The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced on Wednesday that it would be laying off 130 employees across Canada.

“As a result of some necessary changes with respect to resizing our business, a number of positions from within the organization will no longer be a part of our workforce come the end of the calendar year,” wrote CBC executive vice-president Barbara Williams to staff.

Some of the major reasons behind the cuts are poor revenue performance and higher costs associated with running the Crown corporation. 

“This reset would have happened irrespective of COVID,” said CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson. 

Canada’s public broadcaster entered the current fiscal year with a $21 million deficit. According to Williams, the deficit was due to “declines in advertising and subscription revenues linked to our traditional television business and to inflation on a portion of our parliamentary allocation.”

Recent reports show that CBC’s advertising revenue for its English-language TV business fell by 20% over the first three months of 2020. CBC executives blamed the coronavirus for the downturn. 

Only a minuscule portion of the CBC’s revenue comes from advertising. A majority of the public broadcaster’s operations are funded by the federal government to the tune of $1.2 billion a year. 

CBC has also reported abysmal viewership numbers for its evening newscasts. 

According to the CBC’s latest annual report, only 0.8% of Canadians tuned in to watch CBC nightly. 

Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole has promised that if elected he would defund CBC’s English language programming.

O’Toole’s Conservative leadership platform included measures to end all funding to CBC Digital, and to cut funding to English programs and CBC News by 50 percent with the eventual goal of privatization by the end of O’Toole’s first mandate. 

The Liberal government announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward with its push to ban single-use plastics and achieve zero plastic waste by 2030. 

“Our Government is introducing a comprehensive plan to get to zero plastic waste. Our plan embraces the transition towards a circular economy, recycled-content standards and targets for recycling rates,” said Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. 

“We also intend to ban plastic bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery and hard-to-recycle take out containers.” 

According to a 2019 federal report by the Library of Parliament, Canada only accounts for 0.4% of ocean plastic pollution worldwide. 

“Canadian shores are not a major global source of marine plastic litter,” wrote the report titled Global Marine Plastic Pollution: Sources, Solutions and Canada’s Role. 

Figures show that Canada only contributed 29,000 tonnes to the 4.8-12.7 million tonnes of plastic spilled into the ocean each year on average. Canada is also responsible for an additional 100,000 tonnes exported to Asian recycling companies. 

In comparison, according to 2010 figures, China mismanaged 8.80 million metric tonnes of plastic waste, 3.53 million of which ended up in the ocean as plastic marine debris. 

Critics have accused the Liberals of potentially sacrificing thousands of jobs if they were to follow through with their anti-plastic crusade. 

During a June 5 testimony before the Commons industry committee, representatives with the Chemical Industry Association warned the government over the potential economic impacts of such a plan.

“It supports thousands of jobs here in Canada,” said the group’s executive vice-president Des Chênes.

According to a True North report, one year before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the single-use plastic ban in 2019, the federal government awarded a plastic producing company with $35 million in funding. 

A man implicated in a multi-million-dollar illegal casino bust in Markham, Ontario had rubbed shoulders with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on two occasions before being arrested by police. 

Real estate developer Wei Wei was charged by York Regional Police last week as part of an operation dubbed Project Endgame. 

The operation led to over 70 charges against 29 individuals after police seized approximately $10 million in assets, 11 firearms and other criminal proceeds from the property. 

“This was a large high-end operation. Gamblers had access to accommodation, spa treatments, high-end food and beverage services,” said York Regional Police Supt. Mike Slack.

“Human sex trafficking is also suspected and is also under investigation.”

According to the National Post, Wei is believed to have met Trudeau on at least two occasions in 2016. One of these meetings is alleged to have occurred during a Liberal fundraiser with a price tag to attendees of $1,500.

The other encounter between Wei and Trudeau was alleged to have taken place during a delegation with a business group affiliated with the Chinese government. A photograph from the meeting shows Wei, Trudeau and others together in the same room. 

As a result of that meeting, one member of the group donated $1 million to the Trudeau Foundation. While most of the donation was to go towards student grants some of the money was for a statue of the prime minister’s father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. 

Both events were riddled with accusations of being cash-for-access schemes where the wealthy paid large sums to spend time with Trudeau. 

When questioned about the two events, Liberal spokesperson Matteo Rossi stated that the Liberals have some of the most transparent standards for federal fundraising.

“As his party’s new leader, it’s time that Erin O’Toole also did the right thing and committed to stop barring journalists from the Conservative party’s behind-closed-doors fundraising events,” said Rossi.

Elections Canada records list a number of donations from an individual named Wei Wei to the Liberal Party of Canada. One donation for $551 to the Markham—Thornhill riding association was around the time when Wei attended the event with Trudeau. 

A Winnipeg family who allegedly staged a hate crime at their Winnipeg restaurant has moved to the United States before their trial. 

Alexander and Oxana Berent, and their son, Maxim, have been charged with public mischief after police alleged they spraypainted anti-Semitic graffiti on their restuarant and claimed they were the victims of a hate crime. 

At a hearing on Friday, provincial court Associate Chief Judge Anne Krahn heard that the Berents had recently left for Los Angeles. The trial was scheduled to begin on October 13.

Krahn concluded that the Berents were not going to return to Canada.

“There’s a basis to believe, and with the agreement of counsel, that the Berents will not be returning for the trial,” she said.

Warrants have been issued for their arrest.

In 2019, the Berents claimed that their restaurant had been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, with Oxana Berent also claiming she had been assaulted.

After an investigation, Winnipeg police charged the Berents for the vandalism, saying the family “falsely reported [the vandalism] as being done by outside suspects.”

Through their lawyer, the Berents said they left Winnipeg for Los Angeles because they felt ostracised by Winnipegers and the local Jewish community.

Crown Attorney Dave Mann told the court the Berents’ trial will go forward if they ever return to Canada.

“The matter is going to get adjourned in any event today – one way or another because they are not coming back at this point from L.A.,” he said Friday.

“At that point, when they do come back, they can come back, turn themselves in and be released – unless of course obviously if there are more charges then things could change.”