Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says Canada will temporarily ban the import of handguns into the country without the approval of Parliament, using a regulatory measure that comes into effect in two weeks.
The change will last until a permanent freeze is passed in Parliament and comes into force.
The government tabled gun-control legislation in May that includes a national freeze on the importation, purchase, sale and transfer of handguns in Canada.
The temporary ban will prevent businesses from importing handguns into Canada, with a few exceptions that mirror those in the legislation tabled in May.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
DIPLOMAT SUMMONED – China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it summoned Beijing-based Canadian diplomat Jim Nickel over Canada’s participation in a statement issued by the foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries. Story here.
HISTORIC LOW UNEMPLOYMENT RATE – Canada’s unemployment rate stayed at a historic low of 4.9 per cent in July, remaining unchanged from June as the country continues to face a labour shortage. Story here.
HATE CRIMES SURGE – Canada has experienced a sharp rise in hate crimes targeting religion, sexual orientation and race since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released this week by Statistics Canada. Story here.
JOLY OPEN TO INVESTIGATION – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said she would welcome an investigation into whether Ottawa knew before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that locally hired staff at its Kyiv embassy might be on Russian target lists but didn’t inform them. Story here.
CANADA TO TRAIN UKRAINIAN ARMY RECRUITS – The Canadian government says it’s sending as many as 225 soldiers to help train Ukrainian army recruits for war with Russia, an escalation of Ottawa’s commitment even as a dispute with Kyiv over repairing Russian turbines was on full display on Parliament Hill Thursday. Story here.
CLARITY SOUGHT ON FERTILIZER POLICY – While Conservatives talk about the federal government’s fertilizer emissions goal as part of an “activist agenda,” farmers would like to know what’s being asked of them. Story here from the Regina Leader Post.
ALBERTA CRACKS DOWN ON EMPLOYEE BONUSES – The Alberta government is tightening the rules around employee bonuses in light of the six-figure payout to the chief medical officer of health during COVID-19. Story here.
SENATOR LEAVES CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS – A Quebec senator is leaving the Conservative caucus to join the Canadian Senators Group (CSG), but will remain a member of the Conservative Party. Story here from CBC.
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Scott Aitchison is campaigning digitally. Roman Baber had two Prince Edward Island stops on Friday – Summerside and Charlottetown. Jean Charest was in Montreal. Leslyn Lewis was in Fredericton. Pierre Poilievre was in the Manitoba town of Morris.
POILIEVRE BRINGS FREEDOM PITCH TO MANITOBA – Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre was in Brandon, Man., Thursday, rallying supporters under a platform he says is centred on freedom. Story here from CBC.
OPPORTUNITY IN CPC MEMBERSHIP BOOM: SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES — Some social conservatives view the massive influx of new Conservative Party members as an “opportunity” to strengthen their movement’s influence within the party. Story here from Global News.
THIS AND THAT
The House of Commons is not sitting again until Sept. 19. The Senate is to resume sitting on Sept. 20.
JOLY AND MENDICINO IN TORONTO – Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, in Toronto, announced a temporary handgun import ban.
PETITPAS TAYLOR IN CHARLOTTETOWN – Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, also minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, in Charlottetown, made an announcement regarding support for the delivery of the 2023 Canada Games in Prince Edward Island
THE DECIBEL
New episodes of The Decibel are not being published on Fridays for the months of July and August. You can check previous episodes here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
The Prime Minister is on a two-week vacation in Costa Rica.
LEADERS
No schedules provided for party leaders.
TRIBUTE
RUBY REMEMBERED – Eloquent civil-rights lawyer Clayton Ruby followed his powerful moral compass. An obituary here by Lisa Fitterman.
PUBLIC OPINION
HOCKEY CANADA SETTLEMENT APPROACH RANKLES CANADIANS – An overwhelming majority of Canadians are upset to learn that Hockey Canada used millions of dollars in registration fees from players across the country to pay out sexual-assault settlements without disclosing it, according to a new national poll. Story here.
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail)on how parliamentary hearings on the turbine at the centre of gas dispute might tickle Vladimir Putin’s heart:“If you listened to the House of Commons hearings on the return of a turbine to Russia, you might have imagined you could hear President Vladimir Putin laughing. Here were the German ambassador and the Ukrainian ambassador appearing before a committee of Parliament to argue over Canada’s decision to bend its sanctions against Russia to send the turbine back. This was hours of hearing where MPs noted, among other things, that Western allies are funding Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, while Europe buys the latter’s energy with money that finances Moscow’s war machine.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how the reality that Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan annoyed China is all the more reason for her to go: “China may find it provocative that a political leader would visit Taiwan, just as Russia finds it provocative that Ukraine should be a member of NATO. But the provocation in each case resides entirely in their own aggressive designs on their neighbours. Nothing obliges the rest of us to concede the justness of these claims. Indeed, given that both involve a dictatorship threatening a democracy, we are obliged to resist them. If that upsets the delicate sensibilities of the dictators, so be it. That doesn’t mean we should go about randomly poking dictators in the eye, just to get a rise out of them. But neither can our foreign policy be guided entirely by fear of how they might react.”
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail)on a dangerous rage sweeping the land: “Politicians have always lived with some level of harassment. But it feels different now. There is an element in our society that has ramped things up, and has become emboldened, feeling that they have almost been given permission to behave in this manner. People ask me about this phenomenon often. Why is this stuff happening with more frequency? Is the anger that’s being directed at politicians, and in particular those who identify as progressive, something we’ve imported from the U. S.? Something is afoot.”
Julia Zarankin (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how Russia is destroying the Ukraine of the author’s memory: “I had been planning a trip to Ukraine with my parents when the war began – I’ve long wanted to walk along the Deribasovskaya with my mother and watch a soccer game at the Chernomorets Stadium in Odesa, in honour of my grandfather’s love for the sport, and visit the concert hall in Kharkiv’s State Music Lyceum, where my father played his first solo piano recital. The trip feels particularly urgent now, although I’m terrified of the scars that will greet us when we return. Once it’s safe.”
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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.
