Pope Francis is still coming to visit Canada this month.
The Pope restated his commitment to be in Canada from July 24-30 during an exclusive interview with Reuters in his Vatican residence.
Doctors had previously said the Pope might have to miss his trip to Canada unless he agreed to undergo 20 more days of physical therapy and rest for pain in his right knee.
The 85-year-old Pope has previously apologized for abuses perpetrated against the children in Canada’s residential schools, and there have been hopes his pending visit with stops in Quebec City, Edmonton and Iqaluit will include a stronger apology and further action from the Catholic Church on the issue.
As he talked to Reuters about hoped-for trips ahead, he mentioned Canada.
“I would like to go (to Ukraine), and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this because I thought that if the Russian president gave me a small window to serve the cause of peace …
“And now it is possible, after I come back from Canada, it is possible that I manage to go to Ukraine,” he said. “The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals.”
European Bureau Chief Eric Reguly and Reporter Tavia Grant reported here on the announcement of the Pope’s visit.
And feature writer Jana G. Pruden reported here on how the Pope’s impending visit to a former residential school in Maskwacis, Alberta had sparked mixed emotions.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
NO FEDERAL FINANCING FOR LNG PROPOSALS: WILKINSON – Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says two private-sector proposals to export liquefied natural gas from Canada’s East Coast to European countries struggling to reduce their reliance on Russian fuel will need to move forward without federal financing. Story here.
AIR CANADA INCOMPETENT: NB MINISTER – New Brunswick’s education minister is lashing out at Air Canada, saying the airline is incompetent because it decided on the weekend to cancel a Monday flight that would have taken him and four officials to a meeting in Regina. Story here. There’s a Globe and Mail Explainer here on Air Canada’s flight cancellations, and a story here on weekend developments. On Twitter today, federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra wrote here that airport delays continue to be an issue at Canada’s major airports, and he had met Monday morning with the CEO of Air Canada.
TRANSPARENCY NEEDED AMIDST TUBERCULOSIS OUTBREAK: INUIT ORGANIZATION LEADER – The president of a major Inuit organization has reiterated her call for transparency after The Globe and Mail published an investigation of a major tuberculosis outbreak in Pangnirtung, a hamlet of about 1,500 people on Baffin Island. Story here.
WANTED: FEDERAL OMBUDSMAN FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME – The federal government has now left a key victim-rights watchdog role vacant for more than nine months. Story here.
ONTARIO CONVENIENCE STORES PRESS FORD FOR BEER SALES – Convenience stores are calling for Ontario Premier Doug Ford to fulfill his shelved promise to allow them to sell beer, a pledge derailed three years ago after failed talks with the multinational brewing companies behind the province’s Beer Store chain. Story here.
SERVICE DELIVERY THE ACHILLES HEEL OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: HEINTZMAN – Delivering services to Canadians has been an Achilles heel of the federal government for 30 years because of political disinterest and a senior management of “travelling salesmen,” who hop from job to job and barely know the business of the departments they lead, says the former senior bureaucrat who proposed the creation of Service Canada. Story here from Policy Options.
PARLIAMENT HILL OVERHAUL MAY BE SIDE EFFECT OF PROTESTS – The convoy protests that occupied downtown Ottawa last winter may inadvertently have pushed forward a plan to convert Parliament Hill into Parliament Square. Story here.
CANADIANS EXPECT RISING INFLATION: BANK OF CANADA REPORTS – A pair of new reports from the Bank of Canada point to rising inflation expectations by Canadian businesses and consumers. Story here.
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Scott Aitchison is in Ontario. Patrick Brown is campaigning in Charlottetown, PEI and then going to Saint John, NB. Jean Charest is campaigning virtually. Leslyn Lewis is in Iqaluit. Pierre Poilievre is in Ottawa. No details available on campaign whereabouts of Roman Baber.
THIS AND THAT
The House of Commons is not sitting again until Sept. 19. The Senate is to resume sitting on Sept. 20.
CHAMPAGNE IN JAPAN – Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne is visiting Japan from Monday to Saturday, July 9, meeting with stakeholders and business leaders in the automotive, manufacturing and technology sectors.
OLIPHANT IN SWITZERLAND AND LONDON – Robert Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is travelling to Lugano, Switzerland and London, United Kingdom, from Monday to Wednesday, July 6, 2022. In Lugano, Mr. Oliphant is participating in the Ukraine Recovery Conference. In London, he is representing Canada at the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
THE DECIBEL
On Monday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Jana G. Pruden, a feature writer for The Globe and Mail, discusses the damage that wild boars can do. With their populations growing and sightings – even around big metropolitan areas – increasing, governments are rushing to find ways to contain them before they wreak ecological and agricultural damage. Ms. Pruden also talks about why letting hunters loose on the boars is not the answer. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In the Ottawa region, the Prime Minister speaks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
TRIBUTE
Broadcaster Patrick Watson, host of the milestone CBC series “This Hour has 7 Days” and a former chair of the CBC has died, aged 92, according to a tweet from Steve Paikin of TVO.
OPINION
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail)on how Alberta’s economic turnaround leads to calls to spend, as UCP leadership race pauses big decisions: “As Alberta’s Finance Minister released data on the province’s trove of surplus dollars this week, Jason Nixon said the Premier’s departure and the corresponding United Conservative Party leadership race isn’t affecting government operations. As much as the UCP will insist this in the months ahead, it’s not true. No one knows who will win the leadership contest, become premier and shape the UCP government this October. The policy gulf between candidates Leela Aheer and Danielle Smith is vast. Government actions into the fall are limited by that uncertainty.”
Marcus Gee (The Globe and Mail)on not shrugging over Doug Ford’s decision to put his nephew in Ontario’s cabinet: “Premiers should not play favourites. Handing out plums to family and friends makes it look as if the game is fixed. It coarsens politics and erodes faith in government. If anyone should know that, it’s this Premier. He and his brother, Rob, made “stop the gravy train” their slogan at city hall. Their whole brand was clean, lean government, freed from the clammy grip of self-serving insiders. Now he acts as if appointing his own nephew to head a ministry in the government he leads is perfectly natural and inoffensive. It’s not. Quite the opposite. If he can’t see that, he has lost track of what the Fords claimed was their main reason for getting into politics in the first place.”
David Parkinson (The Globe and Mail)on how Quebec’s Bill 96 will widen a problematic skills gap unless the province invests in closing it: “A significant portion of Quebec’s labour force suffers from what amounts to a skills gap. The skill in question is French language proficiency. And Bill 96 threatens to widen that gap, without a serious educational investment on the part of the province to address it. Bill 96 is Quebec’s new language law – amending and updating the old Bill 101 that has defined the use of French (and English) in commerce, public services and education since the 1970s. The new bill includes stricter rules governing the hiring of non-French speakers, and the use of English in the workplace.”
Andrew Perez (TVO) on three things the Ontario Liberals must do to rebuild: “The final ingredient necessary for a re-energized and more relevant party: a relatable leader who does not hail from the GTA and can represent Liberals at Queen’s Park. Not since the Peterson and Lyn McLeod eras of the 1980s and early ‘90s have Liberals had a leader that did not come from one of Ontario’s two largest city-regions. When choosing its next leader, the party should strive to find an individual with strong roots in a region not associated with the Wynne and McGuinty governments. This leader could bring new perspectives — ones more likely to resonate with former Liberal voters outside the 905 who have gravitated to the NDP and PCs in recent elections.”
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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
