Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to Europe next week to meet with other world leaders about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The trip begins Sunday and will include stops in the United Kingdom, Latvia, Germany and Poland.
At a news conference Friday in Mississauga, Mr. Trudeau said the meetings will be about how to further support Ukraine.
He also said leaders will be discussing “how to stand up even more for democracy, to stand against Russia aggression and to work very hard on combatting the kind of disinformation and misinformation that we know is a facet of day-to-day life these days, but a particularly strong facet of this conflict, this war, in Ukraine.”
While Mr. Trudeau took questions on a range of topics Friday, he was in Mississauga to announce federal funding for local transit projects, including the purchase of new hybrid buses, support for a new rapid transit bus corridor along Dundas Street and upgrades to Mississauga’s existing bus corridors.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
UKRAINE
COD PROCESSOR SAYS `NO THANKS’ TO RUSSIAN PRODUCT – Newfoundland’s largest cod processing plant halts Russian imports, putting workers out of a job. “It’s a significant part of our business,” says Alberto Wareham, president and chief executive officer Icewater Seafoods in Arnold’s Cove. “But it’s just the right thing to do.” Story here.
CALL FOR HELP FOR MOTHER AND CHILD STRANDED IN TURKEY – A Ukrainian-Canadian man living in Ottawa says his cancer-stricken sister and her son are stranded in Turkey and have been denied immediate help by Canada, Turkey and the UN refugee agency. Story here.
NWT MLA WORRIED ABOUT RUSSIA AND ARCTIC – As Russia intensifies its assault on Ukraine, the MLA for one of the Northwest Territories’ northernmost ridings wants to know what’s being done to safeguard Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. Story here from CBC.
RUSSIAN PLANE GROUNDED AT PEARSON – An Antonov cargo plane that carried COVID-19 test kits to Canada has been grounded at Toronto’s Pearson Airport as part of the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Story here.
OTHER HEADLINES
ELLIOTT DEPARTING PROVINCIAL POLITICS – Ontario Deputy Premier Christine Elliott will not seek re-election in June but will continue in her job as Minister of Health until then. Ms. Elliott, who ran three times for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservatives, says she made the decision to not run in the coming provincial election after “considerable reflection and discussion” with her family. Story here.
TORY LEADERSHIP RULES BOLSTER PROSPECT OF CHAREST RUN: SPOKESMAN – Rules adopted for the federal Conservative leadership race to replace Erin O’Toole are good news for prospective candidate Jean Charest, says a spokesperson for the former Quebec premier. Story here.
AITCHISON CONSIDERS BID FOR TORY LEADERSHIP – Scott Aitchison, a two-time MP from the Ontario riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka, is putting together a team for a Conservative leadership bid and is expected to announce his candidacy next week, according to Global News. The story is here.
POILIEVRE CRITICIZES CHAREST – Conservative leadership contender Pierre Poilievre thinks that former Quebec premier Jean Charest’s “record” will speak for itself when it comes to raising taxes. Mr. Poilievre told The National Post Conservatives have to ask themselves if they will be better served by Mr. Charest, who he says has a history of raising taxes on Canadians and Quebecers, or someone like him who served in Stephen Harper’s government. Story here.
WE’D ALLOW KKK IF IT WAS LEGAL: U.S. WEBSITE THAT HELPED CONVOY FUNDRAISING – A co-founder of a U.S. Christian website that helped facilitate Canadian convoy fundraising efforts told a parliamentary committee that his website would allow the Ku Klux Klan to raise money through the platform, if the activity was legal. Story here.
DEFUND MOVEMENT CONSIDERS PROTEST POLICING – The defund movement – which seeks to reduce police budgets and reallocate funding to things like mental health services and affordable housing – is at a crossroads, and organizers have watched what has unfolded in Ottawa, Windsor and Coutts, Alta. with a mix of optimism, cynicism and resignation. Story here.
MANTIOBA PREMIER SAYS SHE WORKED HARD AS HEALTH MINISTER – Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson denies any suggestion she took weekends off during her stint as health minister, after being forced by the Opposition, which secured access to her work calendar, to defend her commitment to the job. Story here from CBC.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, March 4, accessible here. After Friday, the House is not sitting again until March 21.
GREEN RECONNECTION TOUR – The Green Party interim leader is to embark on a Canada-wide national Reconnection Tour that begins in Southwestern Ontario next week, March 9 in Windsor, Ontario. Amita Kuttner said in a statement that the tour is an opportunity for Greens across Canada to get reconnected with their party, values and each other.” In the spring, Dr. Kuttner will go on to communities in Quebec, the Maritimes, the Prairies, B.C. and the North. The tour comes after the previous leader Annamie Paul quit last year, calling her run as leader a challenging ordeal. In the 2021 election, Ms. Paul failed to win a seat or increase the party’s seat count.
THE DECIBEL – On Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife explains the various levels of measures that the federal government has enacted to ratchet up the pressure on Russia’s economy since the invasion of Ukraine began and where things might go next.
Here’s an excerpt:
Menaka Raman-Wilms: As you said, a lot of Western countries have tried to punish Putin for this action by looking at economic sanctions, by essentially targeting money here. What has Canada specifically done when it comes to these economic sanctions and measures here?
Robert Fife : The most significant economic sanctions that have ever been placed on a major world power is what happened last Saturday. The fact that the Canadian government and the European Union and the United States have cut off Russia from the SWIFT banking message system, which basically banks communicate with each other about transactions through what is called the SWIFT messaging system, and that it has basically frozen the foreign reserve exchange of the central Bank of Russia. It is the most crippling economic sanction that has ever been imposed. And it is going to bring Russia to its knees, but it’s not going to bring it to its knees like overnight.
Private meetings. The Prime Minister, at a Mississauga Transit storage facility in West Mississauga, will make a transit announcement and hold a media availability. Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra, Ontario’s Minister for Seniors and Accessibility Raymond Cho, and Mayor of Mississauga Bonnie Crombie will also be in attendance. The Prime Minister was also scheduled to meet with members of the Muslim community and members of the Ukrainian community.
LEADERS
No schedules released for party leaders.
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail)on how establishment Conservative Jean Charest, back from the past, is the insurgent in the party’s leadership race: “So, if you young folks go ask your parents about Mr. Charest, you might get a sense that he is a blast from politics past. He was once a young high flyer, a Progressive Conservative MP at 25, later leader of the rebuilding party, and then Quebec premier till his government suffered the bruises of nearly a decade in power. His political career seemed spent years ago. Yet on paper, Mr. Charest appears to offer many of the things that Conservatives have been saying for years that they desperately need – notably a brand that would make them electable in Ontario suburbs and parts of Quebec. Inside the Conservative Party, that is by no means enough. A lot of party members don’t really know him. He is a veteran, mainstream politician, but in this race, he is the insurgent.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail)on how Russian President Vladimir Putin has driven Russia into a cul-de-sac filled with blood, with no obvious way out: “By invading Ukraine, Mr. Putin has driven his country into a cul-de-sac of blood and madness – one from which there would appear to be no way out. Three possible endgames have been suggested. None look promising. In the first, Ukraine agrees to be partitioned, or some such grubby compromise. It will not happen. In the second, NATO enters the war on Ukraine’s side. It does not dare. And in the third, Mr. Putin is toppled from power. This is by far the most desirable of the three. But it is hard to see how this could happen, so entrenched is his position, and there is very little anyone outside Russia can do to hasten its onset. Only in the fullness of time, I fear, after Russia’s condition has become so dire, its isolation so absolute, might those around him be desperate enough to risk it.”
Robyn Urback (The Globe and Mail)on how, in remaining to fight for his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky set the tone for both domestic and international resistance:“How silly it seems now, sobered by the reality of war in Europe, that we once considered “bravery” in politics to be speaking out against a party leader, or breaking with caucus consensus. Bravery is protesting a military invasion of Ukraine seven years after opposition leader Boris Nemstov was assassinated near the Kremlin for doing exactly that. It is Alexey Navalny tweeting from jail – after being poisoned with a nerve agent and nearly dying – that Russian President Vladimir Putin is an “obviously insane czar” for sending “Russians to kill Ukrainians.” And it is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky staying to defend his country when there is a hit out on his life, and when other leaders in his position would have accepted a U.S. offer to evacuate.”
Michael Byers (Contributed to The Globe and Mail)on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal: “And while it does not fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in this instance, the UN General Assembly, unlike the Security Council, is not subject to Russia’s veto power. It could decide to establish a special international criminal tribunal to prosecute Mr. Putin and his generals for the crime of aggression.And because the General Assembly has 193 member states, any such decision would – if widely supported – have global legitimacy. Vladimir Putin, drunk on power and shielded by nuclear weapons, would laugh at such warnings. This is what war criminals always do – until the day when, like Slobodan Milosevic, they are bundled onto a plane and flown to The Hague.”
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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
