The News Rundown

Alberta minister calls for back-to-work legislation to end B.C. port strike

For the past week, there has been a general strike at more than 30 ports across BC, including the very busy Port of Vancouver. About 7,400 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have been on strike, and this has led to cargo backlogs at the various ports, and has crippled Western Canadian maritime trade as a result. There’s been no sign of a break in the deadlock that emerged when talks broke down on Monday.
The seamless loading and unloading of cargo ships in B.C. is critical to the smooth functioning of Canada’s economy, and an extended disruption is certain to impact consumers. B.C. ports handle an estimated 25 per cent of all imports and exports in Canada worth an estimated $350 billion last year alone, said Fraser Johnson, professor of operations management at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ont.
Johnson said that the Port of Vancouver is Canada’s “gateway to the east,” handling the bulk of trade from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea as well as some trade with the United States. He said that consumer electronics, clothing, appliances and cars are among those goods that typically flow through B.C. ports — and are now sitting unloaded in cargo containers off Canada’s west coast.
The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), which represents 49 private-sector employers, also said there have been layoffs in industries that depend upon the ports, but didn’t elaborate on the sources of their information or the companies affected.
It urged the union representing the workers to participate in a “voluntary mediation-arbitration process to restore stability for Canadians as soon as possible.” The BCMEA said it has advanced “reasonable proposals” that would make progress towards the union’s demands and has offered “significant wage increases.”
But the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents the thousands of workers who are on strike, said the BCMEA has launched a smear campaign against their own workers instead of negotiating.
ILWU president Rob Ashton said workers often must work under difficult and dangerous conditions and that a waterfront worker’s income is sporadic. The unpredictability of shifts also makes it hard to supplement it with other jobs. He added that the workers’ families are suffering due to “spiralling” food bills, housing costs and interest rates as employers refuse to dip into their “massive” post-pandemic profits.
Ashton told a solidarity rally on Thursday that the employers association has walked away from the table three times. He told the crowd gathered near the Port of Vancouver that the employers are waiting for the federal government to do their “dirty work instead of treating workers with respect” by negotiating.
Talks stalled Monday, with the employers’ association issuing a statement saying it didn’t think more bargaining would produce a deal and the union saying the other side had changed its position on a key issue. The union has previously said contracting out, port automation and the cost of living are key issues in the dispute.
2 and a half months ago when we detailed the Public Sector strike that lasted for weeks, we said that other unions across the country would also strike in the coming year because of rapid inflation and stagnant wage growth, and that is the sticking point in the negotiations between the dockworkers union and the port owners.
This strike has been felt nationwide as well, with many producers in Western Canada feeling the effects of the backlog. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday that the port strike was causing “extreme hardship” for her province’s producers and exporters. She said she had written to Trudeau asking him to recall Parliament to end the strike.
Alberta transport minister Devin Dreeshen had earlier called on the federal government to consider back-to-work legislation. Dreeshen said he’s frustrated the strike has continued since Saturday, particularly because Ottawa used legislation in 2021 to end a walkout by Port of Montreal dock workers after one day.
Opposition members of the British Columbia Legislature added their voices to business and political groups demanding action to end the strike. A statement issued Friday by BC United members Greg Kyllo and Ben Stewart said New Democrat Premier David Eby must call on the federal government to intervene in the job action.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will continue putting pressure on both sides to end the British Columbia port strike. Trudeau, who’s in Calgary, said he’s aware of how “impactful” the strike has been on producers in the Prairies. Nevertheless, Trudeau said the best deals are made at the bargaining table, and he knows that “a solution is out there.”
Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said Tuesday that federal mediators continue to support both sides in their negotiations: “We encourage both parties to immediately return to the bargaining table and remain there until a deal is reached. Collective bargaining is hard work but it’s how the best, most resilient deals are made.”
In a separate statement responding to calls for back-to-work legislation, O’Regan’s office reiterated that it’s “not looking past the bargaining table, because the best deals are made at the table.”, echoing the words of Trudeau.
Ironically, while the port workers strike is down to increasing inflation, the strike lasting much longer may actually also contribute to inflation as well, as goods being delayed creates scarcity which will raise prices. Hopefully a proper deal can be reached soon before Canada's economy suffers any more than it has already.
Supplementals:

Months after the story was first published and now weeks after the election, CBC News is retracting a report that alleged someone in the Premier’s Office emailed crown prosecutors.
This was the story that popped up in January that suggested Danielle Smith’s office directly contacted Crown Prosecutors.
In an edit note on the original story, CBC News wrote: “Our sources have insisted that Crown prosecutors felt political pressure regarding the Coutts, (Alta.), cases, but they are not able to confirm that the emails they originally described were sent directly from the premier's office to the Crown. As such, we have updated this story and related pieces, removing references to direct contact between the premier's office and prosecutors — which the premier has vehemently denied. CBC News regrets reporting direct contact by email.”
The story spawned an ethics investigation and a report penned by Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler that dropped on May 18th during the election campaign.
As a refresher, the report found no emails but did say that Smith broke ethics rules by contacting then Justice Minister Tyler Shandro about the case.
Responding to the editors note, Danielle Smith on Twitter said,
“I’ve been vindicated, as has my office. Now that CBC has expressed regret for its inaccurate reporting and Albertans know the truth, I consider the matter with the CBC closed.”
It’s at this point we need to highlight how impactful this story was and that its ramifications, although false, should not be ignored.
This story had the potential to cause huge amounts of damage in the election and as we’ve detailed, a couple thousand votes either way would have either given the NDP the majority or propelled the UCP to 57 or 58 seats.
It also would have put Danielle Smith’s office, if true, in line with that of Justin Trudeau’s PMO with regards to SNC-Lavalin. We’ll get to why this is important in a couple minutes.
There’s also the copy-reports done by Global News on the story that amplified something that ended up being false.
Departure from the basic guidelines of investigative journalism that anonymous sources must be verified and then a second source must be identified to at least corroborate the information set a narrative that was ultimately false and put CBC News in the realm of an actor within the news rather than simply reporting.
This is a problem and it can not stand. Trust in our news organizations has been further eroded.
CBC needs to come clean on what happened and if they don’t the government should take a page out of their book…
Investigate, paralyze, and scrutinize.
Journalists need to verify their sources. When they don’t it raises questions of trust. This is while we can and should trust our media institutions, we must also verify their reporting.
Trust but verify is an old Russian adage adopted by the Reagan administration at the height of the Cold War in order to move forward with treaty negotiations and disarmament.
It’s sad that we need to resort to this with the media but the why becomes all the more clear when we look at the NDP.
The NDP used this as a consistent bludgeoner citing reports and linking it to the Artur Pawlowski video that surfaced before the campaign began.
It was a consistent theme to paralyze and de-legitimize Smith that was ultimately based off false reporting.
And now, the NDP will not issue an apology according to Justice, Public Safety and Emergency Services Critic Irfan Sabir.
The NDP is still calling for a full investigation of “all matters of UCP political interference in our justice system” and before the CBC retraction, even asked the RCMP to investigate.
The playbook employed by the NDP and media is straight out of community activist and organizer Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
In particular rule 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
Rule 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
Rule 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."
and Rule 13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
The attacks on Danielle Smith and the UCP fit rule 4 because this was the federal Conservative party’s playbook against Justin Trudeau.
Rule 5 was on full display during the Smith/Notley debate.
Rule 9 worked because the story was vague.
And rule 13 held the UCP in place because they had to investigate and draw attention away rather than focusing on policy.
From this we can surmise that it was likely someone in the public service who had access to the Premier’s Office that contacted the CBC. Someone that was an NDP supporter or operative.
Of course to draw these conclusions requires a knowledge of history, political operations, and observation of other campaigns that have used Alinksy tactics, mainly the likes of Justin Trudeau, Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and yes, the NDP.
This story should serve as a warning that the media can’t be trusted to report by following the tenets of journalism and that political parties, mainly on the left, will seize and utilize the media in ways that isn’t immediately obvious.
But for us to move forward, we need to trust media reporting and we can only do that by verifying source information.
Supplementals:

Conservatives say parties reach agreement on terms for foreign interference inquiry

The Conservatives said all parties agreed Friday on the scope for a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada.
The agreement appeared to break the impasse between the governing Liberals and the Conservatives about how to proceed with negotiations to establish a probe into efforts of foreign governments to interfere in Canada's elections and governance.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc was dispatched in June to work with the other parties on a path forward after foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston resigned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Johnston in March to dig into repeated claims, mainly from anonymous security sources, that China had attempted to influence the outcome of both the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Johnston's initial investigation led him to recommend against a public inquiry, saying too much of the evidence was classified and would not be able to be divulged publicly. That decision, however, angered opposition parties, which have been demanding an inquiry for months.
The Conservatives also accused Johnston of bias in favour of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Johnston denied any bias but eventually resigned, citing a "highly partisan" atmosphere around his investigation.
LeBlanc was not specifically assigned to negotiate the terms of an inquiry, but it has long been known that's the only path forward the other parties were willing to accept.
But the Liberals insisted all parties had to agree on the terms of reference and the name of the commissioner before announcing an inquiry while the Conservatives were adamant an inquiry had to be announced before they would agree to anything specific.
The impasse on the public inquiry between the Liberals and the opposition led Trudeau to blame the Conservatives when asked why the government had not yet set up an inquiry – repeating a message he’s delivered more than once in recent weeks. He suggested the Official Opposition was blocking matters from proceeding.
Trudeau said: “If we are to have a process to move forward that will work well, with someone credible at the head of the inquiry, we need to make sure that all parties agree on the framework, on the kind of process to be put in place and on the person who will be heading it. We will not be able to move forward with any seriousness if the Conservative Party once again refuses to participate in, or accept the process, we put forward.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Trudeau’s comments “unequivocally false” and said his party is ready to accept the proposal that was last on the table. He noted the Liberals had resisted calling a public inquiry for months.
Poilievre said: “Since the Liberals finally stopped fighting a public inquiry close to a month ago, we have been engaged with all parties multiple times a week to agree on terms for a public inquiry. Conservatives are ready to accept the latest proposal for terms of reference that was discussed, but neither Dominic LeBlanc nor his office picked up the phone or answered an e-mail in the five days following the last meeting. The Prime Minister should stop his baseless attacks and get his minister to answer our calls.”
The governing Liberals had repeatedly resisted launching an inquiry in recent months despite three votes calling for one in the House of Commons by opposition parties, who hold the majority of seats.
Following that public spat, LeBlanc's office set up a meeting with the other party House leaders, which took place Friday evening. After the meeting, Conservative party spokesman Sebastian Skamski said there was a deal about what a public inquiry would look at.
What's more, all parties have now shared their preferred names for who will lead the inquiry. To date, only the Bloc have gone public with their names, including former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, former Liberal justice minister and human rights expert Irwin Cotler, former ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques and Louise Otis, a former justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal and current president of the administrative tribunal of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
LeBlanc's spokeswomen would not confirm the details of the agreement or the Conservatives' claim an agreement is in place on the terms of reference. Communications director Kelly Ouimet said the meeting was "very productive" and work will continue next week.
It's good that we might finally get a start on the public inquiry, and start to get answers. Hopefully the Liberals delaying this long on the matter will not destroy any hope that we might have in trying to figure out what actually happened, whether interference and influence is still happening, and what we can do about it.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Two Trudeau ministers seem awfully uncomfortable with euthanizing the mentally ill

MAID otherwise known as medical assistance in dying legislation is expanding yet again in Canada and you’d be forgiven if you aren’t aware this is happening.
Back in February a MAID joint committee started work on a report and the report was tabled in mid-June. That report suggests that the legislation be expanded to include those with mental disorders.
We have to ask exactly where this is coming from since two senior Ministers, Justice Minister David Lametti and Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos do not support the expansion.
Lametti opposed the move in 2020.
Duclos in concert with Lametti pushed to extend the window for Parliament to act to upwards of a year.
The MAID joint committee will issue its final report this fall but when Lametti and Duclos addressed the committee the sense was that any future expansion of MAID could be tentative.
This would be in line with Conservative MP Ed Fast’s private members’ Bill last spring that would leave MAID in a position where only those with incurable disease could be offered MAID.
The panel is considering all options including those put forward by groups such as Dying with Dignity that would like to see MAID opened up to minors as young as 12.
We know that Lametti and Duclos raised questions, specifically where individuals were unable to reconfirm their desire for MAID which is what raised the questions about those who are mentally ill.
Trudo Lemmens, a University of Toronto bioethicist, said he initially supported MAID but now laments that expansion advocates in the medical community view it as “harm reduction” for people without social support or care, which Lemmens believes is the perversion of a principle that was meant to save lives.
The idea of “incurability” for people with mental disorders remains hotly contested in medical circles. Postmedia’s Sharon Kirkey recently reported on the case of a 68-year-old woman who had lived with severe depression and thought about suicide for 15 years, twice seeking MAID. Then doctors gave her ketamine, a drug used for pain relief and treatment-resistant depression, and in two weeks her depression remitted.
In 2021, the last year we have full data for, there were 10,064 MAID deaths in Canada.
In Alberta, with the dropping of the foreseeable death standard as of March 2021, 3.7% of MAID cases did not have a foreseeable death.
This is where we are now but we bring this story to you because a greater discussion is needed on where the country is at.
The initial assisted dying law was put forward as a requirement by the Supreme Court of Canada, it wasn’t something that any government wanted to do, they were forced.
For the government's part, Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, and Carolyn Bennett, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health announced on Friday, $560,000 in funding over two years for the University of Alberta to conduct the first comprehensive national review of how MAID is provided across the country and to expand the understanding about individual and family experiences.
If anything this report should be reason to pump the brakes and put a hold on any further expansions despite what the Supreme Court says.
This is an interesting topic because Supreme Court rulings south of the border in the US and the composition of our court have become recent discussions but no one is discussing just how massive some rulings have been in Canada, including the original MAID ruling.
If we take a step back, many would find it shocking to know that going forward someone with a mental illness like depression might be able to request MAID or that a minor would be able to do the same.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“Since the Liberals finally stopped fighting a public inquiry close to a month ago, we have been engaged with all parties multiple times a week to agree on terms for a public inquiry. Conservatives are ready to accept the latest proposal for terms of reference that was discussed, but neither Dominic LeBlanc nor his office picked up the phone or answered an e-mail in the five days following the last meeting. The Prime Minister should stop his baseless attacks and get his minister to answer our calls.” - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on the previous lack of agreement on the public inquiry into foreign interference

Word of the Week

Agreement - harmony or accordance in opinion or feeling

How to Find Us
Westerncontext.ca

westerncontext.ca/subscribe

westerncontext.ca/support

twitter.com/westerncontext

facebook.com/westerncontext

Show Data

Episode Title: Take Me Back To Port

Teaser: BC’s dockworkers are on strike, CBC retracts the Smith email interference story, and the Liberals and opposition make headway towards a public inquiry. Also, we look at the possible expansion of medical assistance in dying.

Recorded Date: July 8, 2023

Release Date: July 9, 2023

Duration: 52:09

Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX