For the second time this week, the federal Health Minister and the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada are being called before a House of Commons committee to deal with aspects of the ongoing pandemic.
Earlier this week, the ethics committee voted to call the pair, and other officials, to face questions on why location information from millions of mobile phones was gathered to help shape pandemic policy and messaging. Story here.
And on Friday, the health committee voted to invite the pair – Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Theresa Tam – to appear by next Wednesday to discuss recent COVID-19 developments. These include the status of support for provinces addressing the Omicron surge, the availability of mRNA vaccine boosters, and the availability of rapid tests. You can watch video of the hearing here.
“It’s time to give an update on the state of our preparedness facing this pandemic and especially facing this wave of Omicron,” Tory MP Luc Berthold told his colleagues on the health committee.
Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden, also a committee member, said he looked forward to welcoming the officials to the committee next week. “Let’s thank them for their hard work because nobody’s worked harder on this pandemic than these folks,” he said. “We do owe them a debt of gratitude while, at the same time, demanding some accountability.”
The call from the health committee came as Dr. Tam told a virtual news conference on Friday that Canada could be approaching the peak of the Omicron wave of COVID-19 as the most populous provinces start to see case counts stabilize. Parliamentary reporter Marieke Walsh reports on that development here.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
BREAKING – Former Ontario finance minister Rod Phillips, now minister of long-term care, says he will not be seeking re-election in this year’s provincial election. He will be stepping down next month as the MPP for Ajax. He was first elected in 2018. In a statement posted on Twitter, Mr. Phillips said he remains confident that Ontarians will re-elect the Progressive Conservatives in the election. But he said, “my professional life has been spent in the business world and I look forward to returning to the private sector.” In 2020, Mr. Phillips resigned his post as finance minister amid the controversy of his taking a vacation to St. Barts despite the public-health advice of his government during the pandemic.
NEWLY RELEASED – After spending nearly 15 years in an Egyptian prison for a crime he insists he did not commit, Canadian Egyptian Mohamed el-Attar has returned to Canada. Mr. el-Attar, who now goes by the name Joseph Attar, was convicted of spying for Israel and sentenced to 15 years in prison. His conviction was based mostly on a confession, which he said he signed after being tortured with electric shocks and forced to drink his own urine. Parliamentary reporter Janice Dickson reports here.
FEW MOBILE HOSPITALS BUILT DESPITE FED FUNDING – Ottawa allocated $300-million at the beginning of the pandemic for the construction of 15 mobile hospitals, but only four 100-bed units have been completed and they are sitting in storage despite the strain on hospitals caused by Omicron across the country. Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife and senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase report here.
OTTAWA ACKNOWLEDGES TRUCKING POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT ERROR – A day after the Canadian Border Services Agency said an incoming vaccine mandate for truck drivers crossing from the United States would not be going into effect this week, the federal government said the reversal was all a mistake.
QUEBEC VACCINATION TAX ANALYSIS – Tax and Fiscal Policy reporter Pat Brethour, in Friday’s Tax and Spend newsletter (you can subscribe to the newsletter on the page here), explores the issue of why Quebec’s proposed tax on the unvaccinated is unlikely to achieve its goal. The story is here.
THIS AND THAT
The House of Commons has adjourned until Jan. 31 at 11 a.m. ET.
GOULD EXPECTS OTTAWA-ONTARIO CHILD-CARE DEAL SOON – Federal Families Minister Karina Gould says she’s hoping for a child-care deal between the federal government and Ontario “sooner than later” after talks she said accelerated “significantly” in December. “I am hopeful and optimistic that Ontario will be joining sooner than later,” Ms. Gould told a news conference Friday on child-care savings affecting Nova Scotia. She also said talks are proceeding well with the territory of Nunavut. Ontario and Nunavut are the lone holdouts in striking a child-care deal with Ottawa as part of the federal government’s $30-billion five-year child-care plan that promises to cut fees to an average of $10 a day across the country by 2025. Asked about the minister’s comment, the office of Ontario Education Minister Steven Lecce said, in a statement, that the province is at the table with Ottawa making the case for a “fair deal” that “will ensure Ontario parents actually get 10-dollar-a-day child care.”
FORMER NEWFOUNDLAND LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR AND CABINET MINISTER DIES – Edward Roberts, Newfoundland and Labrador’s former lieutenant-governor and a cabinet minister in the administrations of three premiers, has died, aged 81. Mr. Roberts was appointed lieutenant-governor in 2002, and held the office for about six years. Born in St. John’s, he became a lawyer, entered provincial politics in 1966 and served in the cabinets of Liberal premiers Joey Smallwood, Clyde Wells and Brian Tobin. Judy Foote – the current lieutenant-governor and a former federal Liberal cabinet minister – said Mr. Roberts was a mentor throughout her career including her current role. “He always took my telephone calls and gave advice readily when asked,” Ms. Foote said in a statement.
THE DECIBEL – On Friday’s episode of The Globe and Mail podcast, Dr. Devon Greyson, an associate professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, talks about the ethical considerations of the planned Quebec “health contribution” tax for people who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings in Ottawa. The Prime Minister virtually joined Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston to make an early learning and child-care announcement. Interviews with the Prime Minister were scheduled to air Friday afternoon on Halifax’s 105.9 Seaside-FM and Nova Scotia’s CKBW FM.
LEADERS
No public schedules provided for leaders.
PUBLIC OPINION
Philippe J. Fournier of 338Canada reports here in Maclean’s that new polling suggests Quebec’s governing CAQ has slipped in voting intentions since the holidays. The good news for the CAQ is that they are comfortably ahead in an election year. However, public opinion in Quebec appears to be in flux.
OPINION
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how Quebec’s unvaxxed tax may be a stretch, but it’s hardly the assault on liberty critics claim: “A better argument for the tax is simply as an incentive to get vaccinated. That was always the real argument for restaurant-and-flight vaccine mandates; Quebec is only making explicit what was previously implicit. But that runs into a couple of other potential roadblocks. One: is it likely to work? Will it persuade hardcore vaccine refuseniks to get the jab, or will they simply pay the fine – or even refuse to do that? Even if the cost to rights is small, if the benefits to public health are even smaller, it fails the test of proportionality.”
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail)on the Conservatives handing Beijing a win by abandoning their China committee: “Shortly before Christmas, when Canadians were preoccupied with a new COVID-19 variant and holiday plans, the Conservative Party of Canada revealed that it would not attempt to bring back its Special Committee on Canada-China Relations in the new year. It was a strange decision for a party whose leader has said there is “no greater threat to Canada’s interests than the rise of China.” For years, the Conservatives have hammered the Liberal cabinet for its timid and conciliatory approach to relations with Beijing: for abstaining from a motion recognizing China’s treatment of its Muslim minority as “genocide”; for dithering on whether to join other Five Eyes partners in banning or restricting Huawei’s access to our 5G network; for its apparent inertia in repatriating the two Canadians held hostage by Beijing in retaliation for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou; for failing to provide documents to the Canada-China committee on the firing of two scientists from Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory in 2020.”
Andrew MacDougall (The Ottawa Citizen)on how Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole latest rant shows he’s caught in a trap of his party’s making: “Is there anyone in Canada with half a brain who thinks [federal Environment Minister Steven] Guilbeault is going to phase out Canadian energy in just 18 months? Nope, not even the solar-panel and wind-turbine manufacturers. Hell, O’Toole himself doesn’t believe it. Sure, the Trudeau government wants to end fossil-fuel subsidies in that timeframe, along with tabling a roadmap to eventually phase out fossil fuels, but that’s not phasing out Canadian energy in 18 months. Not by a long shot. Does O’Toole think people don’t know how to Google? Looked at another way, is there anyone who is going to be convinced that Guilbeault is going to let Canadians freeze in the dark based solely on O’Toole’s word? Why yes, dear reader, there are. They’re called the Conservative membership. The ranty video was just the latest episode in the endless series called Preaching to the Converted. But unless the Conservatives can figure out a way to get each member to vote approximately 25 times each on election day, it’s only wasted breath.”
Murray Mandryk (Saskatoon StarPhoenix)on how Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s COVID-19 reality reveals the need for a better approach: “Wednesday, we needed to see a government plan based on science. And we needed some policy leadership. We needed clarity – not unsubstantiated notions about what is or isn’t working or largely politically motivated ideas about how we can all be rugged individuals and get through this on our own. Instead of the practical, common-sense policies aimed at stopping Omicron spread that we see implemented in most every other jurisdiction, we instead got a lot of talk of how we can no longer allow this pandemic to infringe on our freedoms and liberties. That Moe’s message came just as federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole was launching his own campaign suggesting “Canada’s Conservatives want to see an end to … restrictions to your liberty” seems no small coincidence.”
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MONTREAL – A Quebec political party has voted to support one of its members facing backlash for saying that racialized people are regularly disparaged at the provincial legislature.
Québec solidaire members adopted an emergency resolution at the party’s convention late Sunday condemning the hate directed at Haroun Bouazzi, without endorsing his comments.
Bouazzi, who represents a Montreal riding, had told a community group that he hears comments every day at the legislature that portray North African, Muslim, Black or Indigenous people as the “other,” and that paint their cultures are dangerous or inferior.
Other political parties have said Bouazzi’s remarks labelled elected officials as racists, and the co-leaders of his own party had rebuked him for his “clumsy and exaggerated” comments.
Bouazzi, who has said he never intended to describe his colleagues as racist, thanked his party for their support and for their commitment to the fight against systemic racism.
Party co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said after Sunday’s closed-door debate that he considers the matter to be closed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes.
“This meeting was an important next step considering the moment in history we find ourselves in,” Democratic Del. Cia Price, the committee chair, said during a news conference. “We have urgent threats to our freedoms that could impact constituents in all of the districts we serve.”
The at-times raucous meeting will pave the way for the House and Senate to take up the resolutions early next year after lawmakers tabled the measures last January. Democrats previously said the move was standard practice, given that amendments are typically introduced in odd-numbered years. But Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert said Wednesday the committee should not have delved into the amendments before next year’s legislative session. He said the resolutions, particularly the abortion amendment, need further vetting.
“No one who is still serving remembers it being done in this way ever,” Gilbert said after the meeting. “Certainly not for something this important. This is as big and weighty an issue as it gets.”
The Democrats’ legislative lineup comes after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.
“This amendment creates a process that is bounded by transparent rules and criteria that will apply to everybody — it’s not left to the discretion of a single individual,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, the patron of the voting rights resolution, which passed along party lines, said at the news conference.
Though Democrats have sparred with the governor over their legislative agenda, constitutional amendments put forth by lawmakers do not require his signature, allowing the Democrat-led House and Senate to bypass Youngkin’s blessing.
Instead, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The cumbersome process will likely hinge upon the success of all three amendments on Democrats’ ability to preserve their edge in the House and Senate, where they hold razor-thin majorities.
It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to champion the three amendments. Republicans in a House subcommittee killed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights in 2022, a year after the measure passed in a Democrat-led House. The same subcommittee also struck down legislation supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment from 2006 banning marriage equality.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 16-5 in favor of legislation protecting same-sex marriage, with four Republicans supporting the resolution.
“To say the least, voters enacted this (amendment) in 2006, and we have had 100,000 voters a year become of voting age since then,” said Del. Mark Sickles, who sponsored the amendment as one of the first openly gay men serving in the General Assembly. “Many people have changed their opinions of this as the years have passed.”
A constitutional amendment protecting abortion previously passed the Senate in 2023 but died in a Republican-led House. On Wednesday, the amendment passed on party lines.
If successful, the resolution proposed by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring would be part of a growing trend of reproductive rights-related ballot questions given to voters. Since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times.
The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.
As lawmakers debated the measure, roughly 18 members spoke. Mercedes Perkins, at 38 weeks pregnant, described the importance of women making decisions about their own bodies. Rhea Simon, another Virginia resident, anecdotally described how reproductive health care shaped her life.
Then all at once, more than 50 people lined up to speak against the abortion amendment.
“Let’s do the compassionate thing and care for mothers and all unborn children,” resident Sheila Furey said.
The audience gave a collective “Amen,” followed by a round of applause.
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Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.
With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”
It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.
He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.
HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
