Feds, Irving need to clean up their act and find a better PR move than threatening reporters
OTTAWA—Last week the Globe and Mail broke the story about Irving Shipbuilding being allowed to claim a $40-million industrial benefit for a french fry factory as part of a contract to build navy ships. As odd as this might sound, that was not the bizarre part of this news story. Shortly after the Globe and […]
Kenney’s and Ford’s shameless abuse of power, says reader
Re: “Kenney, Ford to spend $60-million on PR war against Trudeau’s carbon tax, and that ain’t right,” (The Hill Times, by Michael Harris, May 27, p. 4). I just want to say thank you for Michael Harris’ opinion piece about Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s and Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s shameless abuse of power. Conservatives are […]
For the love of Canada, vote responsibly, urges reader
It has become clear to me that today’s Ontario Progressive Conservative government is an oxymoron. You cannot be progressive and be conservative. Under the leadership of Doug Ford, the only thing progressive about the PC government is that it has become more and more progressively conservative. Not only is today’s PC government not progressive—it’s not […]
‘The model doesn’t make any sense’: Senators, Inuit orgs call for Nutrition North transformation
A federal program that subsidizes the cost of sending perishable food to remote communities has a “model that doesn’t make any sense” for northerners, according to Senators who live in the territories and the organizations that represent their communities. Following a new study that questioned the effectiveness in the program in Nunavut, some hope that […]
Defence update: Arctic offshore and patrol vessels and the Nanisivik Naval Facility
The first major naval vessels built in Canada since the mid-1990s are now beginning to emerge from the Halifax Shipyards. The Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPV), announced by prime minister Stephen Harper in 2007, are versatile ice-strengthened patrol ships that will be used for a variety of missions including coastal surveillance, SAR, drug interdiction, […]
Extremism is not far from home
It has barely been two months since the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand rocked the international community, and we now have local extremist groups who are using Quebec’s new secularism legislation, Bill 21, as an opportunity to further their message of intolerance. Extremism is not too far from home after all. Storm Alliance, a far-right group, appeared to […]
Anger in politics is neither appealing nor productive
KAMOURASKA, QUE.—May 20 marked 39 years since the first Quebec referendum, which resulted in a 60-40 rejection of the Parti Québécois bid for independence. I remember it well, as a member of the “Non” organizing committee. We had spent six weeks of gruelling 18-hour days, culminating in a 5 a.m. start on the day of […]
Time is ticking for MPs, Senators to pass human rights bills
There is an enormous amount of consequential human rights legislation approaching the parliamentary finish line. The time to get it across shrinks daily. Only four sitting weeks remain in this session of Parliament for MPs, five for Senators. Rather than return to Parliament in the fall, MPs will be out hustling for votes. That means […]
Feds should make like a hiker meeting a grizzly and speak to, not fight with, Alberta
PRIDDIS, ALTA.—In one of his most memorable songs, the folk- and country-music icon Ian Tyson sang of Springtime in Alberta as the time of snow melting, cattle branding, and the land reawakening after a long winter. This year, springtime in Alberta also heralded the arrival of the new United Conservative Party government, which is bound […]
No funding makes Indigenous child welfare bill ‘weak, deficient, and broken,’ witness says, but others urge MPs to ‘get it passed’
Regardless of whether witnesses testifying before a House committee studying the Indigenous child welfare bill thought it should live or die, all agreed the law lacked “critically important” funding that would make the intent of the bill hard to fulfill. One of four amendments brought forward by the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry […]
