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 […]
If this week’s dumb shrieking battles are any sign, this election won’t be pretty
OTTAWA—The past week provided a sadly predictable look ahead at this fall’s federal election. Dynamism was eschewed for dumb shrieking battles that we have seen a million times before and ultimately advance nothing but the same old partisan pepper spray. Sprinkle in the silly and you get a feel for what is coming our way. […]
Super powers cranking up interest in Arctic, Canada asleep at the switch
The world and Canadians, in particular, are asleep about the Arctic. All the super powers are cranking up their interest and asserting a presence in the Arctic. It is a huge, largely unmanned resource-rich territory that is indefensible and, in lieu of its riches, in a rapidly expanding global world, is likely the terrain for […]
Mike Pompeo just gave Canada’s 2019 election one of its more emotional issues, Arctic sovereignty
HALIFAX, N.S.—For a country obsessed with Russian interference in its national elections, Trumpty Dumpty’s America is doing a pretty good job of interfering in ours. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has just given Canada’s 2019 election one of its more emotional issues—Arctic sovereignty. Once again, at least for now, Justin Trudeau has fumbled the […]
Trying to derail serious climate change action will someday be viewed as the crime it is
OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer kept joking at the press gallery dinner the other night about the persistent questions about his party’s lack of a climate-change plan six months before a federal election. Yes, yes, it’s coming, he chuckled. This while newly elected Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, now considered the leader of the right-wing “opposition” to […]
Are Canadians really prepared to embrace Trumpian politics and give the Liberals an October surprise?
HALIFAX—Before anyone concludes that the “Little Potato” is about to be peeled, they should consider this question about Justin Trudeau’s possible demise: are Canadians really prepared to embrace Trumpian politics and give the Liberals an October surprise? Make no mistake about it, the federal Conservatives are banking on it, with a little help from their […]
Floods remind us we haven’t learned lessons of the past
OTTAWA—In 1791, after a century of habitation in the flat plains along the Saint Lawrence River, an earthquake hit the parish of Kamouraska, Que., damaging the church and some of the town’s buildings. The priest at the time, Joseph-Amable Trutault, called it a “sign from God” the parish should move. However, he had an ulterior […]
Quebec’s relationship with the oil industry: it’s complicated
The Lac-Mégantic disaster remained seared in Quebec’s consciousness. The train that exploded in July 2013—one example of the fiftyfold increase in oil-by-rail between 2009 and 2013—had come through the American Midwest, crossed into Canada at Windsor, then passed through Montreal before heading toward the Maine border to cut across the northern part of the state, […]
