case.
The gas firm applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court
on May 30.
The lawsuits have been divided between two actions, one
worth about $650 million, the other closer to $180 million. The
second action already went to a two-day trial in February in the
Court of Queen's Bench in Fredericton.
Justice Paulette Garnett had until July to deliver her decision,
but was then persuaded to delay her decision after lawyers
representing Enbridge and the provincial government wrote to
her in June saying they wanted until at least the end of the year
to try to work out an out-of-court settlement.
David Duncan Young, a lawyer representing Enbridge, said in
a letter that the parties have "concluded a tentative settlement
which they believe will result in the discontinuance of both
actions."
He went on to write that the settlement was dependent "on
certain things that cannot be completed for several months."
The bigger suit is still locked in the discovery phase.
Enbridge spokeswoman Nadine Chiasson said in an email on
Thursday that settlement talks "are ongoing."
"It's too soon to know how today's decision will impact our
talks," she said, declining to comment further.
Enbridge launched the legal action in February 2014, after the
former Tory government passed legislation that changed the
20-year franchise agreement the province had with the firm to
deliver natural gas to homes and businesses.
- With files from John Chilibeck
© 2016 The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Vancouver Sun (FINAL)
CITY Page: A13
$450M being pumped into B.C. water
projects
Federal government providing half the cash, province
funding one-third
Peter O'Neil
The federal and B.C. governments will announce in Victoria
today the creation of a $450.1-million fund to help B.C.
municipalities invest in water and waste water treatment
facilities, Postmedia has learned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, which earlier this
year announced the planned doubling of infrastructure funding
to $120 billion over 10 years, is putting up $225 million for the
B.C. fund, infrastructure minister Amarjeet Sohi said
Thursday. The B.C. government is contributing $148.5 million,
or about onethird, while municipalities are covering the
remaining $76.6 million. Sohi is attending the annual gathering
of the Union of B.C. Municipalities in Victoria and will be
flanked by Todd Stone, B.C.'s minister of transportation and
infrastructure, and Peter Fassbender, the minister responsible
for TransLink.
"The federal government has recognized that water and waste
water is a huge issue right across the country," Fassbender said
Thursday after confirming Victoria's contribution to the fund.
"We have a lot of pent-up demand, there are a lot of
communities with aging infrastructure and boiled-water
advisories."
The ministers will release an initial list of 35 approved projects
totalling $72 million, with most being relatively small
initiatives far from Metro Vancouver, where the Liberals won
the vast majority of their 17 B.C. seats.
Projects include replacing a water tower in Burns Lake and
upgrading water treatment facilities in Dawson Creek and
Parksville. Work for most of the projects is expected to start
either later this year or in early 2017.
Sohi said Ottawa is not showing regional favouritism as it
works with the province and municipalities in determining
priorities. "In my mind infrastructure is about building
communities, it is about providing a quality of life for
citizens," said Sohi, a soft-spoken former Edmonton bus driver
and city councillor. "This is not about partisanship. This is not
about us focusing where our seats are."
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
27
The $225-million share comes out of a $2-billion fund
announced in the 2016 federal budget. B.C.'s slice represents a
little more than 11 per cent of the national total. B.C. has about
13 per cent of the country's population.
However, officials note the province received a special
additional allocation of $212 million in the 2016 budget to
fund one-third of the Lions Gate Wastewater Treatment Plant
project.
B.C. was the last province to sign a waste water deal with the
federal government, though it was the first earlier this year to
strike an accord on the other component of Ottawa's
infrastructure plan.
The federal government announced in June it was handing over
$460 million to B.C. to fund a variety of transit projects, the
majority in Metro Vancouver. Funds were allocated based on
total public transit ridership rather than by a province's share of
the population, resulting in B.C., Ontario and Quebec getting
slightly higher transfers.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Winnipeg Free Press ()
City Page:
Churchill gets a port in the storm
Town and area to get $4.6M in economic development
aid; no word on nationalizing port, railway
Mia Rabson OTTAWA - Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains will deliver
an economic lifeline to the Town of Churchill today, but is not
yet prepared to commit the government to taking back
ownership of the troubled port.
A new poll done for the Free Press by Probe Research shows
two-thirds of Manitobans moderately or strongly support the
idea that Ottawa resume ownership of the Port and the
associated Hudson Bay Railway, but Bains wouldn't say
whether the government has looked at the possibility yet.
"We're open to any ideas and suggestions that are made for
both the short- and long-term viability of the port," Bains said.
"Right now we're focused on what ideas do they have."
Bains will travel to Churchill toting $4.6 million for immediate
economic development programs in the town and the
surrounding area, the Free Press has learned. His trip will
include meetings in person and by teleconference with the
town council, First Nations, the union, and other interested
parties to discuss options for the port.
Omnitrax acquired both the Port of Churchill and the Hudson
Bay Railway from the federal government in the 1990s. It
announced in July it would not operate the port this season
because it was not commercially viable.
In an interview with the Free Press Thursday, Bains said his
immediate attention is on the short-term challenges, followed
by working with local leadership, unions and others on the
long-term viability of the port and rail line. Omnitrax is not
part of the discussions, and Bains did not hold back from
criticizing the company for being disengaged in discussing the
future.
"We have reached out to them, but I must confess they have
not been very positive," he said. "They haven't really engaged.
It is disappointing how they have conducted themselves in this
process, so that's why I'm dealing now directly with the
northern delegation, and the different levels of government,
both municipal and provincial."
Bains said the money he is announcing today is "a byproduct
of the conversations we have been having for weeks with
people on the ground.
"We're really concerned about this, we understand the
importance of Churchill, not just to Manitoba but as part of our
northern strategy as well."
The Canadian Wheat Board was the primary user of the port,
responsible for about 90 per cent of its shipments. Since the
CWB single-seller system was dismantled in 2012 and the
wheat board sold to a Saudi Arabian entity, shipments through
the port plummetted, despite government subsidies to
encourage its use.
The port is one of the main economic drivers in Churchill and
was responsible for about 10 per cent of its jobs.
The poll found 67 per cent of Manitobans strongly or
moderately support government ownership of the port and the
railway. Support was higher in Winnipeg (71 per cent) than
rural Manitoba (62 per cent) and among NDP supporters (85
per cent), and Liberals (77 per cent) than Tory supporters (56
per cent).
Churchill Mayor Mike Spence said he is eagerly anticipating
Ottawa's help and is looking forward to raising the idea of
nationalizing the port when he meets with Bains today.
"A port of this significance in the north should reflect the
government of Canada," said Spence. "What's really important
here is this is Canada's only arctic port."
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union representing
port workers, also urged the government last week to take
control of the port and make it another port authority.
John Higginbotham, head of the Arctic program at the Centre
for International Governance Innovation at Carleton
University, said a port authority is a legal instrument that can
be used to push for new investments but it will not, by itself,
save Churchill.
"It doesn't guarantee you're going to have anybody making
those investments," he said. "It's just a mechanism that allows
it."
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
28
Higginbotham said with climate change extending the arctic
shipping season every year, commercializing the Port of
Churchill might make sense, but he said a major study needs to
happen to look at the entire northern strategy, including
Churchill, before any private investors might show interest.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
CBC.ca: Nova Scotia ()
Page:
Eskasoni to provide bottled water for
Potlotek First Nation
First Nations communities are stepping in to assist Potlotek as
it struggles with its water emergency.
Eskasoni First Nation is delivering 20,000 litres of water to the
Chapel Island band. Members discovered thick, black liquid
coming out their taps Tuesday.
"It's part of being in a Mi'kmaq community. We always help
each other, we try to provide support and everything," said
Eskasoni spokesman George Paul.
'We need lots of water'
The Aboriginal Atlantic Policy Congress is meeting this week
in Halifax and the dirty water situation in Potlotek was at the
top of their list of concerns.
Paul said Eskasoni Chief Leroy Denny asked, "What can we
do right now to help you guys?" and the answer from Potlotek
was "we need water, we need lots of water."
The water being provided by Eskasoni will consist of 26
pallets of four-litre jugs.
"We're a close-knit community. I have family there. A lot of
people have family there," said Paul.
Health Canada insists water is OK
Potlotek is telling its members not to drink or cook with the
water due to high levels of iron and manganese even though
Health Canada says those mineral levels will not have an
impact on health.
It does acknowledge they can affect the colour, taste and odour
of the water.
Potlotek Chief Wilbert Marshall says officials from Health
Canada and Indigenous and Northern Affairs as well as a
group of engineers are scheduled to come to the First Nations
community Oct. 4.
Band member Bernadette Marshall she'd like to see an
environmental study completed.
People are angry
"I would like to see people being tested on how much mineral
count they have in their bodies. You know, everybody needs
minerals in their body, but how much are we overdosed with,"
said Marshall.
She said funding from Indigenous and Northern Affairs will
allow members to shower in the nearby community of St.
Peter's soon but people are angry.
"We've always believed what the government said, that it's safe
drinking water. Now we're told [by the band] that it's not safe,"
said Marshall.
"That you can't even cook with it anymore, you can't bathe in it
anymore, so we need help here. We're in desperate need for
help."
'We need a long-term fix'
Premier Stephen McNeil said his government is in discussions
with federal ministers to see what can be done.
"No one in this day and age should be in that position. We
recognize that," said McNeil.
"We need a long-term fix and there's a substantial amount of
work that will be required."
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Whitehorse Star ()
YUKON Page: 5 / FRONT
First Nations without claims are hindered
report
Chuck Tobin
The three Yukon First Nations without land claim agreements
are at a distinct disadvantage to other First Nations across
Canada, according to a report cited Wednesday in Yukon
Supreme Court.
The matter arose as lawyers for the federal government and the
Ross River Dena Council continued to make pre-trial
arguments over the admissibility of documents on day three of
what was supposed to be a five-day trial this week.
Ross River is one of the three Yukon First Nations without a
land claim settlement.
In its lawsuit against Ottawa, the First Nation claims the
federal government has had a "constitutional" obligation to
settle the interests of the Ross River Kaska going back to 1870,
when the Yukon became part of the Dominion of Canada.
It also argues Canada has failed to fulfill that obligation and is
now liable for its negligence.
Ottawa, on the other hand, argues its obligation does not reach
back to 1870.
And ever since 1973, when the federal government did agree to
begin negotiating modern day treaties, Ottawa has done
everything in its power to reach a settlement with Ross River,
Ottawa maintains.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
29
The official federal mandate to negotiate settlements with the
14 Yukon First Nations ended in 2002. Eleven have signed
agreements.
Ross River lawyer Stephen Walsh wants to introduce emails
between the First Nation and the federal government regarding
discussions about options to reach some sort of settlement.
The former federal Conservative government commissioned an
analysis in 2006 to look at what could be done about the three
Yukon First Nations without land claim or self-government
agreements, Walsh pointed out to the court yesterday.
In the report filed in 2008 by Gavin Finch, Walsh said, Finch
notes how the three First Nations are at a "unique
disadvantage" because they don't have ownership to any land:
no settlement land, no reserve land.
"What I want to get before the court is the lack of governance,
the lack of ability to do what every other First Nation in the
country can do - pass a bylaw," Walsh said.
He said there have been discussions with Ottawa about a
possible settlement for Ross River on three separate occasions,
the latest coming after a 21-year-old Ross River man was
killed by dogs and partially eaten in 2015.
The Finch report, Walsh told the court, suggested converting
the land set aside for Ross River into reserve land, an option
that both Ross River and the White River First Nation favour.
It would provide tax-exempt status to those First Nation lands
as well as open up other opportunities for self-governance, he
told the judge.
Walsh said the Finch report also noted the Yukon government
objected strenuously to the suggestion of creating reserve lands
because it would be a significant departure to negotiating
settlements under the guidelines set out in the UFA (Umbrella
Final Agreement).
(The UFA does not allow for tax-exempt status of aboriginal
settlement lands, and in fact requires First Nations to relinquish
tax-exempt provisions as part of settlement.)
Not long into Walsh's argument, federal lawyer Suzanne
Duncan rose to object. She pointed out to the judge that Walsh
was beginning to read from the material the federal
government believes is inadmissible as evidence.
Duncan said she did not want any of that material read into the
court record until there is a ruling on whether it will be
permitted as evidence.
The leading law in Canada, she argued, says the contents of
negotiations to reach settlement agreements is privileged private and confidential - and cannot be used to support other
cases.
"I can't see why Mr. Walsh wants these emails in order to
bolster his allegations of bad-faith negotiations," Duncan told
Justice Leigh Gower.
Gower reserved his decision on the admissibility of the emails
after final submissions were heard Wednesday afternoon. He
adjourned the case to Friday morning, when he's scheduled to
give his ruling.
The Ross River Dena Council is attempting to show that
Ottawa has not lived up to the constitutional requirement to do
its best to settle with the First Nation.
It was Ottawa that pulled the plug on negotiations in 2002, not
Ross River, the First Nation argues.
Ross River maintains if has offered time and time again to get
back to the negotiating table but not under the terms set out in
the UFA. The First Nation, in fact, is attacking the UFA's
validity as part of the trial, arguing it was never legally ratified
in accordance with conditions set out in the UFA.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
News Page:
Mayors to pressure Ottawa to address
housing crisis
By BILL CURRY, JEFF GRAY - OTTAWA, TORONTO
Ottawa is rushing to launch its massive second phase of
infrastructure spending this fall but is facing concern from
municipal leaders that housing money will be squeezed by
other federal priorities.
Canada's big-city mayors are gathering in Toronto on Friday to
highlight their worry that Ottawa is preparing to launch a
major 10-year-infrastructure program before a promised
national housing strategy is in place.
At issue is how the federal Liberals will define social
infrastructure, a broad category that the government said will
receive $20-billion over the next decade. The category will
include spending on affordable housing, but it will also fund
other areas such as child care and cultural and recreational
infrastructure.
Toronto Mayor John Tory and other big-city mayors will
announce on Friday that they are calling on Ottawa to devote
$12.6-billion of the $20-billion fund to address what they say
is a national crisis in affordable housing.
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, who chairs the big-city mayors
caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said it's
great that Ottawa is moving quickly to launch its second phase
of infrastructure spending, but mayors fear that a decade of
housing funds could be locked in at insufficient levels.
"Precisely because it's moving so fast, we are concerned about
the window closing," he said in an interview Thursday.
Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal minister responsible for housing
and social infrastructure, will speak at the mayors summit and
The Globe and Mail has learned he will announce a new
measure aimed at spurring the construction of 4,000 affordable
rental housing units. Mr. Duclos has a mandate to develop a
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
30
national housing strategy, but it is unclear when that plan will
be ready or what it will include.
Officials at all three levels of government have confirmed that
negotiations on Phase 2 of the social infrastructure fund are
focused on how the $20-billion will be divided and what
formulas will be used for spreading the money across the
country.
The FCM is proposing that the formula for federal housing
money should be based on factors such as local affordable
housing demand and homelessness rates.
Federal officials confirmed to The Globe that the launch of
Phase 2 is not considered part of the budget process, meaning
it will be launched well before the 2017 budget and likely in
the current calendar year. Consultations on this phase officially
closed Sept. 15.
The city facing the biggest bill to fix its crumbling public
housing is Toronto, which needs more than $1.6-billion from
Ontario and Ottawa - $864-million from each - to continue a
10year rehabilitation plan. Toronto is already spending $864million of its own money. If the rest does not start to flow
soon, Toronto officials say, up to 4,000 units owned by the
city's Toronto Community Housing Corp. could be added to
hundreds already condemned and left uninhabitable by next
year.
"We're just saying we need other people to come to the table,
the other governments, to help us with this, which is a problem
affecting our most vulnerable people," Mr. Tory said at a news
conference on Thursday after meetings with Vancouver Mayor
Gregor Robertson.
The Liberal government's 2016 budget announced $120-billion
for infrastructure over 10 years.
The money is divided equally between green infrastructure,
transit and social infrastructure.
About $12-billion of the $120billion has already been made
available through what the government called Phase 1, which
focused on repairing existing infrastructure and planning work
for the much larger projects that will be part of the second
phase.
The second phase is expected to fund larger new projects, such
as major expansions of public transit systems.
Ontario Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli said the talks
among provinces, municipalities and Ottawa are focused on the
creation of formulas that will provide predictable federal
funding for housing, rather than a "free-for-all" competition
among municipalities. He said one option is to provide base
funding to municipalities based on population with an
additional formula that is based on need.
"There is a consensus that we really want Phase 2 to roll out
very quickly on the heels of Phase 1," he said in an interview.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Presse Canadienne ()
Page:
Ottawa et les provinces se penchent sur la
sécurité des cyclistes
OTTAWA _ Le gouvernement fédéral se penchera sur la façon
de protéger les cyclistes sur les routes canadiennes après de
récents incidents médiatisés lors desquels des citoyens ont été
tués alors qu'ils circulaient à vélo dans les rues.
Le ministre fédéral des Transports, Marc Garneau, et ses
homologues des provinces et territoires ont accepté de mettre
sur pied un groupe de travail sur les usagers vulnérables de la
route, comme les cyclistes et les piétons, afin de trouver des
façons de réduire les blessures et les décès.
Le groupe de travail, établi par l'intermédiaire du Conseil
canadien des administrateurs en transport motorisé, examinera
de près la possibilité d'utiliser des caméras, des capteurs ainsi
que des protections latérales, en plus d'avoir recours à des
programmes de sensibilisation à la sécurité.
Cette idée n'était pas au menu lorsque M. Garneau a rencontré
ses homologues, mercredi, mais il a soulevé l'idée après que les
maires de Montréal et d'Ottawa, Denis Coderre et Jim Watson,
lui eurent fait part, chacun de leur côté, de leurs craintes
relativement à la sécurité de leurs rues.
À Montréal, deux cyclistes ont été tués à quelques jours
d'intervalle à la fin août, tandis qu'à Ottawa, une jeune femme
de 23 ans est morte, plus tôt ce mois-ci, lorsqu'un camion lourd
l'a frappée alors qu'elle tournait à droite sur une rue passante
du centre-ville.
Par communiqué, Marc Garneau a déclaré que le Canada
devait découvrir la meilleure manière d'accroître la sécurité des
Canadiens, que ce soit à l'aide de la technologie, de matériel ou
d'une approche de sensibilisation.
Aucun échéancier n'a été déterminé pour cet examen.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
La Presse+ ()
ACTUALITÉS Page:
Les Canadiens veulent l'étiquetage des
OGM
Stéphanie Bérubé
Mauvaise réputation
Les OGM n'ont pas réussi à gagner le c_ur des consommateurs
canadiens : une étude, commandée par Santé Canada, révèle
une profonde aversion pour les aliments génétiquement
modifiés. De plus, 78 % des participants appuient l'étiquetage
obligatoire des OGM dans les aliments. Les participants se
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
31
demandent pourquoi le gouvernement ne va pas de l'avant et
veulent une plus grande transparence de l'industrie alimentaire.
S'ils avaient le choix, 62 % préféreraient acheter un aliment
exempt d'OGM plutôt qu'un aliment qui en contient.
Un rejet sans équivoque
The Strategic Counsel a obtenu le contrat (119 000 $) pour
réaliser cette étude en mars 2016. Elle comprend la
participation de dix groupes de discussion dans cinq villes
canadiennes, dont Québec, et un sondage auquel ont répondu
2018 personnes. Seulement le quart des Canadiens (26 %)
seraient à l'aise de consommer des OGM et un peu moins (22
%) appuient le développement et la vente d'aliments
génétiquement modifiés au Canada. « De grands efforts
seraient requis pour informer et sensibiliser les Canadiens en
vue de promouvoir l'émergence de points de vue positifs dans
ce dossier », concluent les chercheurs qui regrettent que les
positions des consommateurs s'appuient davantage sur « des
valeurs que des connaissances ».
Une opinion largement partagée
Défi d'autant plus grand que ces idées sont partagées d'un
océan à l'autre. Dans les groupes de discussion et lors du
sondage, les chercheurs ont noté une « étonnante uniformité
des opinions » des répondants de provenance et de profils
démographiques différents. Dans son analyse, le rapport
conclut que, pour les consommateurs canadiens, le jeu n'en
vaut pas la chandelle puisque la moitié (48 %) des répondants
ne comprend tout simplement pas l'utilité des OGM.
Moins d'hormones, moins d'herbicides
Par ailleurs, il n'y a pas que le génie génétique qui déplaise aux
consommateurs canadiens : 82 % des participants à cette étude
avouent être préoccupés par l'utilisation d'herbicides et de
pesticides et presque autant (80 %) par celle d'antibiotiques et
d'hormones de croissance en élevage. Enfin, une bonne
nouvelle pour Santé Canada, 70 % des Canadiens croient que
le gouvernement du Canada est une source d'information fiable
dans ces dossiers.
Non aux experts de l'industrie
Les scientifiques qui travaillent pour les entreprises de produits
alimentaires sont un peu moins crédibles, puisque 54 % des
participants affirment leur faire confiance. Les répondants
croient que les évaluations des OGM menées par des
scientifiques ne devraient pas être financées par l'industrie. «
Bien qu'il soit de pratique courante pour l'industrie de partager
ses données avec les scientifiques du gouvernement pour que
ceux-ci puissent les examiner, les participants des groupes de
discussion ont dit craindre que les données en cause soient
manipulées de façon à promouvoir les intérêts de l'industrie. »
Les participants accordent à peu près autant de crédibilité aux
militants écologistes : la moitié croit qu'ils sont fiables, l'autre,
non.
Les « fossés d'incompréhension »
Le but de l'étude n'était pas de calculer l'appui public à
l'étiquetage des OGM, mais plutôt de mieux éclairer les efforts
de communication du ministère fédéral. « Santé Canada a jugé
qu'il était prudent d'obtenir une interprétation plus à jour de
l'opinion publique, dans le but de cerner et d'aborder les fossés
d'incompréhension et les préoccupations particulières des
Canadiens au sujet des aliments GM », peut-on lire dans le
rapport. Si 61 % des Canadiens ont une impression négative
des OGM, les chercheurs estiment que « les commentaires
généralement négatifs formulés par les participants des groupes
de discussion à propos des aliments GM découlent surtout
d'une réaction émotionnelle ».
Un « défi épineux »
« Toute communication positive à propos des aliments GM
susciterait, selon toute vraisemblance, une résistance vive et
véhémente de la part du public, notamment des groupes antiOGM, concluent les rédacteurs du rapport. Les opinions
exprimées par les Canadiens représentent un défi épineux pour
Santé Canada. » Le défi n'est toutefois pas insurmontable :
après avoir pris connaissance d'« une série de faits et de
renseignements pertinents », les mêmes personnes ont eu à se
prononcer de nouveau sur leur perception des OGM. La
proportion de personnes qui les croient sans danger est passée
de 26 à 40 %. Les chercheurs concluent qu'« il est possible de
faire évoluer positivement les points de vue des Canadiens ».
2016 La Presse+
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Calgary Herald (EARLY)
NATIONAL POST Page: N1 / FRONT
Bishops
no funerals for assisted deaths
Chris Purdy
Guidelines from the Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the
Northwest Territories say priests should refuse funerals for
some people who choose assisted suicide. The document
describes how physician-assisted death is a "grave sin" and
contradicts the teachings of the Catholic Church.
It says priests should weigh the circumstances of each funeral
request, but high-profile assisted deaths can't be celebrated.
"If the church were to refuse a funeral to someone, it is not to
punish the person but to recognize his or her decision - a
decision that has brought him or her to an action that is
contrary to the Christian faith, that is somehow notorious and
public and would do harm to the Christian community and the
larger culture," says the document. It also says families should
be supported, but those who want to celebrate the assisted
deaths of their loved ones can't do it at a church funeral.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
32
"This would be truly scandalous, as it would be an
encouragement to others to engage in the evil that is euthanasia
and assisted suicide."
Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on medically
assisted dying. In June, the federal government enacted a law
allowing it for those in an advanced state of irreversible
decline from an incurable condition and for those facing a
"reasonably foreseeable" natural death.
The Catholic Church allows funerals for people who have
committed other types of suicide, say the guidelines, b ecause
their reasoning may not be clear.
Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith believes the guidelines
are the first to be issued by a group of bishops in Canada.
Church officials in Alberta had questions about assisted death
when legislation was in the works, Smith said, and many
thought guidelines were needed for last rites and funerals. The
document was signed by six bishops in the region.
Smith said bishops from other regions have asked him about
the guidelines, but he doesn't know of any who are planning to
issue their own in the near future.
He also said he hasn't heard that any priests in Alberta have yet
dealt with an assisted death.
When it happens, they will have to weigh several factors,
Smith suggested, including whether the person is repentant.
"The general principles are clear. The various situations in
which they apply can be highly nuanced and diverse," he said
in a phone interview Thursday.
"It's going to be the role of the priest in these situations to say
how best do we bring all of this together - the care of the
person, the care for the family, respecting the integrity of the
sacraments?" If there can't be a funeral, priests may agree to
hold prayers at a graveside or funeral home, he said.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
FINANCIAL POST Page: C3
Net speed faster than touted, report says
All major service providers except Sasktel participated in the
study. Regardless of a plan's promised speed or whether the
connection used digital subscriber line (DSL), cable (including
hybrid fibre coaxial cables and DOCSIS variants) or fibre-tothe-home, the report found that all but five of the 41 Internet
packages tested had higher speeds than advertised.
For Canadians skeptical their speed is truly better-thanadvertised, the CRTC acknowledged that speeds were
measured to the home and don't account for impediments
within a home such as faulty routers, poor Wi-Fi connectivity
or multiple devices used at once. Factors that can affect speed
outside a home include heavy traffic on a particular website,
latency and packet loss.
Still, the results were favourable when compared with other
countries including the United States, according to the CRTC.
Canadians pay among the highest prices for fixed broadband
when compared to G7 countries plus Australia, with prices in
the top three for most service levels, the regulator revealed
earlier this year.
The CRTC decided to collect performance data to improve
policymaking and to encourage providers to improve their
networks.
"The results of the first phase of the project provide valuable
insight on the real-world performance of Internet services
across Canada," CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said in a
statement.
Bell Aliant's DSL package was the worst tested, only
delivering 77 per cent of its advertised seven megabits per
second (Mbps) speed. Eastlink had two packages that operated
below advertised speeds, and Telus and Northwestel had one
each.
Bell Canada's DSL package beat expectations by the widest
margin with actual speeds reaching 135 per cent of the five
Mbps promised.
The CRTC hired SamKnows, a broadband measurement
company, to conduct the research. It used devices called
Whiteboxes to measure speed between mid-March and midApril during the peak period between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Emily Jackson
Canadians love to complain about telecommunications
services, but when it comes to Internet speed they typically get
more than they pay for from major providers, according to data
from the federal telecom regulator.
The majority of Internet providers actually deliver faster
download and upload speeds than advertised, according to a
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission report released Thursday, based on Internet
performance data from 3,000 volunteers across the country.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
33
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
iPolitics ()
Page:
Can the House and the Senate learn to get
along?
Hon. Bryon Wilfert and Paul S. Hillier - Ontario
Under the Liberal government, we have seen an increasingly
influential Canadian Senate. But we don't know yet how the
Red Chamber intends to exercise that influence. Neither does
the government itself - even though its campaign promises set
these changes in motion.
The Liberal government has an ambitious agenda. Very little
of that agenda has manifested in legislation so far, but over the
coming 18 months the government will need to move major
pieces of legislation to fulfill its mandate. Modifications to the
controversial anti-terrorism act and the Provincial Health
Accord are just two examples.
Bringing legislation to the Senate will be the comparatively
easy part. Bringing legislation out of the Senate - where
senators armed with independence are waiting for it - will be
quite another matter.
With Senate Liberals no longer sitting with the Liberal Caucus,
the government will find it harder than previous governments
did to exert its influence in the Senate. Moreover, as a result of
their non-caucus status, Senate Liberals will not have the same
closed-door opportunity to hear and debate the government's
proposals. So it becomes more challenging for the government
to whip votes now that the Senate is no longer composed of
two teams wearing uniforms; the newly-appointed independent
senators add another layer of complexity to the workings of the
Red Chamber.
The Trudeau government also has key policy priorities that
may not involve legislation in the short term, on issues such as
climate change and pipeline development. The government
will face added challenges when senators with no official party
ties voice conflicting perspectives on these key priorities,
especially when arguments are made using some of the
government's own buzzwords ("evidence-based decision
making" or "social license").
On key issues we may see some Senate Liberals and
independent senators making common cause with their
Conservative colleagues more often than they do with the
government.
So who outside of the Senate might be in a position to help the
government carry its agenda through the Red Chamber? The
House Government Leader and House Whip will have their
hands full driving legislation through the House. By the time
legislation comes to the Senate, the House Leader will be onto
the next piece of legislation in the House already, looking to
maintain momentum while simultaneously keeping to the
promise to limit the use of time allocations and omnibus bills.
Moreover, the sheer number of new senators (combined with
the unprecedented number of new MPs) means there are fewer
existing relationships between MPs and senators. While MPs
traditionally could help legislation along through personal
relationships with individual senators, that avenue will prove
less expeditious in future.
This leaves the government with just one credible option:
building consensus in the Senate. Committee chairs, for
example, can play an increasingly important role in setting the
pace of legislation in the Senate. We can expect to see the
government working hard to ensure committee chairs are
onside with its key objectives. Not coincidentally, these
committee chairs can also expect to see associations,
companies and other groups take a keen interest in meeting
with them to discuss issues important to them.
If the government is to rely on consensus-building in the
Senate, there are a few things we can count on. The first is a
slower pace of legislation moving through the Senate. We have
already seen this with legislation such as the Air Canada Public
Participation Act (C-10), and we can expect to see even greater
delays on bills going forward.
The second is an increased number of changes to legislation, as
we saw with the assisted dying bill (C-14).
The net result is a relationship between House and Senate that
will be much harder to predict. For the government,
unpredictability means the Senate now presents a number of
new risks. For stakeholder groups, that unpredictability means
new opportunities to help shape legislation in the Senate.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics
columnists and contributors are the author's alone. They do
not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or
positions of iPolitics.
2016 ipolitics.ca
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Halifax Chronicle Herald ()
OPINION Page: A13
Unanimous in this
Supreme court seat
Mrs. Slocombe, the crusty, blue-haired sales chief of the Grace
Brothers ladies department - a favourite in the British sitcom
"Are You Being Served?" - immortalized the firm
pronouncement: "I am unanimous in this."
Commendably, it's a line the House of Commons stole from
Mrs. S. this week when it dealt with the question of whether
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should honour a 141-year-old
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
34
convention and preserve an Atlantic Canada seat on the
Supreme Court of Canada.
By statute, Quebec, with its civil-code system, has three jurists
on the nine-member court. And by unbroken convention, three
justices are from Ontario, two are from the West and one is
from this region - to give the court a credible understanding of
the distinctive legal matters that arise in the diverse regions of
the federation.
But Mr. Trudeau introduced a new selection process this year,
which features an arm's-length advisory board and an emphasis
on bilingual justices and a gender-balanced and socially
diverse court. And in applying it, he refused to guarantee the
retired justice from Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia's Thomas
Cromwell, would be replaced by another Atlantic Canadian
jurist who met the diversity goals.
Atlantic candidates will be on the list, we were told, but the
convention of one Atlantic judge, which arguably has
constitutional weight by long practice, was clearly downgraded
from "must-do" to "nice-maybe".
Yet the Trudeau Liberals finally heard the roar of anger from
Atlantic Canada, as everyone from premiers to letter-writers to
the Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association and the
Canadian Bar Association called on the government, and its 32
Atlantic Liberal MPs, to respect the Court's regional balance.
On Monday, a Conservative motion in the Commons, calling
for preservation of the convention, won unanimous approval,
with Liberals joining the 270-0 majority and only Bloc MPs
abstaining.
The motion isn't legally binding, but it is now the unanimous
and expressed will of Parliament and the government would
look ridiculous if it ignored it.
The implication of not appointing an Atlantic jurist, intended
or not, was that we are a stand of old deadwood where it would
be impossible to find a capable justice who is a woman, or who
comes from a minority demographic and is bilingual. That's
nonsense. Such bunk would never be used to justify having no
Supreme Court justice from another region. Thankfully, it will
not be a feeble excuse for depriving this region of a court
representative either.
Are we being served? By this government climbdown, yes.
Both Canada and the region.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Winnipeg Free Press ()
Opinion Page:
Liberal commitment to new beginning
under fire
Editorial The Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
signalled it utterly rejects the disrespect for aboriginal rights
shown by the former Conservative government of Stephen
Harper. This was seen in May when Canadian ministers turned
up at the United Nations in New York and announced Canada
now fully supports and would sign the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous People.
The former government refused to sign. It feared the
document's requirement for informed consent to development
on indigenous lands would give native people power to veto
projects. The new government is trying to make a new
beginning in relations with native peoples. Signing the
declaration was a first step.
As a practical matter, however, development on indigenous
lands seems to be happening under the Liberals pretty much
the same as it happened under the former government - with or
without the high principles.
In July, on the Friday of the August long weekend, the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans issued, as unobtrusively
as possible, a permitting document authorizing British
Columbia Hydro to build a $9-billion dam and power station at
a location known as Site C on the Peace River in northeastern
B.C. The dam will fill a reservoir 83 kilometres long and flood
5,340 hectares of land covered by Treaty 8.
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs objected to the federal green
light. Treaty 8 First Nations were awaiting an appeal-court
ruling on their lawsuit opposing the hydro project. Other
owners of affected land are also opposed.
This week, the government announced its approval - with a
long list of conditions - for the Pacific Northwest LNG project.
The $36-billion project includes a pipeline through the
mountains to Prince Rupert, B.C., to be built and operated by
TransCanada Corp. and a natural gas liquefaction and export
facility to be built on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. Petronas,
the Malaysian national oil company, would be majority owner
of the plant.
The local First Nations communities have not consented to the
project. The Skeena Corridor Nations issued a statement
warning Ottawa that "providing a green light for this project at
this time will only lead to protracted litigation." The group
includes the Lax Kw'alaams band, whose territory surrounds
Lelu Island.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
35
The Liberals' plan was to avoid the kind of obstacles and
delays that blocked the Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline
through the mountains to Kitimat, B.C. They meant to make
sure that, aside from formal approval through research and
public hearings, development projects on aboriginal lands
would have "social licence." They meant to consult First
Nations and the public so carefully and sensitively all parties
would recognize their concerns had been heard and
understood.
The Liberals' plan has not yet failed, but it hasn't succeeded,
either. The First Nations affected by the Site C dam and the
Lelu Island LNG plant may or may not have the power and
determination to block these projects. Courts will have to
decide whether the quality of consultation for the two projects
should pass muster. The government's calculation, apparently,
is the broad public will not be much impressed with the
objections. If the opponents can win wide public sympathy for
their case, then the government may pay a political price for
approving megaprojects that run roughshod over the ancient
rights of native people.
That, finally, may be what "social licence" comes down to.
Once the proponents have made their case and the opponents
have expressed their objections, the government makes a
political judgment about what the country will accept. If they
judge the electorate's mood correctly, the First Nations interest
is overruled. If they misjudge, then the government's
parliamentary majority may be at risk. That's not what the UN
declaration says, but that's the way we're doing it.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
National Post (ALL_BUT_TORONTO)
OPINION Page: A7
Frosty relations
The Trudeau government's oft-promised commitment to build
a new relationship with Canada's First Nations isn't working
out exactly as either side expected.
Despite numerous photo opportunities and some wellpublicized visits by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to native
communities, aboriginal leaders find themselves complaining
about inadequate consultation and lack of respect for native
concerns. In three important instances, native Canadians have
been offered excuses in place of the action they anticipated.
In July, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould abandoned a
promise to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. She told the Assembly of First Nations
(AFN) that embracing the declaration as Canadian law was
"unworkable," just as the Harper Conservatives had said.
Although Wilson-Raybould promised the declaration would be
absorbed in one form or another over time, the Liberals' fudge
puts them in the same position as the Conservatives, who
treated the declaration as "aspirational" and argued they had
taken specific measures to address pressing native concerns.
Trudeau's government has also made little progress in solving
a housing crisis on aboriginal reserves. Figures compiled by
the New Democratic Party show the Liberals plan to build just
300 new homes across Canada this year, despite
acknowledging a need for 20,000. The cost of the shortfall is
estimated at $6 billion, yet the 2016 federal budget provided
funding for First Nations housing of just $206.6 million.
Although Ottawa says it has signed agreements to build,
renovate or retrofit nearly 5,000 units this year and next, these
remain far short of the need.
Perhaps the most contentious issue, however, has been an $8.8billion dam project in northern British Columbia, which has
been criticized by Robert-Falcon Ouellette, a Liberal MP of
Cree background who was a star candidate in the last election.
The project would flood 83 kilometres along the Peace River
to provide hydroelectric power to about 450,000 homes,
according to B.C. Hydro. The utility says the dam, known as
Site C, would "be a source of clean, renewable and costeffective electricity in B.C. for more than 100 years."
But local aboriginal communities are opposed to the plan,
arguing it would flood a "main artery" for wildlife and
obliterate important native heritage sites. Two First Nations are
challenging it in court, while native leaders say the Trudeau
Liberals have failed to follow through on their pledge to fully
consult with them over their concerns.
Ouellette has pointedly sided with the local leaders, despite the
fact that Transport Minister Marc Garneau has approved the
project.
"I understand that there's going to be jobs for a few years. But
once the dam has been built and the jobs are gone ... once
you've handed out the beads, what do you have that's going to
benefit the community in the long term?" he said. The UN
declaration, he noted, calls for "prior and informed consent"
from indigenous Canadians.
"I think we should be really careful, because we are starting
and trying to build a new relationship with indigenous people,"
Ouellette told the CBC.
Before she became justice minister, Wilson-Raybould was
openly critical of the dam project. The former AFN chief
attended a demonstration against the proposal in 2012 and
warned that "running roughshod over aboriginal rights,
including treaty rights, is not the way to improve (Canada's)
reputation." Chief Roland Willson of the West Moberly First
Nation, one of eight affected by the dam, accused the Liberals
of appointing Wilson-Raybold as "the token Indian" and said
she should resign. "I think she is being, you know, muzzled,"
he told APTN, a native news service. "I think they told her not
to say anything. I know Jody, she wouldn't, at least I hope she
wouldn't, abandon us ... She knows full well what is going on."
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
36
Liberals predictably blame the previous Conservative
government for the controversy, but have continued to sign
permits allowing construction to progress. "To approve another
project that could have ... irreversible impacts I think is deeply
concerning. It's not fair to the community, it's not fair to the
Mikisew, it's not fair to the heritage site that they're supposed
to be managing," said Melody Lepine, of the Mikisew First
Nation. Additional concerns were raised Wednesday when
Trudeau's government approved a massive liquid natural gas
development on B.C.'s northwest coast.
As previous governments have discovered, it's easy to promise
solutions to the complex issues that pockmark relations with
Canada's aboriginals. Results are far more difficult, and fraught
with deep sensitivities and continuing distrust. The Liberals
won't help matters if they continue to hand natives a reason to
maintain that level of suspicion and doubt.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Saskatoon Star Phoenix (EARLY)
OPINION Page: A12
Role of journalists key in furthering
reconciliation in Canada
Doug Cuthand
When I began my career in journalism years ago, I spoke to a
reporter who told me that his only contact with "Indians" was
reading the list of "weekend fatals." These were all the
individuals who had been killed in car accidents or violence.
More often than not the reporter didn't know how to pronounce
many of the names of people or communities. I don't know
how many times I have heard news anchors and reporters
butcher the names of communities such as Muskowekwan and
Muscowpetung.
Most people didn't know any aboriginal people, and they did
not follow events. We were the invisible people.
I recall that when the civil rights struggle in the United States
shifted from non-violence to riots and mayhem, journalists
were asking when Canada's Indian population would turn to
violence. This was misplaced and uninformed reporting, and a
waste of time. The boarding schools were still in operation at
the time, and social workers were shipping off native children
in the '60 Scoop. Both stories received little ink.
Then things began to change gradually.
In 1964 CBC introduced an hour-long show called Indian
Magazine, which in 1970 changed its name to Our Native
Land. The first host was Johnny Yesno from Ontario. He was
followed by Bernelda Wheeler from the George Gordon
reserve in Saskatchewan. Yesno, first of all, was an actor and
went on to pursue that career. However, Wheeler was a
dedicated journalist and stood out as a role model for many
young people, including me.
Back then our role models were teachers, social workers and
members of the RCMP. Students of my generation continued
to move into those careers. Journalism was considered an
exotic profession, and Wheeler was our only role model in that
profession.
Slowly over the years our people began to tell their stories in
our own media, and the critical mass grew steadily. Today we
have reporters in all media, especially our own newsrooms at
APTN, Missinipi Broadcasting and Saskatoon's own Eagle
Feather news. We also have journalists such as Duncan McCue
and Candy Palmater who are heard nationally on CBC Radio,
and Betty Ann Adam and Kerry Benjoe who work for the
Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post.
Our stories are now getting out as never before, but we still
have work to do.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recognized this, and
in its report issued a call to action that included the following
statement: "We call upon Canadian journalism programs and
media schools to require education for all students on the
history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy
of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights,
Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations."
With this in mind, a group of journalists is planning a
conference on Reconciliation and the Media for next week. In
the spirit of reconciliation, the committee consists of both
indigenous and non-indigenous journalists.
The goal of the single-day conference is to bring together
editors, news directors and other persons of influence, and
raise issues that pertain to news coverage of First Nations and
Metis people in Saskatchewan and across the country.
The committee felt that it was very important for
decisionmakers be educated and made aware of the coverage
that has been afforded indigenous people. While there has been
considerable change over the past several decades, more
initiatives are needed and the public has to be educated about
our history and shared future.
Reconciliation is based on understanding. To bring our two
groups together and build a better Canada, we need to break
down the old barriers and stereotypes. First Nations and Metis
students today are graduating at record numbers. Many of
those graduates are entering the professions and working for
business, private and government agencies, as well as creating
their own businesses.
News media have an important role to play in the new reality.
Reconciliation should be the time to turn the corner and move
ahead united. It's a daunting task, but it's necessary.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
37
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Winnipeg Free Press ()
Opinion Page:
Monsef witch hunt pointless, nasty
Mia Rabson OTTAWA - Maryam Monsef was a shining star when she was
elected last year as the MP for Peterborough-Kawartha.
She, her mother and two sisters came to Canada in 1996 as
Afghan refugees when Monsef was 11 years old. Her story was
compelling, particularly at a time when Canada was opening
its doors to 25,000 Syrian refugees.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to his
cabinet as the minister for democratic institutions last
November, the appointment was rife with symbolism.
Monsef's inexperience has been clear as she attempts to
manage this file, but her performance as a minister has nothing
to do with why there are people now asking for her head - and
her passport - on a platter.
That is because somehow the Globe and Mail found out
Monsef was not born in Afghanistan. She was born in Iran.
Every other detail of her life story seems on point. Her family
moved back and forth between Mashhad, Iran and Herat,
Afghanistan as the civil war raged. Her father was killed when
she was four years old. In 1996, when the Taliban took over
the government of Afghanistan, Monsef's mother took her
three young daughters and fled. Their journey - via donkey and
camel, across Iran, Pakistan and Jordan, before finally securing
passage on a plane to Canada - is the stuff of movies.
They claimed refugee status. The moved to Peterborough, Ont.
She flourished.
This is a story and a person to be celebrated. While Canadianborn kids were dancing to the Spice Girls and trading Pokemon
cards, Monsef was fleeing for her life, arrived in Canada with
almost nothing and built herself into a community leader.
Why does it matter now that she was born 400 kilometres away
from where she thought?
Anyone who has knowledge of that part of the world has
pointed out her lack of knowledge of her birthplace is not
impossible or even unusual. The laws in Iran and Afghanistan
at the time of her birth meant even though she was born in
Iran, she was born as an Afghan citizen. She was not and has
never been an Iranian.
Monsef's mother always told her kids they were born in
Afghanistan, and Monsef told of an emotional scene with her
mother and sisters after she was approached by a reporter
asking about her birthplace. The main part of the story that is
not yet clear is whether her mother lied to Canadian officials
when the family arrived in this country. There are many who
seem to think it's impossible Monsef could not have known the
truth.
An even better question is why on earth Monsef would lie
about her birthplace at all? Being born in Iran, as her family
tried to stay alive in a part of the world devastated by civil war
and totalitarian governments, does nothing to diminish her life
story. It would have not affected her refugee claim or her
application for citizenship.
Monsef is now potentially facing the loss of her citizenship
because the previous government passed Bill C-24 in 2014,
which allows Canada, without a hearing, to strip the citizenship
from naturalized Canadians if they obtained their citizenship
through fraudulent means.
Citizenship laws have always allowed for the removal of
citizenship for fraud, but C-24 and its aftermath leave the
decision entirely in the hands of the minister. The Liberals had
a chance to fix this last February when they introduced
legislation to eliminate the component of C-24 that strips
citizenship from convicted terrorists. They didn't. When the
NDP attempted an amendment to that bill to reintroduce due
process, it was ruled out of order.
An independent senator is trying to do it with a bill she
introduced in the Senate, and Immigration Minister John
McCallum's office said they would support it. Their lack of
action on this, however, is going to come back to haunt them
with the Monsef situation.
More than 200 people have been stripped of their citizenship
under C-24; some of them arrived in Canada as child refugees,
just like Monsef. Like her, they did nothing wrong, yet they are
paying the price for politically motivated legislation the B.C.
Civil Liberties Association argues is unconstitutional. It filed a
legal challenge over the entire bill earlier this week.
The witch hunt against Monsef over her birthplace is
downright nasty. Her own government's inaction on this file
has left her in limbo as she works every day to try to improve a
democratic system she may soon be no longer eligible to vote
in.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
iPolitics ()
Page:
Does the Conservative party need a
leader, or a time-out?
Brent Rathgeber - Ontario
Every time I thank geography for the happy fact that I don't
have to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that I live in a country where politics is still a civilized game -
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
38
some contrived scandal or tribal imbroglio comes along to pop
my bubble.
Where to start? Brad Trost - a dark horse in the race to succeed
Stephen Harper, if ever there was one - went after some lowhanging fruit recently by calling on former Harper chief of
staff Guy Giorno to pay back some of his relocation expenses
from 2008.
Now, Giorno is a sharp lawyer and currently a private citizen and apparently he didn't much appreciate Trost putting him on
the defensive. So he fired back, reminding taxpayers and CPC
members, who will choose their new leader next May, about
Trost's travel and per diem claims as an MP - which, like
Giorno's relocation expenses, are also allowed under the rules,
but would add up to a much greater sum.
Then, in a move pulled straight out of the Donald Trump
playbook, one of them (not sure which) challenged the other to
a verbal joust. The 'debate' was to have occurred Wednesday
on CBC's public affairs program Power and Politics. I am sure
it would have attracted an audience; I'm equally confident it
would have added little to a meaningful assessment of what is
and what is not an appropriate expense.
Regardless, the spectacle was (thankfully) called off when the
two could not agree on terms. Apparently, Giorno wanted and
was prepared to give immunity from defamation. Trost claims
he did not oppose said assurance. Giorno claims otherwise and
Canadians were spared the indignity.
But Giorno is not the only Conservative Trost has in his
crosshairs. As soon as former House Speaker Andrew Scheer
signalled he was running for the leadership, Trost cried foul.
Scheer has considerable caucus support for his leadership bid certainly more than Trost. But Trost claims that one caucus
member in particular, Chris Warkentin, is in a conflict.
In a letter to Interim Leader Rona Ambrose, obtained by the
media, Trost questions Warkentin's "fitness for office" and
neutrality. Warkentin is the party's deputy House leader basically the House leader's assistant. Trost claims that
Warkentin taped telephone conversations between them over
undisclosed topics and threatened to release said conversations.
The link between the last several paragraphs is that Trost
claims he wanted to make a Member's Statement this week in
the House - where he would enjoy legal immunity - calling on
Giorno to pay back some of the money he received eight years
ago. He claims he was blocked from doing so by Warkentin.
That seems unlikely. It's my recollection that the whip, not the
House leader, manages the Members' Statements. There is no
doubt that in 2013, then-CPC whip Gordon O'Connor blocked
MP Mark Warawa from making a statement - but the House
leader's role is generally to manage and strategize the work of
the cabinet or shadow cabinet.
Astonishingly, the Trost-Giorno social media war has yet to
run out of oxygen. The latest claim by Giorno is that Trost
once expensed a $2.60 Dollarama purchase. Giorno also
suggested that Trost's $170,000 salary as an MP is much
higher than his market value in the private sector.
Meanwhile, all of this nonsense was taking away media
attention from Kellie Leitch, who had been enjoying her status
as everybody's favourite target due to her proposal to test the
"values" of immigrant applicants to Canada.
Apparently feeling left out, her campaign manager Nick
Kouvalis suggested in a fundraising e-mail that the latest
entrant in the CPC leadership race was another one of those
"out of touch elites" and suggested that the National Press
Theatre was an inappropriate venue for launching a political
campaign.
It seems pretty apparent that Kouvalis was referring to Scheer,
who did indeed launch his campaign on Wednesday from the
National Press Theatre - something Kouvalis claimed
amounted to pandering to "the whinging media hordes". He
also accused the nameless "out of touch elite" of attacking Dr.
Leitch over her proposal to screen immigrants for Canadian
values, an almost universally panned proposal he defended as
representing "the view of the vast majority of our members and
of the vast majority of Canadians".
Except Scheer didn't - the closest he came was some vague
comment about the impracticality of policing "what's going on
in people's minds". Scheer also acknowledged that he is a
social conservative but vowed that if he becomes leader he
would not reopen debates on issues upon which the party and
the country have decided.
Meanwhile, Deepak Obhrai - a candidate we've heard little
from so far - launched a video claiming that Leitch's Canadian
values test amounts to "fearmongering".
So, let's review. We've got a social conservative who wants to
reopen the same-sex marriage and abortion debates, and is
attacking another social conservative, who is supporting a third
social conservative who does not want to open those debates.
All of the leadership aspirants seem opposed to Leitch's
Canadian values pitch - and one of them was attacked by her
campaign manager as being an out of touch elitist for using a
free press theatre to launch his leadership bid.
Because renting an expensive hotel ballroom would, I guess,
make him the salt of the earth.
It's going to be a long eight months.
I never thought I would say this, but here goes: Maybe it takes
an iron fist like the Stephen Harper PMO to keep this bunch in
line.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics
columnists and contributors are the author's alone. They do
not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or
positions of iPolitics.
2016 ipolitics.ca
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
39
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
EDITORIAL Page: A8
Scheer numbers
This week, Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer announced he
has joined the contest to head the federal Conservatives.
Political observers sighed; when would a political star emerge
to lead the party Stephen Harper left behind?
Also this week, no one announced he or she was running for
the helm of the federal NDP party. Political observers
shrugged; none expected anything different.
What are the lessons from seeing no heavy hitters in the Tory
race, and apparently no hitters at all in the NDP one? Perhaps
not what you think.
The Conservatives, holding 96 seats in the Commons, have not
suffered the soul-destroying, leader-humiliating exercise Tom
Mulcair endured last spring at his party's Edmonton
convention. Instead, the Tory boss stepped aside quietly, his
party intact and well-funded. An interim leader was quickly
chosen, and the party of the right chugged along, if not in
flashy fashion, at least competently. So far, six people have
filed papers in the contest to succeed Harper, and there could
be as many as nine or 10 within weeks.
The rub, for some strategists, is that few of these wannabes are
household names. Scheer, Maxime Bernier, Michael Chong,
Deepak Obhrai. Who, you ask, are they? Tony Clement has
some profile; ditto Kellie Leitch. But Conservative star Jason
Kenney is out; Peter MacKay is out. It's not yet known if
Kevin O'Leary, Lisa Raitt, Steven Blaney, Chris Alexander or
a few other names will join the fray. Or the declared candidates
who haven't yet filed formally.
This crowd of mostly unknowns speaks, in our opinion, not to
a problem in the party, but to its health. People run for the
leadership of a political entity because they believe it can win
with them in charge. Maybe not immediately, but in time.
Many of these candidates are young. They come from across
the country. There is ethnic and gender diversity. They present
a wide swath of ideas - from Leitch's controversial Canadian
values platform to Bernier's government-bedamned
libertarianism. There will be Christian Conservatives, big-tent
Tories and narrow ideologues. The competition among them
will be healthier for the Conservative party than any coronation
of an early favourite or old face.
To the NDP, meanwhile, we can wish only the best. It has no
current official leadership candidates - a sign that few of its
adherents believe it can take power, even though Mulcair
almost did.
But politics is a fickle business. Sometimes, stars eclipse others
from the get-go, à la Justin Trudeau; as often, stars are born
from good, old-fashioned toil. One of these parties seems to
know that; the other should relearn it.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
EDITORIAL Page: A14
Pick a side on anti-terror law
Living in the digital age and amid expanding security powers,
privacy can often seem like a lost cause. But the erosion, while
real, is not inevitable. It is a choice. And even as Ottawa
undertakes its public consultation on security issues, it is a
choice the Trudeau government seems not to want to confront
publicly.
That's the most striking takeaway from a new report by privacy
commissioner Daniel Therrien, which warns once again of the
"unprecedented" threat to privacy posed by Canada's badly
flawed anti-terror law, known as C-51, and of the Liberal
government's failure to mitigate those threats or even fully
acknowledge them.
In particular, Therrien argues the government is falling short in
its application of a part of the law that grants Ottawa new
powers to share Canadians' personal information among
departments. Under C-51, such sharing is allowed whenever
information is deemed relevant to activity that "undermines the
security of Canada." Critics, including Therrien, have said the
legislation's wording is overly broad and opens the door for
departments and agencies to share personal information of
people suspected of no crime.
Given the Trudeau government's oft-stated commitment to
striking a balance between security and civil liberties, one
would hope these powers would be wielded carefully. Yet
Therrien's office found that while the new rules had been
invoked often - 110 times over six months - only two of the 17
departments involved had conducted "privacy impact
assessments," routine reports used to ensure new policies don't
violate Canadians' rights.
That's a gross failure of due diligence. Surely Ottawa ought to
be doing more to ensure that "law-abiding Canadians, ordinary
Canadians who should have nothing to fear from surveillance
activities of the state, are not caught by the information-sharing
regime," Therrien said this week. He recommended the
assessments be completed in every case and the law amended.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he welcomes
Therrien's "scrutiny" and agrees with his call to do better. But
it's becoming harder and harder to take the government at its
word on these issues.
The Liberals, who supported the Tory anti-terror bill while in
opposition, promised to amend the "most problematic"
elements of the legislation once in office and ensure it
conforms with the Charter. But nearly a year later, the law
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
40
remains untouched, including aspects that represent a clear
threat to privacy, as well as freedom of speech and security of
the person.
Instead, the government launched a public consultation this
month it says will serve as the basis for future reform (as if
Trudeau and his team need Canadians' permission to do what
their campaign promised and the Constitution demands).
Moreover, the discussion paper the government released to
frame the conversation seems to reveal its biases.
"When you look at the examples given (in the discussion
paper) of what are the problems from their perspective, they're
all challenges being faced by police and national security
agencies," Therrien said. "They mention the fact that balance is
required, they mention that human rights and privacy are
important, but when it comes time to discuss ... the elements of
the balance, it's not there."
This week, evidently tired of waiting, New Democrat MP
Randall Garrison tabled a private member's bill to repeal Bill
C-51. The Liberals should support it.
They likely won't, of course. But the MP's bill and the privacy
commissioner's report serve as important warnings to the
Trudeau government: you can't have it both ways on C-51. Lip
service to rights won't do; nor will a carefully circumscribed
public discussion. The Liberals voted for the bill's securityskewed values in opposition and they continue to do so every
day they don't amend it. Their choice seems ever clearer.
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
Editorial Page:
Close the gap
Gary Walbourne, the Defence Ombudsman of the Canadian
Armed Forces, is right to recommend that no military
personnel should be given a medical discharge until their
postmilitary benefits from the Veterans Affairs department are
in place.
Otherwise, they can go months and sometimes years before
receiving their first benefits payments.
As things stand, former military personnel may have to tell,
retell and again retell their troubles to a long succession of
physicians in order to get the veterans' benefits they deserve.
That's because, while the Ministry of Defence has control of a
soldier's files and treats him or her medically until discharged,
it's bizarrely up to Veterans Affairs to decide whether an injury
was service-related or not.
A streamlined process may cost somewhat more money, but
there is an excellent case to be made that the Ombudsman's
proposals will save money in the long run.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan doesn't seem very happy with
Mr. Walbourne's ideas, however. He wrote to the Ombudsman
saying that the CAF has "no extant statutory or policy mandate
to systematically determine if an illness developed or an injury
sustained during a member's career is related to their military
service."
That's ridiculous. Surely that should be all the more reason to
establish just such a mandate, so as to be able to make just
such a determination.
Mr. Sajjan's mandate letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
last year said that he should bring about "a seamless transition"
for members of the Forces to the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
All this is compounded by the distress and emptiness that
many former members of the military naturally feel when they
leave the camaraderie of the Forces. The mandate letter also
says there needs to be a suicide prevention strategy for CAF
personnel and veterans.
The physical and mental health of CAF personnel will be all
the more important if and when they are sent to dangerous
places such as Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
as part of the government's new "peace security operations."
The government should heed Mr. Walbourne's excellent
advice.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
National Post (ALL_BUT_TORONTO)
ISSUES & IDEAS Page: A9
Dion vs. Putin ends predictably
John Robson
Have you ever seen a man shoot down modern jet fighters with
his tongue? Or his ego? I ask because of the bizarre spectacle
of our foreign affairs minister calling for the grounding of
Syria's air force in the apparent conviction that he had just
done something useful rather than pathetic and fatuous.
It happened at a meeting of the International Syria Support
Group, speaking of pathetic and fatuous. After Vladimir Putin
humiliated Barack Obama by granting him a Syrian ceasefire,
then having Syrian and Russian planes unleash even greater
carnage, Stéphane Dion and other masters of rhetorical futility
like John Kerry gathered in New York to insist that, instead of
flying around killing people, we are supporting with emptily
resonant words, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's air force should
stand down so we could help his enemies and enforce "future
ceasefires."
It is one of those occasions when I wish I could convince
myself a man was being stupid on purpose. If so, he might stop
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
41
on purpose, or be saying one thing in public and doing or at
least thinking another in private. But I see no evidence that it is
so.
In theory, the United States, even now, could bring significant
force to bear. But its president is unwilling or even unable to
grasp the concept. And Canadian politicians have proved
unwilling, over three decades and both major parties, to
acquire armed forces capable of independent action or even
significant support for our allies in a deeply troubled world.
The only rational explanation is that they genuinely don't grasp
that force is the trump suit in geopolitics, or get Hilaire
Belloc's couplet, "Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight, But
Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right."
Frederick the Great said diplomacy without force is like music
without instruments. Yet politicians such as Dion and Kerry
consider themselves Mozarts of multilateralism, whose
enchanting melodies can bend foreign despots to our will and
reform their souls so they stop wanting to kill people with
weapons they deliberately acquired for that purpose while we
deliberately didn't because we were convinced weapons are
obsolete and icky.
If I have to explain what's wrong with that self image, the
effort is probably futile. But here goes.
Bashar Assad is a bad man. With me so far? He's not
misunderstood, he doesn't have a different truth, and if he was
warped by a miserable childhood we can give him therapy and
hugs once he is deposed, but not before.
He lives in a bad neighbourhood where he inherited his father's
murderous tyranny and made it worse. Plenty of people in
Syria would kill him in a heartbeat, from genuinely decent
ones to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant maniacs against
whom our government has the same weirdly nesh attitude
regarding military action. Assad won't stop killing his enemies,
real or imagined, and any civilians who happen to be in the
way, until he is killed or deposed. So if we want his aircraft to
stop slaughtering civilians, we have to kill or depose him.
There are many reasons for not undertaking such a thing,
including the failure of nation-building in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Not that nation-building is a necessary adjunct to
killing or deposing a tyrant, though we seem persuaded that for
domestic PR purposes it is. But the fact that killing or deposing
Assad might be impossible, or more trouble than it's worth, has
absolutely no bearing on whether anything less will stop him
killing his own people.
He has already killed hundreds of thousands, many of them
noncombatant civilians, with Russian help. And he and Putin
won't stop just because Dion says it's not nice.
They won't be surprised that he thinks it's not nice, or
impressed. They think people like Dion are weak fatuous nits.
They actively enjoy humiliating them. Dutch investigators
showing beyond reasonable doubt that the missile launcher that
brought down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine came
from Russia and went back afterward doesn't bother Assad's
ally, Putin. Instead, it increases the sweet humiliation he
inflicts on Western statesmen who cannot pretend they don't
know or do anything to punish him.
Now I do want to say that if every country in the world were
run by people as averse to force and as baffled by it as Dion,
Kerry, Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau it would be a
good thing. But it would not be a good thing if much of the
world was run by people as viciously willing to use force as
Assad and Putin and as brutally cunning about its short-term
utility, while the major democracies were run by weak fatuous
nits, standing tall in New York, firing rhetorical salvos at
Syrian warplanes from their silver tongues and waiting smugly
for them to fall from the sky over Aleppo.
Which it evidently is.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
OPINION Page: A15
MP guts bill to save it
Thomas Walkom Toronto Star
Back in February, a rookie Toronto MP brought forward a
private member's bill that was about as close to endorsing
motherhood as a politician could get.
Or, at least, that's how it seemed.
On the face of it, Bill C-246, Liberal Nathaniel Erskine-Smith's
proposal to modernize animal protection appeared resolutely
uncontroversial.
It called for a ban on shark-fin imports, tougher rules against
animal fighting and abusive puppy mills and a prohibition
against the sale of dog and cat fur.
It sought to close loopholes in existing law by specifying that it
would be illegal to kill any animal "brutally or viciously."
It also sought to close another loophole by widening the
definition of bestiality to include any kind of sexual activity
between humans and animals.
And it formally recognized something already implicit in
Canadian law - that while animals may belong to humans, they
are not just property in the sense that, say, tables and chairs
are.
In a more logical world, the bill would have been adopted in a
heartbeat.
But animal cruelty laws are a touchy subject in Canada.
Representatives of the so-called animal use industry, including
the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, railed against
the bill, warning that it represented the thin edge of a gigantic
animal-rights wedge.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
42
Rural MPs, including Liberals, said the bill was anti-farmer.
Justin Trudeau's Liberal government refused to support it.
In the end, Erskine-Smith got the message. This week, in an
attempt to salvage something from his efforts, he backed down.
On Wednesday, he told his fellow MPs that if they allowed the
bill to go forward to its next stage, study by a Commons
committee, he would personally guarantee that it was gutted
there.
Under the headline, "Stopping animal cruelty, keeping
hamburgers," he circulated a revised version that deleted
almost five pages of the seven-page bill.
Gone was any attempt to move animal cruelty laws out of the
property section of the criminal code. Gone too was the
proposed ban against killing animals "brutally or viciously."
The proposed ban against shark-fin imports remained. But
Erskine-Smith told the Commons that if the wording caused
anyone problems, he'd be willing to amend that too.
Also remaining in the revised version were tougher rules
against animal fighting, the ban on the sale of dog and cat fur
and a toughening of language around negligent behaviour and
bestiality.
But politically, it was a rout. Even with Erskine-Smith's
promise of amendments, Bill C-246 is unlikely to pass when it
comes up for a second-reading vote Oct. 6.
The animal use industry is still opposed. So, it seems, are
plenty of rural MPs, both Conservative and Liberal.
"The effect of the bill is to risk criminalizing currently legal
activity," Quebec Liberal MP David de Burgh Graham told the
Commons on Wednesday
"I do not believe my family belongs in prison for sustainably
feeding ourselves," he added in a burst of hyperbole.
Greg Farrant, who is government affairs manager for the
Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, said his
organization is still urging all MPs to scrap the bill.
Farrant said the hunting and angling group would support some
of Erskine-Smith's aims, such as cracking down on animalfighting activities, such as bear-baiting (although even here,
OFAH would like language that ensured hunters could
continue a different kind of bear baiting - the practice of
leaving out buckets of rotting meat in order to attract the big
animals into kill zones).
But, Farrant said, Bill C-246 is fatally flawed. To make it
palatable to hunters would require simply too many
amendments.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture, in a note posted on its
website this week, takes a similar position.
Erskine-Smith sounds understandably frustrated. On
Wednesday he noted that his bill was near identical to other
versions that passed the Commons but, for various reasons,
never made it into law.
Still, he appears sanguine about his decision to eviscerate the
bill. "Something is better than nothing," he told disappointed
animal welfare supporters in a YouTube video.
And perhaps it is. But my guess is that, in spite of his
climbdown, nothing is what Erskine-Smith - and the animals
he champions - will get from this exercise.
Thomas Walkom's column appears Monday, Wednesday and
Friday.
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Globe and Mail ()
Editorial Page:
Yes, please, to real metadata legislation
Metadata is not something metaphysical. As Daniel Therrien,
the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, rightly says, "We
generate metadata constantly." Like an envelope, this outer
shell of any electronic communication - a phone log, a time
stamp, an e-mail address or an IP address - can reveal a lot.
Mr. Therrien is particularly worried about the Communications
Security Establishment, the Canadian member of the
intelligence alliance called the Five Eyes; the other four eyes
are the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
As long ago as 2008, the Five Eyes dealt well with metadata.
But then something went wrong with the CSE's "filtering
technique" - that is, separating the metadata attached to the
private communications of Canadians from that of the
foreigners the CSE is mandated to monitor. In 2013, the CSE
realized that Canadians were getting scooped up in its metadata
trawling.
The CSE maintains that the risk to privacy is minimal. If that is
so, why did the Five Eyes design the the filtering technique in
the first place? Was it really superfluous?
CSE officials themselves acknowledged to the Privacy
Commissioner's office that the CSE had improperly shared
large amounts of metadata. This could undermine the public's
confidence, and the various governments' too, that the Five
Eyes will never, ever spy on each others' citizens.
Mr. Therrien pointed to the work of three computer scientists
at Stanford University that was published this year. They argue
that people's supposedly innocuous metadata are often every
bit as revealing as the types of evidence that police present
when they apply for search warrants.
The scientists concluded that "telephone metadata is densely
interconnected, can trivially be reidentified, and can be used to
draw sensitive inferences."
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
43
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's decision in R. v. Spencer in
2014 strongly reasserted the search-warrant requirement in
cases of electronic communication.
Thus, Mr. Therrien is right to say that the National Defence
Act should be amended to clarify the CSE's powers and to
establish clear legal standards to protect the privacy of
Canadians. In other words, metadata legislation.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-29
Kitchener-Waterloo Record.com ()
OPINION Page:
The inequality problem in Canada isn't as
big as you think
Much has been written in recent years about income inequality
and the (apparently) growing gap between the rich and the
poor. The focus on income is understandable. It's a measure
that resonates with the general public. It's fairly easy to
determine because everyone files an annual income tax return.
For the researcher, income is attractive because it's the most
accessible indicator of well-being and is available in most of
Statistics Canada's surveys.
However, is income the best way to measure people's actual
living standards?
It's fair to say that it's not, and a growing number of academics
find consumption to be a preferred indicator. The reason is
simple. Some people can consume substantially more than
their income by borrowing or by receiving gifts. Others
consume much less than their income if they save a significant
portion or if they pay down debt.
To illustrate, consider a young family that earns $50,000 in
2016 but spends $60,000 (for themselves and their young
children) by borrowing and with some financial gifts from
parents. Which of those two numbers is a better reflection of
their actual living standard in 2016? It's easy to make the case
that the $60,000 consumption amount captures the family's
economic well-being better than their income.
If consumption is a better reflection of a household's standard
of living, what can we say about the degree of inequality of
those living standards over time? A new Fraser Institute study
examines the inequality of consumption in Canada over the
period 1969 to 2009 (the last year of available data). After
adjusting for household size, which has changed quite
dramatically over the past four decades, the study finds that
consumption inequality has barely changed since 1969. Using
a popular measure, inequality of consumption is up only three
per cent in 40 years.
This result flies in the face of studies and reports telling us that
Canada is quickly becoming a more unequal and polarized
society. There have been scores of media stories (Toronto Star,
Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV, etc.) about the alarming rise in
inequality in Canada. While these are based on reports of
income inequality, usually from left-wing think-tanks such as
the CCPA, the Broadbent Institute and the Conference Board,
they create the clear impression that the gap between the rich
and the poor is widening and we are becoming a much more
polarized society. And with these studies, of course, come
renewed demands for the government to "fix" the problem with
more redistributive actions.
Quite a number of these studies, however, continue to use pretax income, which serves to exaggerate the degree of
inequality. But people don't get to spend pre-tax income. They
can only make spending (or saving) decisions on their after-tax
income. So, it's common now for credible academic studies to
use after-tax income in measuring income inequality.
Further, many of these reports also fail to adjust for household
size despite the decline in the size of an average household
over the years. More income is now shared among fewer
people and, once we account for this, there's less inequality.
Failing to adjust for something as basic as household size is a
significant concern and only serves to further exaggerate the
degree of inequality.
There has been much change in Canadian society since the
1960s. There has also been a massive growth of the state,
which has involved itself in almost every aspect of our lives
and is more actively redistributing income than ever before.
Yet, almost surprisingly, there has been no substantive change
in inequality of how we actually live.
When we look at our best proxy for Canadian living standards,
household consumption properly adjusted for size, we find
there has been very little change in the "gap" over the past four
decades.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Calgary Herald (EARLY)
EDITORIAL Page: A11
Legalizing pot will achieve one thing
a tax windfall for Ottawa
Randall Denley
Smoking marijuana can impair one's thought processes, but all
the federal government needs to do is talk about it to achieve a
state of surreal confusion.
Consider the situation today.
Marijuana will be legalized next year. Cool. In the meantime,
illegal pot stores are proliferating across the country under the
guise of offering medical marijuana. Since they are illegal, and
theoretically don't exist, they are unaffected by zoning
regulations and business licence requirements.
Little is known about the quality of what they sell. When
Health Canada received a report about dangerous toxins in
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
44
marijuana sold in dispensaries in Vancouver, it sat on it and
did nothing. Police don't know what to do about all of this and
in Ottawa, they are not enforcing the existing law.
The government has promised a new regime that will be all
about public health, protection of children, regulation and
fighting organized crime. Instead, it has delivered its own form
of reefer madness, where anything goes.
Not to worry, though.
The government's expert task force will have worked out all
the details by November and new legislation is coming by
spring.
That's seen as slow, but in reality, legalizing marijuana is easy
to promise, hard to execute. There might be a reason why
Uruguay is the only country in the world that has done it.
The government's own discussion paper demonstrates the
conflicting, perhaps irreconcilable, goals of the Liberal plan.
The government wants to make marijuana legal and widely
available without normalizing its use or letting young people
get their hands on it. It also wants to control production and
sale of the product and tax it without making the price so high
that organized crime will still dominate the market.
Realistically, how does government sanction the sale of a drug,
maybe even become the vendor, without normalizing its use?
Three-quarters of Canadians older than 15 drink alcohol, freely
available from your local government-approved outlet, but just
11 per cent use marijuana.
Might that have something to do with it being illegal?
Marijuana demand is concentrated among young people aged
15 to 24, with 25 per cent using the drug. According to a 2013
UNICEF report, that rate is the highest in the world.
Surely, the Liberal government doesn't want to make that
number larger, but if it imposes strict age restrictions, it will
leave a big market for drug dealers.
The worry over increasing drug use among youth isn't just
some kind of fuddy-duddy concern.
The Canadian Medical Association recommends a minimum
age of 21 for legal marijuana purchase because of the effects
the drug can have on developing brains.
People who enjoyed the product back in the 1970s might scoff
at that, but the marijuana sold now has THC levels of 12 to 15
per cent. Back in the day, it was a far less potent three per cent.
At first glance, legalizing marijuana would seem to end the
much-reviled war on drugs, but it doesn't even deliver that
benefit.
Instead, it would shift the focus to rooting out producers who
operate outside the governmentsanctioned system. As well, all
the laws against stronger drugs would remain in place.
The only real benefit of legalization would be to end criminal
penalties for people who are guilty of nothing more than bad
judgment. That makes perfect sense, but it's a goal that can be
easily accomplished by decriminalization rather than
legalization. It's possible to have the uneasy feeling that the
government's enthusiasm for legal marijuana has something to
do with the anticipated tax windfall.
Marijuana is said to be a $7-billion industry in Canada. The
government will charge fees for producers and retailers, the
GST, and whatever additional taxes it deems fit. Legal
marijuana will allow governments to get their beaks very wet
indeed.
It's all enough to make a reasonable person ask what we really
hope to gain by legalizing marijuana, and if we have any
prospect of accomplishing those goals.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
EDITORIAL Page: A14
A fine balance
One could be excused for believing that the sale of electronic
cigarettes that contain nicotine is legal in Canada. After all,
you need only stroll to your local "vape" shop to purchase ecigarettes with cartridges containing nicotine-infused "e-juice"
to get a hit.
But despite their wide availability in hundreds of brands and
thousands of flavours, e-cigarettes with nicotine are not legal
in Canada. No brand of e-cigarette has been approved for sale
by Health Canada, though it has not been enforcing the ban for
years.
Now Ottawa is set to corral the Wild West of e-cigarettes with
welcome, enforceable amendments to the Tobacco Act. Health
Canada says the changes are designed to balance the need to
protect young people from nicotine addiction while allowing
adult smokers to legally use vaping products to stop smoking
or as a "potentially less-harmful alternative to tobacco."
It appears Ottawa is getting the balance right after years of
debate worldwide about the safety of e-cigarettes, including
those that do not contain nicotine.
For too long children under 19 have had easy access to the
addictive nicotine-delivering e-cigarettes because of a lack of
enforcement. Indeed, one study in the Niagara region found
that 10 per cent of Grade 9 students had used e-cigarettes.
That's dangerous because kids can get hooked on nicotine. And
some health specialists believe that leads them to take up
smoking. At the same time, there is wide debate among
medical experts on whether or not "vaping" any type of liquid
is safe.
That's why Ontario was smart to ban the sale of all types of ecigarettes to anyone under 19. Experts believe e-cigarettes
containing flavoured-only liquids lead to kids trying out the
nicotine-laced ones and becoming addicted to them.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
45
At the same time, there's wide support for legalizing ecigarettes with nicotine for adult smokers who can use them to
try to stop smoking, as they would a nicotine patch, or at least
use a product that isn't as unhealthy as cigarettes.
If legalizing e-cigs with nicotine can help people stop smoking,
or at least not smoke cigarettes, it will be a good thing.
Smoking is still the No. 1 cause of preventable death in
Canada.
And there are other benefits to Ottawa regulating the sale of ecigarettes. Right now there's no way for consumers to know
whether product labels are accurate. A strong vetting and
approval process by Health Canada for all nicotine-delivering
devices would mean vapers would at last know how much
nicotine they are getting from which brands and flavours.
The amendments will also allow the government to regulate
the advertising of e-cigarettes, as they do tobacco products.
Already they are too often aimed at "hooking" young kids.
The quicker these changes are introduced and enforced, the
better.
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Ottawa Citizen (EARLY)
NATIONAL POST Page: N4
Faulty glue could unstick EU trade deal
CETA faces strong resistance from Austria
John Ivison
Justin Trudeau is scheduled to be in Brussels a month from
now to finally sign the massive trade agreement with the
European Union that has been eight years in the making.
But he won't make the trip if there is no deal to ink - and there
is a very real prospect the whole agreement could yet come
unstuck.
If it does, the culprit will likely be faulty glue on the envelopes
of Austrian postal votes that has caused that country's
presidential election to be postponed until December.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement was
agreed in principle two years ago but has been in trouble ever
since as an anti-trade backlash has swept across Europe and
North America.
Austria remains the biggest hurdle to the 28-country European
bloc of countries signing off on the CETA.
The agreement, and another being negotiated with the United
States, are contentious subjects in the Austrian election that
was due to take place this weekend.
With a vote of European trade ministers expected to take place
on Oct. 18, the election should have been over by the time of
any decision.
But the discovery that the adhesive seals on postal votes were
defective has caused the postponement of the Austrian election
until early December, with the result that the government of
social democratic chancellor, Christian Kern, is maintaining its
opposition to CETA. He has pointed out that 88 per cent of
Austrians in one opinion poll oppose CETA on the grounds it
shifts power in favour of global enterprises.
Despite Kern's apparent intractability, Canadian Trade
Minister Chrystia Freeland is said to be cautiously optimistic
that the agreement can still be reached, without reopening
negotiations on a pact that aims to eliminate tariffs on 98 per
cent of goods.
The cause for optimism is that Kern remains isolated, even
among social democrats in Europe, and is being lobbied by his
peers from Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
An even more grave threat to CETA came earlier this month in
Germany, where a vote against the deal at the convention of
the governing coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party,
could have killed it stone dead.
Thousands of Germans have taken to the streets to protest
CETA and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
being negotiated with the United States.
Many Europeans have been concerned about the rights of
foreign investors to sue governments, often seen as an
infringement of national sovereignty.
In particular, many SDP members argue that trade comes with
no assurances that its spoils will be shared equally.
But CETA has been championed by Germany's Economy
Minister Sigmar Gabriel, the SDP's chairman, who came to
Canada to discuss the agreement with Trudeau recently.
Gabriel secured overwhelming support from SDP delegates at
its convention, a vote that was followed by a massive majority
in the Bundestag.
The result was not a foregone conclusion. But Gabriel,
supported at the Wolfsburg convention by Freeland, convinced
delegates that Canada is a country with similar values to the
EU, and is at a similar stage of development.
Failure to conclude a deal with Canada would neuter Brussels'
ability to steer trade policy and bolster the forces of
protectionism that have powered Donald Trump and Brexit, the
deal's proponents argued.
Freeland pointed out that the section dealing with the rights of
states to regulate has been changed significantly as part of the
Liberal Party's "progressive trade" agenda.
The prospects for CETA have improved commensurately, as it
becomes more and more apparent that the TTIP with the U.S.
is dead. At a ministerial meeting in Bratislava last week,
concerns about those negotiations were raised by Germany and
France, even though neither called for talks to stop.
German approval for the CETA has created a ripple effect
across the continent, improving the prospect of its passage.
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
46
Yet Austria remains as immovable as its famous alpine
mountains.
It will be grimly ironic if eight years of detailed negotiations
fail because of faulty envelope adhesive - the classic example
of the kingdom being lost for the want of a nail.
jivison@postmedia.com Twitter.com/IvisonJ
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
iPolitics ()
Page:
Ah, nostalgia - the premiers are flaying
another prime minister
Tasha Kheiriddin - Ontario
It's a swell time to be a premier. After years of getting the
deep-freeze from Stephen Harper - ranging from the silent
treatment to out-and-out hostility - provincial and territorial
leaders once again have a seat at the federal table, courtesy of
Justin Trudeau.
And it appears they're going to leverage their position for all
it's worth - setting the stage for a showdown between their
priorities and those of the PM.
First, Trudeau revived the tradition of First Ministers' meetings
last November, ahead of the Paris summit on climate change.
"It is clear that the way forward for Canada will be in a
solution that resembles Canada, that is shared values and
shared desires for outcomes and different approaches to
achieve those outcomes right across this great country,"
Trudeau enthused after a four-hour working dinner before
jetting off to France. And apart from some modest dissent from
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, it was pretty much sunny
ways and smiles all around - apparently, a good start to the
federal-provincial relationship.
The clouds started to gather when Trudeau hosted a second
First Ministers meeting in March 2016, again focusing on the
issue of climate change. The gathering didn't produce many
concrete results, but it did expose existing fault lines between
the provinces, some of them holding diametrically opposed
views on things like pipeline development and carbon pricing.
Premier Wall again led the charge for those resisting a national
carbon-pricing plan, and while the group agreed in principle to
setting carbon targets, the details were left for another dinner.
Then this week, the rain began to fall - hard. The premiers sent
the prime minister a letter repeating their verbal request from
this past July that he meet with them to discuss health care
funding. If the PM can't make it by Christmas, they said, that's
OK: He can just send money by postponing planned changes to
the Canada Health Transfer by a year.
The premiers don't like those changes. They claim they would
reduce transfers by $1 billion in 2017-18 alone by dropping the
annual escalator clause for the CHT from 6 per cent to a
minimum of 3 per cent. So they're looking for an extra present
in their stockings before the government plans its budget early
next year.
It gets better. The letter goes on to state that "in the spirit of
collaboration and to reflect the importance of this issue, we
believe that this meeting should be confirmed prior to the First
Ministers' meeting on climate change and clean growth."
Translation: If Trudeau wants the premiers to play ball on
carbon pricing, he'll have to pony up on health care. Call it
blackmail, call it canny negotiating ... or just call it a return to
the good old days, before Harper, when the premiers routinely
flexed their muscles at these multilateral meetings.
Trudeau is now learning why Harper chose to avoid such
gatherings. The last one the former PM held was in 2009, to
discuss Canada's response to the financial crisis. In lieu of
group confabs, Harper preferred to talk to or meet with
premiers individually. While this type of dialogue did not
provide photo-ops, it also avoided potential pile-ons like the
one Trudeau is enduring now.
Meanwhile, just as the First Ministers were launching their
ultimatum, Bloomberg News was reporting that the PM has
even less fiscal capacity to deal with them. "Dismal growth" in
the economy is pushing Ottawa to drain its fiscal reserves, the
multi-billion dollar cushions included in federal budgets to
hedge against disasters, recessions, or other situations that
negatively affect the economy.
"Compared with forecasts they gave for the March budget,"
Bloomberg reports, "the economists project almost C$50
billion ($38 billion) less in nominal output - the best indicator
of revenue - over the next two years. That's a markdown of
more than 1 per cent off Canada's C$2 trillion economy."
With numbers like that, Ottawa doesn't have another billion
dollars to bolster the CHT. The government is already
projecting $120 billion in deficits over the next six years. If the
economy fails to grow as predicted, that figure could rise even
higher.
But Trudeau can take heart from one piece of economic news:
The price of oil is up, with some economists predicting a return
to $100 a barrel. That certainly would put some zip back into
the Canadian economy; already our dollar is on a roll.
Of course, while higher crude prices would pad Ottawa's
coffers, resuming our status as a petro-power could also derail
Trudeau's environmental agenda by making it harder to meet
carbon emissions targets - the very objective he is pushing the
premiers to adopt, the same goal they're using as a bargaining
chip on the CHT.
Will the premiers get more green to pay for health care,
without having to commit to more green on the ground? Oh, to
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe
47
be a fly on the wall at the next First Ministers' meeting ...
whenever that might be.
2016 ipolitics.ca
Published | Publié : 2016-09-30
Toronto Star (ONT)
NEWS Page: A6
The bluster on health-care funding
Paul Wells
"Your French is getting better," a reporter told Jane Philpott on
Wednesday as the federal health minister wrapped up a chat
with some members of the press gallery before the weekly
Liberal caucus meeting.
Of course her French is getting better. She's getting a lot of
practice. In mid-October Philpott will meet her provincial
colleagues to discuss the amount of money Ottawa transfers to
the provinces for health care. The approach of such festivities
has triggered the traditional Busting of the Gaskets among
Philpott's provincial colleagues.
The Busting of the Gaskets is a highly ritualized tribal dance
on two themes. First, that the federal government is not
sending the provinces enough money for health care. Second,
that in return for whatever pittance they send, the federal
government demands that provinces allocate part of the paltry
bounty toward some designated project. Home care or
pharmacare or palliative care for the elderly, or better crossborder sharing of health information, depending on the
seasons.
It's traditional for the position of Head Reveller of the Busting
of the Gaskets to be filled by Quebec's health minister, and this
year's incumbent, the fiery Gaétan Barrette, is brilliantly cast.
Barrette has already complained that the Liberals are imitating
their predecessors, Stephen Harper's Conservatives, in the
amount of money they plan to devote to transfers to the
provinces for health care.
Of course he judges the money to be insufficient. And he is
even more thoroughly vexed that Philpott wants to identify
shared priorities, such as home care, even before the (surely
paltry!) amount of the health transfers is known.
Earlier this week Barrette said that if money from Ottawa for
health comes with conditions, he will simply refuse to accept
any. This is (a) improbable; (b) not his decision to make, but
that of Quebec's finance minister or premier; (c) highly
entertaining all the same.
Interrogated all week by reporters, most of them from
Montreal-based news organizations, on each day's new protest
from Barrette, Philpott has had to brush up on her subject-verb
agreement.
"Il n'y a pas de discussion de conditions qu'on a discutées," she
said on Wednesday. Roughly: There is no discussion of
conditions that we have discussed. "We have simply said that
we want to support provinces and territories," she said (and
now I'm translating for her, although it should be said her
French really is quite strong). "We can add more money for" here she forgot the word for "challenges" - "for things that are
difficult for them, such as home care. And I think we'll have a
good dialogue."
Barrette, who likes to bust a gasket even when he's home
among friends in Quebec City, does have a point about health
transfers. After growing at 6 per cent a year for a decade under an agreement Paul Martin reached with the provinces in
2005, one that Stephen Harper was careful to keep - transfers
are scheduled to grow only about 3 per cent a year, starting
next year. This, too, was Harper's decision. The provinces were
furious.
In last year's election, Tom Mulcair and the NDP promised to
return the growth rate to 6 per cent, at a cost of up to $36
billion over a decade.
Justin Trudeau's Liberals were careful to be more vague.
This week, Philpott has admitted what many suspected, which
is that Harper's plan for transfers is Trudeau's.
Well, she phrased it differently. And she said the government
is willing to sweeten the pot a bit for specific programs, but
only if the provinces meet federal conditions - sorry, "good
dialogue" - on the use of any additional funds.
When pressed for more funds and fewer conditions, Philpott
protests that the basic transfer programs aren't even her file,
but those of her colleague Bill Morneau over at finance. The
provincial premiers have decided there is no point negotiating
for cash with a minister who cannot decide how much they get.
They want a meeting with Trudeau himself, mano a many
manos.
Their hand would be strengthened if health costs were
exploding, as everyone assumes they still are.
Unfortunately for the provinces, the Canada Institute for
Health Information reports that total health spending in Canada
"has fallen gradually in the past few years" as a share of GDP.
"Since 2011, health spending has decreased by an average of
0.6 per cent per year," the institute's 2015 report on health
expenditure trends says.
That relative decline in health spending happened while federal
health transfers were growing at
6 per cent a year.
It's too early to prejudge the outcome of the inevitable federalprovincial horse-trading that will take up much of the autumn.
But when the provinces cry salty tears, it's always a good idea
to check their math.
Paul Wells is a national affairs writer. His column appears
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
© 2016 Torstar Corporation
Library of Parliament
Bibliothèque du Parlement
Intended for consultation and research by parliamentary clients only.
The articles above cannot be reproduced nor distributed externally.
Destinés exclusivement aux clients parlementaires pour consultation et
recherche. Les articles ci-dessus ne peuvent être ni reproduits ni
distribués à l’externe