Hello,
Yet another minister in New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative government has quit their post, escalating the continuing leadership challenge to Premier Blaine Higgs.
Trevor Holder, the legislature’s longest-serving MLA and a minister under three different Progressive Conservative premiers, announced his exit in an open letter on Friday as minister of postsecondary education, training and labour.
“Under the leadership of Premier Higgs, caucus has been less about consensus and more about him getting his own way,” Mr. Holder said in the letter.
Mr. Higgs’s exit follows the resignation of Dorothy Shephard last week as social development minister over a new policy about LGBTQ2S+ students in provincial schools. The new policy will see teachers no longer be obligated to use the preferred pronouns or names of transgender or non-binary students under age 16.
The situation has grown into a sustained challenge to Mr. Higgs, who has been premier since 2018. Mr. Holder’s letter was released just after four past presidents of the party called for the premier’s immediate resignation, saying he is failing in governing the province.
On Wednesday, The Canadian Press reported that 26 out of 49 current riding presidents signed letters asking for Mr. Higgs to step down.
In a tweet on Thursday, Mr. Higgs denounced the “strategically planned political drama that is now unfolding,” and added that he stands by his LGBTQ2S+ policy.
Amid the conflict over the leadership of the province, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will be in Saint John on Monday, holding a meet-and-greet event with supporters in the evening.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
BCE ASKS CRTC TO DROP LOCAL-NEWS REQUIREMENTS – BCE Inc.’s media arm is asking the federal telecommunications regulator to waive local-news requirements for its television stations, saying its obligations are based on outdated market realities. Story here.
FACEBOOK TO BLOCK NEWS ACCESS IN CANADA AS BILL C-18 PASSES – Facebook says it plans to follow through with its threat to end millions of Canadians’ ability to access and share news on its platform, as the federal government’s Online News Act gained royal assent. Story here.
FEDERAL COURT UPHOLDS LOBBYING WATCHDOG’S RULING THAT CLEARED TWO FORMER FREELAND AIDES – The Federal Court has upheld a ruling by the Lobbying Commissioner that cleared two former political aides of Chrystia Freeland of breaching lobbying rules. Story here.
SIKH LIBERAL MPS MEET WITH PUBLIC SAFETY MINISTER OVER SURREY, B.C. KILLING – Member of Parliament Sukh Dhaliwal says the shooting death of a religious leader in the parking lot of a British Columbia temple has prompted a meeting with Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and members of the Sikh Liberal caucus. Story here.
FORMER MAYORS TALK ABOUT CHANGES IN THE JOB – The Globe and Mail spoke recently with the former mayors of Edmonton, Hamilton, Ottawa, Victoria and Winnipeg, all of whom left office within the past two years, about how the job has changed and the toll of governing during a pandemic. Former Toronto mayor John Tory also agreed to a rare interview, though he would not answer questions about the circumstances of his departure. Story here.
CALLS TO DISPLAY AIR INDIA WRECKAGE – Friday marks the 38th anniversary of the tragedy, and some with the Air India Victims’ Families Association are calling on Canadian authorities to publicly display the remains of the aircraft. They want to ensure the worst mass murder in the country’s history won’t be forgotten. Story here.
QUALTROUGH PROMISES QUICK WORK ON DISABILITY BENEFIT – Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough says officials plan to work quickly on the details of a new multibillion-dollar Canada Disability Benefit following Parliament’s approval this week of Bill C-22, but the first payments to individuals are still about 1½ years away. Story here.
NEWLY ELECTED CONVERVATIVE IN OXFORD PLAYS TORY CONFLICT DOWN – Conservative Arpan Khanna, who won this week’s by-election in the Ontario riding of Oxford, is de-emphasizing conflict among local party members. The interview by The London Free Press can be found here.
POLICY STANDS OF TORONTO MAYORAL CANDIDATES – As Toronto residents prepare to elect a new mayor on Monday, there’s a Globe and Mail explainer here on where the candidates stand on key issues.
INSIDE THE MASSIVE RENOVATION OF CENTRE BLOCK – The federal department in charge of billions of dollars in renovations and upgrades to the Centre Block complex of Parliament Hill has opened the door to the project, taking journalists on a tour of the building that is now more a construction site than venue for government. Story here.
VIOLENT CRIME UP IN NATION’S CAPITAL – Violent crime is up in the nation’s capital, with the increase driven by a rise in assaults, threats and robberies, Ottawa police say. Story here from CTV.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – The House of Commons is now on a break until Sept. 18. The Senate resumes sitting on Sept. 19.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER’S DAY – Chrystia Freeland attended private meetings in Toronto.
MINISTERS ON THE ROAD – Filomena Tassi, the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario, was scheduled, in Hamilton, to announce a contribution to the arts sector on behalf of Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. Rural Economic Minister Gudie Hutchings, in Burgeo, Newfoundland and Labrador, was scheduled to make an announcement on protecting and conserving marine and coastal waters along the South Coast.
MARCO MENDICINO’S PRESS SECRETARY EXITS – Audrey Champoux, press secretary to embattled Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, is departing her post. In a tweet here, Ms. Champoux said Friday is her last day on the job. Next week, she said she will be starting a new role as press secretary to Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
CHANGING OF PRIVY COUNCIL CLERKS – Privy Council Clerk Janice Charette is retiring from the public service on Saturday after a 40-year career. John Hannaford, who has been a deputy minister of Natural Resources, is replacing her on the same day. Mr. Hannaford, a former Canadian ambassador to Norway, joined the federal public service in 1995. The Privy Council Clerk, who is deputy minister to the prime minister and head of the federal public service, offers non-partisan, public-policy advice to the prime minister and cabinet on managing Canada. Details here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Ottawa, attended private meetings and then attended private meetings in Vaudreuil, Que. Also, in Vaudreuil, the Prime Minister visited a local farm in Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot. In Montreal, Mr. Trudeau, joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, participated in activities for la Fête Nationale du Québec.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is travelling and in meetings.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Marieke Walsh, The Globe’s senior political reporter, explains how a number of federal ministers have missed crucial communications and what this says about competency in the federal government. The Decibel is here.
TRIBUTE
Marion Reid, the first female lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward Island and a member of the Order of Canada, has died at the age of 94. Story here from CBC.
OPINION
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how the best thing the government could do to save the media is to stop trying to save the media: “It would be ironic, to say the least, if a bill purporting to save the Canadian news media were instead to hasten its demise. But that seems to be where we are heading with Bill C-18, the Online News Act. You will recall the premise of the bill. How could you not? It has been pummelled into the public by a thousand media reports – the same media, as it happens, that had so strenuously lobbied for it.”
Tanya Talaga (The Globe and Mail) on Finding Annie: How I reclaimed my kin, in a forgotten cemetery outside Toronto: “Just off the side of one of Canada’s busiest highways, between the popular Sherway Gardens shopping mall and a hulking IKEA store, lie the remains of 1,511 people. This patch of land off Ontario’s Gardiner Expressway was once the Lakeshore Cemetery, which was primarily the burial place for those who died in a nearby hospital between 1890 to 1974. That institution, which closed in 1979, had many names during its existence – the Mimico Insane Asylum, the Mimico Hospital for the Insane, the Ontario Hospital, the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital – but for too many, it was a place of nightmares, rife with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, and with staff who engaged in electric-shock therapy, insulin-shock therapy and lobotomies. It is believed that dozens of Indigenous peoples are buried under the cemetery’s sloped, uneven grass, in unmarked plots, 3 feet by 8 feet long. They lie here alone, far from their homes, their languages, their ways of life. When they died, they were dismissed as indigents; many were placed in plots without markers. I know this, because I now know that my great-great-grandmother, Annie Gauthier, rests here.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Quebec Premier Premier François Legault’s coalition with God: “As Quebeckers prepare to celebrate their June 24 Fête Nationale with parades and concerts, Mr. Legault’s tweets raise questions about just who, really, is invited to the party. Under the current Premier – whose Coalition Avenir Québec seeks more autonomy for the province within Canada and promises never to hold a referendum on sovereignty – Quebec has embraced a peculiar form of separation of church and state. In short, the province’s Catholic traditions are seen to be an integral part of its identity – to be cherished and celebrated – while other religions are unwelcome in the public sphere.”
Sylvain Charlebois (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how, in a price-fixing case, the $50-million fine on Grupo Bimbo’s Canada Bread was a hollow victory: “While the blame for inflated food prices in recent months has been unjustifiably directed at grocers and the food industry, the story is different for the bread-fixing scandal, for which a long-awaited development came on Wednesday. Food inflation is a global phenomenon that affects the entire food ecosystem. However, the Canadian food industry exhibits a culture that inherently justifies collusive thinking and illegal price co-ordination.”
Shachi Kurl (The Ottawa Citizen) on not letting the Air India bombing fade from Canadians’ collective memory: “And while there is nothing we can do to change this shameful, painful past, we can look to the future and do better. The learning about the painful, tragic and unjust legacy of our country’s residential schools shows us that we are indeed capable of educating ourselves about historic wrongs when we choose to. Here are some things you can do: read the 2010 report written by retired supreme court justice John Major, who led a public inquiry into the terrorist attack and its aftermath. Or read Bob Rae’s report from five years earlier, titled “Lessons to be Learned.” Because it is within our power to take on the lessons learned from past errors, rather than forget them. It’s our turn to step up.”
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