Canada

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/04/29/If-Animals-Are-Conscious-What-About-Us/#

I met a Ukrainian today. He is my age. I met him at school drop off, our sons are in the same kindergarten class.

They recently arrived here from overseas. I welcome them, but I wish we had done more to help Ukraine.

There are numerous places in the world where people are being displaced by state violence, but I don't think there's anywhere that it's being done by a global power so directly. It's similar to Gaza/Palestine & Israel, but Russia can end the war by simply going home.

If we had been meeting our NATO obligations for the last 30 years, would this family have been driven out of their home? I don't know. (I actually know almost nothing about their personal circumstances)

I just feel like we should have done more, and that it's not too late.

A boycott targeting Loblaw is gaining momentum online, with what could be thousands of shoppers taking their money elsewhere in May.

Long lines are forming outside businesses with even a single job opening for a position such as cashier

REMEMBER BREXIT? That time a Conservative Party directed widespread voter frustration at a single easy scapegoat, smothered the public with misinformation, and were rewarded with their biggest electoral victory in decades? Something similar is happening today in Canada.

The scapegoat this time is the “carbon tax.” That’s actually just one part of a complex carbon-pricing policy that imposes a fuel charge on consumers and industry alike while delivering a rebate directly to most Canadians. The principle is simple: raise the cost of something and people find ways to use less of it. But it’s also ripe for slander, because the fine print is so complicated: the amount you pay and are reimbursed depends on where you live, how much you make, how big your family is, and what you do for a living. Plus, while the government calls it “carbon pricing,” most people know it simply as a “tax.”

In a video that's he's since deleted, Mehul Prajapati shared how he made use of a program at his school that provides food insecure students with free groceries weekly.

London Drugs said its stores across western Canada would be closed until further notice.

For several decades Canada’s population growth rate hovered at about 1.0 percent annually. This rate has more than tripled in a few short years, up to 3.3 percent in 2023.

Ontario is introducing a suite of measures that will crack down on cellphone use and vaping in schools.

Paying taxes on a half-million-dollar capital gain from a cottage or an investment property is a good problem to have

The number of Indians immigrating to Canada has more than quadrupled since 2013 due to policies aimed at attracting and retaining talent.

28/04/2024 — Over 40 years ago, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) passed a resolution to begin honouring April 28th as a memorial day for injured or

But there's an important difference between the sanctions announced against Palestinians and Iranians and the ones announced against Israelis — the ones against Israelis have not been gazetted and therefore never took effect.

Joly was asked Friday afternoon why Global Affairs only proceeded with the sanctions against Palestinians.

"We will be imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers," she replied. "We've said it and we'll do it."

Asked for a timeline, she said only that "it will be coming."

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre appears to have a new speech writer: the pharmaceutical lobby.

As the corporate lobby mounts an attack on the NDP and Liberal government’s new pharmacare program, Poilievre has been cribbing from their deceitful talking points.

The pharmacare program will provide free birth control and diabetes medicine to Canadians—and potentially pave the way for broader drug coverage under a universal, public, single-payer system.

That’s got the pharmaceutical and insurance industry panicked, since it would eat into their multi-billion dollar profits by lowering the exorbitant price of drugs.

They’ve turned to stoking fear and spreading outright lies about pharmcare, including by funding think tanks and institutes to amplify their attacks.

Despite once describing them as “crooked Big Pharma,” Poilievre has allied himself to their campaign.

Parsing his recent commentary in Parliament and interviews amounts to a quiz of “Who said it? Pierre or Pharma?”

The "who said it" section with side-by-side quotes from PP and lobbyists in the article is very demonstrative.

A charge against a Toronto man accused of flying what police called a "terrorist flag" at a pro-Palestinian demonstration earlier this year has been withdrawn.

A 41-year-old man was charged with publicly inciting hatred after marching down Queen Street W. and Bay Street on Jan. 7, allegedly waving the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The organization is listed as a terrorist group by Public Safety Canada, which says it seeks "the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a communist government in Palestine."

Martínez says the force's case hinged on the flag belonging to a group listed by the federal government as a terrorist group, which in and of itself isn't enough evidence for a conviction.

"It shows that the police acted not on a legal basis but on a political basis," he told CBC Toronto.

A CSIS officer's allegation that she was raped repeatedly by a superior in agency vehicles set off a harassment inquiry, but also triggered an investigation into her that concluded the alleged attacks were a "misuse" of agency vehicles by the woman.

She is the same officer whose sexual assault allegations in a story published by The Canadian Press prompted public pledges of reform last year from David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The officer said she was never told she was the subject of an investigation, or that it concluded she committed misconduct by using "service equipment" to conduct what the investigator's report said was a "romantic relationship with a colleague."

The woman said she believed the investigation was reprisal for her rape complaint, and she only found out about the probe this year, 10 months after its conclusion, when she made an access-to-information request for her personal information held by the service.

B.C. is taking action to make illicit drug use illegal in all public spaces, including inside hospitals, on transit and in parks.

The Province is working with the federal government to make changes to the legality of possessing drugs in B.C. This will provide police with the power to enforce against drug use in all public places, including hospitals, restaurants, transit, parks and beaches. Guidance will be given to police to only arrest for simple possession of illicit drugs in exceptional circumstances.

When police are called to a scene where illegal and dangerous drug use is taking place, they will have the ability to compel the person to leave the area, seize the drugs when necessary or arrest the person, if required.

This change would not recriminalize drug possession in a private residence or place where someone is legally sheltering, or at overdose prevention sites and drug checking locations.

The government will also improve safety and security for patients, visitors and health-care workers in hospitals. This includes a single policy prohibiting street-drug possession or use and additional measures to increase enforcement, support patients with addictions, and encourage them toward treatment and recovery.

Going forward, when patients are admitted to hospital, they will be asked if they experience any substance-use challenges. Patients will receive active support and medical oversight for addiction care to ensure people with addictions receive personalized care while their medical issues are being treated in hospital.

Quick Facts:

• B.C.’s three-year exemption under section 56(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize people who use drugs was first requested on Nov. 1, 2021, and enacted on Jan. 31, 2023.
• Since 2017, the Province has opened 600 publicly funded substance-use treatment beds throughout B.C.
• Since 2019, the Province has invested $35 million to support 49 community counselling agencies provincewide, and more than 250,000 free or low-cost counselling sessions have been delivered to individuals, couples and families.
• There are currently 50 overdose prevention sites around the province to provide people who use drugs with the tools and supports they need to use safely and connect to care.
• Almost half (24) of these sites provide inhalation services.