🇨🇦🇺🇦 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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Supreme Court judge quits amid probe over alleged drunken fight

A Canadian Supreme Court judge being probed for alleged involvement in a drunken fight resigned on Monday, marking the first time a member of the top court has resigned amid questions of misconduct.

Russell Brown, appointed to the nine-judge court in August 2015, had stepped aside in February after reports emerged of a confrontation with a U.S. Marine veteran in an Arizona resort in late January.

The veteran told reporters that Brown had been drunk and made women at the resort feel uncomfortable. Brown denied this, saying the veteran was intoxicated and had punched him several times in the face without warning.

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Alberta wildfires increase again, threatening air quality and energy production

The number of wildfires burning in Alberta is on the rise again, hurting air quality across the region and threatening oil and gas production.

The province had 76 active wildfires, up from 71 on Friday, with 23 burning out of control, according to provincial data on Monday. Smoke from the blazes — which are most active in the central and western parts of the province — was set to drift south to Calgary on Tuesday, worsening the air quality into the “high risk” category, according to Environment Canada.

Some relief is expected in the coming days, with rain and cooler weather set to help firefighters.

The amount of land burned has risen to a record 1.4 million hectares in the province.

#Alberta #wildfires

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Majority side with N.B. premier on gender identity: poll

The numbers from a national poll collected by market research firm Leger in May show that Premier Blaine Higgs appears to be on the right side of public opinion.

🔹The poll suggests that 57 per cent agree that schools should have to tell parents about their child’s desire to change their gender or pronouns. Meanwhile, less than a fifth — 18 per cent — feel schools shouldn’t tell parents.

🔹The same poll also asked respondents whether schools should have to place classroom materials on gender identity and sensitive race-related topics on their websites ahead of time so that parents could view them. Roughly 47 per cent polled nationally said “yes.”

🔹Meanwhile, 51 per cent of respondents feel the public school system is “moving in the wrong direction” when asked generally about education.

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Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie to run for leader of Ontario Liberal Party

Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie has officially registered to run for leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Crombie is expected to formally announce her run at a press conference on Wednesday.

Earlier, Ontario Premier Doug Ford addressed the speculation that Crombie was considering a run, saying it would be a “slap in the face” to Mississauga residents for her to remain as mayor while running for Liberal leader.

Crombie later explained that exploring a leadership bid with the Ontario Liberal Party while remaining mayor would not present any conflicts — she would not back down from Ford either way.

#Ontario

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NDP tables pharmacare bill to pressure government

The NDP has tabled legislation to establish a universal single-payer pharmacare system in Canada.

"We believe no one should have to choose between buying their medication or buying their groceries, and this bill will move us towards that," party leader Jagmeet Singh said.

The creation of a national universal pharmacare program by the end of the year is a condition of the House of Commons supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and the NDP.

#healthcare

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