The controversial keffiyeh ban at Queen’s Park has led to one elected official facing removal from the chamber.
Independent MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Ontario legislature Thursday morning after refusing to remove her keffiyeh, which the speaker has designated to be a political prop and thus banned from Queen’s Park. Jama has refused to leave, despite the speaker’s request Jama was allowed to stay in the legislature Wednesday after refusing to adhere to the ban.
The same day, protesters brandishing keffiyehs in the gallery disrupted the provincial legislative session, causing Arnott to call for a recess three minutes after question period began.
When asked about the incident at a press conference today, Premier Doug Ford told reporters he had nothing to do with it.
“The speaker runs the legislature, I don’t, that was his choice and he is the one who runs the legislature,” Ford said.
Government house leader Paul Calandra has also stressed that the speaker – not the government – made the decision.
The keffiyeh has been a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israel since the Arab Revolt in Palestine in 1936. The armed uprising sought an end to Jewish immigration and independence from British rule. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the keffiyeh has had renewed use by activists aligning themselves with the Palestinian cause.
NDP MPP Joel Harden said in the legislature that the scarf represents trade routes, fishing nets and olive trees in Palestine and should be celebrated, not banned.
“The ban on the keffiyeh in this house, in my opinion, only contributes to the rise of dehumanization, polarization and hatred that we have seen, it divides us,” Harden said. “When the civil liberties of Palestinian Canadians are under threat, I believe it impacts every single person in this building, it is a stain on the fabric of this house.”
Jama, the only person wearing a keffiyeh in the house, is not Palestinian.
Kwantlen University in Surrey, B.C. has opened a “reduced sensory space” during exams, inviting post-secondary students to play with plushies, crayons, and “stim toys” such as reversible octopuses and fidget poppers.
“This is a fully inclusive and supported space for everyone,” the university’s lead adviser on disability, accessibility, and inclusion wrote in an email that was provided to True North.
“Low/reduced sensory spaces provide customized environments for people to decompress and have much needed breaks from overwhelming sensory input (noise, crowds, smells, lighting), strong emotions, and socializing.”
“People who are not neurodivergent also benefit from access to low/reduced sensory spaces,” the email stated.
Participants are promised access to “trained neurodivergent sensory space facilitators” as well as a large assortment of stuffies, colouring books, crayons and markers, stim toys, and “resource materials on social justice topics (such as 2SLGBTQIA+ and disability).”
The on-campus event was held in partnership with Live Educate Transform Society (LET’S), “an organization entirely run and staffed by disabled and neurodivergent folks who utilize their lived expertise to create essential change.”
LET’S has held previous reduced-sensory spaces for adults, which included Care Bears colouring pages, slinkies, unicorn stuffies, and children’s books such as “The Big Book of Pride Flags.”
According to LET’S, stim toys like bubble poppers are used to “regulate emotions, ground yourself, help with concentration, and assist with over and under stimulation.”
LET’S did not respond to an inquiry about how much it charges to facilitate low sensory spaces.
Kwantlen University is running seven days of low-sensory spaces on campus this month.
Source: tcdsb.org - Nancy Crawford, Chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board
Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees shot down a motion, put forward by Scarborough—Agincourt trustee Michael Del Grande, to fly the international pro-life flag on every building in the school board each day annually for the entire month of May.
Out of all TCDSB trustees in attendance, eight out of ten voted against the motion on Tuesday.
Along with flying the flag, the motion was supposed to officially declare the board’s opposition to all laws allowing abortion and formally encourage staff and students to attend the National March for Life, which takes place this year on May 9.
Ward 7 trustee Del Grande and Scarborough’s Ward 8 trustee Garry Tanuan voted in favour of the motion.
After the vote, guests can be heard shouting in protest and were kicked out for being “unable to remain silent.”
“Not even if the Pope was there would they have changed their vote,” Del Grande told True North in an email.
Etobicoke’s Ward 2 Trustee Markus de Domenico told True North he thought the vote was a clear indication of the board’s commitment to “providing a rich educational experience and not dilute that learning with US style politics that has no place in the classroom.”
In Del Grande’s opening remarks, after reading his motion he spent his three minutes reading the words of Pope Francis, who along with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic church, all trustees have sworn fidelity to.
He read from the Pope’s document on human dignity written April 8, 2024.
“The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behaviour, and even in law itself is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake,” Del Grande read.
Tanuan supported the motion in his remarks as well.
“As the indigenous child or person looks at the orange every child matters flag in June as a symbol of justice, truth, reconciliation and hope, so does the person that looks at the pro-life flag for safety, truth and hope,” he said.
As East York’s Ward 11 trustee Angela Kennedy declared she would vote against the motion, people in the guest gallery were heard shouting “shame!” and “you will have to answer to Jesus Christ, one on one!”
“Parents expect that when they send their son or daughter to a TCDSB school that they will receive a well-rounded education rooted in gospel values with Christ at the centre of all learning,” she said before being interrupted again.
One guest attendee called out “what a joke!”
She continued, “parents do not expect the kind of indoctrination that this motion promotes.”
“The TCDSB has Catholic graduate expectations and this motion if passed would destroy the meaning of these expectations and render them meaningless,” Kennedy said. “It would be impossible to be a discerning believer informed in the Catholic faith.”
Maria Rizzo the Catholic trustee for North York in Ward 5 defended her stance to support the pride flag but not the pro-life flag in her remarks against the motion saying the pride motion was student driven and this was not.
“I am deeply disturbed by this,” Rizzo said “We as Catholics and Catholic teaching believe in the death penalty. I don’t see this anywhere here? I don’t see anything on euthanasia here, but for some reason two men thought they knew better than everybody else.”
Del Grande said there is “no legitimate reason” the motion shouldn’t pass unanimously as each trustee has said they support the Catholic church’s unchanging teaching on abortion.
“I trust you will do the right thing this evening for the children, for our Catholic faith, and for God who himself became a defenceless unborn child whose divine heart no doubt breaks with every abortion. That’s a holocaust,” he said.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre stopped in to show his support for axe-the-tax protesters who have been camped out on the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick since Trudeau’s carbon tax hike was implemented.
Plus, for the second year in a row, Canadians’ interest in electric vehicles has declined, with fewer than half of Canadians now saying they plan to make their next car purchase an electric vehicle.
And the Canadian Medical Association cautioned the federal government that increasing the capital gains tax could harm physician recruitment and retention in Canada.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
Speed limits in Ontario will be increased from 100 km/h to 110 km/h on 10 additional sections of provincial highways in both the northern and southern regions this summer.
The Ontario government first began consultations and launched a pilot program in 2019 to explore the possibility of increasing speed limits on provincial highways.
Six sections of highway in southern Ontario were permanently increased in 2022 and two others in northern Ontario were increased on a two-year trial basis.
“Most of Ontario’s highways were originally designed to safely accommodate speed limits of 110 km/h and the data from our changes in 2022 shows they do just that,” said Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria.
According to the Government of Ontario’s website, the change “builds on the safe and successful increase to six sections of provincial highways in 2022 and aligns with posted speed limits in other jurisdictions across Canada.”
The change will take effect on July 12, 2024, with the speed limit being permanently increased to 110 km/h for the majority of provincial highway sections, while the remainder will come into effect by the end of 2024.
“These evidence-based increases are a common-sense change to make life more convenient for Ontario drivers while bringing our highway speed limits in line with other Canadian provinces,” said Sarkaria.
The changes will affect 36% or 860 kilometres of Ontario’s total provincial highway network.
Highways 400, 401, 415 and the Queen Elizabeth Way were all set at 70mph or 113 km/h until 1975 when it was reduced to 100 km/h due to the energy crisis.
“All highway sections were selected based on their ability to safely accommodate higher speed limits. Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan have a maximum speed limit of 110 km/h, while in British Columbia, the maximum speed limit is 120 km/h,” reads the government release.
Penalties for stunt driving will continue to apply at 150 km/h, even on the sections of highway which have been selected for speed increases.
Stunt driving will now apply at 40 km/h over the posted speed limit.
The speed increases will affect the following sections of provincial highways:
Hwy 401, Tilbury, extending the existing 110 km/h zone further east by 7 km
Hwy 401 from Hwy 35/115 to Cobourg (approximately 35 km)
Hwy 401 from Colborne to Belleville (approximately 44 km)
Hwy 401 from Belleville to Kingston (approximately 66 km)
Hwy 401 from Hwy 16 to Quebec boundary (approximately 107 km)
Hwy 403 from Woodstock to Brantford (approximately 26 km)
Hwy 403 from Brantford to Hamilton (approximately 14.5 km)
Hwy 406 from Thorold to Welland (approximately 13 km)
Hwy 416 from Hwy 401 to Ottawa (approximately 70 km)
Hwy 69 from Sudbury to French River (approximately 60 km)
The Alberta government announced that nearly all of the province’s wildfires in 2024 were human-caused, stressing the need for individual action to prevent future fires.
When risk levels are high, all Albertans play a crucial role in reducing human-caused wildfires. All provincial residents need to play their part in helping mitigate human-caused wildfires and protect Albertan communities.
Wildfire officers and Alberta’s parks minister delivered this message during a press conference on Thursday, where they provided updates on the wildfire situation in the province.
“So far this season, we expect that almost all of the wildfires we’ve experienced so far this year are human-caused,” said Alberta’s minister of forestry and parks, Todd Loewen.
True North previously reported that there was no evidence that extreme weather events are on the rise despite activist claims.
Alberta’s wildfire personnel have already fully extinguished 200 wildfires this year.
As of Wednesday, 63 active wildfires were burning in Alberta, none were classified as out of control — seven were being held, and 56 were under control.
So far in 2024, the provincial wildfire team has responded to 205 wildfires that have burned approximately 755 hectares, confirmed Alberta’s wildfire provincial information officer, Josee St-Onge.
She said the five-year average for this time of year is 120 wildfires, with about 230 hectares burned.
Recent snowmelt in the province has exposed extremely flammable dead and dry vegetation.
“We need significant and continued rain to overcome the drought conditions that we are experiencing in many parts of the province,” said St-Onge.
She asked all Albertans to continue doing their part in preventing human-caused wildfires.
“A fire restriction is in place in most of the forest protection area of Alberta, and many municipalities have put in their own bans and restrictions,” St-Onge added.
A province-wide fire restriction came into effect on Wednesday, prohibiting fires for all of the Forest Protection Area of Alberta, except for the Calgary Forest Area. All outdoor fires, including backcountry and random camping areas, are prohibited on public lands, but fires are permitted in designated campgrounds.
The fire restriction is set to remain in place until conditions improve.
When fires start within municipalities, they take the lead in firefighting efforts. If they need extra support, the province is on standby to help when requested.
True North previously reported that other provinces’ wildfires were overwhelmingly caused by human activity and that the number of total fires and total area burned in Canada is lower than in 1980 — the furthest the data goes back.
The province urged all its residents to download the wildfire ban and Alberta emergency apps, which contain up-to-date information on Alberta’s wildfire situation.
Alberta pledged to hire 100 additional firefighters back in February.
Loewen confirmed that the province has hired 39% more firefighters compared to this time last year.
Two communities were recently evacuated in Alberta. The managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, Steve Lacroix, confirmed that 12 households, approximately 30 individuals, were recently evacuated from the Municipal District of Peace.
“And we still have 20 individuals still evacuated from Cold Lake First Nations,” he added. “Although, the evacuation order has been lifted, so they should be back home shortly.”
The Alberta government will provide weekly wildfire updates to ensure that Albertans can stay informed on how the season develops.
The province is expected to provide the upcoming wildfire update next Wednesday.
Today on the Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel, Rachel speaks with Alex Van Herk, one of the Coutts Three found guilty last week of mischief over $5,000 for his role in the Coutts border blockade. Van Herk, who faces up to 10 years in prison, says sentencing is expected in September.
The trial revealed that Van Herk’s name rarely showed up in RCMP’s notes, and Van Herk says he is hoping for a lesser sentence than his friends. He also says there’s more Alberta Premier Danielle Smith can do to help the Coutts Three and he’s unimpressed with her response to his guilty verdict.
A Pakistani national who has become a contentious figure in Canada’s environmental protest scene narrowly escaped deportation because of the Liberal government’s last-minute intervention.
Zain Haq, who arrived in Canada in 2019 as an international student, quickly shifted his focus to leading protests with Extinction Rebellion and Save Old Growth—groups notorious for their extreme tactics which include blockades and confrontations with police.
The groups’ radical demands, such as an outright ban on fossil fuels and logging, have been met with criticism for their impracticality and disregard for Indigenous communities.
Haq’s involvement has led to ten arrests and a mischief conviction, yet his deportation was stayed, raising eyebrows about possible political interference. Haq has personally participated in airport, highway and ferry terminal blockades.
He received the mischief charge after a blockade of the Vancouver International Airport and organizing road protests that “interfered with emergency vehicles trying to access St. Paul’s Hospital.”
“Mr. Haq has shown disdain for the rule of law and he has publicly encouraged others to break the law while publicly celebrating his arrest,” the 2023 mischief decision reads.
“All I heard is I’m not getting deported Sunday,” Haq said in an interview with Glacier Media.
He was due to be deported Apr. 22 after an appeal was rejected by a federal court.
The halt to Haq’s removal came after a last-minute call from the office of Liberal MP Joyce Murray, who represents the riding of Vancouver Quadra.
This has led to speculation about the Trudeau government’s high-level involvement in the case.
Haq’s lawyer, Randall Cohn, suspects a federal cabinet member’s intervention, hinting at a concerning level of political sway in legal immigration matters. Cohn said that the Liberals were “listening and paying attention to the timing and decided to step in.”
Haq was being deported because he violated the terms of his study permit. While in Canada Haq has refused to seriously pursue his studies at Simon Fraser University due to his activism and admitted of foreign funding for his protests.
The $170,000 he received from the California-based Climate Emergency Fund casts a shadow over the authenticity of his activism.
Haq will for now remain in Canada, thanks to the Liberal government and a permanent residence sponsorship by his wife Sophie Papp.
Canadian families and individuals with incomes between $30,000 and $60,000 are often shouldering the heaviest tax burden, finds a new study by the Fraser Institute.
These low- to middle-income earners face marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that approach or exceed 50%, reducing the incentive to earn additional income and complicating their financial stability.
Marginal effective tax rates account for the combined effect of the tax and transfer system and represent an individual’s take-home income.
Individuals and families with incomes between $30,001 and $60,000 face the highest METRs. In Quebec, the METR for a family in this tax bracket is as high as 57%.
“This unfortunately creates a disincentive for earning additional income, as the financial benefits are significantly offset by increased taxes and reduced government benefits,” read the study.
High METRs mean low to middle-income earners have less take-home pay after taxes. In some cases, these individuals and families keep only 40 cents or less for every additional dollar earned due to higher taxes and reduced government benefits at both the federal and provincial levels.
“Canadian families with modest incomes face high marginal effective tax rates, often higher rates than Canadians in top income tax brackets,” said Jake Fuss, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute. This results from a combination of income taxes, reduced government benefits, and other fiscal mechanisms that punish low- and middle-income families for trying to get ahead.
For instance, the Canada Child Benefit is reduced as income increases. This reduction contributes to the high METRs and compounds lower-income families’ financial challenges.
The average METR across every tax bracket and province is 38%. However, for those who make $30,001 to $60,000, this average climbs to 50%. The METRs in this tax bracket are highest in Quebec at 57% and lowest in British Columbia at 38%.
In most provinces, those who earn between $30,001 and $60,000 annually have higher METRs than those who earn $300,001 or more a year.
The report suggests a few potential solutions to reduce the burden on low and middle-income families and reduce the barrier to socioeconomic development.
However, each of the proposed solutions comes with trade-offs.
“There is no low-hanging fruit or easy win-win solution to the issue of high METRs on low-income families,” concluded the report.
One solution proposed by the study is to reduce clawback rates, the percentage by which government benefits are reduced as income increases. When people earn more money, they earn less from programs such as the Canada Workers Benefit. The clawback effectively functions as an additional tax, reducing the incentive to earn more.
Another solution proposed is to increase the basic exemption amount on earned income which doesn’t get taxed. Canadians do not pay federal income tax on the first $15,000 of their taxable income. Each province has a different value for provincial tax exemptions.
The final proposal involves reducing statutory taxes on employment income.
While all of these solutions would flatten the METR curve for low- and middle-income individuals or families, government tax revenue would have to be shifted to other economic brackets, which the report deemed to be “a politically costly move.”
The disproportionately high METRs on low- and middle-income families raise questions about fairness and efficiency in Canada’s tax and transfer system, indicating that there is much work to be done to ensure that tax policy encourages, rather than discourages, economic participation and progression for all Canadians.
Canada’s low fertility rate may be linked to younger generations not feeling they will be able to support a family within the country’s current work-life balance, according to a new survey.
Express Employment Professionals conducted a survey which revealed one-third of employed job seekers, 33%, said they would be putting the concept of starting a family on hold as a result of their poor work-life balance.
That figure increased amongst Canada’s youngest generations, with 42% of Gen Z and 39% of Millennials sharing that sentiment.
The majority of employed job-seeking respondents, 66%, said that companies should take note that prioritizing work-life balance is essential to what they’re looking for when looking for new employment, with starting a family being the main factor.
Of the 66% of respondents who felt this way, 77% were Gen Z and 72% were Millennials.
“We definitely hear more and more that candidates are looking for flexibility, and I think employers understand family/work balance is important to employees,” said Jessica Culo, an Express franchise owner in Edmonton, Alberta.
“The most common thing I hear from candidates who are putting off starting a family is that the cost of living is too high.”
Brent Pollington, another Express franchise owner in Vancouver agrees with Culo, saying that the high cost of living in such a city plays a significant role in the decision to start a family.
“I think, especially post-pandemic, most employers have been fairly accommodating,” said Pollington. “Work/life balance is important, and I think organizations are offering flexibility, providing time-off benefits and generally doing what they need to do to support their employees.”
However, Pollington noted that the concept of a work-life balance isn’t a one-way street and that employers are also struggling with increased demands brought to them by employees.
Demands which he believes must be earned, not automatically granted.
“Employees and job seekers have high expectations, but increased demands need to be earned by being a contributor at your workplace and demonstrating an ability to get your job done within regular business hours,” said Pollington.
One concern Culo has is that many employees want total remote work, whereas most employers would prefer to offer a hybrid option
“When it comes to remote work, many employers are not offering 100% remote but compromising and doing hybrid schedules,” said Culo. “A lot of the increased demands we have seen in recent years are becoming less of a request and more of an expectation at this point.”
The main changes that Culo and Pollington feel employers could make to offer better work-life balance to employees would be hybrid work schedules with flexible start times, more paid time off and childcare subsidies.
“Gradual return-to-work programs after maternity leave are a relatively new option we are seeing where, after maternity leave, employees do not return full-time immediately, but instead over a set amount of time,” said Culo.
The results of the survey suggest that if companies do offer these kinds of benefits to job-seekers, their recruitment and ability to retain candidates will likely improve, which would ultimately have a positive effect on companies’ bottom line.
“The organizations that can offer something that is different than the standard will have a competitive edge when it comes to recruiting and attracting talent,” said Culo.
Canada’s fertility rate hit a record-low in 2022, dropping to 1.33 children per woman.
The latest data, collected by Statistics Canada, reveals the lowest fertility rate in a century of record keeping.
While the downward trend of Canada’s fertility rate began to take off in 2009, it accelerated greatly in 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Bill Stoller, CEO of Express Employment International, embracing working parents is no different than embracing any other segment of the workforce.
“It’s evident from this survey that job seekers are feeling forced to choose between their careers and home lives,” he said. “A little bit of creative flexibility can help attract and retain top talent for skills that are desperately needed.”
