Airport accesses now being blocked as well, while NDP calls for U.S. ambassador to testify about Americans’ GoFundMe support
Pressure has mounted on both sides of the border, and across the political aisle in Canada, for protesters blockading key crossings with the U.S. and others encamped by Parliament Hill to go home, or for officials to move them out of the way.
Political patience with the protesters has run thin as vehicles choke the flow of goods at border crossings, including at Coutts, Alta.; Emerson, Man.; and the busy Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance said Thursday the industry would pay a heavy price for the border actions. It called on governments to end the current blockades and provide a plan to prevent them from happening again.
Political support for the protesters seemed to evaporate as well, as the interim Conservative leader, who two weeks ago suggested her party do everything to make the demonstrations the prime minister’s problem, reversed course and cut her party’s support.
Speaking to the House of Commons, Candice Bergen called on protesters to go home and end activity that she said was hurting the country’s economic rebound from COVID-19.
“Take down all of the blockades. Protest peacefully and legally, but it’s time to remove the barricades and the trucks for the sake of the economy,” Bergen said.
South of the border, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a written statement urged federal, provincial and local authorities in Canada to immediately end the blockades that threaten her state’s economy. She did so hours before a Michigan congresswoman, Elissa Slotkin, warned of similar protests in the future the longer Canadian authorities let the situation persist.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the RCMP is sending reinforcements to Ottawa and Windsor, the latter city moving Thursday to seek a court injunction against the protesters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was working with municipal leaders and the Ford government in Ontario to put an end to barricades that were “hurting communities across the country.
“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to end these barricades,” Trudeau told reporters on his way into the House of Commons.
But the protests showed no signs of letting up.
Traffic was almost at a standstill Thursday as yet another protest blocked the main border crossing between Manitoba and the United States.
About three dozen trailer trucks, tractors, pickups and snowmobiles halted traffic in both directions on Highway 75, about two kilometres north of the Emerson crossing and 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg. The protesters only allowed trucks carrying livestock through.
“This is not a slow-roll protest. Things are completely blocked right now,” said David Carlson, reeve of the Emerson-Franklin rural municipality.
The blockade could affect emergency response times, Carlson said, because municipalities on both sides of the sparsely populated border area share duties.
On Thursday evening, it was clear they planned to stay some time, as portable toilets and fire barrels were brought to the blockade.
Speaking to a crowd gathered by Parliament Hill, protester Bethan Nodwell urged the crowd to hold the line downtown until reinforcements arrive this weekend.
“We’re blocking the airports. We’re blocking borders. We are blocking it all. We are not going to retreat,” she said into the microphone.
The situation in Ottawa, which has spurred similar actions nationally and abroad, continued to dominate debate even as political fissures have formed inside the Liberal caucus and Official Opposition over the handling of the protests and public health measures.
We are blocking it all. We are not going to retreat
The House of Commons foreign affairs committee met Thursday, at which the NDP sought unanimous consent to invite U.S. Ambassador David Cohen to testify. The New Democrats want to hear from him about American funding of the protest in Ottawa through online donations, which they say is an attack on Canada’s democracy.
Barry MacKillop, a deputy director at Canada’s financial intelligence hub Fintrac, told a House of Commons committee on public safety and national security that its system doesn’t cover crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe.
Donors raised more than $10 million for the protesters through GoFundMe, which announced last week it was pulling the plug on the campaign, saying the money would be refunded.
The site said it initially believed the demonstration was going to be a peaceful event, but withdrew its support once it realized it had become an “occupation.”
MacKillop testified that Fintrac’s mandate is to identify money linked to terrorist financing and money laundering from reports it receives each year from entities including banks, insurance companies, money service businesses and casinos.
He said crowdfunding sites are not regulated but money service businesses such as PayPal and Stripe that process payments could submit reports of suspicious transactions.
Earlier Thursday, NDP MP Alistair MacGregor announced the committee would hear directly from representatives from GoFundMe on March 3 about what measures it has in place to prevent the funding of extremism.
A dozen trucks left an area outside Ottawa’s core, 10 left Parliament Hill, another was towed
The so-called Freedom Convoy rolled in to Ottawa two weeks ago, ostensibly to protest federal vaccination mandates for truckers, but it has also demanded an end to all COVID-19 restrictions and some in the group have called for the government to be dissolved.
Ottawa police said Thursday that a dozen trucks left an area outside the downtown core after negotiations with protesters who have used the parking lot there as a staging and logistics ground. Ten more trucks left streets near Parliament Hill, and another vehicle was towed for obstructing traffic.
As part of the announcement, police reissued their call for remaining protesters to leave the national capital after immobilizing the core of the city for almost two weeks.
Demonstrators with large trucks have been warned by police that if they continue blocking streets they could be charged with mischief to property or have their vehicles and other property seized and possibly forfeited. Police also warned that charges or convictions might mean being barred from travelling to the United States.
With a temporary injunction in place on protesters honking their truck horns, none could be heard early Thursday from the vehicles parked along Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill. But a convoy of vehicles briefly snarled traffic on Thursday morning around the city’s airport, and local police warned of fake calls flooding the 911 emergency system.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax
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