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Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during an announcement at the offices of telecommunications firm Ericsson Canada in Kanata, Ont. on April 17.LARS HAGBERG/Reuters

Re Macrons faux pas and Beijings trap (April 14): The most troubling aspect of Emmanuel Macrons efforts to enlist Chinese help in ending the war in Ukraine is the price he is willing to pay, which would be to remain silent about Chinas threatened aggression against Taiwan.

Chinas policy toward Taiwan is motivated by the same sentiment fuelling Russias aggression against Ukraine: Claiming another country as its own, either outright or as a sub-sovereign dependency.

Chinese engagement in any peace process necessarily raises questions about Chinese intentions toward Taiwan. Silence should therefore not be an option.

It not only imperils Taiwan, but also Western efforts to maintain a rule-based system of international relations.

Patrick Bendin Ottawa

Re Fiscal gravity catches up to the Liberals (Editorial, April 18): I only wish the Trudeau Liberals were like Wile E. Coyote and gravity was about to stop them running on air.

Mr. Coyote never catches the elusive prize hes after whereas the Liberals, despite falling off all kinds of fiscal and ethical cliffs, keep getting re-elected.

Until Canadians show some gravitas and send the Liberals packing, why wouldnt they continue to order expensive fiscal plans from the Acme Company?

Rudy Buller Toronto

Re Meet the Chinese billionaire who donated to the Trudeau Foundation (April 17): I find the criticism being levelled at the Trudeau Foundation for this donation to be unfair.

The network of fellows, mentors and scholars convened by the foundation is very diverse and results in exemplary research outcomes that would not be possible without its leadership. When the foundation accepted this donation, the context was different.

As well, some universities across this country have accepted much larger donations than this one to the foundation. Why is there not a clamour of voices speaking up for the unique model that the foundation has developed?

As Stephen Toope, the foundations first president, stated: The growth of social media and the rapid polarization of our political sphere have demonstrated more than ever that debate in the absence of civility can be not only unproductive but hugely damaging.

Ann Dale Trudeau fellow alumna (2004); Canada Research Chair (2014), Royal Roads University Victoria

Re The tide is turning, but the war on drug overdoses is far from over (Editorial, April 17): This is a toxic drug crisis, not just an overdose crisis.

The illegal drug supply is contaminated with opioid analogues such as fentanyl and carfentanyl, and increasingly veterinary tranquilizers and benzodiazepines, which complicate the effects of highly potent and thus highly dangerous opioids.

Yes, we need more access to evidence-based treatment for addiction and mental heath, community supports and supportive housing. But many dependent persons are not wanting treatment. And more heroin-assisted treatment is needed for opioid use disorder, where relapse rates are high.

Mandatory treatment can also increase risks of fatal poisoning postdischarge and has dubious evidence of efficacy. And data show that a significant proportion of these deaths do not involve persons with opioid use disorder.

Without significant changes to drug laws and a rapid expansion of safe supply, in addition to the expansion of effective treatments and supports, I fear we will face many more avoidable deaths.

Perry Kendall CM, OBC, FRCPC; former B.C. provincial health officer Victoria

Re The unseen victims of homeless encampments (April 14): Having followed Reginas Camp Hope saga in 2021, I can say there are certainly unwelcome consequences for those surrounding encampments. We should be both concerned for their wellbeing and appalled by the existence of such tent cities.

However, these are desperate people with often nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Affordable housing availability continues to decrease, shelters are frequently at capacity and few are ever offered a place to stay and turned it down.

Governments should stop encampments from forming in the first place. Greater income supports, access to affordable, stable housing, rent relief and better mental health and addictions supports (among other solutions) would be much sounder policy than waiting for encampments to form, disbanding them and then dusting off our hands.

Long-term and expensive solutions are never politically favourable, but encouraging and supporting human dignity should be.

Luke DeCorby Regina

Re Ottawa restores funding to Hockey Canada with conditions (April 17): It appears that with this decision, like so many involving sexual misconduct allegations, victims are the last to be consulted.

Were these women asked for their views? Were advocates who spend their days and nights trying to end the curse of sexualized wrongdoing invited to lend their expertise?

It seems not. This is part of a larger problem of tone-deafness when it comes to the #MeToo reckoning.

Unlike the United States and other countries, Canada has not yet banned the type of non-disclosure agreements that allowed Hockey Canada to cover up its skeletons. These devices allow perpetrators to flourish in a culture of fear and silence.

Instead of stumbling from crisis to crisis, as it has with scandals in the RCMP, military and Hockey Canada, the government should take a comprehensive and trauma-informed approach to ending gender violence and sexual harassment.

It can start by banning NDAs.

Kathleen Finlay Founder, Zer0Now Campaign Toronto

Re Teck CEO confident biggest B shareholder China Investment Corp. will support split, not side with Glencore (April 18): The significant international interest in the mining assets of Teck Resources is troubling to me.

We have already witnessed a thorough hollowing out of Canadian mining, including Alcan, Falconbridge, Inco and Noranda. More recently, the government was asleep at the switch while Chinese companies acquired significant interests in mineral prospects focused on the new economy and climate change.

Teck, with its experience and shift to copper and other new key minerals, should be considered a key Canadian asset and not be sold. It should be protected under national security provisions, so that the country has the capability to deliver on our new-age mineral promises and climate-related opportunities.

David Drinkwater Victoria

Re Profiles in courage (Editorial cartoon, April 18): It doesnt take courage for Leafs fans to support our team. That loyalty comes straight from the heart.

What takes courage is enduring the onslaught of jibes, jeers and friendly jesting from everyone outside Leafs Nation including, apparently, you!

Jean Mills Guelph, Ont.

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Letters to the editor: 'The Liberals, despite falling off all kinds of fiscal ... - The Globe and Mail

OTTAWA - The Liberal governments controversial online-streaming bill was back in the upper chamber on Tuesday, with one senator who had earlier opposed it saying she expected it to pass.

After more than a year of debate and revisions, Alberta Sen. Paula Simons said she would really like to see Bill C-11 done and dusted this week, and not because she wants to ram it through.

For all the cynicism about the Senate, I think the Senate showed its merits with this bill, Simons said in a recent interview. And I think we did a really good job of debating and discussing it.

Quebec Sen. Marc Gold, the Liberal governments representative in the Senate, said the finish line is in sight after he introduced a motion Tuesday that asked the Senate to adopt the bill so that it can become law.

For Canadas cultural sector, it has been a long road and a long wait, but the finish line is in sight, Gold said.

For many in the industry, an important source of their income is inextricably linked to the passage of this bill.

If passed, Bill C-11 would update broadcasting rules to include online streaming and require tech giants such as YouTube, Netflix and Spotify to make Canadian content available to users in Canada or face steep penalties.

Last month, the House of Commons adopted most of the Senates amendments, which included measures to highlight the promotion of Indigenous languages and Black content creators and a change that sought to reaffirm the independence and freedom of expression of creators.

Senators also tweaked the bill to ensure that funds collected from tech giants would go toward promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The bill was subject to especially lengthy debate in the Senate and has sparked criticism from special-interest groups and content creators who feared the bill would cause the government to over-regulate the internet.

All the debate about this bill has been completely polluted and very well-organized by bot campaigns, said Simons, adding that she still gets hundreds of emails weekly from automated campaigns that spread false information about the bill.

People are being sold that this is a censorship bill, or that its like 1984. Its like Stalin. Its like Hitler. Its like the Chinese government. Its all silly, she said.

There were significant flaws in this bill, and weve made them better.

The Liberal bill is supported by the NDP and Bloc Qubcois, but the Conservatives have called it a censorship bill, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre even holding up George Orwells 1984 science-fiction novel about Big Brother in the House while discussing the bill.

Simons, who said she sought to quiet the firestorm of disinformation surrounding the bill, had endorsed an amendment that would have added further protections for individuals who post content online, from comedy acts to instructional videos.

She said she wanted Canadians to actually talk about whats in the bill, as opposed to giving in to fear-mongering.

Ultimately, the House of Commons rejected the amendment, which was also endorsed by YouTube, because MPs felt it would create a loophole for tech giants to avoid contributing to Canadian content.

Bill C-11 does not and will not apply to user-generated content because, simply put, using a social-media service does not make you a broadcaster, Gold said Tuesday.

Rest assured, the legislation will not interfere with or stifle the expression of Canadian voices.

Because the bill isnt something she agrees with, Simons said she will not support it in the final vote. Still, she said she will cast that vote against it knowing that its passage is assured.

At the end of the day, the government ran on this bill. It was part of their election platform, Simons said the Liberals had promised similar legislation during their previous minority-government mandate.

I think theres also an understanding that there are limits to how much the Senate can push back if this is a hill to die on, or if this is profound public-policy disagreement. And the government at the end of the day has to be responsible for its choices.

When the bill is passed, a policy directive will be issued to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which will be tasked with enforcing the bills provisions.

The CRTC is also required to consult with the public, and its reports must be made public, thanks to another Senate amendment that was accepted by the House.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled the first name of Sen. Paula Simons, and erroneously reported that she would vote in favour of the bill.

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'Done and dusted': Liberals' controversial online streaming bill back ... - Hamilton Spectator

Published April 19, 2023 5:12 p.m. ET

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In a rare showing of all-party support, the federal government's bill to enact the one-time so-called grocery rebate and roll out $2 billion in urgent health-care funding to the provinces and territories passed all stages in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

MPs agreed to move the legislation, tabled in late March and billed as the Cost of Living Relief Act, No. 3," through all stages of debate and study in one fell swoop. This means the bill is considerably closer to becoming law.

Bill C-46 pulls out two specific elements of the 2023 federal budget that the Liberals wanted to see passed in short order.

It amends the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act to see the provinces and territories receive their one-time cash injection into their health-care systems. As part of the overall funding deals, this federal offer will see an immediate national and "unconditional" $2-billion top-up to the Canada Health Transfer (CHT).

The legislation also looks to implement the one-time $2.5 billion "grocery rebate" for 11 million low- and modest-income Canadians. Not required to be spent at the grocery store, the rebate is a rebrand of the GST rebate, and is being provided through the GST tax credit system. Once passed, eligible couples with two children will receive a payment of up to $467, while eligible seniors will receive up to $225, and eligible singles will receive up to $234.

Reacting to the House's fast-tracking of the bill, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called it "excellent news."

Now, Bill C-46 is off to the Senate, where it is possible a similar swift passage could be ahead. It is not expected that all parties will be similarly on side with the incoming omnibus budget implementation bill implementing the rest of the Liberals' spending plans. That piece of legislation is likely to have a longer journey through Parliament.

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Grocery rebate bill passes House with all-party support - CTV News

The West AustralianLiberals have been in a death spiral for years.

Their return from the political wilderness in 2025 needs a team of quality candidates who can sell voters on their vision.

However, their self-described humiliation at the last election has left a shattered party, and people who might otherwise put their hands up to run, instead keeping the Liberals at arms' length.

They need something to break that cycle, and in an intimate event on Thursdaynight they unveiled the plan they hope will do just that.

So will it?

The relatively brief gathering at the party's WA headquarters was headlined by federal Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor and Senator Linda Reynolds, who unveiled "Blueprint 2025".

It's another way the party is trying to present better candidates at state and federal polls which could be held within weeks of each other in 2025, after also voting last year to overhaul its pre-selection process.

"We are listening and we have been listening now for over a year. And we are now addressing the very crystal clear messages that West Australian voters have been shouting at us for quite some time," Senator Reynolds told the crowd, packed into Liberal Party HQ.

The blueprint comes in three parts: a 12-month training course to prepare candidates for the rigours of election campaigning, a program to train young Liberals to help run election campaigns, and another to equip grassroots members to play a greater role in the party.

"There is nothing quite like two impending elections within months of each other, particularly when we will be fielding the most non-incumbent candidates we ever have in a single election. That really does focus our minds," Reynolds said.

In his address, Taylor a New South Wales MP in town for the week acknowledged the party had been on the backfoot in recent elections, and pointed to the need for local candidates better connected to their communities.

"We've gone through a tough trot here and around Australia, and we're going through that in New South Wales at the moment, but I know the way out is to identify those great people, given them the opportunity to do great things, and they will," he said.

Before dealing with any of the other challenges, identifying those "great people" is the first that needs to be addressed.

And it's far from a new one.

Liberals have long complained thatthe lack of a pipeline of strong candidates dates back to the years of the Barnett government, with little action taken in the years since.

Those issues contributed to multiple controversies in 2021, including one in which a candidatequestioned the timing of historic rape allegations against Christian Porterwhich Mr Porter has strenuously denied and another in which thecandidatesuggested a link between 5G and COVID-19.

It's hoped that together with the pre-selection changes designed to take power away from powerbrokers, the Liberals will be able to attract good candidates, nurture them through the process, and have them chosen to run in winnable seats, avoiding any further embarrassing candidate blunders.

That cohort will also be expected to be more diverse than ever before, with the 2021 election post-morterm describing the party's representation as "inadequate" and "detrimental to the full potential of the party".

It's hoped the blueprint will give more people the confidence to run, and convince those on the fence thatputting their hands up won't be a waste of time.

"It is a difficult sell, when you've been humbled by the people of Western Australia," WA federal Liberal leader Michaelia Cash accepted this week.

"We listened, we learned, we picked ourselves up and we knew that we had to change and that is exactly what we have done."

Blueprint 2025 as some in the party acknowledge is a potential solution to just one part of a much broader laundry list of issues for the Liberals to solve.

The party'ssuccess will depend on other factors too,particularlythe policies it presents.

At its best, the blueprint will help candidates present the party, its policies and values in the best light possible.

But at its worst, it could make any shortcomings in those areas even more obvious.

The level of confidence within the party that change is happeningquickly enough varies.

Most have all but accepted that short of a miracle, it will be impossible to form government in 2025.

Instead they're hoping to use the poll as a stepping stone to a potential return in 2029.

Underlying that is a subdued optimism that things are moving in the right direction, albeit a bit slower than some might like to see.

If the party is to have learnt anything though, there's one line from its election review that would have to be ringing in the ears of all involved.

"A recovery in the fortunes of the party is by no means assured and will depend on the work done to reform it as an organisation," former party president Danielle Blain and past vice president Mark Trowell wrote.

It's up to the Liberals' members to decide which fork in the road they choose.

And no blueprint can help with that decision.

Select"Western AustraliaTop Stories"from either the ABC News homepage or the settings menu in the app.

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The West Australian Liberals have a blueprint for their political return, but will it work? - ABC News

Canadian polls show young adults are drifting away from the federal Liberal party. It seems theyre slowly figuring out that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, despite his sympathetic rhetoric, is working against their dream of buying a first home.

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While its taken a while for young and old to realize it, top bankers, retired civil servants, housing analysts, former property developers and housing activists are now declaring the Liberals are directly causing house-price inflation.

And, oh yes, the NDP premier of British Columbia is saying the same thing.

The Bank of Canada began more than a year ago to raise trendsetting interest rates to slow down the inflation caused by unprecedented Liberal spending during the pandemic: A key aim was to reduce skyrocketing housing unaffordability.

As housing analyst Stephen Punwasi puts it: When interest rates began to climb, they throttled credit and brought home prices lower. However, less than a year later (Ottawa) is demonstrating it doesnt have the appetite to follow through on tough love.

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Lets look at how and why the Liberals who have overseen the doubling of Canadian house prices since they came to power eight years ago are still jacking up the cost of a home.

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Many Canadians judged it controversial a few years ago when some said the cost of housing is linked to high in-migration levels, but those days of befuddled accusations are fading.

It explained how B.C.s effort to reduce housing prices and build affordable dwellings will be largely hostage to the federal governments immigration policy.

Wright, an economist, said Trudeaus government routinely raises the almost entirely fallacious argument that Canada has a labour shortage to justify welcoming a record 438,000 new permanent residents in 2022, while adding another 680,000 non-permanent residents, including foreign students and other guest workers.

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When retired top civil servant Don Wright said B.C.s effort to reduce housing prices and build affordable dwellings (and provide health care) will be largely hostage to the federal governments immigration policy, Premier David Eby responded by saying he is absolutely right. (Photo: Eby with MLA Grace Lore and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon) Darren Stone

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The federal government is this month trying to appear helpful toward young people by trotting out its first home savings account, which allows prospective buyers to shelter $40,000 in a tax-free savings plan.

Wong ultimately worries many politicians might actually want the housing crisis, because they believe the Canadian economy is dependent on selling real estate to the world.

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Suspicion about the motivations of politicians does not exactly subside upon learning many members of the Liberal cabinet own second and third homes, often as landlords.

Who is looking after those yearning to enter the housing market? Its exceedingly hard to have confidence it is elected representatives in Ottawa.

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Douglas Todd: Federal Liberals are directly inflating house prices - Vancouver Sun