Archive for the ‘Liberals’ Category

Opinion | The Enemies of Liberalism Are Showing Us What It Really Means – The New York Times

The misplaced shock that Putin would act as so many past leaders acted, that he would try to take what he wants just because he can, reflects liberalisms long work remaking not just what we believe to be moral but what we believe to be normal. At its best and sometimes at its worst, liberalism makes the past into a truly foreign land, and that can turn those who still inhabit it into anachronisms in their own time. But liberals deceive themselves when they believe that that happens only to liberalisms enemies. It also happens to liberalisms would-be friends.

You can see this clearly in Ukraine in Histories and Stories, a collection edited by Volodymyr Yermolenko. Theres a particular poignancy in reading this book now, as it was released in 2019, in the interregnum between Russias annexation of Crimea and its current invasion of Ukraine. This is the recent past, but it, too, feels foreign.

In this collection of essays, written by Ukrainian intellectuals, Ukraine is not a darling of the West; it is a country that aspires to be part of the West and struggles against the indifference and even contempt of those it admires. Throughout the book, the Wests ignorance of Ukraine is a theme, with author after author recalling futile efforts to try to interest Europeans in their experience and history and possibilities. We, Ukrainians, are in love with Europe, Europe is in love with Russia, while Russia hates both us and Europe, the novelist Yuri Andrukhovych writes.

The authors see Ukraine as a nation trapped painfully in a state of becoming, neither truly modern nor confidently traditionalist. Andrij Bondar, a Ukrainian essayist, offers a tragicomic list of what Ukraine lacks, including trust in institutions, the culture of comic books, the Protestant work ethic and Calvados or any other apple spirits. But there is also much it has, including a generally highly tolerant society, the ability to consolidate and unite efforts to attain acommon goal, elements of democracy and a talent for enduring hardship. Today it is clear that these were the things that mattered.

The authors also see that Europe is not all that it claimed to be. For us, citizens of Ukraine, Europe still looks like the Europe of the late 20th century, while it has become absolutely different today, writes Vakhtang Kebuladze, a Ukrainian philosopher. Iunderstand this, of course, and it hurts when Isee the actions of Putins European right-wing and left-wing friends. Icertainly do not like this Europe.

Prophetically, Kebuladze saw that Western renewal might lie in attending to the experience of those struggling toward liberalism, not those comfortably ensconced in it. Europeans could look at themselves through the eyes of those citizens of Ukraine who came to Maidan for the sake of the European future of their country, those who are dying in the east of our country while protecting it from Russian invasion and those who are slowly dying in Russian prisons sent there on trumped-up charges, he writes. Will you then perhaps like yourselves? Or will you see away to overcome something that you do not like?

The anti-liberals Rose profiles all believed that liberalism prescribed a life without sacrifice, an age when individual contentment reigned supreme and collective struggle disappeared. This was not true then, and it is not true now. What they missed is what liberalism actually believes: that there is a collective identity to be found in collective betterment, that making the future more just than the past is a mission as grand as any offered by antiquity.

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Opinion | The Enemies of Liberalism Are Showing Us What It Really Means - The New York Times

Principled MP David Kilgour split from the Conservatives then from the Liberals – The Globe and Mail

David Kilgour, former Liberal cabinet minister, speaks to reporters during a news conference on Parliament Hill on July 6, 2006.DAVE CHAN/The Canadian Press

David Kilgours trips abroad as Canadas secretary of state for Africa and Latin America in the late 1990s and early 2000s were a chance to advance human rights abroad and, occasionally, reconnect with old friends.

On one such visit to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, he stopped in at the official residence of Canadas ambassador, John Schram, with whom he had studied at the University of Torontos law school in the 1960s. Everything was going fine until Mr. Kilgour noticed the collection of photos Mr. Schram had displayed in the residence, including those of him presenting his credentials to officials representing the states to which he was accredited.

Because Mr. Schram was also Canadas ambassador to Sudan, these photos included one of Mr. Schram and Sudans then-president Omar al-Bashir. Mr. Bashir has since been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes related to Sudans military campaign in the countrys Darfur region. Even at the time of Mr. Kilgours visit, around 2000, Mr. Bashirs government had been accused of human rights abuses, including in a civil war that pitted Khartoum against the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army in the south of the country.

Mr. Kilgour knew all about these allegations. Mr. Schram says Mr. Kilgour had wanted to visit Sudan during that trip but couldnt which may be why his eyes lingered on the photo of Canadas ambassador and Sudans dictator.

He was really upset that I had a picture of me presenting my credentials to such a a tyrant is what I think he called him, Mr. Schram recalls.

David Kilgour was a crown prosecutor in Northern Alberta in the 1970s.Courtesy of the Family

Mr. Schram was not really surprised. Mr. Kilgour, he says, was just as outspoken in law school, where he was guided by his principles rather than a desire to curry favour. Very internationally famous professors complained about David in public because he would put them straight if they interpreted laws differently and to the disadvantage of people, he says.

Its an approach Mr. Kilgour, who died on April 5 of a rare pulmonary fibrosis in his Ottawa home at the age of 81, carried into politics as well. He was a member of Parliament for nearly 27 years, representing the same Edmonton riding (subject to constituency boundary changes) first as a Progressive Conservative, then as a Liberal, before retiring as an Independent in 2006.

He was kicked out of the Conservative caucus in 1990 because of his opposition to the goods and services tax. He quit the Liberals in 2005. According to a CBC story at the time, Mr. Kilgour said his decision to break with the Liberals under then-Prime minister Paul Martin was a cumulative thing. I have about 10 issues I disagree fundamentally with the party on.

These included what Mr. Kilgour described then as inaction to address the crisis in Darfur. He also opposed the Liberals same-sex marriage legislation (Mr. Kilgour believed same-sex couples should have the same rights as heterosexual ones but did not think such unions should be called marriages), and he was embarrassed by revelations about the sponsorship scandal, which he famously said made Canada look like a northern banana republic.

According to Irwin Cotler, minister of justice under Mr. Martin and Mr. Kilgours Liberal caucus colleague, partisanship didnt exist for Mr. Kilgour.

I rarely met a more principled parliamentarian who was involved for the sake of the common good, never with regard to any personal interest always doing that which was right, always doing that which was good, always being there for everybody else and being involved in all the great and good causes.

He was a role model, not only of what a parliamentarian can and should be and was, but also really a role model for the way he lived by his principles in all respects modest, unassuming, but a person of real moral courage and moral clarity. Something we sorely miss in these days.

David William Kilgour was born in Winnipeg on Feb. 18, 1941. His parents, Mary Sophia (ne Russell) Kilgour and David Eckford Kilgour, were wealthy and raised him and his siblings, Donald and Geills, in comfort.

Among the summer jobs Mr. Kilgour had while studying economics at the University of Manitoba was one with Frontier College, working with Portuguese migrants on a railway steel gang in northern Ontario and teaching them English in the evenings.

I guess I felt like I had to give a lot back, because Ive sure been given a lot, he said in an interview for this obituary, two days before his death.

Mr. Kilgours parents gave him a trip to Europe as a graduation present in 1962. He travelled with his friend Monte Black (George Montegu Black III, older brother of newspaper tycoon Conrad Black), and on their way the two stopped in Montreal where they had dinner with Mr. Kilgours sister, Geills, and her date, John Turner, then campaigning for election as a Liberal MP. Mr. Turner wasnt surprised to learn Mr. Black was a staunch Conservative, Mr. Kilgour remembered, but he was disappointed to discover his dates brother was. (The two got married anyway.)

Now, why was I Conservative? I guess it had a lot to do with John Diefenbaker, Mr. Kilgour said. I was a kid on the Prairies who was very blown away by John Diefenbaker.

Mr. Kilgours first tried to get elected in 1968. He ran in the riding of Vancouver Centre and lost. His first success came in 1979 when he ran in Edmonton in the election that saw Conservative leader Joe Clark become prime minister.

David William Kilgour was born in Winnipeg on Feb. 18, 1941.DAVE CHAN/The Canadian Press

Mr. Kilgour, along with his wife, Laura Scott Kilgour, and their growing family moved into Skyridge, a tiny community in Gatineau Park, across the Ottawa River from Parliament. Rick Higgins, a neighbour from that time, describes a close-knit group of neighbours who went Christmas carolling together and held an annual Skyridge Soapbox Derby race that involved contestants pushing each other across a finish line in wheelbarrows.

The neighbourhood was a bit of an oasis from politics, but when Mr. Higginss elderly mother came to visit from Australia, Mr. Kilgour promised to show her around the Parliament Buildings. Mr. Kilgour told her that because it was the lunch hour the prime minister was unlikely to be in his office, so he could show her that, too. The pair were wandering through Joe Clarks office when he returned to find them there nonplussed, according to Mr. Higgins.

Mr. Kilgour was elected three more times as a Progressive Conservative. Mr. Cotler, then a McGill University law professor, says he got to know Mr. Kilgour at this time because the MP founded and chaired a parliamentary committee for Soviet Jewry and did crucial if underappreciated work.

If you look at the galaxy of those involved in the struggle of Soviet Jewry, you might not see his name with the prominence and impact that he had, but he was there, always in the trenches, Mr. Cotler says.

Mr. Kilgours move to the Liberal Party allowed him to pursue further his work on international human rights. After working as secretary of state for Africa and Latin America, in 2002 he was made secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific. He was generous by nature not by political calculation to help people and causes, remembers Elliot Tepper, a political scientist at Carleton University who worked with Mr. Kilgour on files related to Asia.

Shortly after Mr. Kilgour joined the Liberals, the family moved to Rockcliffe Park, an affluent neighbourhood east of Ottawas downtown core, where they became neighbours of Elizabeth May, the future leader of the Green Party. The Kilgours daughters would occasionally babysit Elizabeth Mays daughter. Ms. May once received a last-minute invitation when her daughter was three or four. Bring her over, Ms. May recalls Mr. Kilgour saying. The girls will be home soon. They werent, and Mr. Kilgour probably knew they wouldnt be. He looked after Ms. Mays daughter himself for several hours.

Mr. Kilgour didnt run in the 2006 federal election, but his departure from party politics wasnt much of a break from public life.

With Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, he published a report accusing China of harvesting organs from members of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in that country. China denied the allegations. He campaigned on behalf of Chinese Uyghurs, a persecuted ethnic and religious minority. A strong Christian, he promoted interfaith fellowship. He championed the causes of refugees, political prisoners and vulnerable dissidents the world over, co-operating in recent years with both Ms. May and Mr. Cotler. Ms. May describes him as a crusader. Mr. Cotler says he was at the forefront of combatting the resurgence of global authoritarianism.

Mr. Kilgour leaves his wife, Ms. Kilgour; his children, Margot Kilgour, Eileen Kilgour, Dave Kilgour, Hilary Kilgour and Tierra Baker; and six grandchildren.

In recent weeks, even as his health worsened, he continued to write, advocate and engage with those who sought his assistance. Eventually, Ms. Kilgour was forced to intervene on his behalf, explaining that Mr. Kilgour was too sick to respond himself. Asked shortly before he died of what in his life he was most proud, Mr. Kilgour said it was trying to help people.

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Principled MP David Kilgour split from the Conservatives then from the Liberals - The Globe and Mail

Liberals to ‘go further’ targeting high-income earners with budget’s new minimum income tax – National Post

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The budget contains no details except to say that more is to come this fall, but tax experts say this is a very interesting move by the Liberals to address inequalities in the tax system

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OTTAWA Over one quarter of Canadians who made over $400,000 in 2019 paid less than the 15 per cent in federal tax in 2019, a surprising number that has the Liberal government rethinking how it taxes Canadas highest-income earners.

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Some high-income Canadians still pay relatively little in personal income tax (PIT) as a share of their income 28 per cent of filers with gross income above $400,000 pay an average federal PIT rate of 15 per cent or less, which is less than some middle class Canadians pay, reads the 2022 federal budget published Thursday.

In the document, Finance Canada reveals new data based on 2019 tax data that shows that nearly 18 per cent of Canadians who earned $400,000 in gross income that year or the 0.5 per cent paid less than 10 per cent (and sometimes even 0 per cent) in federal tax.

Another 10 per cent of wealthy Canadians paid up to 15 per cent, which is essentially the first income tax bracket for the federal government. The remaining 72 per cent of the countrys top 0.5 per cent earners in 2019 paid over 15 per cent in federal tax.

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There are still thousands of wealthy Canadians who pay little to no personal income tax each year. That is unfair, and the federal government is committed to changing it, reads the budget.

Though many within that 28 per cent paid less tax entirely legally, the government is concerned that many more have found ways to make far more deductions to their income than they should be able to.

These Canadians make significant use of deductions and tax credits, and typically find ways to have large amounts of their income taxed at lower rates, the budget reads.

But thats where Canadas little-known Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) provision should kick in. The Royal Bank of Canada defines the AMT as an secondary means of calculating income tax that should prevent high income earners and trusts from paying little or no tax as a result of certain tax incentives, including claiming certain tax deductions and earning Canadian dividends and capital gains.

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But the federal government admits that the AMT, which hasnt been substantively updated since 1986, isnt working.

So now its looking for a new minimum tax regime which it wants to go further in ensuring that wealthy Canadians pay their fair share of tax.

The budget contains no details except to say that more is to come this fall, but tax experts say this is a very interesting move by the Liberals to address inequalities in the tax system.

Jamie Golombek, Managing Director, Tax and Estate Planning at CIBC, said he was very surprised to see that 28 per cent of wealthy Canadians paid so little in federal tax in 2019.

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That number seems crazy to me, Golombek said. We have an AMT, it affects very few people, literally, at the end of the day and its obviously not capturing enough people in their opinion.

This is very interesting, he added.

Greg Bell, a tax expert with KPMG, says Finance Canada should dive deeper into how so many wealthy Canadians managed to reduce their gross income so much on their tax filings.

The first question that comes to my mind is, if they have more than$ 400,000 of income, how are they getting their tax rates so low?, he said.

But a review of the AMT is only one of many tax measures in the latest federal budget meant to address what experts call loopholes that have allowed some corporations or wealthy individuals to pay less taxes than they should in the eyes of the government.

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The Liberals also promised to invest $1.2 billion over the next five years into the Canada Revenue Agencys fight against tax crime, focusing particularly on increasing audits of wealthy companies and individuals as well as countering foreigners use of Canada as a money laundering haven (also known as snow-washing).

For the most parts, experts agree that most of the measures amount to housekeeping, or simply patching known issues or grey zones in federal laws.

They have this laundry list of things that they dont like, and when (an issue) becomes serious enough, they go after it, Golombek said.

The most impactful change for government coffers announced in this budget is one that would ban private Canadian companies from using foreign corporations, such as shell companies based abroad or moving their headquarters to a tax haven despite still being fully Canadians owned and controlled, to avoid paying Canadas tax rates.

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The government estimates the proposal will rake in $4.2 billion over five years starting in 2022-23.

The budget also expects to recoup roughly $135 million per year going forward by closing the double-deduction loophole that allows companies to claim deductions on dividend-paying stocks that they both bet on and against.

Another $150 million per year is expected to return to government coffers by beefing up anti-avoidance rules to ensure that Canadians pay their fair share of taxes when they use a so-called interest coupon stripping arrangement.

Due to differences between Canadas various tax treaties, the interest received from Canadian residents is often subject to different tax rates depending on where the recipient resides. Interest coupon stripping arrangements exploit these differences and allow some to pay less in taxes, reads the budget.

Finally, the budget promises to review and strengthen federal rules aimed at preventing abusive tax avoidance transactions, though no further details are provided.

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Liberals to 'go further' targeting high-income earners with budget's new minimum income tax - National Post

Centrists and liberals fighting to the end over executive actions – The Hill

When House progressives met privately with President Biden about using his executive powers to enact policies they say will improve Americans lives, they viewed it as a step toward achieving their top line items.

Less than 24 hours later, some moderate Democrats and, predictably, Republicans were already warning about the perils of the pen swipe strategy.

The No. 1 thing we need to do is to get bills to the presidents desk, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), who chairs the moderate New Democrat Coalition in the House, told The Hill in an interview. Thats the only way we get a long-term, durable policy in place.

The closeddoor discussion, which took place Wednesday night between Biden and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was meant as an opportunity for liberal lawmakers to implore the president to offer solutions for daily burdens facing millions ofpeople, including high college debt and the astronomical cost of prescription drugs.

Congressional Democrats have failed to pass an ambitious agenda thathadmany of the items on progressives wish list,such aspaid family leave, cuts to child care costs, an expansion of pre-K and extensive climate measures.

Many on the left insist that help from the White House is overdue. But while some felt momentum exiting the meeting, it also sparked questions from others in the party and garnered attacks from the opposition about carrying out a strategy thats temporary by design.

Do fewer things better, for longer, DelBene said, instead of trying to do everything.

You end up with a bunch of things that may only be in place for a year, she added.

Another prominent moderate Democratic lawmakersuggestedthat such actions can be a distraction from the legislative process.

Many of us are much more interested in actually finding bipartisan solutions that can get through Congress, the House moderate said. Executive action just changes from one administration to the next.

As centrists concerns grew throughout the week,progressives grumbled at the notion that the president should leanevenmoreheavilyon an increasingly stagnant Congress rather than acting within his own authority as the nations chief executive.

We shouldnt be surprised, said John Paul Mejia, a climate activist and spokesman for the Sunrise Movement. For the past two years, corporate Democrats have shown us that obstructing the popular policies that Biden was elected on is what they know how to do best.

Earlier this month, progressive lawmakers released arosterof items theyd like to see Biden enactas soon as possible.A source familiar with the committees preparations said leadership planned to present each of those priorities to the president in their discussion, effectively leaving nothing on the floor. Members had been drafting the proposed orders for the past several weeks.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the 98-member caucus, said that, in addition to lowering drug costs andforgiving student loans,officials urged the administration to act on raising the overtime threshold and expanding renewable energy to decrease reliance on fossil fuels a key focus as inflation and gas prices continue to soar amid Russias war in Ukraine as well as fixing the Affordable Care Act family glitch to expand access to health care.

The same day Biden met with House liberals, the moderate New Democrat Coalition also convened asessionwith the president andmembers of his senior White House team, which served as a counterweight.

DelBene and other centrist lawmakers stressed to the president that while the gridlock in Congress is frustrating, its still possible to get top priorities passed in the near term. Theysaidthat any executive actions should be developed in consultation with Congress and have broad support among the American people and Congressional Democrats signaling to the administration that some in the party have reservations about certain progressive goals.

Tactically, executive actions have become a quick alternative to astalledCongress for White House occupants of both parties. Former Presidents Obama and Trump both used them to advance their political agendas on immigration and security.

But their short-lived status makes the orders less palatable, and some lawmakers, including DelBene, believe by circumventing the legislative branch, Americans are likely to lose trust in the institution of Congress andpracticeof governing.

To show governance is working, to provide certainty and to have an impact over the long term, we need to pass legislation, DelBene said. The better answer is always going to be that Congress acts.

Republicans criticized Obama for what they said was a politically calculated wayto advance far-left principles.Fast-forward and Trumps decision to bar immigrants from majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States was widely condemned by Democrats.

With midterms just seven months away, Republicans are likely eager to campaign on reversing any measures Biden takes thatdo not includelawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The first sign of that came on Friday, when the White House announced a reversal of theTrump-era Title 42 order,a public health policy that made it easier to push migrants and other refugees back across the southern border during the coronavirus pandemic.

At every opportunity, Biden has enacted policies that open our southern border, empower drug smugglers and human traffickers, and make American communities less safe, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

Joe Biden has overseen the worst border crisis in DHS [Department of Homeland Security] history. By removing Title 42, Bidens doubling down on his commitment to actively worsening the crisis he created, she added.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is working to unseat vulnerable House Democrats in hopes of reclaiming the lower chamber, was equally infuriated by the presidents move.

Every Democrat will have to answer for the Bidenadministrations decision to turn their border crisis into a border catastrophe, said Torunn Sinclair, a committee spokesperson.

Even some within Bidens own partypubliclyexpressed their displeasure.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.),who frequently draws ire from liberals,cautioned that the migration policy should remain on the books until coronavirus cases ease up, going as far as to call it a frightening decision.

We are already facing an unprecedented increase in migrants this year, and that will only get worse if the administration ends the Title 42 policy, the West Virginia Democrat wrote. We are nowhere near prepared to deal with that influx. Until we have comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform that commits to securing our borders and providing a pathway to citizenship for qualified immigrants, Title 42 must stay in place.

Jayapal had a different take.

She said she could not be more pleased with the decision and was ready to welcome people into our country with open arms and hearts.

The flurry of action following the presidents pair of meetings came as Biden suffers from his lowest approval ratings to date. Several national and state surveys place the president at or below 40 percent, a figure that Democrats acknowledge must improve for the party to have a reasonable shot at midterm success.

Democratic lawmakers and activists once hopeful that Build Back Better would pass on a party-line vote saw that excitement diminish month after month as congressional logjam killed their plans. Progressives, for their part, have since sought to remind voters that it was largely Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) who held up the package in the Senate, while some moderates in the House also voiced objections before it passed in the lower chamber.

With that in mind,executive actions are still a viable way to get around that, some progressives insist.

Biden, Mejia said, can either cave to a handful of corporate elites in the party or use executive actions to deliver the mandate that the people elected him on.

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Centrists and liberals fighting to the end over executive actions - The Hill

Guilbeault grilled for Liberals approving East Coast oil project: ‘just to be honest with us’ – National Post

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'Why don't we just say, we're going to continue to invest in big oil?': NDP MP Charlie Angus

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Canadas environment minister worked hard Wednesday to ensure any leaks about a controversial Atlantic oil project werent coming from his office.

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Questioned about media reports of his ministrys impending approval of the Bay du Nord offshore drilling project while testifying Wednesday before the Commons Natural Resources committee, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault kept his responses nebulous.

National news are reporting this afternoon that your government is approving Bay du Nord, is that true? committee member and NDP MP Charlie Angus asked of the minister.

It is true that national news are reporting that, Guilbeault responded.

Asked by Angus if the media reports were indeed true, Guilbeault simply stated that no official announcement had been made.

Norwegian energy company Equinor is behind the $12 billion megaproject located about 500 km off the shore of St. Johns, N.L., northeast of the Hibernia and Terra Nova offshore drill sites on Newfoundlands Grand Banks and Jeanne dArc Basin.

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Estimates say the deepwater project could produce 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and over its lifetime would yield at least 300 million barrels.

On Wednesday, CTV reported approval of the project would be announced later that day after the North American financial markets had closed.Later that day, the federal government officially announced it had approved the project.

During a somewhat contentious exchange, Angus expressed his surprise at the news telling Guilbeault he didnt recall reading anything in the governments climate plans about approving new oil projects.

Guilbeault responded by admonishing Angus for not paying closer attention to government policy.

If youd have read the climate plan attentively, you would have seen that the plan rests on a number of data sources, including the last study from the Canadian Energy Regulator that forecasts an increase in production in Canada, Guilbeault said.

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Angus kept on Guilbeault, pointing out both this weeks landmark report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC,) as well as remarks from UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres accusing world leaders of not following through on their promises to deal with the climate emergency.

He said government leaders are lying, and the response will be catastrophic,' Angus said.

Would you feel the UN (secretary) general would have been unfair in saying that government leaders who came to COP26 to make these promises are lying, and then go back and its business at usual?

Guilbeault disagreed with that assessment, insisting his government is following IPCC guidelines to the letter by capping emissions and taxing carbon emissions.

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Its saluted globally as one of the most effective tools to tackle climate change, he responded.

With the project not expected to start producing until the end of this decade, Angus questioned the governments ability to stick with the 2030 goal of reducing greenhouse gas by 40 to 45 per cent.

Why dont we just say, were going to continue to invest in big oil, were going to continue to promote Bay du Nord, were not going to meet those targets,' Angus said.

It would be better just to be honest with us on this than to claim youre going to miraculously hit these targets while, within the space of a week, you alone have signed off on half a million new barrels a day of new production.

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News that Bay du Nord approval was imminent was not well-received by Canadian environmental groups.

Climate advocacy group Environmental Defence described any potential approval of the project as a slap in the face.

Approving Bay du Nord is another leap towards an unlivable future, said spokeswoman Julia Levin in a statement.

The decision is tantamount to denying that climate change is real and threatens our very existence.

Bloc Quebecois committee member Kristina Michaud reminded Guilbeault of Mays report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) stating the only way to achieve net zero is through prohibiting any new oil, gas or coal projects asking in French if his government was announcing one thing but doing the exact opposite.

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Guilbeault answered in French that Canada was on track to meet its goal of cutting methane emissions by three-quarters by 2025.

Discussion of the Bay du Nord announcement came up during a meeting initially intended to discuss emission caps for the oil and gas sector.

While Guilbeault explained no formal emissions caps exist for other sectors, he said other Trudeau government policies could just as easily be considered along the same lines specifically mentioning the governments 2035 deadlines on zero-emission vehicles and net-zero energy via the Clean Electricity Standard.

This capping and reducing emissions approach is actually one that weve embraced for very many sectors of our economy, he said.

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Guilbeault grilled for Liberals approving East Coast oil project: 'just to be honest with us' - National Post