Canadian News

Trail’s Garrit Charlie Ciardullo, 23, was accused of one count of secretly observing or recording for a sexual purpose and one count of making or publishing child pornography.

The Alberta Court of Appeal issued a decision Thursday in the case against Joseph Donald Skelly, overturning a previous sentence that would have seen the retired butcher serve his time at home.

The Future of Sport in Canada Commission's first of nine stops is Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 is in Toronto and the last is Dec. 10-13 in Halifax.

Crown lawyers at the sentencing for the former student who pleaded guilty in the 2023 non-fatal stabbings in a University of Waterloo gender-studies class are asking for him to receive nine to 16 years in prison, hinging on whether the judge overseeing the hearing in Kitchener, Ont., determines if his actions amounted to terrorism.

In September, 2023, the B.C. government announced that letter grades were going away for all public school students from kindergarten to Grade 9.

A 22-year-old Calgary man, Kendall Joseph Raine, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and breaching a probation order.

Erin Ambrose was named defender of the year in the PWHL's inaugural season. Read More

I do not think, in my 40-plus years on this planet, there has been a Democratic presidential candidate who has so openly appealed to the right while so blatantly ignoring potential voters like myself, by which I mean leftists who willingly hold our noses and vote for Democrats to stop right-wing extremists—like Donald Trump—as I did in the last two presidential elections.

This election is different—most importantly because of Harris’s commitment to funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza (not to mention the branching out of the massacre to Lebanon and The Occupied West Bank) but also—and the two are certainly related—the Harris campaign’s courting of support from neoconservative warhawks.

When it comes to the genocide of Palestinians, the Harris campaign has sought to silence if not antagonize anti-genocide voters—even Democrats and Democrat-friendly activists. Probably the most notable example of this was refusing to have a Democrat Palestinian-American speaker at this past August’s Democratic National Convention, even though several anti-Trump Republicans spoke at the convention. 

Since Harris accepted the nomination to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, she has made it clear she will continue to arm Israel while framing the daily massacre as the nation’s “right to defend itself.” The anti-genocide movement has further had to have our intelligence insulted by Harris surrogates that she is—with zero evidence to support this claim—working behind the scenes for a ceasefire (in Gaza). More recently the Biden-Harris administration has stated that if Israel does not allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, they will cease supplying weapons–in thirty days. In other words, two weeks after the election. Given that Israel has also crossed every “redline” that Biden claimed would be cause for pulling military support, this threat rings quite hollow. Harris has said and done nothing to show she would actually hold Israel to any more accountability than her predecessor. 

Harris’s response to voters who demand a genuine commitment to a permanent and just ceasefire has been, in one form or another, what she said, a couple of months ago to Salma Hamamy and Zainab Hakim, two young Pro-Palestinian activists who disrupted a rally: “(shut-up), I’m speaking.”

In the last few weeks of the campaign, Harris has focused almost exclusively on gathering support from the right. The campaign has touted that they have received the endorsement of over 200 Republicans, including very openly embracing the support of one of the most despised figures to hold political office in recent American history: former vice president and one of the central architects of the Iraq war Dick Cheney. 

Campaigning with Cheney’s daughter, Republican and former congress member Liz Cheney, Harris publicly thanked Dick Cheney for “his support and what he has done to serve this country”—signaling to neoconservatives warmongers—disenchanted with the isolationist rhetoric of Trump—they have a new home in the Democratic party. Notably, Harris has also received and touted the endorsement of another George W. Bush administration alumnus: former attorney general and torture apologist Alberto Gonzales. And last week she announced she would, as president, have a bipartisan committee (Democrats and Republicans) advising her on policy. 

Notably, Harris is not just accepting anti-Trump Republican endorsements, she is actually positioning herself if not to the right of Trump on immigration than close to it. 

The Harris campaign lately reminds me of Biden’s 2019-2020 Democratic Primary campaign on acid. Biden, back then, suggested his strong relationships with Republicans over his decades-long senate career showed he could “reach across the aisle” to get things done. Harris is saying, it seems, there isn’t much need to reach across the aisle to Republicans if you become them. 

It is difficult to parse out how much this courting of Republicans represents Harris’s ideology or how much is merely an electoral strategy. There is an argument to be made for a kind of “popular front” against Trump, who I believe does pose a real threat to seriously undermine what little democracy is truly left in America—and certainly there is much to be worried about in terms of, among many other progressive concerns, reproductive rights and the rights of LGBTQ+ folks.

While it is true that there are some disaffected suburban independents and Republicans—whose votes are up for grabs—it is also the case that few Americans, historically, tend to vote on foreign policy. In other words, committing to not funding Israel as long as it commits war crimes—for instance—may lose Harris the endorsement of Dick Cheney, but not most centre-right voters. It is additionally difficult to see how touting endorsements of former cabinet members of one of the most unpopular White Houses in modern American history is a good strategy rather than indicative of, at least when it comes to foreign policy, of an ever rightward shifting Democratic Party that has the hubris to be so unapologetically hawkish—at home and abroad—while having the audacity to believe they can count on their progressive base to turn out in big enough numbers for them to win. 

At some point the progressive and liberal Democratic base will have to reckon with the fact that they care more about beating Trump than their own party.

A popular front strategy, if it were genuine—that is, if the Dems thought Trump must be beaten at all costs to defend the republic—would denounce Israel’s many violations of international law and cut funding off because of them. That would not be enough for someone as far left as me, but quite possibly is enough for traditionally Democrat Muslim-American voters in the must win rustbelt swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. In those states, anti-genocide Green Party candidate Jill Stein is, according to polls resoundingly outperforming Harris among Muslim-Americans. The Harris campaign’s response, rather than acknowledge these voters and address their concerns, was to invest in television attack ads against Stein. I would not say that was the last straw, but it only strengthened my resolve to vote for her over Harris.

Jill Stein is far from a perfect candidate and of course has a zero percent chance of winning the election, but in a significant way, voting for her is a vote to keep the Democratic Party from sliding completely into the neocon abyss, or at least a refusal to reward them for doing so. 

More importantly this election—though the Harris campaign has had every opportunity to avoid this—is now, in large part, a referendum on genocide. As Stein is the only anti-genocide candidate who is on the ballot in the majority of states, a vote for her is the best/only way to register a “no” to genocide vote. To state, as liberal Democrat supporters tend to do, that Trump will be worse when it comes to Gaza, obfuscates this point. 

And while my vote in Ohio, because it is a red state, only matters symbolically (and may not be counted as Stein is currently in a legal battle over this due to an attempt, based on a technicality, to disenfranchise everyone who has already voted for her), I want to be clear about this: I would vote for Stein in a swing state if I could. A campaign to withhold votes on genocide can only succeed, in the long-run, if you follow through with the threat.

I don’t think losing this election will change the Democratic Party’s approach to Palestine (though it might have some impact), but there is a principle here that is more important than this or any election: and that is civilization hinges on the agreement that there is no greater crime than genocide. And each generation that is confronted with genocide owes it, not only to the victims of it, but to history (including in honouring the victims of the Holocaust) to never condone or excuse it. I think American society, in the long term, is headed in a disastrous direction (one even worse than what a Trump presidency can bring) if there is an exception to this.

The post Kamala Harris told me not to vote for her, so I’m not going to (and why that isn’t just a protest vote) appeared first on rabble.ca.

Susan Holt, New Brunswick's premier-designate, met with her newly elected Liberal team on Thursday and announced their top priorities for the coming weeks.

QUEBEC — With Premier François Legault rising to the defence of private religious schools, the Coalition Avenir Québec government Thursday defeated a joint Parti Québécois-Liberal effort to end public financing of such schools in the name of secularism. Read More

The Ottawa Redblacks will be without their most outstanding player when they host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Friday's regular-season finale. Read More

Bloc MP Stéphane Bergeron announced Thursday he will not be a candidate in the next federal election. Read More

Montreal police say four teenagers were stabbed during a Thursday afternoon altercation in a St-Michel alleyway and that two of them have been arrested. Read More

QUEBEC — At least 150 members of the CSQ union have lost their jobs in connection with the reduction in francization services in Quebec, 46 others saw their tasks affected by the reduction in supply, a union spokesperson says. Read More

Montreal police say four teens were stabbed in the altercation, which began around 1 p.m., on Villeray Street in the Saint-Michel neighbourhood, near John F. Kennedy High School. Two teens now face assault charges.

QUEBEC CITY — Ottawa’s plan to lower the number of new permanent residents is “not enough,” Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Bérubé told reporters Thursday at the National Assembly. The remarks came as the party is set to unveil its immigration plan on Monday. Read More

Ottawa homicide detectives are looking for public assistance to track down a car they suspect was involved in the stabbing homicide last month of Dale Lusk in the village of Metcalfe. Read More

Unions representing federal employees are calling on the House of Commons to investigate a new mandate requiring workers to be in the office three days a week.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers, federal and otherwise, were moved from in-person offices and spaces to remote work settings.

Some employees were hired with the understanding that they could work remotely. Others took the opportunity to move away from the city to rural areas, for a number of reasons – not the least of which was a more affordable cost of living.

Over the past year, the Treasury Board, which manages federal employees, has been slowly trying to reintroduce in-office requirements for some federal employees.

In September of this year, a new mandate came into effect requiring some federal employees, notably those working in Ottawa, to be in the office three days a week.

Evidence doesn’t support return to office

Earlier this month, through an Access to Information request, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) learned that the Treasury Board’s own research did not conclusively support a return to office mandate.

READ MORE: PSAC angered by internal Treasury Board documents on telework

According to the Treasury Board’s own research remote work can improve job satisfaction, work-life balance, general well being and efficiency. Remote work also has benefits for employers who can reduce input costs by reducing the need for offices while also expanding the pool of potential employees.

“This government once had a vision to build a modern, productive, and inclusive public service, but they’ve thrown it all away for no valid reason,” said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe welcomed the return to office for federal workers, citing the support it would bring to local businesses.

“The federal government’s the major employer in Ottawa, and so, they have a responsibility to the city and Canada’s capital to make sure we don’t have a hollowed out downtown core with a lot of boarded up storefronts,” Sutcliffe said in an interview with the CBC.

Return to office botched: says unions

Both PSAC and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), which also represents federal workers, are calling on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates to investigate the Treasury Board’s three-day a week in office mandate and how that was implemented.

A statement from CAPE reads:

“CAPE’s members and other federal public sector workers have reported widespread failures in this mandate affecting their productivity and ability to do their jobs. This includes, but is not limited to, insufficient workspaces; inadequate equipment; insufficient lockers; limited meeting and collaboration spaces; health and safety violations; noisy office environments; privacy concerns from unprecedented surveillance measures; impact on stress and anxiety; work-life balance; and employee morale.”

In a letter to Marc-Olivier Girard, clerk for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, PSAC said that not only did the return to office mandate contradict the federal government’s plan to reduce its office footprint by 50 per cent by 2034, but that also it contradicted the Treasury Board’s own research on the matter.

“While claiming to prioritize ‘fairness,’ the government has imposed a one-size-fits-none

mandate on the entire public service, even though their own research acknowledges

that this approach is ineffective,” the PSAC letter reads.

The post Calls to investigate federal government’s office mandate for workers appeared first on rabble.ca.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe wants to limit protests around places of worship, schools and other institutions, to make people feel safe, but we should reject the idea. It is a slippery slope we should avoid. Read More

The numbers don't lie where Kirby Dach is concerned — and unfortunately they paint a bleak picture. Read More