New clean fuel rules will hit poorer Canadians the hardest, budget watchdog warns

Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador will see the highest cost from incoming clean fuel regulations, according to the PBO.

Jeff Lagerquist
Thu, May 18, 2023 

 (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov)

Lower-income Canadian households will lose a bigger chunk of their income than the wealthy under Ottawa’s incoming rules to cut the carbon intensity of gasoline and diesel, according to Canada’s’ budget watchdog.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) called the federal government’s Clean Fuel Regulations set to take effect on July 1, 2023 “broadly regressive” in a report published Thursday.

The policy is part of the Trudeau government’s plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Under the rules, fuel suppliers will have until 2030 to cut the quantity of carbon per unit of energy in gasoline and diesel by about 15 per cent below 2016 levels. Assuming the price is passed onto consumers, the report estimates gasoline prices in 2030 will cost an additional $0.17 per litre, and diesel prices an extra $0.16.

For lower-income Canadian households in 2030, that will cost $231 or 0.62 per cent of disposable income, according to the PBO’s analysis. Higher income households are estimated to pay $1,008, or 0.35 per cent of disposable income.

“Lower income households generally spend a larger share of their income on transportation and other energy-intensive goods and services compared to higher income households,” Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux stated in a news release.
Higher Clean Fuel Regulation costs by province

Broken down by province, the PBO found Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador will experience the highest costs, reflecting the greater fossil fuel intensity of their economies.

Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is calling for the government to scrap the policy in light of the PBO’s findings.

“Canadians are already struggling to afford gasoline and groceries and the last thing we need is another carbon tax that makes life more expensive,” he said in a statement.

Clean Energy Canada, a research group based at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, called the PBO’s analysis “the worst-case scenario that imagines climate change doesn’t exist and fails to capture the economic benefits of transitioning to cleaner energy,” in a tweet.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

Doug Ford weakened EV sales in Ontario: General Motors VP

Jeff Lagerquist
Fri, May 19, 2023

Ontario Premier Doug Ford Ford has dismissed the credits as a benefit for “millionaires.” 

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)

General Motors’ (GM) head of electric vehicle adoption says the Canadian EV market is “well on its way,” despite slower sales in Ontario.

Hoss Hassani is GM’s vice president of charging and energy. His job is to get drivers behind the wheel of vehicles from the Detroit-based automaker’s expanding electrified lineup. He’s encouraged by zero-emission vehicles taking a near double-digit share of new registrations nationwide in the final quarter of 2022, pointing out that figure is about six per cent in the United States.

But Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and largest vehicle market, isn’t pulling its weight in the shift to cleaner cars and trucks, he told a crowd at this week's EV Charging Expo 2023 in Toronto.

“Ontario, frankly, is a laggard. Toronto specifically, is a laggard,” he said in reference to adoption of electric vehicles.

According to Statistics Canada data, zero-emission vehicles accounted for 9.6 per cent of new light-duty vehicle registrations in the final three months of 2022. Sales were strongest in British Columbia, at 18.6 per cent of new registrations. Quebec followed with 13.9 per cent. In Ontario, zero-emission vehicles accounted for 8.1 per cent.

Hassani says Ontario’s shortfall is largely due to Premier Doug Ford’s 2018 decision to eliminate a rebate that encouraged the sale of more electric vehicles. Shortly after coming into power, Ford’s government slammed the brakes on electric-vehicle incentives worth as much as $14,000 for qualifying EVs priced under $75,000.

“The loss of that incentive did slow down adoption without a doubt. It meant those who wanted to get into an affordable EV had more difficulty doing that,” Hassani told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview. “We see in B.C. and Quebec, where they have more of that incentive, they have higher adoption.”

Ford has called the EV subsidies a benefit for “millionaires” as he shifted the government's focus to boosting Ontario’s appeal as a hub for electric vehicle and battery manufacturing.

In response to this article, Jennifer Wright, executive director of communications at GM Canada, said to Yahoo Finance Canada in an emailed statement that, "While GM spoke at the EV and Charging Expo in Toronto last week with focus on work that’s needed to advance EV infrastructure, we take issue with your headline and wish to further underscore that GM greatly appreciates Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s tremendous support for the EV transformation that has also enabled GM to be the first full scale EV manufacturer in Ontario and Canada with our BrightDrop EV factory in Ingersoll.”

Todd Smith, Ontario’s Minister of Energy, spoke at the EV Charging Expo event on Thursday, touting the growing footprint of global automakers in the province focused on an electrified future. However, a spokesperson for Ontario minister of economic development Vic Fedeli on Friday dismissed the idea of reintroducing the EV credit program created by the previous Liberal government.

“Their credits did nothing to build the future of auto manufacturing in Ontario, and instead were used by people who didn't need them to buy cars made somewhere else,” Vanessa De Matteis said in email.

“Our government has taken a different approach, securing billions of dollars of electric vehicle investments and making sure Ontarians can buy electric vehicles made in Ontario by Ontario workers."

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

ONTARIO

Protesters at Marineland hold 'memorial' for Kiska the killer whale on Niagara park's opening weekend

'#RIPKISKA' read one of the signs.

Story by Cara Nickerson • CBC

May 22, 2023

There was a crowd outside Marineland on Saturday, but those holding signs and gathered out front weren't there to visit the controversial theme park in Niagara Falls, Ont.

The 100 or so protesters stood at the roadside, as the park opened to visitors for the first time this season, were there to condemn Marineland for years of alleged animal abuse and remember Kiska, the last killer whale in captivity in Canada, who died there this past March.

'#RIPKISKA' read one of the signs.

In the years leading up to Kiska's death, animal rights activists advocated for the whale's release back into the wild.

The animal rights groups that organized the protest, Last Chance for Animals and UrgentSea, played footage of Kiska ramming her head against the glass of her tank on a banner van during the protest.

Jennifer Jamieson, an animal rights advocate from Stoney Creek, Ont., said Saturday's protest brought up a mix of emotions for her.

"We're glad that [Kiska's] no longer suffering but we still have work to do," she said.

From visitor to protester

Jamieson said before she began advocating for the animals in captivity at Marineland, she was a visitor.

"I used to take my children there," she said.

Jamieson said she used to run a home daycare centre and would take the children on trips to Marineland to learn about marine animals. It only took a few trips to the park, she said, to realize "there was nothing educational" about the park.

"That is why I started advocating for the animals, because I actually went there as a visitor and I was disgusted with the surroundings and the habitats that these wild animals were living in."

In 2014, Jamieson successfully petitioned her child's school to cancel a planned class trip to Marineland. The school changed the destination to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington instead.


Beluga whales can be seen in this aerial image of Marineland, taken on May 19, 2023.

© Patrick Morrell/CBC

Marineland did not respond to CBC Hamilton's recent request for an interview.

Its website says trips to the park help teachers "bring science curriculum to life for your students in a memorable and exciting way."

When Marineland posted on Facebook this past week about the park's opening day, dozens of people commented saying they were planning to attend this year or enjoyed an aspect of the park, which also includes rides and at least one rollercoaster.

Jamieson said she doesn't believe in shaming people who still visit Marineland.

"I'm all about educating and creating awareness," she said, adding that some visitors likely "don't know" about the park's alleged animal abuse.

"I'm not comfortable with using the word shame, or shaming people for having gone there before, or being there the day [of the protest]."

'We're not going anywhere': former trainer

For some protesters, the goal is to see the animals removed from the park and rehomed to wildlife sanctuaries.

Phil Demers, former Marineland trainer and co-founder of UrgentSea, said he thinks they are getting closer to that goal.

"The protest was a very powerful expression of our resolve that we're not going anywhere until Marineland themselves resolves to part ways with any use of animals for entertainment or captivity and ultimately retire them to better lives," he said.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati told CBC Hamilton last week he also supports a move "away from animals."


Marineland opened for the season on May 20. 

The park is shown here May 19, 2023, a day before it opened.

© Patrick Morrell/CBC

Demers said Saturday's protest was largely shielded from visitors entering the park by the tarp-covered fences, but he said he looked into the parking lot several times throughout the day.

"You could count 15 to 20 [vehicles] at most at any time and that was about it," he said.

CBC Hamilton asked Marineland for the ticket sale numbers for its opening weekend, but has not yet received a response.

Voices: Stilettos are ‘foot prisons’. Let’s bring the patriarchy to heel

Opinion by Victoria Richards • May 21,2023

The Independent 

TOPSHOT-FRANCE-FILM-FESTIVAL-CANNES© AFP via Getty Images

Ionce heard a guy describe shoes as “foot prisons”. He was part of the “barefoot” movement, people who choose to stomp around without shoes or boots or wellies or wedges or heels. Talking to him, I got the impression that to certain nomadic sorts, being tied to a life of leather and laces is to lose one’s sole [sic]. (Sidenote: he also described drinking Coke as “poison”).

Fans of this rather renegade movement refer to it as “grounding” or “earthing” – touching the earth with bare skin. One study, published in the National Library of Medicine, found that “earthing” helped to improve sleep and reduce pain, due to the “transfer of electrons from the earth to the human body”.

It may sound wild and extreme, but if you’ve ever worn three-inch heels to a wedding for 12 hours, chances are that you too became a born-again member of the barefoot movement at about the time the DJ started playing “Come On Eileen”. The “transfer of electrons” from the earth is helped vastly by seven shots of tequila, trust me.

That’s why it’s so gratifying to see the likes of Jennifer Lawrence – J Law! Actual Katniss Everdeen! – refusing to abide by the unspoken “No Crocs at Cannes” rule and tripping down the red carpet in a red Christian Dior gown and flip flops, so that she could actually be comfy, for once. What a woman! What a maverick!

I salute J Law and those like her: Cate Blanchett, who shed her stilettos as she took to the stage at a party hosted by Variety magazine and the Golden Globes as a symbol of solidarity with women in Iran; Kristen Stewart, who ditched her Louboutins in protest at the dress code at Cannes in 2018, saying “things have to change immediately”; Julia Roberts, who took hers off and walked up the steps barefoot.

In 2015, despite not explicitly mandating heels for the red carpet, only “black tie/evening dress”, the festival faced a huge backlash after it was revealed that a group of women had been turned away from a screening of the film Carol for wearing flats – a move that was criticised by the actor Emily Blunt for undermining “equality”. “Everyone should wear flats, to be honest,” Blunt said. “We shouldn’t wear high heels. That’s very disappointing, just when you think there are these new waves of equality.”

And Natalie Portman recently laid into the ways in which women are expected to carry themselves at Cannes, contrary to their male counterparts: “How we’re supposed to look, how we’re supposed to carry ourselves, the expectations are different for you all the time,” she said. “It affects how you behave, whether you are buying into or rejecting it. You’re defined by the social structures upon you.”

The list of women rejecting rigid dress codes at glitzy formal events is nothing new: in 2014, actress Emma Thompson famously carried her heels on stage at the Golden Globes while also holding a martini glass, and revealed the truth about why all women carry plasters in their purses on a night out: “I just want you to know, this red, it’s my blood,” she said, referring to the red colouring of her Louboutin stilettos.

If you’ve ever squeezed your trotters into a pair of deceptively comfortable stilettos (comfortable, at least, in the shop), you’ll know the unique and exquisite pain after you’ve been standing up for.... ooh, approximately half an hour.

It’s then that it begins: the slow burn on the balls of your feet, the tight compression of your little toes trying to shuffle over to where the big toes are meant to be. As for toes, well, you don’t know anything about them anyway, because they’re completely numb. Eventually you start shuffling in an awkward hunch every time you have to go to the loo, or pose for a photo, looking more like a troll than a triumph. Heels are the worst. Ban them.

Who amongst us hasn’t kicked off their shoes beneath a table at a wedding or a posh dinner, only to realise the fatal flaw: once they’re off, they ain’t never going back on. Suddenly your feet have a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card, they’re hot and swollen and six sizes bigger than they were when you tried those dainty kittens on in the shop, when you “oohed” and “aahed” over the delicate stitching. “These are the ones,” you crooned to yourself. “They make me look like Tinkerbell.”

But now Tinkerbell can’t walk properly. Now, squeezing Tinkerbell’s feet back into her size 7s is as painful as childbirth.

Now, it is an inescapable fact that high heels look good, they are sexy, don’t get me wrong; they’re up there with pencil skirts and red lipstick and leather and zips and all the good things, and if women feel good in them and want to wear them for them, I’m all for it. But let’s not try and pretend they’re comfortable, ladies, please. We’re amongst friends, we can tell the truth.

But it’s no coincidence that heels have become a bastion of the beauty ideal; that in the 50 Shades of Grey world of confected heteronormative attraction, men wear suits and women wear heels. The patriarchy has a thousand blisters to atone for.

Like women in heels, do you? Why don’t you try squeezing your size 10s into a vertiginous piece of plastic and wobble on them for hours after five glasses of champagne?

Foot prisons. I’m breaking free. Now I just need to find my file.

CANADA

Girls are in crisis — and their mental health needs to be taken seriously

Story by Alexe Bernier, PhD Candidate, Department of Social Work, McMaster University 

THE CONVERSATION

MAY 21,2023

If we want to see improvements in the lives of girls in Canada and beyond, we need to first think critically about why we tend to dismiss and invalidate their concerns.

© (Shutterstock)

An article in the Washington Post recently declared “a crisis in American girlhood.” Girls in the United States are experiencing alarmingly higher rates of sexual assault, mental health issues and suicidality than ever before.

Data collected in 2021 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) demonstrates how dire the circumstances of American girlhood are. Fourteen per cent of teenage girls in the United States shared that they had been forced to have sex, and 60 per cent had experienced extreme feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Nearly a quarter of girls had considered and planned suicide.

While these findings are based on U.S. data, the story is consistent with what girls in Canada have been saying for the past decade. In Canada, over 50 per cent of female students in Ontario have reported moderate to severe psychological distress. One in four girls has been sexually abused by the time they turn 18.

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for girls up to 14 years old, an annual statistic that has remained relatively consistent since 2016.

The gendered wage gap in Canada has been found to start as early as 12 years old. The situation is worse for girls who are racialized, living in poverty, disabled, or LGBTQ+.

The dire state of girlhood has historically been attributed to the usual suspects: unrealistic beauty standards, pressures of social media, living in a rape culture, and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.

In interviews conducted by the Washington Post with girls themselves, however, they point to another, perhaps unsuspected culprit: that when girls do speak up, they aren’t listened to or taken seriously.

Why don’t we listen to or take girls seriously?

I am a former community social worker with experience working directly with girls between the ages of 10 and 18 years old. My current doctoral research focuses on girls between the ages of eight and 12 years old who engage in activism, exploring ways that adults can better listen and support them when they tell us what they want for their lives and their worlds. I have heard countless stories from girls themselves about when they had felt dismissed by adults.

This dismissal was often directly tied to their identities as girls, attributed to claims that girls were just going through a phase, not accurately sharing what had happened or that they were being dramatic.

Put simply, when girls tell us what is happening in their lives, we have a tendency not to believe them.


Adults tend to doubt girls’ credibility as speakers because of prejudices about girls and girlhood.© (Shutterstock)

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Dismissing the credibility of an entire group of people because of prejudices that we may have about their identities is what philosopher Miranda Fricker has described as epistemic injustice.

In this type of epistemic injustice, a speaker’s credibility is dismissed because of prejudices that others have based on the speaker’s identity. This means that the speaker’s testimony is not listened to or taken seriously because of who they are.

Adults tend to doubt girls’ credibility as speakers because of prejudices about girls and girlhood. These prejudices against girls are rooted in the construction of girlhood as a time of frivolity, fun and emotionality.

Do girls just want to have fun?

For a long time, girlhood — and specifically white, middle- and upper-class, able-bodied girlhood — has been seen as a time of inherent innocence, frivolity and fun.

Constructions of girlhood are linked to expectations we have about girls as children and as gendered subjects. As children, we expect girls to have a sort of wide-eyed wonderment about the world around them. As gendered subjects, girls are additionally stereotyped in ways typically associated with womanhood, such as emotionality.


When girls tell us what is happening in their lives, adults must listen and not dismiss them.© (Shutterstock)

In a world that dichotomizes rationality and emotionality, with rationality being considered more credible than emotionality, girls are dismissed because of the way girlhood is viewed.

When girls tell us what is happening in their lives, such as when they’ve experienced sexual assault or are feeling suicidal, these views become especially harmful.

If we want to see improvements in the lives of girls in Canada and beyond, we need to first think critically about why we tend to dismiss and invalidate their concerns. Challenging our own prejudices about the credibility of girls is a vital first step in this process.

When considering the crisis in girlhood, girls have been clear about the way forward. In my own community practice work, girls shared that they feel most supported by adults while “being listened to and feeling like I am being heard.” In the Washington Post article, girls called for adults to “stop dismissing their concerns as drama.”

Girls have never just wanted to have fun. They want — and need to be — listened to and taken seriously.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

How parents can play a key role in the prevention and treatment of teen mental health problems

Teenage brains are drawn to popular social media challenges – here’s how parents can get their kids to think twice

Alexe Bernier receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for her doctoral research.

With Haiti in chaos, Canada buries its head in the sand

Story by Henry Milner, Research Fellow, Electoral Studies, Political Science, Université de Montréal • 

THE CONVERSATION

Police officers take cover during an anti-gang operation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in April 2023, a day after a mob in the Haitian capital pulled 13 suspected gang members from police custody at a traffic stop, beat and burned them to death with gasoline-soaked tires.

© (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)


“Things are now at a breaking point. This crisis will not pass.”

So said Jean-Martin Bauer, the Haiti director of the United Nations World Food Program, in December 2022.

He was correct. The situation in Haiti has been deteriorating badly over the past few months. Hundreds of people have been killed across metropolitan Port-au-Prince by armed gangs seeking to assert their authority, while half of the Haitian population — approximately 4.7 million people — faces acute hunger.


Malnourished young children rest and play in a malnutrition stabilization centre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2023.

© (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

The State Department in the United States has cited “credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government agents…as well as…widespread civilian deaths or harm, enforced disappearances or abductions, torture, and physical abuse.”

Helen La Lime, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti, warned of kidnappings every six hours in 2022. She said that without the deployment of an international specialized force, any progress in Haiti “will remain fragile and vulnerable to being reversed.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently reaffirmed “the urgent need for the deployment of an international specialized armed force.”

So where’s Canada?

Abject poverty

Haiti, a country of 11 million people, shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, where I spend my winters. From there I continue to have regular contact with Haitians who have fled their country.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Its estimated annual GDP per capita is US$1,829 compared to US$18,626 for the Dominican Republic.

In the mid-20th century, the economies of the two countries were comparable. Since that time, the Haitian economy shrank, partly due to external factors like earthquakes but also ineffectual and corrupt leaders, notably dictators Papa Doc Duvalier and “Baby Doc.”

There are widespread fears in Washington and among Haiti’s Caribbean neighbours that without external intervention, the social devastation in Haiti could destabilize the entire region and that its implosion will produce a flood of people seeking to escape repression, violence and unspeakable social misery.

A woman poses for a photo outside her makeshift home built after gangs set her home on fire in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in April 2023.© (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

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When it comes to the UN’s call for a specialized support force, Canada’s reputation as an impartial peacekeeper makes it an obvious candidate. Canada has good relations with the countries in the region that are ready to support such a mission, and its historical record of relations with Haiti is mixed rather than mainly negative, like that of the U.S. and France.

During his visit to Ottawa in March, however, U.S. President Joe Biden failed to persuade Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to send Canadian soldiers to Haiti.

Instead, Canada promised another $100 million in new aid and equipment for the Haitian National Police, some of which may end up in the hands of gangs.

In late fall, Canada deployed two navy ships to patrol Haitian waters. Georges Michel, a Haitian historian who helped write the nation’s 1987 constitution, had this response:

“When Canada sent a plane and a boat to fight against the insecurity, the population laughed. We don’t have problems with the birds or the fish.”
Media antipathy

Meanwhile, the Canadian media is largely ignoring the situation in Haiti. News outlets in Québec, with its large Haitian diaspora, pay a bit more attention, but typically turn to Haitian “experts” who rule out any proposed solutions that aren’t coming from Haitians themselves.

But any observer of what’s happening on the ground knows that solutions cannot come from within. The fact that interventions failed in the past is no excuse for inaction, but instead offers lessons on avoiding prior mistakes.


A Haitian boy holds onto his father as they approach an irregular border crossing staffed by the RCMP, near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Québec, in 2017.© (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

This attitude reinforces the reluctance to consider taking on a dangerous mission. No one seems opposed to more Canadian soldiers being sent to Latvia as the war in Ukraine rages on, but support for taking on armed gangs in Port-au-Prince will have to be won.

What needs to happen

A report in December 2022 by the International Crisis Group, a transnational, non-governmental organization, sets out the challenges facing a military intervention in Haiti. It reads:

“The collapsing Haitian state and the severity of the humanitarian emergency justify preparations for a mission…Its deployment should hinge on adequate planning to operate in urban areas and support from Haiti’s main political forces, including their firm commitment to work together in creating a legitimate transitional government.”

Since the urban gangs are divided, such a force could enable life in gang-controlled areas to return to something closer to normal. But alternate institutions take time to build, meaning the gangs could return once the intervention is over.

There will need to be a simultaneous effort to liberate territory in regions close to the Dominican Republic where the gangs are relatively weak. That’s also where the task of rebuilding functioning political and economic institutions could be undertaken.

Short of an intervention, sooner or later the border situation with the Dominican Republic will explode.

When will Canada act?

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
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The crisis in Haiti reflects the failure of the international community to stabilize the country

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 Reclaiming B.C.'s waterways from mining pollution

MAY 20, 2023

Decades of mining near the Kootenay River in British Columbia has polluted the water with selenium, which can be detrimental to fish populations. Now, Indigenous communities on both sides of the border are working to clean up the waterway

Tracing the impact toxic mining runoff from B.C.’s Elk Valley to U.S. border communities

May 5, 2023  #CBCVancouver #BritishColumbia

Coal mines operated by Teck Resources are releasing selenium into the waterways in B.C.'s Elk valley. Selenium is a natural mineral but inhigh concentrations it can be harmful to aquatic life. As the selenium continues its way to the U.S. border, tensions between Ottawa and Washington are rising. Radio-Canada's Camille Vernet followed the path of selenium from B.C. to the U.S. to meet the communities that live around the waterways

WORKERS CAPITAL
Canadian public pension fund investments in China draw heightened scrutiny

The Canadian Press
Mon, May 22, 2023


MONTREAL — Investments in China by Canada's largest public pension funds are facing increased scrutiny amid worsening relations between the two countries and allegations that some of those investments are funding the oppression of China's Uyghur minority.

Recently, representatives of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, which manages the pensions of B.C. public sector workers, told a parliamentary committee studying Canada-China relations that they had paused new direct investment in China because of the increasing risks associated with that country.

That pause came amid allegations of Chinese foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections, and of Chinese state actors allegedly harassing Canadians who oppose the Communist Party. Earlier this month, Canada expelled a Chinese consular official, and China retaliated within hours, expelling a Canadian diplomat and saying that Canada had "sabotaged" relations between the two nations.

But Canada's two largest public pension investors — the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec — say they need exposure to the world's second-largest economy to provide returns for Canadians, but they promise they can invest responsibly in China.

Michel Leduc, a senior managing director with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, says the fund is "very cautious about the types of assets that we are acquiring, and the different levels of political and geopolitical risk — rather than completely avoiding what will potentially become the world's largest economy within the next 10, 15 years." The pension plan has 10 per cent of its $536 billion in net assets in China.

Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, says Canadians' pensions are being invested in companies that benefit from or help enable the Chinese government's persecution of his people.

"Among the companies, many of them are part of the forced labour supply chain," he said in a recent interview.

The UN Human Rights Office said last August that China is committing "serious human rights violations" against Uyghur people in China's western Xinjiang region and called for further investigation into "allegations of torture, sexual violence, ill treatment, forced medical treatment, as well as forced labour."

The Chinese government maintains it is fighting against terrorism and extremism in the region and operates vocational education centres as part of a "de-radicalization" campaign.

In 2021, the Canadian Parliament voted to describe the treatment of the Uyghur people by the Chinese government as a "genocide."

Leduc says that while the fund is cautious about investing in China, he recognizes it's not easy to trace supply chains when it comes to some products, like solar panels, because much of the world's supply comes from a specific region in China.

According to the United States government, almost half of the world's supply of polysilicon — a key material in solar panels — is manufactured in China's Xinjiang region, home to the Uyghur people. The U.S. says that several manufacturers of panels have been accused of using forced Uyghur labour. And because most of the world's solar panel manufacturing takes place in China, it's nearly impossible to tell which panels may include polysilicon from Xinjiang, U.S. officials say.

"The world needs solar panels, you can't walk away from solar panels," Leduc said, adding that the fund wants to work with companies that are doing their best to understand their supply chains, rather than with those who are uninterested in changing.

In November, Tohti told the parliamentary committee that Quebec's pension fund manager has invested more than $2 billion in companies associated with the alleged Uyghur genocide or forced labour.

Hong Kong Watch, a United Kingdom-based non-governmental organization, says many Canadian pension fund managers are investing in index funds — a basket of various stocks of companies — that include firms linked to Uyghur forced labour or that have been involved in building internment camps for the oppressed minority. Those pension funds include Quebec's Caisse, the B.C. public sector fund and the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

The Caisse has invested around two per cent of its $402-billion portfolio in China. The fund has developed "rigorous (environmental, social and governance) criteria for all our investments to avoid investing in companies whose practices violate principles such as respect for human rights," spokeswoman Kate Monfette said in an email, but didn't provide examples. She said a "small portion" its portfolio is constructed using indexes or managed externally.

Sam Goodman, the director of policy and advocacy at Hong Kong Watch, said corporate governance structures aren't the same between Canada and China, where the state plays a much bigger role in the economy.

"Under China's own national intelligence law and security laws, these companies, especially the technology companies, are compelled to work hand in glove with the Chinese state and they're not allowed to disclose to any organization or anybody outside of China the extent of that collaboration," he said in a recent interview.

That means companies like multimedia giant Tencent, primarily known for social media applications and video games, may be involved in repression.

"Tencent, as the owner of WeChat, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of building a backdoor into their software allowing authorities to identify and detain Uyghurs who share religious material," Goodman said.

The CPP Investment Board invested more than $1 billion in Tencent in 2016.

Leduc told the parliamentary committee that his fund is monitoring that investment "very, very closely to continue to understand the risks, including some broader human rights-related dimensions of that investment."

B.C.'s pension fund has invested in a company — through an index fund — sanctioned by the U.S. for developing an artificial intelligence system used recognize Uyghur people by their facial features. Daniel Garant, a senior vice-president at the fund, told the parliamentary committee that "it's engaging with index providers to improve what they put in the index."

The B.C. fund said in a statement that investments in indexes are necessary because they offer "flexibility and required liquidity as part of our diversified portfolio."

The Alberta Investment Management Corporation cancelled a recently scheduled appearance before the parliamentary committee and declined to comment, citing the province's ongoing election campaign.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2023.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

Italy's Meloni rejects criticism from Canada's Trudeau over LGBTQ+ rights at G7 Summit

Sat, May 20, 2023 
ROME (AP) — Italy’s far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday rejected criticism from her Canadian counterpart at the G7 Summit about her government’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights.

A reporter asked Meloni about the criticism at a news conference early Sunday in Hiroshima, Japan, which is hosting the annual summit of leaders from seven of the world's leading industrialized nations.

On television Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau told Meloni — right before they began private, bilateral talks during the summit — that “Canada is concerned about some of the positions Italy is taking on in terms of LGBT rights.” He added that he was looking forward to talking with the Italian premier about that.

Meloni looked annoyed, twiddled her thumbs and listened in silence, while Trudeau switched to French to sum up his English remarks. Then camera operators left the room, and the two leaders commenced their close-door talks.

Earlier this year, Meloni's government told city halls to stop automatically registering both parents in same-sex couples but instead to limit recognition of parental lights only to the biological parent of the child. Gay rights activists held rallies to denounce the move, calling it homophobic.

Asked about Trudeau's remark, Meloni said that he had fallen “victim” to “fake news" and propaganda, and even said that that his assessment “doesn't correspond to reality.”

The Associated Press