Lindsay Mathyssen responds to election loss in London-Fanshawe
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Winnipeg Free Press
16 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Britain hopes a crackdown on people-smugglers' social media ads will help curb Channel crossings
LONDON (AP) — Britain says people who advertise fake passports or people-smuggling services on social medial could face up to five years in prison, in the government's latest effort to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats. The government said Sunday that anyone convicted of creating online materials intended to break U.K. immigration law will face prison time and a large fine. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the aim was to stop the 'brazen tactics on social media' used by smuggling gangs. 'Selling the false promise of a safe journey to the U.K. and a life in this country — whether on or offline — simply to make money, is nothing short of immoral,' she said. Assisting illegal immigration to the U.K. is already a crime, but officials believe a new offense — part of a border security bill currently going through Parliament — will give police and prosecutors more powers to disrupt gangs that send migrants on perilous journeys across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks. Since taking office a year ago, Starmer's center-left Labour Party government has adopted powers to seize the assets of people-smugglers, beefed up U.K. border surveillance and increased law-enforcement cooperation with France and other countries to disrupt the journeys. Despite that, more than 25,000 people have reached Britain by boat so far this year, an increase of 50% on the same period in 2024. Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue, fueled by pictures of smugglers piling migrants into overcrowded, leaky inflatable boats on the French coast. Opposition parties say the government's plans aren't working — though the government argues the problems built up during 14 years when the Conservative Party was in power, The Conservatives say Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government's contentious and expensive plan to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda. 'This is a panicked attempt to look tough after months of doing nothing,' Conservative immigration spokesman Chris Philp said. The government says it will take time to clear a backlog of applications that has left thousands of migrants stuck in temporary accommodation — often hotels — without the right to work. The hotels have become flashpoints for tension, attracting protests fueled by a mix of local concern, misinformation and anti-immigrant agitation.
Montreal Gazette
2 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
Libman: Much at stake for Quebec party leaders in Arthabaska byelection
Many Gazette readers might have trouble locating the largely rural Arthabaska riding on a map, but we'll be hearing a lot about it in the days ahead. Located between Montreal and Quebec City, advance voting begins there this weekend for an Aug. 11 byelection to replace Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Eric Lefebvre, a recently elected federal Conservative MP. The byelection is a critical test for Quebec's main political parties and their leaders. Over the past 25 years, the riding has shifted between the Parti Québécois, Liberals, Action démocratique and CAQ. And this byelection offers the possibility of a breakthrough for the provincial Conservatives, with party leader Éric Duhaime potentially making his grand entrance into the National Assembly. The Conservatives finished second here in the 2022 vote with an unknown candidate. Duhaime is the standard bearer this time, and polls show his party neck and neck with the PQ. At a candidates debate last week, he was the centre of attention and primary target of the others, usually the sign of a front-runner. The former radio shock jock has the gift of the gab and would light things up in the assembly. This is Duhaime's best shot. If he doesn't win, the Quebec Conservative Party he has resurrected over the past few years will likely go back in hibernation. For the PQ, anything short of a win will be interpreted as a stalling of the party's momentum, after leading in the polls for almost two years now and having won the last two byelections (Jean-Talon and Terrebonne). PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is as confident now as Pierre Poilievre was a year ago in the federal campaign — looking in the mirror, and believing the person staring back at him is the future premier ministre. The byelection will also be the first electoral test for the Liberals since choosing former MP Pablo Rodriguez as leader. There are genuine concerns about his ability to make inroads in the regions. If they fare poorly in Arthabaska — a 97 per cent francophone mother-tongue riding — questions may bubble up as to whether they made a mistake in not opting for Charles Milliard or Karl Blackburn. When asked about the regions, Rodriguez, who was a child refugee from Argentina, talks about growing up in Sherbrooke — which happens to be just south of Arthabaska. We'll see. At last week's debate, the Liberal candidate in the riding also had to fend off criticism about Rodriguez's role in the Justin Trudeau regime regarding the exaggerated influx of newcomers. As for the CAQ, it has won this riding convincingly in all five elections since the party's founding in 2012. It will likely be a very different story this time. This week's news that Quebec's auditor general is probing millions in provincial subsidies to the electric battery industry (Northvolt and Lion Electric) is another blow to a government that appears to be falling apart at the seams amid other financial fiascos like SAAQclic and Santé Québec. It's too early to call this byelection a foreshadowing of the general election that's still over a year away. Nonetheless, the results could unleash internal party tensions at the CAQ. François Legault's leadership hasn't yet been challenged from within, but you can bet his MNAs are hearing considerable grumpiness from voters during the summer break as they spend more time in their ridings. Legault seems desperately hoping for a Hail Mary with a cabinet shuffle in the fall, which he (oddly) advertised well in advance. If the byelection goes sour in a riding his party has dominated for over a decade, and his rearranging of the cabinet chairs doesn't prompt any meaningful bump in support, he will soon have an important decision to make about his future. For a seemingly nondescript byelection in the dog days of August, there are certainly many moving parts, with potentially consequential spinoffs.
CBC
2 days ago
- CBC
Members of environmental racism panel, N.S. government discuss meeting dates
Social Sharing Members of a provincial panel on environmental racism are discussing when they can schedule a meeting with Nova Scotia government cabinet ministers. The panel was commissioned via an NDP amendment to major environmental legislation the Progressive Conservative government passed in 2022. A report was delivered more than a year ago, but so far has not been shared with the public. Becky Druhan, the cabinet minister responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, said in May that there were no plans to make the report and recommendations public, noting that was not part of the panel's mandate. At the time, Druhan would not say if she'd read the recommendations. Following pressure from opposition MLAs and Mi'kmaw chiefs, however, Druhan said last month that she'd asked department staff to arrange for a meeting with the panel. "Out of respect for the panel, we want to meet with members before sharing any further details publicly," she said in a statement at the time. On Tuesday, a government spokesperson said an invitation to meet had been extended to panel chair Augy Jones, who is also the executive director for African Nova Scotian Affairs for the province, and the hope was a meeting date could be set soon. "Given the busy summer season and the need to co-ordinate several schedules, it is likely the meeting will take place later this summer or early fall," Denise Corra said in an email. Tom Johnson, a member of the panel and the executive director of fisheries and wildlife for Eskasoni First Nation, confirmed in an email Tuesday that people are trying to line up schedules. Calls for the report's release Although Deputy Premier Barb Adams said earlier this year that the recommendations from the report are being used across government, some high-ranking civil servants and cabinet ministers have indicated in the last two months that they have either not seen the report or are only familiar with it at a high level. No one from the government has been willing to say whether reparations for communities affected by environmental racism is one of the panel's recommendations. Membertou First Nation Chief Terry Paul told CBC News last month that Mi'kmaw chiefs in the province have not seen the report, but they've talked about it and believe it should be made public. Louise Delisle feels the same way. Delisle lives in a historic Black community in the Town of Shelburne. She spoke to the panel during its consultation work and shared concerns about the effects a garbage dump situated for years beside her community had on the health of people living nearby. 'Where is it?' "I talked about the fact of the high rates of cancer and the fact that our water was polluted," she told CBC News. "We were not consulted when that dump was put in there. Nobody came into the community and asked anything because they felt they didn't need to do that. That's racism at its finest." Delisle said her expectation was recommendations from the panel would be shared with the communities consulted as part of the work. She's frustrated by the lack of answers. Communities are already dealing with the fallout from environmental racism, Delisle said, and to not share the report and its recommendations feels like another form of discrimination. "Where is it? Just make it public."
