Freedom of Speech
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is speaking out after a panel with people alleged to have spread antisemitism is scheduled to happen on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.
The Palestinian General Delegation to Canada and the Law for Palestine will be collaborating with NDP deputy leader Alexandre Boulerice, Green leader Elizabeth May, and Bloc Quebecois MP Mario Beaulieu (La Pointe-de-L’Ile, QC) to host this event, according to a Tuesday press release.
This event will discuss the chilling effects of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The Canadian government adopted the IHRA definition as part of its anti-racism strategy in 2019 and was embraced in US President Joe Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in May.
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Read MoreA federal labour board has agreed to hear the case of a government employee denied a waiver from the vaccine mandate on religious grounds. Data show the overwhelming majority of requests for religious exemptions were denied, often with no reason given.
“The grievance is neither trivial nor vexatious,” wrote Marie-Claude Perrault, an adjudicator with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board. No date for the hearing was set.
Jennifer Squires, a senior financial services advisor with Parks Canada, sought a religious exemption under the agency’s 2021 Policy On Covid-19 Vaccination. Squires was denied and suspended without pay.
Squires’ union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, formally requested a hearing on whether cursory dismissal of her request was unfair. “The remedies she seeks relate to a grave injustice to her,” the Board was told.
Cabinet on November 15, 2021 ordered that federal employees show proof of vaccination under threat of suspension or prove valid reasons for an exemption. At least 2,560 were suspended without pay, by official estimate.
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Read MoreParliament must change federal law to permit police, postal inspectors or First Nations constables to open letters in transit, says one of the nation’s largest Indigenous groups. Letter mail is a leading source of narcotics, says the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
“The Assembly is aware opioids and other forms of contraband can be transported through the postal service due to a legislative gap that prevents police from lawfully obtaining judicial authorization to search and seize packages sent through Canada Post,” the Assembly wrote in a submission to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee.
“Organized criminal groups can exploit this gap with high profitability and relatively low risk and effort especially in northern communities where postal shipments have become the most common method of distribution for illegal substances,” said the Assembly.
The group represents First Nations who comprise more than a tenth of Manitoba’s population, some 151,000 people, it said. Drugs by mail have had “devastating effects” in remote hamlets, wrote the Assembly.
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Read MoreA new federal code curbs lobbying by Canadians involved in “political work” including unpaid campaign volunteers. Revisions to the Lobbyists’ Code Of Conduct, the first in eight years, are to take effect July 1.
“The objective of this Code is to foster transparent and ethical lobbying of federal officials,” Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger wrote in a legal notice Saturday. “This Code works in concert with the ethical regimes that apply to federal officials.”
The new Code includes a new “sense of obligation” clause to restrict lobbying of any public office holder “where the official could reasonably be seen to have a sense of obligation to you because of political work, paid or unpaid.” The clause defines “political work” as organizing or managing any campaign, raising funds, volunteering, “soliciting or gathering donations,” “disseminating campaign materials” or acting as a spokesperson, researcher, analyst or campaign advertiser.
The restriction would not apply to lobbyists who are party members, donors, visitors at campaign rallies or lobbyists who express “personal political opinions” or “display election signs” on their property
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Read MoreThe Liberal government has yet to retrieve the nearly $133,000 paid to “anti-racist” consultant Laith Marouf and nobody at the Ministry of Canadian Heritage has been disciplined or fired for approving the contract despite Marouf’s history of antisemitism.
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman grilled Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez and others on Monday during a House of Commons heritage committee meeting – inquiring what had been done since the scandal surfaced last year.
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Read MoreA federal labour board will hear the case of a government employee denied a religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Most requests for religious exemptions were denied without explanation, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The grievance is neither trivial nor vexatious,” wrote Marie-Claude Perrault, an adjudicator with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board. No date for the hearing was set.
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Read MoreKEY POINTS
Jean-Noël Barrot says the EU ban is imminent if Twitter “repeatedly” refuses to follow bloc’s rules
Twitter has pulled out of the EU’s voluntary disinformation code
The EU law aims to limit the spread of illegal and harmful content online
France’s digital minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Monday lashed out against Elon Musk-owned Twitter, threatening to ban the social media platform in the European Union if it “repeatedly” refuses to abide by the bloc’s rules for digital platforms.
“Disinformation is one of the gravest threats weighing on our democracies. Twitter, if it repeatedly doesn’t follow our rules, will be banned from the EU,” Barrot told radio network France Info, according to a translation by Politico.
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Read MoreSomalia’s government and federal member states said Sunday that direct universal suffrage would be introduced with local elections set for June 2024.
The move follows a pledge by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in March to end a complex indirect system in place since 1969.
“The basic principles should be that the election of the Federal Somali Republic must be one that gives the public the opportunity to cast their votes democratically in a one-person, one-vote system,” the government said after reaching an agreement with state leaders.
The reform aims to “encourage the multiparty political system” that is independent and “corruption free”, it added.
Somalia is struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and chaos, but is battling a bloody Islamist insurgency and natural disasters including a punishing drought that has left millions facing hunger.
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Read MoreCENSORSHIP
Article 18 of the proposed “Pandemic Treaty” would empower the World Health Organization to “tackle false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation.”
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Read MoreEncouraging people suffering from some adversity or the other, self-imposed or not, to move on used to be considered sage advice.
Striving to forge ahead – what in earlier generations was called “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” – was seen as better than wallowing in self-pity.
Not anymore. Those daring to utter the phrase “move on” are more likely than not to be ostracized, boycotted, shunned, or fired for doing so, especially when this advice is aimed at indigenous Canadians.
Two cases in Winnipeg, one from mid-2021, and the other from last week, well illustrate the corrosive wrath of increasing rates of cancel culture in our country.
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