Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Who's behind the anti-Andrew Scheer ad airing during Raptors game?

Michael D'Alimonte, Power Play producer
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 6:23PM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, June 11, 2019 12:17PM EDT

If you watched Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Canada, you might have seen a 30-second ad from an organization called Engage Canada attacking Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

Where did the group get the cash to pay for a Toronto Raptors playoff commercial that could cost upwards of $50,000? The group is hesitant to say.

Tabitha Bernard, a spokesperson for Engage Canada, said in a written statement that the group’s ad campaigns are meant “to fight back against the dominance of corporate interests” on the airwaves.

The ad that ran during Monday night’s Raptors game accuses Scheer of “hiding something” and says that, if elected, he “would follow Ontario Premier Doug Ford” when it comes to health care and education cuts.

The group describes itself as a “grassroots organization.” Corporate records and archived union documents show that it is comprised of veteran political strategists and individuals with strong ties to some of Canada’s largest union groups.

Formally created in December 2014, according to incorporation documents, Engage Canada orchestrated a targeted ad campaign against Stephen Harper in the lead up to the 2015 federal election.

Using the tagline “Not There For You,” the group released several TV advertisements criticizing Harper’s tenure as prime minster.

“With the Conservatives, you and your family just aren’t in the picture” said one Engage Canada TV ad focused on income inequality. “The Harper Conservatives, they won’t be there for you,” said another focused on health care.

But Engage Canada was nowhere to be found on Election Canada’s list of registered third party advertisers as part of the 2015 election.

Engage Canada spent all of its advertising dollars before the election was called, meaning the group never had to register as a third party advertiser and disclose any financial details.

It looks like the group may be employing the same strategy this time around with Scheer, said Erin Crandall, an Acadia University professor who studies Canadian election law.

“If Engage Canada takes the same approach as the 2015 election, to stop advertising before the regulatory period, then we’re not going to have any insight into donors” said Crandall.

Engage Canada also used social media channels to bypass election advertising regulations in the last election cycle, said Crandall.

“If you can do all the big ad spending before the regulatory period, and then stick the ads up on social media where it doesn’t cost anything, then you’ve been able to strategically spend more than you would have been able to otherwise,” she said.

Monday night’s Raptors game is a prime example. Any and all production costs tied to the ad, and the price of the highly-coveted NBA finals airtime, do not need to be released by the group.

Since the ad money is being spent before pre-writ period, Engage Canada does not need to disclose any financial details.

And, short of Engage Canada releasing its own financial documents, it’s next to impossible to know where, exactly, the money to fund the group’s TV, radio and social media ads is coming from. Engage Canada told CTV News it is “funded entirely by donations, large and small, from individual Canadians, organizations, and groups across the country…including labour unions."

Two current directors of the group, corporate records show, are political campaign veterans Kathleen Monk, former campaign director to Jack Layton, and Dave Gene, former deputy chief of operations to Dalton McGuinty.

Monk confirmed she and Gene are active directors of the group in an emailed statement.

As of May 25, days before Engage Canada launched its anti-Scheer ad campaign, the group gained two new directors: Peter Kennedy, former Unifor national secretary-treasurer, and Igor Delov, executive assistant to the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.

Unifor national president Jerry Dias asked union members to donate to Engage Canada during a speech made at a Unifor Ontario Regional Council meeting in December 2015, archived records show.

An executive member of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario also asked their members to fund Engage Canada’s efforts.

“Partnering with Engage Canada, we could help reach more voters and defeat the federal Conservative government in the next federal election,” reads a 2015 letter from Patrick Dillon, business manager for the trades council, sent to the group’s many members.

When asked what relationship Engage Canada has with Unifor and other unions, Bernard said that “Unifor is one of many of Engage Canada’s donors.”

Bernard added that “it would be inaccurate to suggest that Unifor is our only funder” and acknowledged that other labour unions are financial donors to Engage Canada.

Bernard did not, however, elaborate on the amount that Unifor or other union groups have donated to the group in the past, or more recently.

Scheer and Unifor’s leadership have been publicly at odds recently due to the controversy surrounding the union group’s involvement in the panel to choose which news organizations will receive new tax credits.

The Conservative leader says that including an anti-Conservative union on the panel will undermine its credibility and give Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an edge in the upcoming election.

“Unifor is a highly partisan group with highly aggressive and partisan goals,” said Scheer during question period on May 29.

"Scheer puts the very principles of truth and democracy at risk with this own brand of fake news" said Unifor national president Jerry Dias in a written response to Scheer's comments.

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SCHEER LIKE HIS PARTY IS RACIST WHICH IS WHY HE SHOULD NOT BE PM.

Canada's treatment of Indigenous women not a 'genocide': Andrew Scheer

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 12:48PM EDT

OTTAWA -- "Genocide" isn't the right word to describe what's been done to generations of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Monday.

Last week, the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls released its final report. The report included a lengthy argument for why Canada's "series of actions and omissions" allowed Indigenous women to be targeted in ways that add up to an ongoing genocide.

The inquiry noted that under international law, a genocide doesn't need a single directing mind, or to be an organized campaign of violence.

Scheer called every death "a tragedy" that has a "huge impact on families and loved ones." Speaking on Parliament Hill, Scheer said there are concrete actions governments can take to protect vulnerable populations, specifically Indigenous women and girls.

"That being said," he added, "the ramifications of the term 'genocide' are very profound. That word and term carries a lot of meaning. I think the tragedy involved with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is its own thing, it is its own tragedy, and does not fall into that category of genocide."

The use of the term "genocide" in the report instantly sparked arguments over whether the inquiry commissioners' label is accurate, and whether those arguments risk obscuring the findings and the 231 recommendations the inquiry made.

Citing residential schools, poor health care, unsafe transportation, and indifferent or even hostile policing, the inquiry's four commissioners argued the policies aimed to "destroy Indigenous Peoples physically, biologically, and as social units" through oppressive colonial actions that have persisted since Europeans began settling in North America.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not directly answered questions about whether he agrees with that, though he has said he accepts the findings of the report.

After a speech on Monday in Vancouver, the inquiry's chief commissioner Marion Buller said it's unfortunate when a political leader rejects a finding of a 30-month national inquiry.

"The danger is, of course, he's saying, 'I don't believe the truths that the families told.' I think it's a real affront to the families and survivors who did come forward," she said.

Canada signed on to the United Nations' 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which included commitments to avert and stop genocidal acts and punish perpetrators. After the inquiry report was released, the secretary general of the Organization of American States said he wanted to form an international panel to investigate the claim and achieve justice.

"The idea that Canada would now be subject to the types of international actions that follow findings of genocide -- I think we have to be very careful with the use of that terminology and I don't want to get distracted from the good work that the report has done," Scheer said.

"But that being said, I think that the tragedy is its own thing, it is its own heartbreaking situation for every single family that was affected by it, and it does not fall into the category of genocide."

On Sunday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett told Global TV's "The West Block" that the Liberal government would support such a call because it believes in the "rules-based international system."

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Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says that Canada's treatment of Indigenous women was not 'genocide.'

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Ottawa passes legislation that bans whale and dolphin captivity in Canada

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 1:20PM EDT

CTV National News: Applause over whale ban

The Senate has passed a bill that will ban the captivity of marine mammals. Omar Sachedina with reaction.

Whistleblower: Captivity ban a 'big victory'

Former Marineland head whale trainer Philip Demers says having whale and dolphins in captivity is 'abusive'.

'A nonpartisan effort' for captivity ban: May

From CTV News Channel: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May discusses a ban on whale and dolphin captivity and how the legislation came about.

Keeping whales and dolphins in captivity will no longer be allowed across Canada under legislation that passed Monday, drawing celebrations from activists and politicians who called it a significant development for animal rights.

The federal bill, which now only requires royal assent to become law, will phase out the practice of holding cetaceans -- such as whales, dolphins and porpoises -- in captivity, but grandfathers in those that are already being kept at two facilities in the country.

"Today's a really good day for animals in Canada," said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who sponsored the private member's bill that began its journey in the Senate in 2015 before moving on to the House of Commons.

"Many scientists testified to why it was critical that we stop keeping cetaceans in captivity. We understand why because they are obviously not akin to other animals, for instance, livestock. Cetaceans require the ocean, they require the space, they require acoustic communication over long distances."

Gord Johns, the NDP critic for fisheries and oceans said the bill's passage marked "a celebration for cetaeans, for animals rights, the planet and our oceans."

The legislation, which had its third and final reading Monday, received support from the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois, with some Conservatives opposed.

It bans the capture of wild cetaceans, but does allow for the rehabilitation and rescue of the aquatic mammals. The bill also changes the Criminal Code, creating new animal cruelty offences related to the captivity of cetaceans. Breeding is also banned.

Imports and exports of cetaceans will also be banned under the bill, with exceptions only for scientific research or "if it is in the best interest" of the animal, with discretion left up to the minister, thereby clamping down on the marine mammal trade.

"This is a watershed moment for whales and dolphins, and powerful recognition that our country no longer accepts imprisoning smart, sensitive animals in tiny tanks for entertainment," said Camille Labchuk, executive director of advocacy group Animal Justice.

Animal rights group PETA said it was "popping the champagne corks today as Canada makes history."

"We look forward to a day when confining sensitive, complex marine mammals to tiny tanks is outlawed in every country around the world," Tracy Reiman, the group's executive vice-president, said in a statement.

Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont., and the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia are the only two facilities in Canada that currently keep captive cetaceans.

The Vancouver Aquarium announced last year that it would no longer house cetaceans and has one dolphin left at its facility. That came after Vancouver's board of parks and recreation passed a bylaw amendment in 2017 banning cetaceans being brought to or kept in city parks after two beluga whales held at the aquarium died.

Marineland, meanwhile, has told the government it has more than 50 belugas at its facility.

It recently received approval to export two belugas, both owned by the Vancouver Aquarium, to a park in Spain. It also applied to move five more belugas to facilities in the United States, but hasn't received those approvals yet, a Fisheries spokeswoman said late last week.

The facility told the government it had problems with the way the whale and dolphin captivity bill was written, noting that it would be in violation of the Criminal Code when the law comes into effect since some of its belugas are pregnant and set to give birth this summer.

On Monday, it said it will comply with "all animal welfare legislation in Canada."

"Marineland began an evolution in our operation some time ago, and as that evolution continues we are confident that our operations remain compliant with all aspects of (the bill)," it said in a statement.

The head of Humane Canada, an animal welfare group, said the legislation was needed.

"If the bill didn't do something to end captive breeding, we could have ended up with a beluga farm in Marineland," said Barbara Cartwright.

Phil Demers, a former whale trainer at Marineland who testified at hearings on the bill, said he was "elated" at it passing.

"Marineland could never be again, if it wanted to start today," said Demers, a longtime critic of Marieland who is engaged in a legal battle with the facility.

Marineland, for its part, has long said it treats its animals well.

"Marineland Canada continues to be a facility where children can learn about and be inspired by cetaceans without invading their natural habitats or disturbing cetacean populations that live in the ocean," it said Monday. "We're proud of our work, and our contribution to research, education, and conservation."

Trudeau calls out Tory premiers for 'playing games' with national unity over C-69

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is "absolutely irresponsible" for conservative premiers to threaten to tear Canada apart if the government doesn't accept all the Senate's amendments to new environmental-assessment legislation.

The Liberals are expected to say as early as Wednesday what they want to do with the 187 amendments made to Bill C-69 in the Senate last week. The bill would revamp the way the federal government evaluates major infrastructure projects, from pipelines to interprovincial highways.

The conservative premiers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, and the non-partisan premier of the Northwest Territories, wrote an "urgent" letter to Trudeau Monday telling him that he must accept every last one of the amendments or he will be threatening national unity.

They say Bill C-69 will make it virtually impossible to ever build another major pipeline in Canada and will drive away jobs and investment in the energy sector.

The premiers also want him to scrap Bill C-48, which would put a permanent ban on oil tankers' loading at ports in British Columbia north of Vancouver Island.

Trudeau lashed out at the premiers when the letter was raised by deputy Conservative leader Lisa Raitt during question period.

"Will the prime minister do the right thing, consider the amendments from the Senate and agree to every single one of them?" she asked.

Trudeau said the government is happy to accept amendments that make the bill better and are in the best interests of the country.

"What we will not do is accept the premiers' saying 'There is a threat to national unity if we don't get our way,' " Trudeau said. "That is not the way to hold this country together."

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was not impressed, saying the premiers signed the letter "in the best tradition of co-operative federalism."

"We only asked to be heard, and this dismissive response from the federal government is the real threat to the national economy and to national unity," he said in a tweet.

Raitt said the premiers were warning about national unity but that they did so as premiers representing a majority of Canadians.

Trudeau said for the first time that at least one of the Senate's amendments, which he says makes Indigenous consultation "optional," is a no-go.

"I don't think Canadians want to go back to Stephen Harper's years of ignoring Indigenous Peoples in how we build resource projects. That's a good way to get nothing done, the way Stephen Harper did over 10 years."

The federal cabinet considered the issue at its weekly meeting Tuesday and a motion listing which amendments the government will accept and which ones it won't could be tabled for debate in the House of Commons as early as Wednesday.

Bill C-69 fulfils a Liberal election promise to redo the way major national projects are assessed; Trudeau has said previous changes made by the Conservative government in 2012 led only to court challenges. Among the new changes are:

-- creating a new Impact Assessment Agency to conduct the reviews,

-- limiting the influence of regulators like the National Energy Board in project approvals, and

-- requiring the reasons for an approval or denial to be made public, including any science used to reach the conclusion.

Trudeau is under intense pressure from environment groups to reject almost all the Senate amendments, which the groups say are directly taken from the demands of the oil and gas sector and cut into the bill's attempts to balance protecting the environment and economic growth.

Environmental Defence, Greenpeace Canada and the West Coast Environmental Law Association say the amendments weaken the requirement to consider a project's impact on climate change, reduce the ability of the public to participate in assessment hearings, and limit the right to ask a court to review a project approval.

That last change is also of concern to law professors, at least 50 of whom penned a letter to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Tuesday saying it would undermine access to justice, and therefore public trust.

"Canadians must be assured that, when there has been a legal error in the exercise of public duties, they can bring their case to a court without undue expense, impediments and burden," the law professors said.

GOOD NEWS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOPPING CENTRES IS GOING SINGLE USE PLASTICS FREE UPDATEDItalian Centre Shop agrees with move away from plastics 1

Cynthia Burt, 22, allegedly defrauded 10 people of $72,500 in a psychic scam. (EPS)

Woman charged with fraud in $72K psychic scam: EPS

TRADITIONAL BUNKO PSYCHIC SCHEME FOR WITCH THE FRAUDULENT PRACTICE OF WITCHCRAFT ACT IN THE CRIMINAL CODE WAS CREATED FOR AND FOR WITCH WE HAVE MADE SURE IS NO LONGER USED, FRAUD IS FRAUD

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Who's behind the anti-Andrew Scheer ad airing during Raptors game?

Ottawa passes legislation that bans whale and dolphin captivity in Canada

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 1:20PM EDT

Trudeau calls out Tory premiers for 'playing games' with national unity over C-69

Woman charged with fraud in $72K psychic scam: EPS

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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Who's behind the anti-Andrew Scheer ad airing during Raptors game?

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Ottawa passes legislation that bans whale and dolphin captivity in Canada

Liam Casey, The Canadian PressPublished Monday, June 10, 2019 1:20PM EDT

Trudeau calls out Tory premiers for 'playing games' with national unity over C-69

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Woman charged with fraud in $72K psychic scam: EPS

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 1:20PM EDT