Speaking with reporters at a news conference in Waterloo, Ont., Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the reported spike in hate crimes in Canada can be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and greater political polarization.
Mr. Trudeau was asked about the federal government’s plans to increase funding toward anti-racism infrastructure in Canada in light of recent attacks at Ontario mosques.
This past weekend, five men were attacked in a drive-by shooting outside a mosque in Scarborough, Ont. Last month, a man wielding an axe and bear spray attacked worshippers at Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre in Mississauga, Ont. No one was harmed.
The April 2022 budget announced $85-million in funding over five years related to a new anti-racism strategy and combatting hate. It also announced $11-million over five years for a special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism, as well as a special representative on combatting Islamophobia.
“Over the past years, we’ve seen a rise in hate crimes, a rise in intolerance and racist acts. Part of it is the pandemic, sure, and the stress and the anxiety that comes from that, but a part of it is a trend toward greater polarization in our politics, greater intolerance in our communities,” Mr. Trudeau said.
The Globe and Mail’s Joy SpearChief-Morris and deputy Ottawa bureau Chief Bill Curry have more details here.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
CANADA’S ANNUAL INFLATION RATE SPIKES TO 6.7% IN MARCH, HIGHEST SINCE 1991 – Canada’s inflation rate hit a new three-decade high in March and blew past expectations on Bay Street, an unwelcome sign for central bankers trying to douse the acceleration. The Consumer Price Index rose 6.7 per cent in March from a year earlier, a full percentage point higher than February’s 5.7-per-cent pace, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. Financial analysts were expecting an annual inflation rate of 6.1 per cent. Story here.
CANADA TO SEND HEAVY ARTILLERY WEAPONS TO UKRAINE, TRUDEAU PLEDGES – Canada will send heavy artillery weapons to Ukraine as its land battle with Russia intensifies, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday, calling Kyiv’s resistance to Moscow’s military assault a struggle for liberty and democracy. Story here.
FREELAND EXPECTED TO BOYCOTT RUSSIA’S G20 SPEECHES OVER UKRAINE WAR: SOURCE – Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to boycott any sessions at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting where Russian representatives attempt to speak, Global News reports. A Canadian government official said Ms. Freeland may also use the G20 gatherings to provide a direct rebuttal to any Russian statements made in the plenary session. Story here from Global.
LAW COMBATING MODERN SLAVERY AND CHILD LABOUR A PRIORITY: MINISTER – Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says the Liberal government is planning legislation to make Canadian companies ensure that they are not using slave labour or exploiting child workers overseas. Story here from the Canadian Press.
FIRST DEADLINE ARRIVES FOR CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE, 10 DAYS UNTIL FINAL ONE – At least eight candidates have crossed the first threshold to having their names appear on the final ballot of the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race. Story here from the Canadian Press.
FORMER TOP COMMANDER VANCE ACKNOWLEDGES SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH SUBORDINATE IN COURT DOCUMENT – Retired general Jonathan Vance has acknowledged he was in a sexual relationship with a subordinate while he was the chief of defence staff, after having denied the allegations in the past. In an agreed statement of facts recently filed in court, Mr. Vance also confirmed he had one child with the woman, Maj. Kellie Brennan. Story here from CBC.
AT LEAST 20 PER CENT OF CANADIAN MPS HOLD RENTAL, INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE AMID HOUSING CRUNCH – At least 65 Canadian members of Parliament hold rental or investment real estate assets, according to their filings with the federal conflict of interest commissioner. However, that number may actually be much higher because 91 MPs either have not yet completed their disclosure process or the conflict of interest commissioner’s office hasn’t yet published their filings. Story here from Global.
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
The newsletter reached out to the Conservatives leadership campaigns to see what they were up to on Wednesday.
Jean Charest will be in Pickering and Whitby, Ont., for meet and greets.
Roman Baber will present his national autism plan on Wednesday evening at a campaign event in Vaughan, Ont. Speaking to the National Post, Mr. Baber said as prime minister, he would match provincial funding of autism treatment of up to $500-million per year. Story here.
In a press release Wednesday, Scott Aitchison announced he would end supply management to help Canadians struggling with rising grocery bills and high inflation.
Pierre Poilievre’s and Leslyn Lewis’s campaigns said the candidates do not have any public events today.
The other campaigns did not reply.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – The House is adjourned until Monday, April 25, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. ET.
THE BOLD, VARIED VISIONS FOR OTTAWA’S BLOCK 2 – The Globe’s architecture critic Alex Bozikovic weighs the design options for Block 2 of the Parliamentary precinct. Elite architects are competing to transform this strip south of Parliament Hill, and a jury is deciding the winner soon. Story here.
THE DECIBEL
On Wednesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, economics reporter Matt Lundy explains how inflation is resulting in a pay cut for most Canadians and what – if anything – you can do about it. With inflation eating into people’s bank accounts, some people are starting to wonder: Hey, is my paycheque shrinking? And according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, it is. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
The Prime Minister began his day in Waterloo, Ont., where met with families to discuss the budget commitments for housing and took questions from reporters.
Mr. Trudeau will meet with members of the Muslim community to mark the observance of Ramadan Wednesday afternoon. He will be joined by Treasury Board president Mona Fortier and MPs from the Waterloo region.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is in Montreal with Deputy Leader Alexandre Boulerice to discuss the party’s plan to address the housing crisis. Mr. Singh will host a townhall Wednesday evening, where he will be joined by House Leader Peter Julian.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference Wednesday after a caucus meeting in Quebec City.
No other schedules released for party leaders.
PUBLIC OPINION
POILIEVRE FAVOURITE TO WIN CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP, BUT MAY STRUGGLE TO GROW PARTY: POLL – The race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party appears to be Mr. Poilievre’s to lose, according to a new poll that also suggests he may not be able to broaden the party’s appeal. The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found 20 per cent of Canadians surveyed think Mr. Poilievre will win the race, rising to 37 per cent among Conservative voters. That pales to his closest competitor, Mr. Charest, who earned 12 per cent support among Canadians polled and just 14 per cent among Conservative voters. Story here from Global.
OPINION
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail)on how the Charter was more evolution than revolution: “It is for the courts to hold governments to their promises. But the courts are products of the same society as those we elect – whose handiwork, after all, the Charter was. The Charter embodied a broadly shared, though not universal, view of the relationship between the state and the citizen. Subsequent court rulings have likewise reflected, as much as shaped, evolving social attitudes. Ultimately, we are all in this together.”
This semantic failure is no doubt contributing to the fact that the effort to get third shots into Canadians has all but stalled out.”
Chris Selley (National Post) on how Poilievre almost speaks the unspeakable: “The wealthy single-family homeowner is about as natural a Conservative voter as you’ll come across in urban Canada. You might think Poilievre would be averse to angering them. But then, urban-core ridings with lots of single-family homeowners haven’t been sending that many Conservatives MPs to Ottawa since 2011. The more Toronto and Vancouver grow despite those restrictive housing policies, the less clout those single-family homeowners have. And those on the outside looking in might quite like what they’re hearing from Poilievre.”
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EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government’s $8.6-billion plan to fast-track building new schools will include a pilot project to incentivize private ones.
Smith said the ultimate goal is to create thousands of new spaces for an exploding number of new students at a reduced cost to taxpayers.
“We want to put all of the different school options on the same level playing field,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary Wednesday.
Smith did not offer details about how much private school construction costs might be incentivized, but said she wants to see what independent schools might pitch.
“We’re putting it out there as a pilot to see if there is any interest in partnering on the same basis that we’ll be building the other schools with the different (public) school boards,” she said.
Smith made the announcement a day after she announced the multibillion-dollar school build to address soaring numbers of new students.
By quadrupling the current school construction budget to $8.6 billion, the province aims to offer up 30 new schools each year, adding 50,000 new student spaces within three years.
The government also wants to build or expand five charter school buildings per year, starting in next year’s budget, adding 12,500 spaces within four years.
Currently, non-profit independent schools can get some grants worth about 70 per cent of what students in public schools receive per student from the province.
However, those grants don’t cover major construction costs.
John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges of Alberta, said he’s interested in having conversations with the government about incentives.
He said the province has never directly funded major capital costs for their facilities before, and said he doesn’t think the association has ever asked for full capital funding.
He said community or religious groups traditionally cover those costs, but they can help take the pressure off the public or separate systems.
“We think we can do our part,” Jagersma said.
Dennis MacNeil, head of the Public School Boards Association of Alberta, said they welcome the new funding, but said money for private school builds would set a precedent that could ultimately hurt the public system.
“We believe that the first school in any community should be a public school, because only public schools accept all kids that come through their doors and provide programming for them,” he said.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said if public dollars are going to be spent on building private schools, then students in the public system should be able to equitably access those schools.
“No other province spends as much money on private schools as Alberta does, and it’s at the detriment of public schools, where over 90 per cent of students go to school,” he said.
Schilling also said the province needs about 5,000 teachers now, but the government announcement didn’t offer a plan to train and hire thousands more over the next few years.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Tuesday praised the $8.6 billion as a “generational investment” in education, but said private schools have different mandates and the result could be schools not being built where they are needed most.
“Using that money to build public schools is more efficient, it’s smarter, it’s faster, and it will serve students better,” Nenshi said.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides’ office declined to answer specific questions about the pilot project Wednesday, saying it’s still under development.
“Options and considerations for making capital more affordable for independent schools are being explored,” a spokesperson said. “Further information on this program will be forthcoming in the near future.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
OTTAWA – Health Minister Mark Holland urged a committee of senators Wednesday not to tweak the pharmacare bill he carefully negotiated with the NDP earlier this year.
The bill would underpin a potential national, single-payer pharmacare program and allow the health minister to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover some diabetes and contraceptive medications.
It was the result of weeks of political negotiations with the New Democrats, who early this year threatened to pull out of their supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals unless they could agree on the wording.
“Academics and experts have suggested amendments to this bill to most of us here, I think,” Independent Senator Rosemary Moodie told Holland at a meeting of the Senate’s social affairs committee.
Holland appeared before the committee as it considers the bill. He said he respects the role of the Senate, but that the pharmacare legislation is, in his view, “a little bit different.”
“It was balanced on a pinhead,” he told the committee.
“This is by far — and I’ve been involved in a lot of complex things — the most difficult bit of business I’ve ever been in. Every syllable, every word in this bill was debated and argued over.”
Holland also asked the senators to move quickly to pass the legislation, to avoid lending credence to Conservative critiques that the program is a fantasy.
When asked about the Liberals’ proposed pharmacare program for diabetes and birth control, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has often responded that the program isn’t real. Once the legislation is passed, the minister must negotiate with every provincial government to actually administer the program, which could take many months.
“If we spend a long time wordsmithing and trying to make the legislation perfect, then the criticism that it’s not real starts to feel real for people, because they don’t actually get drugs, they don’t get an improvement in their life,” Holland told the committee.
He told the committee that one of the reasons he signed a preliminary deal with his counterpart in British Columbia was to help answer some of the Senate’s questions about how the program would work in practice.
The memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and B.C. lays out how to province will use funds from the pharmacare bill to expand on its existing public coverage of contraceptives to include hormone replacement therapy to treat menopausal symptoms.
The agreement isn’t binding, and Holland would still need to formalize talks with the province when and if the Senate passes the bill based on any changes the senators decide to make.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s NDP are accusing the government of prioritizing landlords over residents who need an affordable place to live, as the opposition party tables a bill aimed at addressing the housing crisis.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender took aim at the Progressive Conservatives Wednesday ahead of introducing two new housing bills, saying the government “seems to be more focused on helping wealthy developers than everyday families.”
The Minister of Service Nova Scotia has said the government’s own housing legislation will “balance” the needs of tenants and landlords by extending the five per cent cap on rent until the end of 2027. But critics have called the cap extension useless because it allows landlords to raise rents past five per cent on fixed-term leases as long as property owners sign with a new renter.
Chender said the rules around fixed-term leases give landlords the “financial incentive to evict,” resulting in more people pushed into homelessness. She also criticized the part of the government bill that will permit landlords to issue eviction notices after three days of unpaid rent instead of 15.
The Tories’ housing bill, she said, represents a “shocking admission from this government that they are more concerned with conversations around landlord profits … than they are about Nova Scotians who are trying to find a home they can afford.”
The premier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also included in the government’s new housing legislation are clearer conditions for landlords to end a tenancy, such as criminal behaviour, disturbing fellow tenants, repeated late rental payments and extraordinary damage to a unit. It will also prohibit tenants from subletting units for more than they are paying.
The first NDP bill tabled Wednesday would create a “homelessness task force” to gather data to try to prevent homelessness, and the second would set limits on evictions during the winter and for seniors who meet income eligibility requirements for social housing and have lived in the same home for more than 10 years.
The NDP has previously tabled legislation that would create a $500 tax credit for renters and tie rent control to housing units instead of the individual.
Earlier this week landlords defended the use of the contentious fixed-term leases, saying they need to have the option to raise rent higher than five per cent to maintain their properties and recoup costs. Landlord Yarviv Gadish, who manages three properties in the Halifax area, called the use of fixed-term leases “absolutely essential” in order to keep his apartments presentable and to get a return on his investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
