EDMONTON — Alberta’s Opposition NDP leader says Premier Danielle Smith has made the province an international embarrassment by proclaiming those who didn’t get vaccinated during COVID-19 endured the worst discrimination she’s seen in her lifetime.
Rachel Notley says the United Conservative Party premier needs to withdraw the comment, apologize and be clear about where she stands on previous controversial statements, including that smoking isn’t necessarily bad for your health and about patients having control over whether they get early-stage cancer.
“Over the last 48 hours, I’ve been overwhelmed by thousands and thousands of folks reaching out to me who feel deeply hurt and frankly a little fearful as a result of the comments coming from our new premier,” Notley said Thursday.
“We understand that hundreds of thousands of Albertans face discrimination each and every day because of characteristics over which they have no choice.”
Notley said the story has made international headlines, including one published online earlier Thursday in the U.S.-based Forbes magazine, which is published in various editions around the world.
“This is a story about Alberta in one of the world’s most well-read economic publications,” said Notley.
“It is a story that hurts Alberta’s reputation, and we will now have to spend months undoing it.”
Smith, 51, made the discrimination comment at a news conference Tuesday, hours after she was sworn in as premier.
“(The unvaccinated) have been the most discriminated-against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime,” she said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from their job or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey or not allowed to go visit a loved one in long-term care or hospital, not allowed to get on a plane to either go across the country to see family or even travel across the border.”
Minority groups, health professionals and some premiers across Canada condemned the remarks as ridiculous and insensitive, pointing out that in Smith’s lifetime there was still forced sterilization, residential schools and bans on gay marriage.
As furor escalated Wednesday, Smith’s office issued a statement clarifying that she did not seek to minimize the experiences of other discriminated groups. The statement did not withdraw her original comment or offer an apology.
Smith’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Smith won the leadership of Alberta’s governing UCP last week to become the new premier on a promise of no more vaccine mandates or health restrictions that violate personal liberties.
A former journalist, Smith stated in early 2021: “My entire adult life and career has been spent questioning authority and institutions and conventional wisdom.”
In a May 2003 column for the Calgary Herald newspaper, she questioned whether smoking is harmful to one’s health. “The evidence shows moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease by 75 per cent or more,” she wrote.
In October 2012, as leader of the Opposition Wildrose Party, Smith said those in poverty should be fed beef tainted with E.coli, so the unsellable product didn’t go to waste.
“We all know meat can be safely eaten if cooked properly,” Smith tweeted.
As a radio talk show host in 2020, she retweeted — and later apologized for doing so — a false claim that the drug hydroxychloroquine could defeat COVID-19. A year later, she backed ivermectin, a livestock anti-parasite medication, which was touted and later debunked as a possible COVID-19 cure.
This past July, during the UCP leadership campaign, Smith released a video of her interview with a naturopath in which Smith says responsibility for early-stage cancer is within a person’s control. Patients and health professionals called the comment profoundly misinformed and cruel.
Smith’s leadership opponents criticized her, including one who had lost his son to cancer, and she apologized for the hurt she had caused.
She said she had expressed herself “awkwardly” and meant to say preventive health measures are just one more way to combat early-stage cancer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2022.
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.
