As Toronto was getting ready in the first week of March to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Pakistan Minority Minister Shahbaz Bhatti's assassination, the Government of Pakistan hanged a man, Mumtaz Qadri, for the brutal murder of Punjab province's governor, Salman Taseer.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper's government issued 14 permits for work on the $9-billion Site C dam during the writ period of the last election -- a move that was offside according to people familiar with the project and the workings of the federal government.
To Canadian eyes, there is something both familiar and strange about the controversy surrounding President Obama's authority to name a replacement for Antonin Scalia. The issue is familiar because, last year, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Russell Brown to the Supreme Court of Canada only 6 weeks before the federal election (having announced that he would do so a few days before Parliament was dissolved). Examining both cases can help us learn key differences between our two governments.
Rather than engaging in a robust post-election rebuilding process and seeking to broaden its base, the Conservative party has decided to retreat into their comfort zone of regional grievance politics. Under the leadership of Rona Ambrose, the Conservatives appear to be abandoning any attempt to repair the national coalition that swept them to power in 2006. Indeed, today they look more like the Canadian Alliance of the early 2000s than the governing Conservatives of the last 10 years. The latest and most obvious example of this is the party's recent opposition day motion on the Energy East pipeline.
Now that the Trans Pacific Partnership has been signed, maybe we can have the honest, open and transparent debate that Canadians were denied during the federal election -- and which the new Liberal government in Ottawa has promised. So, let's have that debate. There's certainly a lot to talk about.
It took only a few minutes, but with a quick motion in the House of Commons last week, the new Liberal government moved to repeal two appalling pieces...
I respect the social conservative viewpoint but believe an insistence on it alienates a new generation of conservatives and winning potential. The conservative movement cannot afford to sacrifice the added value of this generation in lieu of social conservative ideological purity. To do so confines the movement to its base, and opposition.
At a time when our consumption of the news is at an all-time high, the very institutions at the heart of our news media are in crisis -- and demanding the attention of our political leaders. Postmedia combined newsrooms in Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver in a move that not only saw many talented and dedicated journalists pushed out the door, but also saw distinctive voices quieted.
Canada has a new government with a markedly different tone. Gone are the cardboard villains and divisive rhetoric. Despite voting for it, prime minister Trudeau promised that C-51 would be amended. However, because C-51 is deeply flawed the best approach is to scrap the legislation and start fresh.
I've been booking comedians for the past 35 years and I have always had the same requirement: They need to be funny. Gender, skin pigment, sexual o...
No matter how quickly information can now travel, or how many people are able to share it, when the next terrorist attack is developing at home or abroad, or the next time a public figure's lies need exposing, or even when your own community or job is facing down corporate interests, it won't be a stranger with a Twitter account sticking out their necks for you.
While it's so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh at it, it's also unjust, anti-democratic and something that Canada's new prime minister promised would never happen again. Last June, now-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled his party's environmental platform standing with his back to the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighborhood. With a withering critique that Stephen Harper's government had "chosen to be a cheerleader instead of a referee" when it came to pipelines, he promised a complete overhaul of the National Energy Board assessment process.
A woman can wear a burka or she can walk the streets stark naked (or anything in between). It doesn't matter! Her safety cannot be guaranteed in either case. What can be guaranteed is that if and when she is harmed, some people will make public their opinion about how what she was wearing contributed to the crime.
That a man like Kevin O'Leary, famous for his nasty turn on the CBC's Dragon's Den TV show, would consider himself a good candidate to lead the Conservatives exposes what the right wing in this country is truly all about. He as leader would at least be an honest admission by the right about their true values.
First it was the Liberals' failed promise to receive 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year. Thanks to Tory pit bulls on the Hill, Justin Trudeau has had to admit a delay of 60 long days in meeting his government's target. Who knows? The goal may now not even be reached until the end of March!
I am really confused by my government right now, because when it comes to climate action, it feels like I have two different governments. One government is in Paris, and their words on climate sound like the kind of ambition we need. The other one is in Ottawa, and its actions are looking more and more like the Harper government's on climate change.