A personal support worker in Ontario is the first person in Canada to receive a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Anita Quidangen was one of five staff members from a Toronto nursing home that got a shot today. Quebec will start giving doses of the vaccine to people at long-term care homes in that province this afternoon.
Story continues below advertisement
The vaccine being administered is the one developed by Pfizer, which was approved by Health Canada last week.
It requires two doses, 21 days apart, to be effective, so those receiving shots today won’t be truly inoculated for a few weeks.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Conservative provincial governments and industry may not be thrilled with the Liberals’ carbon pricing plan, but they say they did appreciate that the not-yet-unveiled Clean Fuel Standard will be less onerous than threatened.
A staffing agency that was providing help to the government on its proposed program to buy back assault rifles has pulled out after suffering a wave of online abuse from gun supporters.
A series of Supreme Court decisions this fall suggests the top judges think provincial appeals courts are perpetuating harmful stereotypes about sexual-assault cases and incorrectly dismissing the testimony of female victims.
Story continues below advertisement
Le Devoir reports the top ranks of the Global Affairs department have become increasingly Anglophone, and Francophone diplomats are finding it hard to advance their careers.
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney had emergency surgery this weekend, but is recovering.
Former Liberal cabinet minister Alfonso Gagliano, who was a key figure of the sponsorship scandal, has died at the age of 78.
And the U.S. Electoral College is set to cast its votes today for the next president, and all signs point to electors obeying the will of the people in favour of a Joe Biden win. Donald Trump, who lost last month’s election, had his most recent longshot legal bid rebuffed by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the new Liberal carbon price: “This is Justin Trudeau the gambler, the one whose willingness to make big political calls peeks out every now and then between more cautious calculations of Liberal strategists. He did it in opposition when he unceremoniously booted senators from the Liberal caucus. He did it in government when he announced Ottawa would buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline.”
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail) on Alberta’s view: “The Alberta backdrop for all of the climate measures is a deep cynicism, to put it mildly, about whether other countries – including oil producers – with much higher emissions than Canada’s will take actions that could hamstring their own economies, or how much Ottawa cares about how its policies land in a province that doesn’t elect Liberal MPs.”
Story continues below advertisement
Vass Bednar (The Globe and Mail) on the push to break up Facebook: “Antitrust law is emerging as a preferred and sophisticated tool to try to neutralize the power of Big Tech. It is an intricate field built on the basic thesis that when a company doesn’t have real competition, it will have the freedom to act against the public interest.”
Erica Ifill (The Globe and Mail) on a lawsuit from Black public servants alleging systemic racism at work: “Claiming diversity as your strength – as the organizations named in the lawsuit are wont to do – is not a get-out-of-jail-free card against the possibility of perpetuating systemic racism, just like having a Black friend does not permanently absolve someone of any act of racism.”
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop
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.
