Over 20 municipalities take Quebec to court over French-language law

Almost two dozen municipalities with bilingual status in Quebec are taking the provincial government to court to challenge parts of the French-language law - Bill 96.

The coalition of 23 municipalities led by Cote-Saint-Luc is challenging five areas: contracts and communication, the obligation to adopt resolution to maintain bilingual status, alleged illegal searches and seizures, government grants and the alleged obligation to discipline employees.

The municipalities' legal case asks how valid and applicable the modifications to the French Language Charter are and how they might affect the rights and powers of municipalities with bilingual status.

#Quebec

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Quebec allows sick patients to request assisted death in advance

Quebec is expanding its program of assisted medical death (MAID) and will become the first Canadian province to allow sick people to put in an advance request for MAID before they become incapacitated.

The measure will permit people suffering from Alzheimer's and other serious diseases to apply for assistance in ending their lives while they are still deemed to be in control of their faculties.

The move could set up a clash with the federal government, which drew up the law on medical assistance in dying. Quebec Health Minister Sonia Belanger said she planned to have talks with Ottawa, given the law as it currently stands does not allow advance requests of the kind Quebec has approved.

Quebec was able to expand the program because while the federal government drafted the legislation, provinces are largely in control of healthcare.

#Quebec #MAID

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Poor air quality from fires expected to continue for at least a couple days

Smoke and flames continue to engulf much of Canada, with Alberta imposing new evacuation orders.

Air pollution from wildfires remained well above healthy levels across much of southern and northern Ontario and several communities in British Columbia and Alberta.

Forecasters expect moderately bad air quality on Friday and Saturday throughout most of Ontario. Moderately bad air quality is forecast for Edmonton and Calgary on Friday.

In British Columbia, air quality was expected to improve almost everywhere in the province except for Fort St. John.

#Alberta #Ontario #BritishColumbia #wildfire

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LGBT propaganda in Catholic press

The LGBT agenda has become so intrusive that it is now infiltrating even the most sacred aspects of our lives.

We got a photo from our subscriber of a magazine given out to Catholic teachers in Toronto. The May edition of Catholic Teacher features LGBT flags.

We've written before about how Ontario parents fight against school Pride events and even suсceed is some regions. But apparently, these efforts are not enough.

Footage from a Pride event at St. Matthew's School, and now this blatant LGBT propaganda among Catholic teachers — it's all part of an alarming trend.

If you have something to share, you can always reach us through @maplechronicles_bot

#Ontario

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🇨🇦🇺🇦 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes unannounced visit to Ukraine

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Kyiv on Saturday for a surprise one-day visit to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland joined him on the trip.

This is the second time that Trudeau has made an unannounced visit to Ukraine since February 2022.

#Trudeau #Ukraine

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❌ David Johnston resigns as special rapporteur into foreign interference

Former governor general David Johnston has said he will resign by the end of June as the Liberal government’s special rapporteur into foreign interference.

After months of controversy over his appointment, due to perceived conflicts of interest, Johnston released a letter late Friday afternoon announcing he would be quitting his role, saying his goal of strengthening democratic institutions was not being met.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced opposition pressure since early this year to call a public inquiry into serious allegations of foreign interference in Canada’s elections that could have benefitted the Liberal party.

Trudeau hired Johnston in March to look into the matter and determine whether a public inquiry was advisable.

In his first report, delivered May 23, Johnston recommended against a public inquiry and said he would instead personally chair a series of public meetings, involving the public and government officials, to discuss foreign interference.

#Trudeau

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🇨🇦🇺🇦 Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland are sending another $400 million to Ukraine

Meanwhile, the country is battling wildfires, a housing crisis, and high inflation. And it was Freeland who announced in March that the country would spend at least the next five years in deficit, and that Canada's total debt would grow by more than $50 billion. 

Someone needs to sort out their priorities.

#Trudeau #Ukraine

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Federal executives took in $1.3 billion in bonuses in 2015-2022, documents show

▪️It is reported that federal public servants — both executives and rank-and-file employees — received around $200 million in bonuses throughout the 2022-2023 fiscal year, despite criticism over failures to meet performance goals.

Most of those bonuses — $147 million worth — went to executive-level employees, while the balance went to those in lower position grades.

▪️The new documents, obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, list average annual bonuses for executives from 2015 to 2022 ranging between $15,550 to $18,252.

The federation says the annual cost to taxpayers to pay for these bonuses increased by 46 per cent: from $138 million in the 2015-16 fiscal year to nearly $202 million in 2022-23.

▪️Released in March, a report tabled by Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer said examinations of departmental results from across the public service show, over the past four years, that nearly a quarter of annual performance targets aren’t met.

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🇨🇦🇷🇺 Canada seizes Russian cargo plane at Toronto airport

The Canadian government has seized a Russian-registered cargo plane that has been grounded at Toronto Pearson Airport since Feb. 27, 2022.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says the Antonov 124 is owned by two entities which Canada recently imposed sanctions against.

The seizure was made possible by the new asset seizure and forfeiture authorities under Canada’s autonomous sanctions regimes put forward in Budget 2022.

This is the first physical asset seized by the Government of Canada under this regime, and second overall seized and restrained under the Special Economic Measures Act.

#Russia

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🇨🇦🇺🇦 Canada will send 76 Roshel Senator armored vehicles to Ukraine

As the Canadian government has announced a new aid package for Ukraine that includes 76 Roshel Senator armored vehicles, it is worth taking another look at how Roshel was able to secure this contract.

#Ukraine

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N.B. minister makes 3 changes to LGBTQ-related policy

Bill Hogan, New Brunswick's minister of education, unveiled three changes to Policy 713 related to LGBTQ students.

🔹It is no longer mandatory for teachers and staff to use 'preferred' names and pronouns of students under 16 without parental consent. Bill Hogan said this will allow teachers to "maintain professionalism," and not have to "do something contrary to parents' wishes."

🔹Sports and other activities are decoupled from gender identity. The updated policy says all students will be able to participate in curricular and extracurricular activities, removing the phrase "consistent with their gender identity." Hogan said the organizations that govern sports and extracurricular activities already have guidelines on this, and there's no reason "to get into the middle of that."

🔹The new policy specifies that the previously available gender-neutral washrooms are now required to be private. The same goes for universal changing rooms.

The changes to Policy 713 will come into effect on July 1.

#NewBrunswick

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🇨🇦🇺🇸🇲🇽 Canada joins US in trade dispute hearings against Mexico's proposed ban on GM corn

Canada said Friday it will join a trade dispute panel that the United States requested over Mexico’s proposed limits on imports of genetically modified corn.

The U.S. government asked that the dispute process be formally opened on June 2, after talks with the Mexican government failed to yield results.

The panel of experts would have about half a year to study the complaint and release its findings. Trade sanctions could follow if Mexico is found to have violated the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

Mexico wants to ban GM corn for human consumption, and perhaps eventually ban it for animal feed as well, something that both its northern partners say would damage trade and violate USMCA requirements that any health or safety standards be based on scientific evidence.

Mexico is the leading importer of U.S. yellow corn, most of which is genetically modified. Almost all is fed to cattle, pigs and chickens in Mexico, which doesn’t grow enough feed corn. Corn for human consumption in Mexico is almost entirely domestically-grown white corn.

🔎 Source
#Mexico #US #Canada

☠️ Blood Meridian

Bill 96 rules may be adjusted in wake of complaints, Legault says

Premier François Legault says he is willing to entertain adjustments to some of the new Bill 96 language law identification regulations that have irritated minorities.

“The strong signal we have to send is that services need to be given in French in Quebec except for the anglophone community and except for health-care services,” Legault said at a news conference wrapping up the winter sitting of the National Assembly.

Some English-speaking Quebecers are encountering difficulties accessing government website data that used to be readily available in English or finding government workers willing to speak English now that the law is in place.

#Quebec

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Canada's visaless entry system crashes, leaving many travellers stranded

The collapse of the website that processes Canada's Electronic Travel Authorizations (eTAs) has caused missed flights, stress and financial pain to many travellers trying to reach Canada.

This week, Canada expanded the number of countries eligible for the eTA system, which replaces a full visa requirement for countries whose citizens are considered at lower risk of overstaying. Travellers from these countries pay a $7 Cdn fee and fill out an online application in a process that would normally take just minutes.

IRCC appears not to have anticipated that adding 13 new countries with a combined population of over a quarter of a billion people would lead to a sudden surge in applications, but that's what happened.

A spokesperson for IRCC said the biggest spike in applications came from the Philippines.

Servers were overwhelmed and the collapse of the system affected not only applicants from the 13 new countries, but from others that were already in the eTA system.

According to passengers, the eTA site stopped working properly on Thursday. IRCC posted a tweet around noon on Friday acknowledging the problem.

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🔥Tracking air quality and smoke from wildfires

The New York Times released a smoke and air quality forecast map.

#wildfires

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Nova Scotia identifies thousands of stolen records in global security breach

Officials in Nova Scotia have identified thousands of files stolen in a global data breach affecting the personal information of at least 100,000 people in the province.

Cybersecurity and Digital Solutions Minister Colton LeBlanc said Friday that a number of current and former teachers were victims of the hack, as were students, inmates and even some newborn babies.

The breach of the MOVEit file transfer system, which the province uses to transfer employee payroll information, had affected current and former employees of the public service, including those at Nova Scotia Health and the IWK hospital. The information stolen included social insurance numbers, addresses and banking information.

The stolen information includes 55,000 records with names, addresses, dates of birth and years of service involving past and present teachers. Some 26,000 students aged 16 and older had information stolen, including their dates of birth, student ID numbers and civic and mailing addresses — data that was stored in a database shared with Elections Nova Scotia.

#NovaScotia

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🔥 Smoke from Canada’s wildfires has reached as far as Norway

Over the last few days, plumes of smoke have stretched from Canada across Greenland, Iceland and made their way to Norway.

Scientists at the Climate and Environmental Research Institute in Norway (NILU) have been able to detect the increase in smoke using very sensitive instruments and then confirm its origin using forecast modeling.

People in Norway may be able to smell and even notice the smoke as a light haze but, unlike parts of the US that have seen hazardous pollution, they should experience no health impacts, said a senior scientist at NILU.

Over the coming days, the plume is expected to spread across swaths of Europe but it’s unlikely people will be able to smell or notice the smoke.

#wildfires

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