CanadaAug 12, 2020
Andrew Scheer likely marking last day in House of Commons as Opposition leader
Today's sitting of Parliament is expected to be the last one that will see Andrew Scheer in the role of Conservative leader.In addition to being an MP from Regina since 2004, he also served as the Speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015.It was after the Tories lost government in 2015, and the subsequent resignation of then-leader Stephen Harper, that Scheer decided to go for the leadership job.He won in 2017, eking out a very narrow victory over fellow MP Maxime Bernier.He spent the next two years trying to gain recognition across the country, while shoring up the party's war chest
CanadaAug 12, 2020
Lowest number of COVID-19 cases in Ontario in over 4months, the latest numbers on COVID-19 in Canada
There are 120,421 confirmed cases in Canada. Quebec: 60,718 confirmed (including 5,697 deaths, 53,135 resolved) Ontario: 40,194 confirmed (including 2,786 deaths, 36,456 resolved) Alberta: 11,772 confirmed (including 216 deaths, 10,552 resolved) British Columbia: 4,111 confirmed (including 195 deaths, 3,444 resolved) Saskatchewan: 1,479 confirmed (including 20 deaths, 1,294 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,071 confirmed (including 64 deaths, 1,007 resolved) Manitoba: 547 confirmed (including 8 deaths, 360 resolved), 15 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 268 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 263 reso
CanadaAug 11, 2020
Safety won't be compromised for vaccine, Canada's top doctors say
The chief public health officer says Canada will not cut corners to get a vaccine for COVID-19 approved. Dr. Theresa Tam says she has full confidence in Health Canada's process to approve a vaccine. She says she is cautiously optimistic that will happen soon but says safety will not be compromised to get there. Her words come as Russia approved the world's first COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday. Her deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, says the Russian product went from discovery to approval unusually fast. He says there is not really any information available about the safety or effectiveness of the Russian vac
CanadaAug 11, 2020
Trudeau shuts down speculation that Morneau about to be fired as finance minister
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has full confidence in Finance Minister Bill Morneau and that any reports to the contrary are false.Trudeau's office has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement in support of Morneau in a bid to shut down speculation the finance minister is about to be fired.Opposition parties have been calling for Morneau's resignation over allegations that he had a conflict of interest in the WE Charity affair.News that Mark Carney, a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, is helping to advise Trudeau on the post-pandemic economic recovery
CanadaAug 11, 2020
Ministers, top public servant to be grilled by committee on WE affair
Two federal cabinet ministers and the country's top public servant will be grilled today about how a charity with close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wound up administering a $912-million student grant program.The House of Commons ethics committee is scheduled to hear from Youth Minister Bardish Chagger, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough and Ian Shugart, clerk of the Privy Council.The committee is ostensibly conducting a review of the existing safeguards in place to prevent conflicts of interest when the federal government is deciding how to spend taxpayers' dollars.But opposition M
CanadaAug 11, 2020
385 COVID-19 cases reported in Canada
There are 120,132 confirmed cases in Canada. Quebec: 60,627 confirmed (including 5,696 deaths, 53,041 resolved) Ontario: 40,161 confirmed (including 2,786 deaths, 36,381 resolved) Alberta: 11,687 confirmed (including 213 deaths, 10,384 resolved) British Columbia: 4,065 confirmed (including 195 deaths, 3,425 resolved) Saskatchewan: 1,450 confirmed (including 20 deaths, 1,265 resolved) Nova Scotia: 1,071 confirmed (including 64 deaths, 1,007 resolved) Manitoba: 543 confirmed (including 8 deaths, 354 resolved), 15 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 268 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 263 resol
CanadaAug 10, 2020
Canada 'deeply concerned' by crackdown in Belarus, says Champagne
Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Canada is ``deeply concerned'' by a violent crackdown following presidential elections in Belarus. Dozens of people have been injured and thousands detained in the country since Sunday's vote, with police brutally breaking up mostly young protesters. The protests came as Belarusian election officials said authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko had won a sixth term in office with 80 per cent of the vote. Election officials say opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya received 10 per cent of the vote, but she has dismissed th
CanadaAug 10, 2020
Opposition MPs question decision to manage rent assistance aid program to M-CAP
Opposition MPs on the Commons finance committee want to know more about an agreement between Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and a company where the husband of the prime minister's chief of staff works.Katie Telford's husband Rob Silver is an executive vice-president at M-CAP, which the government tapped to administer a rent-assistance program for small businesses affected by COVID-19.The Prime Minister's Office says Telford established clear ethical walls between herself and M-CAP back in January. CMHC says it didn't have the internal capacity to quickly get the program running and t
CanadaAug 09, 2020
Liberals turn over thousands of pages on WE decision
The federal Liberal government has turned over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons' committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.
The finance committee demanded the documents last month as it probes whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's relationship with WE Charity influenced the government's ill-fated decision to have the organization run a $912-million student-volunteer program.
The Liberals handed more than 5,000 pages about the decision to the committee over the weekend, but it isn't clear when they