Hello,
The Liberal government has tabled a bill to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The legislation would provide a framework to ensure that future laws take into account Indigenous human rights.
The bill is the second time that Parliament will be looking at the issue in recent years. A private member’s bill introduced by former NDP MP Romeo Saganash in 2016 passed the House of Commons, but died in the Senate due to opposition from Conservative senators.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is vetting at least five people to take over as deputy minister of her department, including three current DMs, and officials at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Canada.
Why the timing of the COVID-19 vaccine is so crucial to containing the virus’s spread.
How Newfoundland and Labrador’s rookie Premier, Andrew Furey, is trying to turn the province around.
The Liberal government has introduced a number of legislative initiatives recently to get tough on the tech giants, and a new Nanos poll shows support for the agenda, including requiring Netflix to charge sales tax and to fund Canadian content.
Canada has joined its Five Eyes allies in condemning a tweet from a Chinese government spokesperson that falsely depicts an Australian soldier holding a knife to a child’s throat.
Health experts say a House petition sponsored by Conservative MP Derek Sloan that refers to the COVID-19 vaccine as an example of “human experimentation” spreads dangerous misinformation.
And former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama are teaming up to say they would take a COVID-19 vaccine on TV, if it would help boost vaccination rates.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Trudeau sending out a cabinet minister to explain a broken promise on clean water for First Nations: “The political value of the promise, in fact, was that it was clear, easy to understand, specific, and made by the person who would be PM. And what we are supposed to get in return is accountability. On Wednesday, [Marc] Miller said he takes responsibility. But this was about prime ministerial accountability. Accept no substitute.”
Avvy Go, Debbie Douglas and Shalini Konanur (The Globe and Mail) on pushing back on the Liberal claim that the fiscal update was feminist and intersectional: “Statistics Canada’s most recent labour-force survey confirms that Canadians in Arabic, Black, Chinese and South Asian communities experienced much higher unemployment rates and much higher increases in unemployment rates over the past year compared with white Canadians. The government promised to create more jobs through massive infrastructure investments, but it did not guarantee these jobs will be made equitably accessible to those under-represented in the labour market due to structural racism and other forms of discrimination.”
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston (National Post) on why the Chinese state’s practice of kidnapping other citizens must stop: “This horror has befallen other Canadians, as well as citizens of other countries. It is time for liberal democracies to come together to show China that there are consequences for such actions.”
Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed (Montreal Gazette) on why small businesses need our help: “For my family, shopping locally has, most of all, meant being mindful about where we buy our takeout food. Since the start of the pandemic, we have made a point of supporting locally owned restaurants. We want to see them still there when (one day) COVID-19 is behind us. That means they need our support now.”
Ralph Nader (The Globe and Mail) on Canada’s inadequate investigations into the crash of 737 Boeing Max jets: “Transport Canada and Parliament are affected by Washington’s unwillingness to require Boeing to divulge the information necessary to evaluate Boeing and FAA claims about the justification for ungrounding. An arrogant Boeing refused even to respond to a parliamentary committee’s belated invitation to testify.”
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Chris Hannay