Kelly McParland: Carney and Ford race to build as anti-development forces coalesce
Hard to argue with that, but argument, of course, there has been. The act 'is a case study in how not to engage with Indigenous nations,' complained Chief Lance Haymond of the Kebaowek First Nation. It's 'a naked power grab that tramples our democracy,' according to the Toronto Star. 'Not even Harper tried to rev up a bulldozer like this,' asserted Elizabeth May, Parliament's sole Green member, who's always keen to get in a shot at her much-more successful political rival.
Article content
The bill was approved with the support of the Opposition Conservatives, which was enough in itself to upset 'progressives.' Added to Carney's wholesale adoption of other Conservative aims — a cancelled carbon tax, tax cuts, tougher borders, immigration reform — it threatened an outbreak of partisan dysphoria among the part of the populace that's accustomed to ensuring nothing constructive ever gets done. May, for one, fears the collaboration might continue, as if constructive co-operation between two parties that are supported by 85 per cent of voters would be bad for the country.
Article content
Article content
Unlike Ford, though, Carney appears not to be the apologizing type. He's more the 'let's get serious with our accusations' type. Responding to the outpouring of complaints, he noted that, 'Consultation, co-operation, engagement, participation is at the heart of C-5 and that is how you build a nation.' The bill not only aims to support Indigenous partnerships, 'but also to finance equity ownership in these nation-building projects for Indigenous peoples, Indigenous groups, Indigenous rights holders.'
Article content
Right off the top, the bill states that, 'The government of Canada is committed to respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples recognized and affirmed by Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and the rights set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.'
Article content
Clearly that isn't enough to convince 'progressives' who voted in the Liberals but don't trust them to keep their word even when it's written into legislation. You can't really blame them given how often the previous Liberal government broke its word, ignored the rules and bound itself to promises it showed no intention of keeping. Many of those same promise-breakers are now senior members of Carney's cabinet.
Article content
Article content
Learning to deal with the country's large and firmly embedded barriers to progress is something Carney will have to master. Canada didn't get to this position of lethargy and blockage accidentally; it took the determined efforts of armies of professional adversaries and disputants over an extended period. A single bill, no matter how optimistically titled, isn't going to turn the tide against decades of obstructionism.
Article content
The doubts of Native-Canadians arise from centuries of bad experiences with untrustworthy governments. Carney could have saved himself some trouble if he'd paused his sprint to a self-imposed legislative deadline to better address their concerns. As it was, he spent much of the news conference following the act's passage responding to pointed questions about those concerns and pledging to spend a good chunk of the summer meeting with Indigenous leaders to make up for the misstep.
Article content
May's concerns about the dangers of co-operation aside, surveys suggest Carney and Ford remain in favour. Ford was recently rated as the country's most popular Conservative, ahead of seatless federal leader Pierre Poilievre. Popularity in politics is fleeting, however, and needs to be used wisely while it lasts. It appears they share an understanding of their situation, which would explain the sense of hurry in Ottawa and Toronto to get something done while they still have the chance.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
28 minutes ago
- National Post
Opinion: Samidoun exposes failures in Canada's anti-terror efforts
By Ches W. Parsons and Sheryl Saperia Article content On Oct. 15, 2024, Canada finally added Samidoun to its list of terrorist entities under the Criminal Code. Many observers had long called for this important step, given the group's well-documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization listed in Canada since 2003. The designation came only after mounting public pressure and disturbing events, including a Vancouver rally in which Samidoun-affiliated demonstrators chanted 'Death to Canada' and burned our national flag. Article content Article content Rather than signalling a firm stance against terrorism, the delayed listing highlighted Canada's reluctance to act until the political cost of inaction became too high. To make matters worse, eight months later, Samidoun continues to enjoy the privileges of a federally registered non-profit. Article content Article content As Sen. Leo Housakos pointed out last week, this contradiction undermines the very purpose of the terrorist designation process. How can a group be banned for terrorist activity while simultaneously maintaining legal status as a non-profit corporation under Canadian law? The answer lies in the fragmented structure of Canada's counterterrorism and regulatory systems. Article content While terrorist listings are administered by Public Safety Canada under criminal law, non-profit status falls under Corporations Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency — separate bodies with distinct mandates, timelines, and evidentiary thresholds. A terrorist designation does not automatically trigger the revocation of a group's corporate or non-profit status, as it should. Article content Article content Far from being a bureaucratic technicality, this disconnect has real-world implications. It allows listed entities like Samidoun to continue to benefit from the legal protections and legitimacy of a registered non-profit, even as their assets are meant to be frozen and their activities shut down. The longer Samidoun retains its status, the more it casts doubt on Canada's resolve — and capability — to enforce its own national security laws. Article content Article content Samidoun has operated openly in Canada for years, despite credible concerns about its affiliations and activities. Political and bureaucratic reluctance kept it off the terrorist list until public outrage erupted. Even now, no charges have been announced in Canada against key figures like Charlotte Kates or Khaled Barakat, despite their prominent roles in the organization. Article content As far back as 2016, Barakat publicly shared in a video interview: 'I am here to express the views of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.' Israeli authorities have reported that he has been involved in establishing terrorist cells in the West Bank and abroad. His wife, Kates, publicly applauds Hamas as 'heroic and brave' and proudly attended the funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last year. None of this information is a secret to Canadian authorities. Article content In theory, terrorist designations should empower law enforcement to take clear actions. In practice, they appear to be used more for signalling than for systematically dismantling threats. Article content The issue is not a lack of legal authority. Canada has strong mechanisms on paper: designated groups cannot hold or use property, receive financial support or facilitate travel and recruitment. Banks are required to freeze their accounts. Article content There remain some gaps in the law. This includes the fact that membership in a terrorist group is not in itself illegal — nor is the glorification of terrorist violence (which is outlawed in the U.K.). Article content But in enforcing existing laws, the lack of integration between Public Safety, Corporations Canada and the CRA creates a loophole that delays meaningful enforcement. That delay erodes public confidence and gives dangerous individuals with room to manoeuvre. Article content It also renders the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act even more essential legislation — as Canadian terror victims can turn to civil lawsuits to find justice when the authorities have failed to do so. Indeed, some Canadian family members of October 7 victims have filed a lawsuit against several defendants including Samidoun, Kates and Barakat. Article content Canada is not alone in recognizing the threat posed by Samidoun. The group has been banned in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as labelled a sham charity by U.S. authorities. Canada should be a leader in this space, not a laggard. We cannot afford for terrorist listings to be seen as symbolic gestures without real consequences. Article content It's time for reform. The government should establish a streamlined process to ensure that once a group is listed as a terrorist entity, it triggers a whole-of-government response to sanction the organization. This includes ensuring its non-profit status is immediately reviewed and — where appropriate — revoked. Inter-agency co-ordination must be improved so that criminal law and administrative oversight are not operating in silos. Article content National security cannot be selectively applied. If we are serious about combating terrorism, we must ensure that our enforcement measures are not only robust in theory, but swift and seamless in practice.
National Post
31 minutes ago
- National Post
Canadians feel unwelcome in the U.S. as mistrust remains high: new poll
Now that Canada's trade war with America has surged back into public consciousness like a blast from the recent past, a new poll suggests Canadian frustration with and mistrust of the U.S. remains high, despite a slight easing. Article content In March, for example, polling showed a dramatic realignment of Canadian attitudes toward its southern neighbour. Europe and Britain were suddenly the countries Canadians felt best about, and Canadians were starting to feel about America the way they felt about Russia. Article content Article content But lately, with U.S. President Donald Trump's attention mostly elsewhere, there are signs of a slight bump back from this low point, despite troubling news developments like the death of a Canadian citizen in U.S. immigration custody. Article content Article content More than half of Canadians now say they 'no longer feel welcome in the United States,' for example, and this sentiment is strongest among women and older people. Article content During the recent Canadian election campaign with its looming threat of crippling tariffs and annexation, there was a 'worrisome intersection' in the Canadian mind of the American government and the American people, according to Jack Jedwab, president of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies (ACS). But in this latest poll, he sees a 'healthy development' of Canadian anger and frustration being focused primarily on the American government, and less so the American people. Article content Back in April, barely one Canadian in five (21 per cent) said they trust Americans in a similar poll. But in the latest poll, that figure has rebounded to 34 per cent, which is historically normal, about the same as it was near the end of Trump's first term, but still considerably lower than the 59 per cent it reached in October 2023, Jedwab said. Article content Article content Asked if they trust the United States, the country as opposed to the American people, those numbers drop substantially. A majority of 53 per cent said the country could not be trusted, and only 21 per cent said it could. That distrust is greater among Canadians older than 65. It is also stronger among residents of British Columbia, and lowest among Albertans and Atlantic Canadians. Article content Article content The poll was taken by Leger for the ACS between June 20 and 22, so it does not reflect Canadian reaction to Donald Trump's latest cancellation of trade talks last weekend, which prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to rescind a digital industries tax, which targeted American tech firms, in order to restart negotiations. Article content 'We just don't trust the motivation behind the re-opening of trade,' Jedwab said. 'We're persuaded we're the kindler, gentler nation, and we're being bullied by their president.'
CTV News
38 minutes ago
- CTV News
Mandryk on Mandryk: A retrospective of 43 years of opinion at the Regina Leader-Post
Editorial note: Hallee Mandryk is a video journalist for CTV News, and the daughter of Murray Mandryk. Murray did not want to do this interview. But thanks to the fact that Hallee has spent the last 24 years practicing the art of the arguing with Murray, he has begrudgingly agreed to participate in this editorial. After 43 years of igniting debate and discourse with the people of Saskatchewan, Leader-Post columnist Murray Mandryk has arrived at his well-deserved retirement. This means that it's now time to share his worst kept secret: Murray didn't care if you agreed with the perspectives in his columns. His goal was to get you to be critical of the world around you. 'Politics is so important to Saskatchewan and Regina and it was just something I kind of gravitated towards for reasons I'm not sure,' he recalled. 'I wasn't a political animal or had the political bug or anything else. It just seemed an important thing to do, I guess that's kind of why I went in that direction, because it seemed to have the most purpose.' The youngest of six children, Murray was born to a pair of hard-working dairy farmers and grew up just outside of Grandview, a one-horse town on the road to Dauphin, Man. Murray admits he was no scholar (and still struggles with dyslexia) but he decided he'd try to make a career from his writing. 'I just always like to write, even if I wasn't all that s*** hot at it,' he said. Murray Mandryk (Courtesy: Hallee Mandryk) His first jobs bounced him from Winnipeg, to Fort McMurray, to Portage La Prairie, until he eventually landed at the Regina Leader-Post. 'That was all within basically a year and a half period,' he explained. 'I went to Regina thinking I'd be there for a couple of years, and then I met a girl.' That girl, Shawna, was out of Murray's league, and he knew it. For their first date, they went to see the film Romancing the Stone. However, Murray had secretly went to the theatre the day before, to ensure Shawna would like the movie, and the rest is history. Four eventful decades Throughout the 43 years he spent writing about provincial politics, Murray had a front row seat to some of Saskatchewan's most historic moments. When asked about the most notable topics, he cited his time covering the murder of JoAnn Wilson, the ex-wife of then MLA and Cabinet Minister Colin Thatcher in the early 1980's. 'Every newspaper literally in the country of consequence ... every TV station of consequence sent a reporter,' he said. Thatcher was eventually convicted of first-degree murder in Wilson's death. 'It was the last great thing where it was, from a journalistic standpoint, both competitive to cover and absolutely spellbinding and thrilling. So, I guess that would probably be the answer that everybody would expect to hear,' Murray said. Colin Thatcher Saskatchewan MLA Colin Thatcher is escourted by police into the Regina Provincial Courthouse June 25, 1984 for the preliminary hearing for the murder charge he faces. Thatcher was arrested May 7 for the murder of his ex-wife Joanne Wilson in 1983. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lorne McClinton The columnist went on to note that while that story shaped Saskatchewan's history, it wasn't necessarily his career highlight. 'It's the job itself. Its a million little things, a million little stories that you get to cover that just add up in time. It's a cumulative business as opposed to sort of one great event,' he added. Haters gonna hate Murray quickly got used to the backlash that comes along with professionally sharing his political opinions. It takes much more than the occasional death threat in the mail to frighten him, although he was far from oblivious to the criticism. 'We're human, negative feedback obviously irritates the hell out of people and probably irritates journalists more than they kind of let on,' Murray said. Over the years, many of his colleagues have found Murray's handling of hate mail to be a great source of entertainment. One of his favourite methods being to highlight all of the spelling and grammar mistakes and send the mail back to the disgruntled reader. Murray Mandryk (Courtesy: Hallee Mandryk) But contrary to popular belief, the 'Tin Man' does in fact have a heart – and this heart would occasionally make some days on the job more difficult than others. 'Where it kind of bothered me is when I was writing something crappy about somebody I truly liked, or truly thought was a good person or a good politician, and they just messed up or something happened where the circumstances got beyond their control,' Murray said. He went on to say that the responsibility of his position ultimately outweighed any personal feelings, but not without tugging on his heartstrings. 'You had to write that they screwed up and you had to live with the consequences that writing about them screwing up was going to be a big part of how they became defined ... sometimes that bothered me because it appears to me there was always a sense of unfairness about it,' Murray said. A tough old bird People as iron-willed as Murray are hard to come by. But he has kept writing through the deaths of many loved ones (including his beloved Shawna), and the difficult emotions that followed those losses. Throughout the seemingly never-ending chaos, journalism and the folks who dedicate their lives to it have remained the one constant in Murray's life. 'I'm pretty grateful that I've been able to work with all of them,' Murray said. While many arguments he ignited inside the walls of the Saskatchewan legislature were legendary, they paled in comparison to the debates within the walls of his home when another four legged creature was brought home. The stereotype of grumpy fathers falling in love with the pets they didn't want is supported by Murray's best friendship with a fluffy orange cat named Lola. Murray Mandryk Murray with the pets he didn't want but learned to love, Lola (Left) and Juno (Right). His desire to debate and talk about journalism extends far beyond ink on paper. It reaches his kitchen table, which is often occupied by an assortment of strays who show up for the promise of a home cooked meal – and who stay for the entertaining dinner conversation. 'I've always maintained the last few years of my life, I'm working with kids that are younger, smarter and more educated than I was when I started the business. But they're probably better technically at it than I am right now in a lot of aspects and they just don't know it,' he noted. The world keeps turning While Murray has witnessed a lot of change in the industry, the famously pessimistic old man has some optimism for the future of journalism. 'The people that are coming along now are really good. It's smaller, it's more condensed. And that's a problem' he said. 'But … I look at the people I worked with at the newspaper right now ... and I can't honestly say that I have anything to do with it, other than the fact that they're really talented people.' The political landscape has undoubtedly changed over the last four decades. Now, without Murray to spark the debates, it will fall to the public, to the people, to keep those conversations going. 'Your social media accounts … all you get is hits that basically reconfirm your own perspectives and biases. That's why I think, not only is it important to question your leadership, it's important to question all leaders,' Murray said. Murray Mandryk (Courtesy: Hallee Mandryk) 'No particular political party or government is ever 100 per cent wrong on 100 per cent of the things. Sometimes some of the things that that you think they're right about is not even in your best interest and is certainly not in the collective interests of what's going on in the world today.' Throughout his career, Murray's dedication to asking the hard questions remained as unchanged as his haircut. Now as he enters retirement, the path he has paved within the journalistic community is admired and followed by many, including the author of this article. 'Talented people just get into this business and they just grow. That's why it continues to survive and why it's needed, and there is some success to it. I just wish people would understand that better. I wish people understood how good these people really are,' Murray said. I've been lucky enough to learn many lessons from my dad. Watching his career has instilled a particular lesson that many journalists are already familiar with, but it's worth sharing to anyone who will listen. It can be scary to be disliked, but you should fear nothing more than the person you'll become if you let the unjust words and actions of others go unchecked.
