Hello,
Pablo Rodriguez, who previously served as Heritage Minister and is now Transport Minister, said Friday he is calling on Meta to go back on its decision to block news on the company’s platforms.
“What Meta is doing is totally unacceptable,” Mr. Rodriguez told reporters at a Zoom news conference focused on the impacts of wildfires, adding that he warned Meta in the past of the risks of blocking news.
Residents of the Northwest Territories are currently unable to access news on Facebook and Instagram as they leave their homes after a city-wide warning to evacuate due to wildfires.
The tech giant blocked Canadians’ ability to view or share news content on its platforms in response to the federal government’s Bill C-18, which requires Google and Meta to compensate news organizations for posting or linking to their work.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, usually written by Ian Bailey. Kristy Kirkup is writing today. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY'S HEADLINES
Yellowknife mayor vows all residents will get out after orders to evacuate city - Thousands of people from the Northwest Territories are dispersing into Western Canada by land and air as one of the country’s largest evacuation efforts empties Yellowknife and other northern communities into towns and cities hundreds of kilometres away. Story here.
B.C. residents advised to prepare to evacuate amid surging wildfire risk - Residents across British Columbia, from the blistering Okanagan and Fraser Canyon to the farthest northeast corner, are being told to have a bag packed as emergency preparedness officials warn of extreme fire conditions in the province this week. Story here.
Green Party’s Elizabeth May says top-secret foreign interference briefing lacked key documents: The first party leader in the House of Commons to gain access to secret documents reviewed by foreign interference investigator David Johnston says she is disappointed at the lack of detail provided to her. Story here.
Canadian minister urged to quit Chinese government advisory body chaired by senior member of Politburo - The federal Conservatives are calling on Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to resign his position on an advisory group to the Chinese government – a body chaired by a former chief of staff to President Xi Jinping – and to end Canadian funding to this organization, which instructs Beijing on green development. Story here.
China’s sputtering economy curbs outlook for diesel demand for rest of 2023 - China’s muted economic growth in 2023 as its post-COVID recovery underwhelms has crimped the outlook for demand for diesel fuel, the oil product that is the lifeblood of the economy, paving the way for continuing firm exports. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
Summer break – Both the House of Commons and the Senate are on breaks. The House sits again on Sept. 18. The Senate sits again on Sept. 19.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan, Defence Minister Bill Blair, Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech, Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, Julie Dabrusin, the parliamentary secretary to the Natural Resources Minister and Environment Minister, were present via Zoom to provide the update on wildfires in the Northwest Territories.
Health Minister Mark Holland spoke at a meeting of the Canadian Medical Association.
THE DECIBEL
There is no episode of The Decibel today.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s itinerary notes that he is conducting personal business today. He has been in British Columbia on vacation and is to return home to the national capital region.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh did not release their plans for Friday.
OPINION
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Anita Anand’s move to the Treasury Board speaking volumes about Justin Trudeau’s priorities: “[Anita] Anand seems to have made the same mistake as Ms. [Jody] Wilson-Raybould in taking her remit seriously, rather than just taking marching orders from the PMO. It takes a unique set of skills to survive in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, and independent thinking is not one of them.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on why somebody in Ottawa is playing a trick on Anita Anand: “The Liberal government is sending her out on a mission to make spending cuts that won’t add up to much but will engender a lot of resistance from her own team. Have they let her in on the joke?”
Michael Lawrence and Thomas Homer-Dixon (contributing to The Globe and Mail) on why focusing on simple explanations might make things worse when it comes to wildfires or COVID-19: ”We’re also susceptible to what psychologists call “availability bias” – our tendency to explain events using evidence that comes easily to mind – which encourages us to focus on recent and visible causes of harmful incidents. But in a world beset by polycrisis, simple explanations justify short-term, limited and often profoundly divisive responses that rarely help much – and may even make things worse.”
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on why won’t Justin Trudeau name a new ethics commissioner: “Mr. Trudeau should name a new ethics commissioner before the House resumes sitting on Sept. 18. He needs to do so to restore a semblance of Liberal credibility when it comes to the democratic values represented by Ottawa’s conflict of interest and ethics rules.”
Colin Ellard (contributing to The Globe and Mail) on why working from home has its perks, but good workspaces move us to great accomplishments: “By the time I take a seat in my office or stand in front of a class, I’ve been primed by thousands of sensory details, the memories that they trigger (both good and bad ones), reminders of who I am. I’m stitched into that place. To suppose that this could all be replaced by my tumbling out of bed in the morning and into the chair in front of my computer screen is to ignore so much of what constitutes genuine experience.”
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Kristy Kirkup