Politics Briefing: Legault asks police to help any Quebec election candidates who feel unsafe due to threats, harassment - The Globe and Mail | Canada News Media
Quebec Premier François Legault says he has asked the province’s police force to help any candidates in the provincial election who feel unsafe given a wave of threats and harassment.
The leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec made the comment Thursday during an ongoing national debate on the safety of politicians and the harassment of journalists, particularly those from racialized communities.
Earlier this week, a Liberal incumbent in a Montreal provincial riding disclosed a man called her local police station last week and told them to go to her street, saying they would find her dead body there. A man has been arrested and released in the case. Story here from CBC.
Referring to threats against politicians, Mr. Legault said, according to the Montreal Gazette, that there are more threats, some on social media and others “real threats” and that the trend is not acceptable.
“I have asked the Sûreté du Québec to make themselves available for all candidates who feel threatened. It think it’s important for the SQ to actively supervise,” Mr. Legault said in the city of Trois-Rivières.
He added that everyone has a responsibility to avoid stirring up anger. “I am thinking of candidates and leaders and even the population in general. This is not the kind of society we want, to see such threats. It seems to be this is not the Quebec we love.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday the harassment of journalists and other public figures is a systemic issue that the country’s police officers need to take seriously.
At a news conference in Winnipeg, Mr. Trudeau said Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino would be conveying that view to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in a meeting also scheduled for Thursday.
He called a pattern of threats against journalists, especially racialized journalists, “absolutely unacceptable’ and said he agreed with the view of an open letter from the Canadian Association of Journalists that individual complaints against journalists should not be seen in a vacuum.
“When the Minister of Public Safety sits down with the association of national chiefs of police, this afternoon, he will be bringing forward an expectation that police forces across this country take seriously, very seriously, not just individual issues but as a systemic issue, this pattern of intimidation attacks on people who serve their country lie journalists,” said Mr. Trudeau.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
NEW COVID-19 VACCINE APPROVED – Health Canada has approved a new COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna that targets both the original strain of the novel coronavirus and the Omicron variant. Story here.
QUEBEC ELECTION – François Legault, leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec, is standing by his party’s language law reform despite criticism from business leaders who say the legislation will make it harder to recruit talent and will cause enormous damage to the economy. Story here.
ATLANTIC PREMIERS SEEK MORE TIME ON CARBON PRICING – A day before the deadline for provinces to submit their plans to the federal government for how they will price carbon until 2030, Atlantic premiers are asking for more time. Story here from CBC.
SUGAR-SWEETENED DRINKS TAX LAUNCHED – Beginning today, consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador will be paying 20 cents more per litre for sugar-sweetened drinks as part of a new tax. Story here.
DELAY IN ORTIS TRIAL – The trial of RCMP employee Cameron Jay Ortis, accused of breaching Canada’s secrecy law, has been delayed a year after a new defence lawyer took on his case. Story here.
RODRIGUEZ BREAKS SILENCE – Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has broken his silence over his department’s funding of an agency whose senior consultant posted a series of tweets about “Jewish white supremacists,” more than a week after the government cut off the money. Story here.
TRUDEAU DEFENDS CSIS – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending the Canadian Security Intelligence Service after details contained in a new book revived controversy over its overseas operations and how it used informants to gain insight into the Islamic State. Story here.
IRONIC BIKE THEFT – A Winnipeg mayoral candidate had his bicycle stolen this week less than 90 minutes after announcing a cycling-infrastructure plan that included plans to reduce bike theft. Story here from CBC.
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Scott Aitchison is campaigning virtually. Jean Charest is in Montreal. Leslyn Lewis is in Scarborough, Richmond Hill and Brampton. Pierre Poilievre is in Ottawa. There’s no word on the campaign itinerary of Roman Baber.
PLAIN LANGUAGE PLAN – Pierre Poilievre, as prime minister, would force the federal government to stop using overly complex bureaucratic wording by passing a law that will require the use of “plain language.” Story here from The National Post.
`CONSERVATIVE’ DROPPED FROM ORGANIZATION TITLE – Rick Peterson, a former candidate for the leadership of the federal Conservatives, explains here why the Centre Ice Conservatives group is dropping `Conservatives’ from the title of their organization.
PROFILE OF ROMAN BABER – The 42-year-old candidate for the leadership of the Conservative party is a folk hero to people who oppose COVID-19 lockdowns, but dismisses the idea that he ever engaged in misinformation. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
COMMONS NOT SITTING – The House of Commons is not sitting again until Sept. 19. The Senate is to resume sitting on Sept. 20.
NEW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SWORN IN – Michelle O’Bonsawin was officially sworn in as a Supreme Court of Canada justice on Thursday in what a statement from the court described as a small private ceremony. She is the first Indigenous judge to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada. Marsha McLeod reported here on Justice O’Bonsawin’s appearance last month at a hearing in Ottawa where parliamentarians from both the Senate and House of Commons questioned her.
FREELAND IN TORONTO – Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is holding private meetings in Toronto.
BENNETT IN SUDBURY – Mental Health Minister Carolyn Bennett, in Sudbury, announced funding to prevent and address family violence in the City of Greater Sudbury, and held a media availability.
DUCLOS IN GASPE- Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos held a virtual news conference, from Gaspé, on the importance of COVID-19 vaccination heading into the fall.
FRASER IN NEW WATERFORD – Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, visited an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada application processing centre and took media questions.
GUILBEAULT IN WEST VANCOUVER – Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, in West Vancouver, announced more than $926,000 in federal funding for the Átl’ka7tsem / Howe Sound Biosphere Region to protect nature.
THE DECIBEL
Thursday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast deals with issues around the health impacts of alcoholic drinks. A new report from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction says if you have three or more alcoholic drinks in a week, you’re putting your health at risk. Dr. Catherine Paradis – co-chair of this new report – talks on the Decibel about lessons on how alcohol impacts health, the new guidelines the CCSA hopes Canadians will follow and why they want mandatory portion labels on alcoholic drinks. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Winnipeg, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with students at Université de Saint-Boniface, took media questions, met with Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, and was scheduled to meet with parents and children at a children’s centre.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
OPINION
David Parkinson (The Globe and Mail)on the harassment of Chrystia Freeland and the perils of the public-facing politician: “Back in June, I chatted with Ms. Freeland about her freewheeling tendencies. Yes, she confirmed, she bikes alone – staff meet her at her next meeting or event, but no one comes along for the ride. No, she confirmed, her team isn’t super happy about it. But the time alone is important to her, both personally and professionally. It clears the head, provides some alone time, gives her a sense of normalcy and control of her life. (Who wouldn’t want that, right?) She acknowledged there are dangers. A couple of times, she has been “doored” – knocked off her bike by a careless driver opening a car door into her path. She has simply called her staff on her cellphone from the curb, to explain why she was about to be late for the next meeting.”
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail)on how the Doug Ford government is betting Ontarians won’t care about relocating seniors without their consent: “Just imagine the howls that would emanate from the opposition benches if an OntarioLiberal government rammed through legislation, bypassing committee hearings and public consultation, to expedite the transfer of patients from hospitals to long-term care homes. The Progressive Conservatives would be apoplectic: “This arrogant Liberal government thinks it knows best when it comes to our vulnerable seniors,” they’d huff, citing their own party’s fidelity to the conventional democratic process. “Instead of listening to families, to health care professionals and to advocates for the elderly, they are taking a ‘government knows best’ approach to people’s lives. This is totally wrong!” Alas, we all know that indignation is contingent on which team is bypassing conventional democratic processes and which is standing impotently on the sidelines. That’s why members of the PC caucus are apparently A-okay with rushing through legislation without the input of stakeholders and experts.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail)on Quebec’s parties breaking the bank to woo voters in a fight (so far) for second place: “The Quebec election campaign is only a few days old, but the five main parties – yes, five – vying for seats in the National Assembly are breaking the bank with promises of tax cuts and free money that threaten the province’s hard-won fiscal health. The Quebec Liberal Party got the ball rolling even before Sunday’s official launch of the campaign by vowing to reduce the tax rate on income below $92,000 by 1.5 percentage points. The Conservative Party of Quebec outdid the Liberals by promising a two-percentage-point cut, a move it said would mean savings of more than $2,700 a year for a family earning $80,000.”
Amit Arya and Samir Sinha (Contributed to the Globe and Mail) on how forcing seniors into long-term care is not the solution to the hospital crisis: “If the Ontario government was serious about addressing the health care crisis, they would start by addressing the biggest problem, which is not directly related to a lack of beds, but rather, a lack of available staff to care for the people in those beds. Instead, they are pitting sectors against each other and proposing to strip the fundamental right of being able to consent around key health care decisions. This puts physicians like us in a situation where even allowing our patients to become designated as ALC in hospital could potentially cause them unnecessary harm and suffering. Finally, blaming vulnerable patients who don’t want to be waiting in hospitals as long as they can get into the LTC homes of their choice is more than deeply disturbing – it is ageist and ableist.”
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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A 33-day provincial election campaign is expected to officially get started today in New Brunswick.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has said he plans to visit Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy this morning to have the legislature dissolved.
Higgs, a 70-year-old former oil executive, is seeking a third term in office, having led the province since 2018.
The campaign ahead of the Oct. 21 vote is expected to focus on pocketbook issues, but the government’s provocative approach to gender identity issues could also be in the spotlight.
The Tory premier has already announced he will try to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon, both of whom are focusing on economic and social issues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VICTORIA – If the lead up to British Columbia‘s provincial election campaign is any indication of what’s to come, voters should expect the unexpected.
It could be a wild ride to voting day on Oct. 19.
The Conservative Party of B.C. that didn’t elect a single member in the last election and gained less than two per cent of the popular vote is now leading the charge for centre-right, anti-NDP voters.
The official Opposition BC United, who as the former B.C. Liberals won four consecutive majorities from 2001 to 2013, raised a white flag and suspended its campaign last month, asking its members, incumbents and voters to support the B.C. Conservatives to prevent a vote split on the political right.
New Democrat Leader David Eby delivered a few political surprises of his own in the days leading up to Saturday’s official campaign start, signalling major shifts on the carbon tax and the issue of involuntary care in an attempt to curb the deadly opioid overdose crisis.
He said the NDP would drop the province’s long-standing carbon tax for consumers if the federal government eliminates its requirement to keep the levy in place, and pledged to introduce involuntary care of people battling mental health and addiction issues.
The B.C. Coroners Service reports more than 15,000 overdose deaths since the province declared an opioid overdose public health emergency in 2016.
Drug policy in B.C., especially decriminalization of possession of small amounts of hard drugs and drug use in public areas, could become key election issues this fall.
Eby, a former executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Wednesday that criticism of the NDP’s involuntary care plan by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is “misinformed” and “misleading.”
“This isn’t about forcing people into a particular treatment,” he said at an unrelated news conference. “This is about making sure that their safety, as well as the safety of the broader community, is looked after.”
Eby said “simplistic arguments,” where one side says lock people up and the other says don’t lock anybody up don’t make sense.
“There are some people who should be in jail, who belong in jail to ensure community safety,” said Eby. “There are some people who need to be in intensive, secure mental health treatment facilities because that’s what they need in order to be safe, in order not to be exploited, in order not to be dead.”
The CCLA said in a statement Eby’s plan is not acceptable.
“There is no doubt that substance use is an alarming and pressing epidemic,” said Anais Bussières McNicoll, the association’s fundamental freedoms program director. “This scourge is causing significant suffering, particularly, among vulnerable and marginalized groups. That being said, detaining people without even assessing their capacity to make treatment decisions, and forcing them to undergo treatment against their will, is unconstitutional.”
While Eby, a noted human rights lawyer, could face political pressure from civil rights opponents to his involuntary care plans, his opponents on the right also face difficulties.
The BC United Party suspended its campaign last month in a pre-election move to prevent a vote split on the right, but that support may splinter as former jilted United members run as Independents.
Five incumbent BC United MLAs, Mike Bernier, Dan Davies, Tom Shypitka, Karin Kirkpatrick and Coralee Oakes are running as Independents and could become power brokers in the event of a minority government situation, while former BC United incumbents Ian Paton, Peter Milobar and Trevor Halford are running under the B.C. Conservative banner.
Davies, who represents the Fort St. John area riding of Peace River North, said he’s always been a Conservative-leaning politician but he has deep community roots and was urged by his supporters to run as an Independent after the Conservatives nominated their own candidate.
Davies said he may be open to talking with B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad after the election, if he wins or loses.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has suggested her party is an option for alienated BC United voters.
Rustad — who faced criticism from BC United Leader Kevin Falcon and Eby about the far-right and extremist views of some of his current and former candidates and advisers — said the party’s rise over the past months has been meteoric.
“It’s been almost 100 years since the Conservative Party in B.C. has won a government,” he said. “The last time was 1927. I look at this now and I think I have never seen this happen anywhere in the country before. This has been happening in just over a year. It just speaks volumes that people are just that eager and interested in change.”
Rustad, ejected from the former B.C. Liberals in August 2022 for publicly supporting a climate change skeptic, sat briefly as an Independent before being acclaimed the B.C. Conservative leader in March 2023.
Rustad, who said if elected he will fire B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry over her vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, has removed the nominations of some of his candidates who were vaccine opponents.
“I am not interested in going after votes and trying to do things that I think might be popular,” he said.
Prof. David Black, a political communications specialist at Greater Victoria’s Royal Roads University, said the rise of Rustad’s Conservatives and the collapse of BC United is the political story of the year in B.C.
But it’s still too early to gauge the strength of the Conservative wave, he said.
“Many questions remain,” said Black. “Has the free enterprise coalition shifted sufficiently far enough to the right to find the social conservatism and culture-war populism of some parts of the B.C. Conservative platform agreeable? Is a party that had no infrastructure and minimal presence in what are now 93 ridings this election able to scale up and run a professional campaign across the province?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
