Canada General Discussion (2019-)

[NewYorkExpress]

Some details about Julie Payette's resignation.

ulie Payette, a former Canadian astronaut and the country's governor general since 2017, announced she would step down Thursday after she was accused by current and former employees of creating a "toxic" workplace environment.

In a detailed statement, Payette said that she took the allegations seriously -- although she did not formally apologize or admit to any misconduct in the workplace.

"While no formal complaints or official grievances were made during my tenure, which would have immediately triggered a detailed investigation as prescribed by law and the collective agreements in place, I still take these allegations very seriously," Payette said in the statement.

[NewYorkExpress]

Canada is moving towards passing sweeping gun control legislation.

Canada is expected to pass sweeping gun reform legislation, including a measure that allows municipalities to ban handguns.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the new measures on Tuesday, a sweeping package that builds on a ban of more than 1,500 assault-style firearms.

Trudeau said at a news conference on Tuesday that the country would move forward with a buyback program “in the coming months.”


The proposals include the Canadian government supporting municipalities that restrict storage and transportation of handguns within their boundaries. Breaching these bylaws would carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a possible revocation.

Another proposal would create “red flag” and “yellow flag” laws that would make it easier for concerned friends and relatives to petition courts for the immediate removal of a firearm or to ask a chief firearms officer to suspend and review a person’s license for firearms.

In addition, the bill would increase penalties for firearms trafficking and smuggling from 10 years to 14 years in prison, as well as allow the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local law enforcement to share licensing and registration data to investigate or prosecute firearms trafficking offenses.

[NewYorkExpress]

I’ll just leave this here...

https://twitter.com/btaplatt/status/1398107737159049216?s=21

Like his being nude on camera, who, outside of prudes cares? It's not like anyone outside of Parliament saw this.

[NewYorkExpress]

Following the discovery of the remains of 215 children at an indigenous school in Kamloops, British Columbia, the Canadian Government is calling on the Pope to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in the schools.

Canada’s government has called on Pope Francis to issue a formal apology for the role the Catholic church played in Canada’s residential school system, days after the remains of 215 children were located at what was once the country’s largest such school.

Justin Trudeau’s government also pledged again to support efforts to find more unmarked graves at the former residential schools which held Indigenous children taken from families across the nation.


.......

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologize for residential schools, even though he has not shied away from recognizing injustices faced by Indigenous people around the world.

“I think it is shameful that it hasn’t been done to date,” Marc Miller, Indigenous services minister, said.

“There is a responsibility that lies squarely on the shoulders” on the Catholic bishops of Canada, he added.

Carolyn Bennett, Indigenous relations minister, added that an apology by the pope would help those who suffered heal.

“They want to hear the pope apologize,” she said.

[NewYorkExpress]

Protesters protesting vaccine passports in Montreal were wearing yellow stars used by the Nazis to identify Jews.

Thousands gathered Saturday in the streets of Montreal to protest against the province of Quebec’s Covid-19 vaccine passport, which will go into effect early next month.

Holding signs that said “Freedom!” and “We are not laboratory rats,” the demonstrators, many of whom came with their families, paraded peacefully under a blazing sun in downtown Montreal.

Quebecers wanting to eat at a restaurant, go to a bar, exercise at the gym or attend a festival will need to present proof of vaccination against the coronavirus beginning September 1, under a measure introduced by the province earlier this week.

.....

Other signs in the crowd read “Dictatorship,” “The vaccine scam,” and “Health apartheid,” and were seen dotting the crowd alongside a number of Quebec flags.

Several women held posters reading “My body, my choice,” using the popular feminist slogan that is also associated with the abortion rights movement.

Some protests also wore a yellow star on their chest with “unvaccinated” written across it, in the fashion of the yellow Star of David that Jewish people were forced to wear during the Holocaust.

https://twitter.com/sock_william/status/1426620701453209602

[NewYorkExpress]

Toronto schools canceled a book and appearance by a Christian survivor of ISIS on the grounds that it would be promote Islamaphobia.

The Toronto School District Board, earlier this month canceled an appearance by Yazidi survivor of ISIS Nadia Murad on the grounds that it would promote Islamaphobia.

[NewYorkExpress]

Manitoba's Minister of Economic Development and Jobs, Jon Reyes, is under fire on Twitter for not helping his wife shovel snow after she worked a twelve hour hospital shift.

A Canadian politician faced a backlash after he posted a picture on social media of his wife shoveling snow after she had worked a 12-hour hospital shift.

Jon Reyes, a Manitoba Cabinet minister, faced the wrath of Twitter followers for standing inside in the warmth and taking the photo while his wife, Cynthia Reyes, shoveled snow in below-freezing temperatures.

https://twitter.com/jonreyes204/status/1479819770597888000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7...

[NewYorkExpress]

Justin Treudeau announces bill to "freeze" handgun market in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced the introduction of a bill that would place a national freeze on handgun ownership across Canada.

"What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada," Trudeau said in a news conference.

"In other words we're capping the market," he added.

If passed, the new anti-gun legislation will fine gun smuggling and trafficking "by increasing maximum criminal penalties and providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearm crimes," Trudeau said.

The new legislation would also require that long gun magazines "can never" hold more than five rounds.
"Gun violence is a complex problem, but at the end of the day the math is really quite simple: The fewer the guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be," the Prime Minister said.

Trudeau added that while most gun owners use their handguns safely and in accordance with the law, "we don't need assault style weapons that were designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time."

[NewYorkExpress]

Michelle O'Bonsawin has been nominated to serve on Canada's Supreme Court.

Justin Trudeau has nominated an Indigenous woman to Canada’s supreme court, in a landmark appointment after decades of criticism over a lack of Indigenous representation on the country’s highest court.

The prime minister announced on Friday that Michelle O’Bonsawin had been selected to fill an upcoming vacancy on the court.


O’Bonsawin, an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation, has been a judge at Ontario’s superior court of justice in Ottawa since 2017. She has also taught law at the University of Ottawa, and earlier worked in legal services for the RCMP and Canada Post.

The Franco-Ontarian was tapped following the upcoming retirement of Justice Michael Moldaver.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://twitter.com/LisaLaFlamme_/status/1559238644317167618

Apparently, award winning CTV anchor Lisa LaFlamme was fired because her hair went gray.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1583502468839018496

https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1583502471238160384