Dr. Theresa Tam claims climate change and capitalism are drivers of negative health

Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam named climate change, white supremacy, capitalism and racism as drivers of negative health.

In its latest report noscriptd, “What We Heard: Perspectives on Climate Change and Public Health Canada,” the government said it would be hard to improve public health without addressing these issues first.

The report is based on 21 one-on-one interviews with key public health “experts” across Canada with the aim of understanding the health impacts of climate change on Canadians.

“We heard that there is a central role for public health systems in climate change adaptation,” the report says. “We also heard that there is an urgent need to strengthen public health systems’ strategies to actively engage in decolonizing action, and embrace other systems of knowledge regarding human well-being and planetary health.”

#healthcare

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Singh proposes corporate tax hike tied to CEO-worker pay gap

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pitched a plan to increase corporate taxes based on the size of the gap between worker and CEO pay.

Singh said he was inspired by legislation U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders put forward in Congress two years ago.

The plan would raise the corporate income tax on a sliding scale, depending on the ratio between the pay of a company's CEO and the median pay of the company's workers.

House of Commons rules forbid private members' bills from making changes to taxation, with an exception for bills that create exemptions from new taxes or new tax increases. Singh did not say how he would get around the rule, adding he hasn't drafted the bill yet.

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📈Quebec committee recommends over 20% pay increase for politicians

A committee is recommending that the salaries of elected officials in Quebec be increased by $30,000 per year. If the recommendation is implemented, the annual salary of MNAs would rise from $101,561 to $131,766.

Ministers' salaries, meanwhile, would rise from $177,732 to $230,591. Premier François Legault would earn $270,120. His salary is currently $208,200.

The report states that MNAs spend an average of 63 hours a week at work and ten hours a week on business travel.

Québec Solidaire is opposed to this salary increase. The party said it is not up to elected officials to vote on their own working conditions.

#Quebec

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Trudeau calls for more negotiations amid union strike

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is urging the union representing striking federal public servants to quickly hash out a deal to avoid serious service disruptions.

Trudeau said the government tabled an offer Monday but the union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, hasn't responded to it.

PSAC is demanding a 13.5 per cent pay increase over three years (4.5 per cent annually). Some bargaining units are asking for more than that. For example, tax agency workers want a pay bump of 22.5 per cent.

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Demand for food banks reaches record high levels in Ontario

Demand for food banks services continues to rise across Ontario amid the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and persistently high inflation.

In Toronto, for instance, the Daily Bread Food Bank fed more people in March than in any month in the organization’s 40-year history.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Daily Bread food bank had roughly 60,000 client visits a month. That doubled a year into the pandemic, and this past March reached 270,000.

Feed Ontario reported 4.3 million visits by close to 600,000 unique people in the province last year. Those numbers have only continued to spike throughout the first quarter of 2023.

#Ontario

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🛢Canada has the world’s third largest oil reserves

Canadian proven oil reserves are estimated at about 171 billion barrels, which makes Canada third largest oil-rich country, behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela (which accommodate approx. 300 billion barrels each).

Out of all Canadian oil reserves, 166 billion are found in Alberta's oil sands.

On a broader scale, Canada accounts for almost 10% of the world's proven oil reserves.

#facts #stats #Alberta

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First Nations take Quebec to court over Bill 96 'infringement of ancestral rights'

First Nations have launched a lawsuit against Quebec, arguing sections of the province’s language law should not apply to them because they infringe on ancestral rights and will lead to an exodus of their children.

Chief of the Mi’kmaq community of Gesgapegiag in the Gaspé says many of his community’s young people already head to other provinces because they lack credits for French courses required to get a Quebec high school diploma.

Among the other concrete effects of Bill 96, some communities are worried about being able to hire doctors from other provinces because of new language requirements.

Bill 96 was the biggest language overhaul since Bill 101 was adopted in 1977. The wide-ranging legislation affects everything from education and health care to how businesses operate to the workings of the court system.

#Quebec

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Canada pledges $10 billion to Volkswagen to set up battery plant in Ontario

Canada pledged to provide Volkswagen AG with roughly $10 billion in financing over a decade to set up its first electric-vehicle-battery plant outside of Europe.

Volkswagen originally unveiled plans in mid-March to build the factory in southwestern Ontario, to take advantage of the Canada's rich raw materials and possibly cash in on U.S.-legislated incentives for green-tech investments in North America.

Canada presented a budget plan for the 2023-24 fiscal year last month, which covered the cost of Volkswagen's battery factory.

#Ontario

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💰$15M in gold and other valuables stolen in Toronto airport heist

Police are investigating after an air cargo container carrying nearly $15 million in gold and other valuables vanished from the Toronto Pearson international airport on Monday.

An aircraft that arrived at the airport in the early evening had been unloaded, with its cargo transported to a holding facility "as per normal procedure," police reports. What happened to the precious cargo once it was offloaded is a mystery.

The cargo was reported missing to the Peel Regional Police a short time later and an investigation was launched.

It is not clear exactly how much gold was inside the cargo container or what other valuables it held, but the worth might be estimated to be approximately over C$20 million (around $14.8 million).

#Ontario

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🇨🇦🇺🇦Canada to send another $39M in military aid to Ukraine

Canada is providing another $39 million in weapons and non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, additional to the aid announced earlier this month.

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the latest contribution during a meeting with counterparts from the U.S. and other allies in Germany.

The money will be used to buy 40 sniper rifles and ammunition from a Winnipeg company, and new radio sets for the eight Leopard 2 tanks that Canada has sent to Ukraine.

#Ukraine

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Twitter removes 'government-funded' label for CBC account

Twitter account for CBC no longer has any label attached to it describing the publications as “government-funded media,” as of Friday morning.

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🇨🇦🇺🇸9 people rescued near Manitoba border were part of human smuggling operation

The nine people detained trying to illegally cross from Canada into the U.S. earlier this week were part of a human smuggling operation, according to U.S. officials.

The group of nine men, (aged 19 to 46) had attempted to enter the U.S. through a wooded area near Sprague, in southeastern Manitoba.

They were found in flooded bog about 25 km southeast of Sprague just before 5 a.m. on Tuesday, after RCMP received an emergency phone call from one of the members of the group.

All nine were taken to hospital in distress after exposure to harsh weather conditions. The seven, all Mexicans, who have been released from hospital have now been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and will face deportation.

#US #border #Manitoba

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Montreal region prepares for flooding with significant rainfall on the way

Environment Canada said Saturday a series of low-pressure systems will bring significant rainfall amounts over western Quebec until Sunday morning. In southern and central Quebec, the heaviest rainfall is expected from Sunday to Monday.

“My teams are ready and so are municipalities,” Public Security Minister François Bonnaradel said via Twitter on Saturday morning.

He urged people who live in flood zones to “stay vigilant and stay informed.”

#Quebec

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🇸🇩Canadian diplomats to be evacuated from violence-stricken Sudan

Canadian diplomats in Sudan will be evacuated amid intensifying violence between the Sudan Armed Forced and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, according to a statement released by Global Affairs Canada on Sunday.

“The situation in Sudan has rapidly deteriorated making it impossible to safeguard the safety and security of our staff in Khartoum,” the statement reads. “After consulting with Canada’s ambassador to Sudan, the decision has been made to temporarily suspend our operations in Sudan.”

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🇨🇦🇺🇸Canadian official says government would 'work to provide' abortion pill to Americans if banned in US

Families Minister Karina Gould said in an interview that the Canadian federal government would attempt to assist American women gain access to the abortion pill mifepristone, in line with the law, in the event that the drug is banned in the U.S. Access to the drug in the U.S. is currently under a legal battle in the Supreme Court.

Addressing whether Canada has an ample supply of mifepristone, Gould said they are "not there yet" but that it is an issue the federal government is "thinking about" and actively "engaged on."

#US

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Large number of Toronto voters undecided on next mayor

A new poll indicates that Toronto residents are still unsure who they want as the next mayor.

Polling Canada revealed the results of a survey that asked 1,246 Torontonians who they would vote for in the upcoming June 26, 2023, by-election.

It showed that 43 per cent of those polled were undecided heading into the summer.

▪️Olivia Chow topped the list, with 13 per cent, followed by city councillor Josh Matlow (12 per cent) and former police chief Mark Saunders (11 per cent).

▪️City councillor Brad Bradford came in at 10 per cent, while former councillor Ana Bailão and MPP Mitzie Hunter were at five per cent. Anthony Perruzza and Anthony Furey were each at one per cent, respectively.

#Ontario

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🐥Someone stole 30,000 chicks from Ontario farm

Police are investigating after approximately 30,000 chicks were allegedly stolen from a farm in South Huron. According to the Ontario Provincial Police, the value of the loss is $42,000.

Police were notified about the theft last week, and the chicks were reportedly stolen sometime between late afternoon and early morning on April 19 and 20.

#Ontario

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Most Canadians oppose recognizing King Charles as head of state

The not-for-profit research organization surveyed 2,103 Canadians, asking them how they felt about several aspects of the Monarchy, the Royals and Canada’s relationship with them.

🔹Most Canadians polled (63 per cent) said in the past they viewed Queen Elizabeth II positively, meanwhile, only 28 per cent say they like King Charles.

🔹People over the age of 54 are more likely to have a positive opinion about Charles, while those under 35 years old are more likely to have the opposite impression of him.

🔹When Elizabeth died, about half (48 per cent) of Canadians polled supported Charles taking the crown. Now 60 per cent oppose recognizing him as Canada's official head of state.

🔹Similar proportions of people say they don’t want to swear an oath to him (64 per cent), sing “God Save the King” at ceremonies (64 per cent) and don’t want his face on Canadian currency (62 per cent).

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Appeal Court strikes down B.C. law that allows social workers to access parents' medical files

The B.C. Court of Appeal has struck down part of a B.C. law that allows social workers to secretly obtain the medical and psychiatric records of mothers and fathers to determine if they were fit to parent after a constitutional challenge under Canada’s illegal search and seizure laws.

The Appeal Court in the decision gave the provincial government 12 months to fix the law.

#BritishColumbia

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Vancouver police report crime reduction after encampment is removed from Downtown Eastside

Nearly three weeks after the City of Vancouver decided to clear out encampment in the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver police say they’ve noted crime reduction.

In two weeks since April 5, the day the operation began, there has been just one robbery and one assault in the embattled neighbourhood, no reported sexual assaults, and a 10-point drop in street-level assaults compared to March, police states.

Since the process began, police has maintained an increased presence in the neighbourhood and ramped up foot patrols to keep the peace.

#BritishColumbia

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Over half of Manitoba healthcare workers have considered quitting

More healthcare workers in Manitoba are dealing with burnout and thinking of quitting than elsewhere in Canada, according to a report commissioned by the provincial government.

🔹The report says two-thirds of healthcare staff are experiencing burnout.

🔹More than half have seriously thought about looking for a new job. The number reaches 67 per cent among nurses.

The report suggests these issues are driven by factors mostly out of individual employees' control, such as their workload, shifts and management, many of which existed well before the pandemic.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont questioned why this report, completed more than a year ago, was only recently made public, adding that it contains tangible ideas that could be implemented in a matter of months to help healthcare workers.

#Manitoba

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