Canada

An interview with historian Bryan Palmer about his trilogy of books on the continuing legacy of colonialism in Canada.

Liberal House leader Steve MacKinnon signalled Tuesday that he’s concerned the government’s budget might not get support from the opposition benches, while at the same time dismissing some demands other parties have laid out.

On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney saying he wants to see an “affordable budget” that includes broad tax cuts and keeping the deficit under $42 billion.

Meanwhile, the Bloc Québécois has said they have six key priorities for the budget including: an increase to the federal health transfer to the provinces, new infrastructure investments, an expansion of the rapid housing initiative, interest-free loans for first-time homebuyers and boosting Old Age Security (OAS) payments for those ages 65 to 75.

Canada’s auditor general found serious problems with the military’s aging living quarters, including deteriorating exterior walls, toilets that don't flush and a lack of safe drinking water.

There are 227 high-priority repairs needed across 32 buildings, according to Karen Hogan’s latest report released Tuesday. But out of a sample audited, only five per cent of repairs had been completed.

The auditor general’s team found the average age of the buildings housing military members is 60 years old, and most required at least one high-priority repair.

Her audit found there were 3,706 military members on a waitlist for residential housing units at bases this spring, but only 205 units available.

Company doesn't answer questions about use of zip ties, but says it offered to pay for repairs

Paywall free: https://archive.is/hGJwq

Archived version

British Columbia proposed legislation to limit how much electricity will be available to artificial intelligence data centers, and moved to permanently ban new cryptocurrency mining projects.

The government of Canada’s third-most populous province will prioritize connections to its power grid for other purposes like mines and natural gas facilities because they provide more jobs and revenue for people in BC, the energy ministry said Monday.

“Other jurisdictions have been challenged to address electricity demands from emerging sectors and, in many cases, have placed significant rate increases on the backs of ratepayers,” the department said Monday.

That’s a reference to US states like Virginia and Maryland, where a proliferation of the power-hungry data centers needed for AI appears to be pushing up citizens’ power bills, according to a Bloomberg analysis. BC “is receiving significant requests for power” from these industries, Energy Minister Adrian Dix said at a press conference.

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George Springer topped them all with a come-from-behind moment that will go down as one of the biggest homers in franchise history.

Springer hit a go-ahead three-run shot in the seventh inning and closer Jeff Hoffman struck out the side in the ninth to lift the Blue Jays to a dramatic 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.

The victory gave Toronto its first AL pennant since 1993 and a berth in the World Series starting Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The story gets sadder the more you read.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has broken his silence on jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, saying he supports his release on humanitarian grounds and also because he believes in freedom of the press.

Mr. Carney said “we would urge the release of Mr. Lai” when asked by The Globe and Mail at a news conference why he had not joined U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in calling for the Hong Kong businessman to be freed.

The Prime Minister’s statement was welcomed by MPs, human-rights advocates and Mr. Lai’s international legal team.

“We are grateful to Prime Minister Carney for calling for the release of Jimmy Lai. As a champion of Canadian values with strong Canadian connections, we hope the Prime Minister will now raise his case directly with China,” said Brandon Silver, director of policy and projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

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Canada is calling on its C$3tn (US$2.1tn) pension system to boost domestic investment as it seeks C$500bn in new finance to reboot the economy and lower its dependence on the US.

Industry minister Mélanie Joly told the Financial Times the new wave of “economic nationalism” means Canada’s financial institutions must foster homegrown investments and major infrastructure projects to kick-start the country’s sluggish economy.

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This month Joly launched an industrial strategy aimed at creating jobs and attracting foreign investment in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

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Like the UK, Canada has been examining how to channel more pension assets to domestic targets to combat weak productivity and poor business investment.

Last year more than 90 Canadian corporate executives signed an open letter calling on the government to amend rules which would allow them to increase domestic investments, saying the amount they allocated to Canadian equities had dwindled from 28 per cent in 2000 to 4 per cent by 2023.

Ottawa in December lifted its 30 per cent cap for investments in Canadian entities at a time when Trump was threatening tariffs and trade wars against its major trading partner.

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The snowbirds knew they’d have to comply with a new registration requirement for travellers staying in the United States longer than 29 days. So when a CBP officer said they could complete the process at the border, the couple agreed, unaware of what lay ahead. 

Jacquie Ree said they were sent to secondary inspection where their motorhome was searched.

“I'm watching them open all our hatches, and we're thinking, ‘Oh my god,’” she said. “They went through our whole RV.”

Ree says she and her husband waited in line for 1.5 hours, only to be told by a second CBP officer they couldn’t register at the border. But when they were about to leave, a third officer said he could register the couple, and proceeded to photograph and fingerprint them for data collection purposes. 

Not sure what they expected

The requirement has been in effect since April. However, as the new snowbird season kicks off, this is the first time many Canadian snowbirds are dealing with the rules — resulting in some uncertainty and frustration.

Air travellers are typically exempt from the registration requirement, because they’re issued an electronic arrival record (I-94) when entering the U.S. However, land travellers often don’t receive one.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/48217272

Archive link: https://archive.ph/jCEl2 Link to report: https://www.justice4workers.org/new_report_on_wage_theft

In the past decade, nearly $200 million in unpaid wages have been formally assessed as owed to workers, according to a new report from the Workers’ Action Centre, an organization advocating for workers’ rights, based on freedom-of-information data.

When employers fail to comply with a Ministry of Labour order to pay within 30 days, the case is referred to Ontario’s Ministry of Finance, which was only able to recover less than a quarter of the $102.4 million sent for collections between 2013 and 2023, leaving workers still owed $79.9 million in stolen wages, according to the government data. ... Ontario’s wage recovery flaws Ojeda’s case highlights the limits of Ontario’s wage recovery system, which advocates say has struggled to keep pace with modern employment practices as fines, workplace inspections and enforcement have declined over the past decade. “When there is a low likelihood of detection and the penalties for noncompliance are minimal, the incentive to commit wage theft is high,” the Wokers’ Action Centre report says. Employer prosecutions have plummeted in recent years, according to government data.

In 2024, the Ministry of Labour initiated only 12 Part III Prosecutions — a type of penalty with the most potential to deter employers from violating employment standards because it can result in a hefty fine or even jail time — down 85 per cent from 2017 despite widespread non-compliance with orders to pay.

Meanwhile, proactive enforcement has also declined.

When Premier Doug Ford took office in 2018, the Labour Ministry instructed staff not to initiate any new proactive inspections aimed at preventing wage theft and other employment standards violations.

Employment standards inspections deal with basic workplace issues such as unpaid wages and overtime. Proactive inspections, which are initiated at the behest of the ministry, are far more effective at recovering unpaid wages, including public holiday pay and overtime, than when individual workers file complaints, according to the ministry’s own data. Workplace inspections started to plummet before the pandemic and are 77 per cent lower than they were around seven years ago, government data shows.

At the same time, the number of permanent employment standards officers has decreased. In 2023, only 115 officers were working across the province, down from 209 in 2018, even as Ontario’s workforce grew by 16 per cent since 2014.

The Ministry of Labour declined to respond to inquiries on why enforcement has eroded in recent years and what is being done to hold employers accountable and prevent increasing incidents of wage theft. Questions instead were referred to the Ministry of Finance, which did not get back to the Star before publication.

There is also a deeper structural problem contributing to rampant wage theft in the province, according to Bedard: Ontario’s labour laws have not kept pace with changing business practices and the rise of multi-party employment relationships. Rather than the traditional direct employer-to-employee relationship, today’s companies are increasingly adopting business structures that limit their liability for the employees who make their products or provide their services, relying on strategies such as subcontracting, franchising, third-party management or misclassification of employees.

These structures can obscure who is legally liable for unpaid wages.

“Employers try to hide behind the corporate veil to avoid responsibility,” Bedard said.

Abstract
Within moderation, wildfires play a crucial role in enhancing ecological synergies. The escalating severity and duration of wildfires generate a local and national state of crisis. Wildfires exponentially and simultaneously worsen local and global climate change. This paper will review the literature on the positive feedback loop demonstrated between climate change and Canadian wildfires. Four primary factors influence wildfire activity: weather and climate, ignition agents, fuel, and human activities. Wildfires deteriorate physical and chemical properties of nationwide topography, soil system, and hydrological cycle. The vegetation destroyed by wildfires further exacerbates climate change. This paper encompasses the natural and strategic control measures implemented to regulate and remediate wildfire activity. Ecosystems may naturally facilitate both climate change and wildfire mediation and prevention if biodiversity is preserved. Wildfire management expenses, which corresponds with climate change management expenses, ranged from $800 million to $1.4 billion annually over the previous decade. The perpetuating advancement in wildfire severity presents unpredictability and difficulty to anticipate future costs (Government of Canada, 2024a). Direct or indirect management is implemented based on the magnitude of the wildfire.