The News Rundown
- Canada’s rail network dominated by CN and CPKS (Canadian Pacific Kansas Southern) has stopped operating due to the lockout put in place at midnight eastern time on August 22.
- As of recording the federal government has invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to force binding arbitration.
- The big points that initially led to the lockout revolve around the company being unable to get a deal with its workers union on the issues of relocation, rest periods and scheduling.
- On relocation the companies have at times requested workers move to various locations across the country to fill labour gaps - the union has called this a “forced relocation scheme.”
- For rest periods CN would like workers to work a 40 hour week that would see at least 10-12 hours of rest before shifts and at 2-3 consecutive days off weekly.
- There has also been talk of moving away from the mileage based system that has been in place for decades.
- The reality of the situation is that trains are essential in North America for moving freight between our ports and inland productivity hubs.
- Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon invoked binding arbitration on Friday after the government said they wanted to give as much time as possible for the parties to reach a conclusion.
- The Minister said, "Canadians must be assured that their government will not allow them to suffer when parties do not fill their responsibility to them at the bargaining table, especially where worker and community safety is at stake.”
- At this point it will be a few days before the trains start moving again - an issue that could have been prevented had binding arbitration began Wednesday or Thursday.
- CN has announced that they have ended their lockout and CPKKC said that they are preparing to restart railway operations.
- The Prime Minister also stated that “collective bargaining is always the best way forward. When that is no longer a foreseeable option – when we are facing serious consequences to our supply chains and the workers who depend on it – governments must act.”
- Now when it comes to why binding arbitration over back to work legislation, it is unclear that the government could find the support in the House of Commons to bring forward and pass back to work legislation.
- It remains unclear at this point if the Bloc Quebecois would support back to work legislation and the NDP under Jagmeet Singh have stated that the move to use binding arbitration is “cowardly.”
- Singh said, "Justin Trudeau has just sent a message to CN, CPKC and all big corporations—being a bad boss pays off. The Liberals' actions are cowardly, anti-worker and proof that they will always cave to corporate greed, and Canadians will always pay for it.”
- What does remain a question though is how long Singh will continue to support this government if such a move is cowardly.
- Also, the Conservatives have not said if they would support back to work legislation given their new worker base and their support of the government's anti-scab legislation.
- The question on tap is whether such a piece of legislation would be a confidence matter and who exactly would support the government on this if the NDP has no plans of doing such a thing.
- As of recording on Friday CN has issued a 72-hour strike notice while officials at CPKC have issued a directive challenging the binding arbitration call.
- This situation is spiralling out of control and it appears as though the governments push to end the job action has spurred further desires amongst the CN and CPKC unions to see job action.
- If the unions continue to defy the needs of the North American economy, something will need to be done soon.
- The nuclear option in ending strikes was seen during the Reagan administration where President Reagan fired the striking workers, prosecuted the union leaders, and decertified the union when air traffic controllers went on strike.
- The other big factor in ending the job action sooner rather than later is what the Americans have to say.
- Numerous members of congress raised concern, specifically those in border states.
- Why? 75% of all goods we export to the US go mostly over rail.
- This includes of course finished goods, energy, chemicals and more that make our economies function.
- Industry and trade organizations warned in an open letter that there would be “an immediate impact” from coast to coast and that Canada’s reputation as a trading partner would be damaged. These organizations were from IN Canada and covered most industries across the country.
- The US chamber of commerce also echoed this and highlighted concerns to the US economy.
- It is even said that those inside the Biden White House spoke with Canadian officials on both sides to encourage a solution before the rails came to a halt.
- So why did our government wait so long?
- Shipping giant Maersk stopped accepting shipments destined for Canada earlier this week that were to go by rail and this was just the beginning.
- Knowing what the sentiment was in the US and what this relationship means in an economic sense should have left zero reason for our government to let the trains stop at all.
- They either wanted this to happen or various departments just weren’t talking to each other.
- Both are a problem.
- Supplementals:
- The Trudeau government recently decided to buy a $9M dollar condo in downtown New York for Canada's consul general to the US, former journalist and TV news anchor Tom Clark, and because it was below the $10M limit, Global Affairs Canada was able to do so without a review of the purchase by the treasury board.
- The condo is in a luxury high rise tower dubbed "Billionaire's Row" in downtown Manhattan, notable for containing some of the most high priced accommodations in the entire world. On Tuesday, senior public servants from the Treasury Board and Public Works were called to the first of three meetings of a House of Commons committee to explain the government’s recent decision to buy a $9-million luxury condo on Manhattan’s “Billionaire’s Row.”
- Samantha Tattersall, a senior Treasury Board official, said her department’s approval was not required because it was under the $10-million limit. But she said Global Affairs Canada (GAC) still had to conclude the transaction in a manner that was consistent with Treasury Board policies.
- She said the department expects GAC to have validated the need for an acquisition based on “appropriate due diligence, including a full life cycle analysis,” and that it was done in “a fair and open manner that’s aligned with commercial real estate practices.”
- But what raised eyebrows at the committee was the sudden increase of those special acquisition limits. Answering Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola’s questions, Tattersall said the limit was last raised to $4 million back in 2006 and raised to $10 million in 2022.
- Tattersall said her understanding was that GAC had looked at the average price for an acquisition of an official residence in 23 different markets and that it was on that basis that the decision was made to increase the limit by $6 million for the first time in 16 years.
- The luxury condo was purchased for $8.8 million in Steinway Tower, a building known as the world’s thinnest skyscraper, and comes with three bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, a “marble clad primary bath” and “macauba stone entrance floors.”
- Senior assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada Stéphane Cousineau told the members of Parliament probing the official residence relocation that the government is "very proud," of the transaction. This, he said, is because the new condo is "conveniently located" near key office buildings in the heart of the United States' "economic centre," and was purchased at a reduced price.
- Meanwhile, the government has listed its former official residence located on Park Avenue for sale for $13 million. Reportedly, renovating it would have cost $2.6 million because it needed major updates to electrical, heating and plumbing. The government has argued that it will ultimately save money by selling its former residence and buying a new one for a lesser price.
- Beyond shedding light on these aspects of the purchase, the witnesses to the committee deferred many questions about what Conservative MPs called an "excessive" and "opulent" purchase to GAC, seeing MPs kick off Wednesday's hearings with a laundry list of inquiries.
- Reading through the list of modern finishes in the new condo, Conservative MP Larry Brock asked why "shopping at our local Leon's or The Brick" wasn't an option? Brock asked: "The oven is $19,000, the refrigerator is $13,000, the coffee maker is $4,600, the freezer is $11,000, the dishwasher is $6,000. How on earth is that value for the Canadian taxpayer?" He didn't get a good answer.
- Brock asked public servants if it was a government requirement of Clark’s position as council general in New York that he have an “elegant entry foyer with macauba stone floors” or a “stunning powder room finished in jewel onyx.”
- “Starving Canadians who are relying on food banks who would love to have a real property investment in New York with these types of features. Do you see the disconnect between what the government is doing and the reality on the Canadian streets?” he asked.
- That's the heart of the matter. $9M will be a drop in the bucket for a large federal government like Canada's, but it's purchases like this that overly inflate the budget and cause taxpayers to pay ever more in servicing debt costs. At a time when mostly everybody is still struggling with food and housing security, it's really bad optics for the Laurentian elite to be spending lavishly on themselves. And for the rules to be changed so recently so that these types of purchases can be made with no oversight shows that Trudeau does not care about accountability whatsoever.
- Supplementals:
- Following the October 7 2023 attacks in Israel the issue of anti-semitism in Canada became more pronounced as our institutions have struggled to protect Jewish people from discrimination in Canada.
- We have chronicled the increasing list of anti-semitic outbursts in Canada by old stock Canadians and new immigrants alike. There is a problem in this country and it is not only limited to one type of Canadian resident.
- This week on Wednesday an email was sent to about 125 organizations across the country. Many were synagogues and as you can imagine those were linked to Jewish communities.
- Now one might think that this is a Canada only issue but apparently Indian media outlets reported that nearly 100 similar emails were sent to hospitals, companies, and government institutions in New Delhi.
- The Prime Minister was quick to condemn the messages sent across Canada when on Wednesday he posted “I’m disgusted at reports that more than 100 Jewish institutions across Canada were targeted by threats today.”
- Rabbi Reuben Poupko of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Côte Saint-Luc said, "The purpose of that email is really an assault on the psyche of a community. But if that was the intent, it certainly failed. Jewish life went on as normal — with heightened vigilance, yes, but we understand that the intent is to frighten and to sabotage normal life. And we won't allow that to happen.”
- The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team out of Montreal is leading the investigation and trying to determine the IP address of the sender.
- An IP address identifies anyone on the internet and internet service providers can trace those IP addresses back to their customers.
- Jewish advocacy organization B'nai Brith Canada confirmed that its Toronto and Montreal offices also received the email.
- This story was published and discussed in numerous Canadian online media outlets but it got very little coverage on evening news and traditional media. One would have expected it to be a larger story.
- In the US this week before the emails were sent Oregon based Domagoj Patkovic was sentenced to 155 years in prison for bomb threats made against New York Jewish hospitals.
- The threats were made in May 2021 through September of that year.
- One of the threats actually resulted in an evacuation and lockdown of a hospital on Long Island.
- He is recorded on one phone call as saying “Jews are gonna go skyrocket up into the sky for Allah.”
- Now this is a different case than what we’re dealing with here in Canada but it underscores that antisemitism has been with us for a long unfortunate period.
- Most coverage of hate in Canada is discussed in relation to anti-LGBTQ sentiment or anger directed towards Muslims living in Canada.
- But year after year hate statistics show that Jewish people are by far the most discriminated against in our country and Canada’s own First Nations also suffer.
- It’s something that has to change and after October 7th eyes should have opened - but they didn’t.
- Opinion columnist Robyn Urback writing in the Globe and Mail this week said there were signs and everything we have been witnessing since October 7th leads us to where we are with Jewish institutions receiving threats.
- Urback cites protests in Toronto, protests outside Jewish community centres, Jewish owned restaurants in Montreal listed for boycotts, menorahs being destroyed, and Jewish kids being bullied.
- Urback’s column details countless cases over the last year where rampant antisemitism has appeared in Canada and it’s either been ignored or chalked up as protests against Israel’s war in Gaza as the media puts it.
- It’s important to remember in day to day life that while Hamas’ infiltration of Gaza runs deep, just because somebody is Palestinian doesn’t automatically make them antisemitic. Just like how everyone has the ability to commit murder and there’s always a chance, it doesn’t always happen, but it can.
- There have also been calls this week for CUPE union head Fred Hahn to step down from union members and Ontario Premier Doug Ford after it came to light that he has made antisemitic comments.
- Hahn isn’t stepping down but the pressure is intensifying.
- These other instances of antisemitism in Canada, including the Fred Hahn controversy, highlight a troubling pattern of behavior in our country—one that urgently needs to be addressed and stopped.
- Supplementals:
Firing Line
- This next story is a complete shock to see, as absolutely no coverage exists of it, outside of one article by The Bureau's Sam Cooper, one of Canada's best journalists. In it, he describes a whistleblower from the CBSA, Canada's Border Services Agency who received death threats from people involved in organized crime, and believes transnational gangs have compromised agency databases, helping terrorists, spies and mafias enter Canada.
- Sabourin — a whistleblower who has complained of numerous serious incidents inside Canada Border Services Agency that he believes are due to organized crime infiltration — thinks a particular colleague may have leaked his home address to a drug trafficker, whom Sabourin was scheduled to testify against. This drug trafficker stood outside Sabourin’s home in Gatineau, Que., and uttered brutal and visceral threats against Sabourin’s children.
- The alleged threats occurred well over ten years ago, and the unidentified gangster has since died in Mexico. However, his close associates continue to endanger North America and are believed to have compromised Canadian and international officials.
- Sabourin believes threats to his life and many alleged incidents of harassment against him and other CBSA staff fit into a pattern of corruption and a culture of secrecy across Canada’s government, which effectively silences whistleblowers. It’s about Canada’s security being compromised with stunning breaches that go unaddressed because the system of accountability is broken.
- Among many examples that could suggest organized crime has penetrated CBSA systems, Sabourin discloses an especially stunning case. A CBSA unit learned that a band of armed men clad in combat fatigues appeared to be smuggling illegal migrants across Quebec’s border, which was then covered up internally, Sabourin says, possibly to the benefit of foreign mafias, human traffickers, drug smugglers, or terrorists.
- Sabourin told The Bureau: “I asked within the agency via email if there was any reason why the Quebec Provincial Police and the RCMP were not notified about this. An hour later, the email disappeared from the generic mailbox and never reached top management.” Actions like this are the reason Sabourin has testified about his experiences in Parliamentary committees and pushed for new whistleblower protection legislation.
- In a series of interviews, Sabourin says he has also paid close attention to The Bureau’s reporting on intelligence leaks that detailed China’s election interference, alleged collusion with Canadian MPs and Senators, and the penetration of Canada’s immigration systems in Hong Kong in the 1990s via organized crime.
- All of this suggests Canada needs an independent anti-corruption agency to tackle the rot of collusion and ‘insider threats’ linked to criminal and foreign interference networks, Sabourin says, which appear to be spreading through multiple levels of government and various law enforcement agencies.
- Sabourin is also calling for a re-examination of what he calls a particularly egregious case in 2015, in which a senior CBSA manager allegedly directed subordinates to illegally destroy hundreds of foreign passports.
- Sabourin says he and a co-worker refused to follow the order, which was then carried out by a junior employee, leading to the destruction of passports that, in some cases, according to Sabourin, belonged to serious criminals whom CBSA was trying to locate within Canada for arrest or deportation.
- The employee in question also followed directions to falsely report in federal databases that the destroyed passports had been returned to the embassies of the issuing countries, Sabourin alleges. In interviews, Sabourin reiterates that his internal complaints on this incident — which he documented with photo evidence — were shut down.
- So he engaged his Gatineau Liberal MP Greg Fergus, and ultimately former Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, along with the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the RCMP, and the Public Service Integrity Commissioner. All of this failed to register any changes in Ottawa.
- Broadly, the vulnerabilities he is exposing could gain fresh urgency, because Ottawa will start hearings in August with witnesses from CBSA and Public Safety Canada, to probe how two terror suspects tied to ISIS, and arrested on July 31, were able to enter Canada. Ahmed Eldidi, 62, and his son, 26-year-old Mostafa Eldidi, were allegedly “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto.” and committed violent acts before entering Canada, triggering questions as to how they were able to gain entry in the first place.
- In interviews Sabourin and Shannon Stinner, the co-worker who refused directions to destroy foreign passports, also said they believe their personal experiences in CBSA speak to broader signs of corruption surfacing in Ottawa in the past few years, such as the ArriveCan scandal.
- In that case, an audit found CBSA’s new border entry app was budgeted for $80,000 but ended up costing taxpayers at least $60-million, with indications of collusion among government staff and contractors, and perhaps more ominous actors that have yet to be exposed.
- From covering stories on the Trudeau government over the past decade, it's clear that there are far more scandals yet to be uncovered and reported on, because every month there seems to be new ones all the time. It points to systemic issues that the current government has let go on for ages. Sabourin's claims suggest serious transnational crime has repeatedly penetrated CBSA’s systems and potentially corrupted employees, which is jarring and sometimes unbelievable, and the fact that the media hasn't covered these stories show how far the problem extends.
- Supplementals:
Quote of the Week
"The oven is $19,000, the refrigerator is $13,000, the coffee maker is $4,600, the freezer is $11,000, the dishwasher is $6,000. How on earth is that value for the Canadian taxpayer?" Conservative MP Larry Brock on the new furnishings for Canada’s consul general Tom Clark in his $9M New York condo.
Word of the Week
Cowardly - a way which shows a lack of courage
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Show Data
- Episode Title: Cowardly Condos
- Teaser: A railway strike threatens Canada’s infrastructure, a $9M condo is bought for Tom Clark, and anti-semitic threats on synagogues are on the rise. Also, organized crime may have infiltrated CBSA.
- Recorded Date: August 23, 2024
- Release Date: August 24, 2024
- Duration: 53:11
- Edit Notes: None
Podcast Summary Notes
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