Senator Lynn Beyak suspended without pay over racist letters
Senators have voted to suspend Lynn Beyak without pay from the Senate for refusing to delete racist letters about Indigenous people from her website.
The suspension applies only to the remainder of the current session of Parliament; she’ll be able to resume sitting as a senator when a new session begins following the Oct. 21 federal election. Beyak insists the letters, posted in response to a 2018 speech in which she argued that Indian residential schools did a lot of good for Indigenous children, are not racist. However, the Senate’s ethics officer concluded in March that five of the letters contained racist content.
China says it will retaliate if America raises tariffs
China is vowing to retaliate if American President Donald Trump makes good on a threat to raise tariffs on $200 billion dollars in Chinese imports from 10 to 25 per cent.
The tariffs, which would go into effect Friday morning, is a response to China’s alleged reneging on earlier commitments.
Ontario slamming Ottawa over lack of funding for asylum seekers
Ontario’s social services minister is slamming the federal Liberals for not providing funding to her province to care for asylum seekers.
Lisa MacLeod says over all, the province has spent $200 million dollars providing services to refugees and is demanding to be fully compensated for the costs. However, federal Border Security Minister Bill Blair says Ottawa is paying money directly to cities for those services, bypassing the province.
New report says Official Languages Act rules being applied inconsistently
Canada’s official languages commissioner says bilingual greetings such as “Hello! Bonjour!” should be the standard at airports, border crossings and Service Canada counters, and that full service should be available in both English and French.
A new report says the Official Languages Act already obliges federal institutions to offer service in both languages, but the rules are applied inconsistently. The commissioner is calling for the Official Languages Act to be fully modernized by 2021 in order to make it more current, dynamic and robust.
