Voters head to polls for Toronto byelection, all eyes on whether Liberals hold seat
TORONTO (CP) – Residents of Toronto-St. Paul’s will head to the polls today to vote for a new member of parliament for their riding, with observers watching to see if the Liberals can hang on to the seat they’ve held for the last 10 elections.
The byelection was prompted by the resignation of former Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, who held the seat for more than 25 years and was recently appointed ambassador to Denmark.
As the Conservatives maintain a double-digit lead over the Liberals in national polls, political watchers will have a close eye on today’s race, which appears to be tighter than expected for a Liberal stronghold.
Liberal candidate Leslie Church has spent most of her career as a political staffer, including as chief of staff to multiple ministers, most recently Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Her primary opponent, Conservative candidate Don Stewart, is a financial and marketing specialist.
Stewart previously worked for the public affairs firm owned by Jenni Byrne, a longtime Conservative campaign director and a key, if currently unofficial, adviser to party leader Pierre Poilievre.
Quebec’s Port-Cartier maximum security prison evacuated as wildfire burns
By Morgan Lowrie
QUEBEC (CP) – Wildfires burning near Port-Cartier, Que., forced the evacuation of inmates from the local maximum-security prison, officials with Correctional Service Canada confirmed Sunday as favourable winds bolstered efforts to battle a pair of out-of-control blazes north of the city.
The federal agency said the evacuation order was issued Friday and inmates have since been moved to other secure federal correctional facilities.
“To carry out the evacuation, we put measures in place, together with our partners, to maintain the safety and security of our staff, the public, and the offenders in our care and custody,” the agency said in a news release Sunday.
It says victims who are registered have been notified of the relocation.
The Port-Cartier Institution has been associated with a number of notorious criminals, including serial killer Robert Pickton, who died in late May after being assaulted at the prison by another inmate.
Officials with the city in the Côte-Nord region announced Friday that it had declared a state of emergency and ordered the evacuation of some 1,000 residents from three specific areas due to the fires.
Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampment in Montreal’s Victoria Square
MONTREAL (CP) – A new pro-Palestinian encampment has popped up in downtown Montreal’s Ville-Marie borough.
Members of the Divest for Palestine Collective issued a statement on Saturday saying participants had set up camp in Victoria Square near the office of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec, the provincial pension fund manager.
Montreal police confirmed protesters began barricading themselves in Victoria Square using construction materials at around 1:20 p.m.
Const. Véronique Dubuc says police are monitoring the situation but have made no arrests.
The protesters say their encampment is modelled on those that have cropped up on university campuses across Canada and the United States, adding they’re asking the pension fund to cut ties with Israeli institutions it accuses of being complicit in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
A pro-Palestinian encampment has occupied the lower field of McGill University’s downtown campus in Montreal since late April despite two injunction requests to have it removed — one by McGill students and another by the university itself.
McGill announced earlier this week it was ending negotiations with pro-Palestinian protesters who have demanded the university disclose and cut ties with Israel.
Conservatives avoid staking out clear position on supervised consumption sites
By: Stephanie Taylor
OTTAWA (CP) – As debate around the Liberals’ drug policy dominated parts of the spring House of Commons sitting, the Conservatives are offering little insight into what approach they would take when it comes to supervised consumption sites.
When asked earlier this month if a future Tory government would look to change the application process for opening such centres, the party’s addictions critic said she couldn’t speculate.
“But I do think that this has been politicized into a space that is pitting one perspective versus another and that’s not helpful,” Laila Goodridge said.
At supervised consumption sites, users can inject or inhale drugs under the watch of staff who can intervene in the case of an overdose. The centres also often offer drug testing, clean supplies to prevent the spread of disease and referrals to detox or treatment facilities.
Poilievre has been clear about his opposition to other harm reduction strategies that seek to mitigate the opioid overdose crisis.
Those include decriminalization efforts to help keep users out of jail and “safer supply” programs that provide pharmaceutical alternatives to toxic street drugs.
Instead, he wants to offer people “a path to a drug-free life” by emphasizing treatment and recovery. In a 2022 opinion piece, Poilievre also promised to create a national distribution program for nasal naloxone to help reverse overdoses.
Chiefs frustrated with AFN’s child welfare work, say they’re not being consulted
By: Alessia Passafiume
OTTAWA (CP) – Three regional chiefs representing nearly half of First Nations say a national association is overstepping its mandate by making decisions that will directly affect children and families without consent.
They also accuse the Assembly of First Nations of attempting to sideline an organization partly responsible for bringing about a $40-billion settlement to address the matter.
The chiefs, representing First Nations in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Quebec-Labrador, said in a letter to the national chief that the organization is not being transparent in its negotiations for a final settlement agreement with Canada on First Nations child and family services.
Chiefs Bobby Cameron, Terry Teegee and Ghislain Picard also said in the letter that the AFN’s legal counsel are attempting to exclude the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society from the process altogether.
The two organizations jointly launched a human-rights complaint about Ottawa’s chronic underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services.
Half of the settlement money was earmarked for long-term reforms to the child welfare system across Canada.
But the three chiefs told national chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak in their letter that the AFN has not shared details with First Nations outside of Ontario.
They said the assembly has refused to call meetings on the negotiations since February, and it has imposed terms of reference that interfere with an independent expert advisory committee responsible for developing and implementing a work plan to reform Indigenous Services Canada.
Canada to start 30-day consultation to impose surtax on Chinese EVs
OTTAWA (CP) – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada is investigating whether to impose a surtax on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles.
A 30-day consultation on the issue will begin July 2 to counter what Freeland says is a clear effort by Chinese companies to generate a global oversupply.
Canada’s move comes weeks after both the United States and the European Commission announced plans to impose higher import tariffs on Chinese EVs this summer.
The consultation will seek input on what is driving China’s surging EV exports, including unfair market practices as well as labour and environmental standards.
In addition to a surtax, the consultation will consider whether Canada should change which cars are eligible for the federal EV purchase rebate worth up to $5,000 per vehicle.
It will also look at whether to expand investment restrictions in Canada.
