As Canada offered more aid for Ukraine on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said additional economic measures are to be announced in coming days.
During a news conference, Ms. Freeland, also the Finance Minister, said some plans have been informed by “creative ideas” advanced Tuesday by Ukraine’s embattled Finance Minister during talks with other G7 counterparts.
She did not elaborate. However, Ms. Freeland noted that Canada is carefully reviewing the holdings, in this country, of all Russian oligarchs and companies in Canada.
“Everything is on the table,” said Ms. Freeland.
She said Russian interests in Canada are less significant than those in partner countries, but the federal government is looking at them closely, and she promised additional measures soon.
Canada has previously announced direct sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a third set of severe, co-ordinated sanctions against the country that also includes measures against Russia’s Foreign Minister, and Putin’s chief of staff.
On Tuesday, Defence Minister Anita Anand, at the same news conference, said Canada is sending 1,600 fragmentation vests and just under 400,000 individual meal packs to assist in the Ukrainians’ fight against Russia.
That aid was promised after commitments this week that Canada will send 100 Carl Gustav anti-tank weapon systems and 2,000 rockets to Ukraine. The rockets are fired from the Swedish-made systems. Story here.
Canada has already sent nearly $8-milion in weapons, such as machine guns, carbines and 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, to Ukraine as well as non-lethal aid including helmets and night-vision goggles. Last week, Canada announced it would send additional protective gear, valued at $25-million, to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Canada said it will provide $100-million in new humanitarian assistance to the United Nations to support aid operations in Ukraine and refugees in neighbouring countries. Story here.
The Deputy Prime Minister also warned, without providing specifics, of possible adverse consequences for Canada given measures taken against Russia. “I have to be honest with Canadians that there could be some collateral damage in Canada,” she said, noting the G7 finance ministers discussed the issue.
“Canadians are smart. I think Canadians understand the stakes of this fight.”
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
RUSSIAN SHIPS BANNED FROM CANADIAN WATERS – Ottawa is banning Russian-owned and registered ships from Canadian ports and waters. Story here.
CANADA SUPPORTS UKRAINE ON ICC – Canada says it’s going to help Ukraine expedite its petition to the International Criminal Court to probe alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian forces, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says.
COVERING THE WAR IN UKRAINE – Senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon writes here on the realities of covering the war in Ukraine. “But while Ukrainians have no shortage of battle experience and courage, other things are becoming scarce. At our safe house, food supplies had dwindled down to only a bit of cheese, a few bags of nuts, half a pack of spaghetti and few loose pieces of fruit – after which we’d have to start eating from our strategic reserve of cereal bars and noodle pots.”
RUSSIANS IN CANADA FEAR BACKLASH; UKRAINIAN RESTAURANTS SEE RUSH OF CUSTOMERS – As the Ukraine conflict rages on, Russians in Canada fear guilt by association. Story here. Meanwhile, some of Canada’s Ukrainian restaurants are seeing a rush of customers amid the Russian invasion as they look to bounce back from COVID-19 restrictions. Story here.
UPDATES: Watch here for the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
MEANWHILE
INCREASING FEDERAL DEBT COSTS – The cost of financing the federal debt is projected to exceed $40-billion a year by 2025-26 – more than double the cost at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux that says Canada’s debt costs will grow more quickly than what the government has forecast. Story here.
LIBERALS PUSH ACTION ON EMERGENCIES ACT COMMITTEE – The federal Liberals are pushing ahead with a motion to create an oversight committee that will review the government’s invocation of the never-before-used Emergencies Act, forcing a vote on the matter over the objections of the opposition Conservatives. Story here.
CHAREST CLEARED – An anti-corruption probe into the fundraising activities of the Quebec Liberal Party while Jean Charest was leader and premier has ended without charges being laid, as Mr. Charest considers a bid for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party. Story here.
EUROPE ‘WEAK’ ON RUSSIA: POILIEVRE – Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, the only declared candidate for the party’s leadership, is slamming Europe’s response to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, saying in a social-media post that the continent’s leaders have been “weak” in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. Story here from CBC.
PLANS RESTARTED TO BRING CIVIL SERVANTS BACK TO OFFICES – Federal government departments are restarting plans to bring thousands of public servants back to the office as provinces lift pandemic restrictions that forced them to work from home. Story here from Policy Options.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected order of business at the House of Commons, March. 1, accessible here.
‘THAT IS AN INDIVIDUAL DECISION’: DEFENCE MINISTER ON CANADIANS WHO WANT TO FIGHT IN UKRAINE – Defence Minister Anita Anand was asked, after a cabinet meeting Tuesday, about Canadians who want to fight in Ukraine. “In terms of the Canadians who might want to fight, I truly understand that decision process, especially those who have Ukrainian roots,” she said. “I will say that is an individual decision that Canadians are making for themselves, and our job as a government is to provide information about the severity of the situation on the ground in Ukraine.”
NEW OFFICIAL LANGUAGES BILL – Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor has introduced Bill C-13: An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other Acts. In a statement, Ms. Taylor’s department said measures of the legislation include addressing the decline of French in Canada, and improving compliance by federal institutions concerning official languages. Details here.
HEARING ON DESECRATION OF VETERANS MONUMENTS – The standing committee on veterans affairs is holding a meeting Tuesday night on the desecration of monuments honouring veterans. One witness is listed: Steven Clark, national executive director of the Royal Canadian Legion. The hearing is scheduled to run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET. There are details on the meeting here.
DAVIS MEMORIAL IN THE WORKS – The Ontario government is committing up to $150,000 to Brampton to support a memorial honouring the legacy of William G. Davis, Ontario’s 18th premier and a lifelong resident of the city. A professional artist will be commissioned to create a memorial honouring Mr. Davis, who was premier from 1971 to 1985. Mr. Davis died last August at 92. Brampton intends to unveil the new memorial, located in Brampton’s Gage Park, later this year.
THE DECIBEL – On Tuesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, international correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe reports from the tiny, landlocked country of Moldova the destination for 70,000 people from Ukraine since the start of the conflict with Russia. Mr. VanderKlippe talks about the people fleeing Ukraine and how bordering countries are responding to the crisis. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister chairs the cabinet meeting, and is scheduled to attend Question Period. He is also scheduled to attend a virtual event held by the embassy of Ireland to celebrate the start of Irish Heritage Month.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet holds a Parliament Hill press briefing on the party’s opposition day plans.
Green Party interim Leader Amita Kuttner holds a Parliament Hill press conference to address the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
NDP LeaderJagmeet Singh met with the Canadian Home Builders’ Association and was scheduled to attend Question Period.
No schedule released for the Conservative party leader.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon how President Vladimir Putin’s deadly miscalculation has united the world against him: “The supposed grandmaster-level strategic genius has painted himself into a corner. This is what is known as the cornered-rat problem. And given that this cornered dictator has one of the world’s most powerful militaries, including the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, Mr. Putin’s dilemma is also the entire world’s. As strange as it sounds, Western diplomacy has to aim not only at deterring and defeating Mr. Putin. It also has to offer him a way out of Ukraine, and his own folly.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail)on how Donald Trump’s comments on President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau place Canada’s Conservatives and Pierre Poilievre in a difficult spot: ”Donald Trump has long been an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When that suddenly became awkward, a few days ago, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee in 2024 crafted a new mantra: The Russian government is bad for invading Ukraine, but the Canadian government is worse for shutting down the protests in Ottawa. This is a problem for those Conservatives who stood with the horn-honking truckers and their supporters in opposing pandemic measures. Leadership contender Pierre Poilievre, in particular, championed their cause. Now the MAGA crowd has granted that cause the moral equivalency of Ukrainians resisting a Russian invasion. This is not a good look.”
Yasuko Thanh (contributed to The Globe and Mail)on how anger at B.C. parliament protests was a reflection of her own privilege: “And it came to me with the clarity of the glass I was washing, in my own sink whose faucet produces safe water to drink. My anger toward the people protesting was nothing less then a reflection of my own privilege. Because the people on whose behalf I was outraged were too busy fighting things big enough to kill them. Too busy counting graves. Too busy unpacking the legacy of slavery. Or perhaps, like Bob Marley, they were asking us to sing, not songs of oppression, not songs of being beaten down, but songs of freedom.”
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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.
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.
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.
