Don’t be so quick to sign away privacy rights in the face of the pandemic
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared data is “a new superpower” to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically “the ability to gather and share data for good.” Zuckerberg and other tech giants are offering their services to track the pandemic’s progression using social media data and trace the contacts of infected […]
Canadians shouldn’t have to give up privacy rights to prevent the spread of COVID-19
As governments around the world look for strategies to slow the spread of COVID-19, there have been increasing questions about how Canada will do the same. One common acknowledgement is that in order to lift mass isolation measures while containing the spread of the virus, jurisdictions must have robust systems for testing and rapid contact […]
Canada can take clean stimulus lessons from Obama
“This is a meaningful, shovel-ready project that will create jobs for local workers.” This 2009 quote, from then-prime minister Stephen Harper announcing federal stimulus dollars for a new highway passing lane in Nova Scotia, pretty much sums up his government’s approach to pulling Canada’s economy out of recession a decade ago: if it’s ready to […]
House Speaker says Parliament can ‘eventually’ go fully virtual if necessary
House Speaker Anthony Rota says the House administration is prepared to carry out whatever recommendations MPs settle on as they chart out a course for holding virtual Commons sittings amid the global pandemic. In an appearance before the House Procedure and Affairs Committee, also known as PROC, on Monday, Mr. Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming, Ont.) said the […]
No hard date on 2020 budget release amid economic uncertainty over pandemic, says Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government doesn’t have a definitive timeline for its budget release due to the “tremendous” economic uncertainty posed by the coronavirus. In a briefing with reporters on Monday from Rideau Cottage, Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) did not rule out the possibility of releasing a budget in June, but said there […]
Ottawa should look to Vietnam amid strained relations with China
Shortages of personal protective equipment for Canada’s frontline health-care workers due to the COVID-19 crisis have prompted urgent steps to seek new supply chains. Initial efforts by Global Affairs Canada entirely focused on China, successfully sole sourcing an expected 145 million new N95 respirators. Canada should also swiftly engage with Vietnam – a partner of […]
Trump’s ‘Yellow Peril’ defence masks the West’s delay in grappling with pandemic
LONDON, U.K.—It was completely predictable that Donald Trump would try to blame China for the fact that at least 30 million Americans are unemployed and that nearly 70,000 Americans have already died of COVID-19. His polling numbers are down and the election is only seven months away. What else was he going to do? Blame […]
MacKay’s got a bigger problem than Erin O’Toole and bad French: Justin Trudeau
HALIFAX—Poor Peter MacKay. Five years ago, he made the strategic decision not to run in the 2015 election. In the business, it is called keeping your powder dry. MacKay knew that prime minister Stephen Harper had worn out his welcome with Canadians, and that the CPC would almost certainly go down to defeat in the […]
Biggest political victim of COVID-19 has been Conservative Party of Canada
OTTAWA—The biggest political victim of COVID has been the national Conservative Party. Lame duck leader Andrew Scheer continues to shoot from the lip in his criticisms of everything the government is doing to minimize impacts of the COVID 19 world pandemic. In the face of the pandemic, we have the unusual picture of provincial premiers […]
Feds should urgently test a representative sample of Canadians to gauge prevalence of COVID-19, say health and policy analysts
The federal government should urgently arrange a test of a scientifically representative sample of Canadians to determine the true prevalence of the COVID-19 infection and guide its efforts in the war against it which has caused the death of thousands of people in Canada and is threatening to push the economy into a recession, say […]
