Hello,
The federal government is suspending all advertising on Meta platforms – including Facebook and Instagram – over the company’s plans to block Canadian news on its platforms in response to Ottawa’s Online News Act.
Also today, Quebec said it was ceasing advertising with Meta for the same reason.
Federal Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced the decision Wednesday at a news conference in Ottawa with NDP heritage critic Peter Julian and Bloc Québécois heritage critic Martin Champoux.
Parliament approved the act, known as Bill C-18, last month and the measures are scheduled to take effect within six months after the drafting of regulatory details. The legislation outlines a framework in which large platforms – specifically Google and Facebook – will be required to reach compensation agreements with publishers for the use of news on their sites.
Both companies have said the bill as approved is unworkable. Google announced on June 29 that it intends to block Canadian news on its platform, but is continuing to participate in the regulatory process.
Deputy Ottawa bureau chief Bill Curry reports here.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you're reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY'S HEADLINES
New nuclear plant for Ontario? - Ontario could be getting its first new, full-scale nuclear plant in three decades, the province’s Energy Minister said Wednesday. Story here.
Cancel extradition deal with Hong Kong: dissident - A prominent Canadian-born Hong Kong dissident, one of eight pro-democracy activists targeted this week with cash bounties by the city’s Beijing-backed police force, is urging Canada to cancel its extradition agreement with the former British colony. Story here.
Housing sales, prices surge to decline - An unexpected surge in Canadian home sales and average prices in the first half of 2023 will likely lose steam in the second half of the year, predicts the Toronto-Dominion Bank economist. Story here.
Wage hike central to B.C. ports strike - The union representing B.C. port workers on strike is clashing with employers over what constitutes a fair wage increase to account for inflation as the gulf widens between the two sides. Story here.
Long odds for Archibald to regain job - RoseAnne Archibald, the ousted national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, faces long odds against reinstatement, as the organization readies itself for its annual convention next week. Story here.
New Ontario Liberal leadership candidate - Provincial Liberal legislator Adil Shamji, who worked as an emergency room physician before winning office in a Toronto riding last year, says he is running to be leader of the Ontario Liberals. Story here.
Joly pledges to protect Indian diplomats as rally posters raise alarm - Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is vowing to safeguard Indian diplomats in Canada, as posters circulating for secessionist Khalistan rallies at Delhi’s Vancouver and Toronto consulates feature the phrase “Kill India” and label its senior diplomats in this country as “killers.” Story here.
Elections BC bans Marissen and municipal party - Elections BC has banned long-time political organizer Mark Marissen and other Progress Vancouver candidates from running in the next round of local elections after it deregistered their party for breaking campaign finance rules. Story here.
Yet another challenge for Ottawa LRT - Ottawa police say crowds were turned away from a key Ottawa LRT station on Canada Day because it can’t handle crowds. The disclosure is garnering attention partly because the Pimisi Station may end up being the site of a new sports stadium. Story here from CTV Ottawa.
THIS AND THAT
Today in the Commons – The House of Commons is now on a break until Sept. 18. The Senate resumes sitting on Sept. 19.
Deputy Prime Minister’s Day - Chrystia Freeland, in Toronto, held private meetings, delivered remarks about the new grocery rebate, and took media questions.
Ministers on the Road - Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, in Peggy’s Cove, N.S., made a a tourism support announcement. Treasury Board President Mona Fortier and Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, in Vancouver, announced funding to evaluate emergent renewable and hybrid power, energy and control systems. Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu, in Fort Frances, Ont., announced support for northwestern Ontario municipalities. Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge made an infrastructure announcement in Magog, Que.
Pierre Poilievre image - The federal Conservative leader appears to have changed his image, going without his glasses, and wearing turtleneck sweaters during a recent Atlantic swing. Compare his look here and here. Sebastian Skamski, Mr. Poilievre’s director of communications, did not respond to questions about the shift. But the politics newsletter has reached out to professional image consultants on the changes.
Michelle Horne -Founder, owner Putting it Together Image Consulting - “For some people who wear glasses, you can wear contacts and it feels very free. So I think if I were going to create some looks for him that didn’t have the eyewear, I would create more impacted wardrobe pieces in the items of clothing ... meaning that I would put a collared shirt on without the glasses that had more color suited his coloring, that provided a boost where the eyewear was taken away.”
Vivian Singh - Founder, Haute Image Consulting - “I have not been following him so I am just looking at him with virgin eyes, so to speak. He just doesn’t seem to be relaxed in reaching out to the people who aren’t part of his following right now.”
Anne Sowden - Here’s Looking at You Image Consulting - “What’s important here is, is this a conscious change that he has initiated and he is fully on board with it? Or is it something that has been imposed on him? If it is something that he is fully on board with then it’s going to last. This is going to be the new Pierre Poilievre. If it’s something that’s been imposed, somebody said, `Well you’ve got to do this, this and this,’ and he’s not fully on board, it’s going to be interesting to see how it evolves. ... There’s never anything wrong with trying something different as long as it’s something you’re comfortable with. Certainly, based on that [CTV] interview I saw, that man was very uncomfortable.”
Ignatieff talks politics - Former federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff talks political life on The Rest is Politics podcast, from the United Kingdom, here. “I became a different person [in politics] and I wasn’t terribly happy with the guy I had become. That’s the real cost in politics, I think,” he tells co hosts Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Montreal, held private meetings, delivered a keynote speech at the International Council of Nurses Congress 2023, then met with members of the Canadian Nurses Association and the International Council of Nurses. Later, in St-Hyacinthe, Que., Mr. Trudeau visited a local food market to highlight the grocery rebate, and held a media scrum. He was also scheduled to speak to Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of NATO.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, at the end of a Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean tour, held a press conference on Bloc proposals in support of forestry contractors.
No schedule available for other leaders.
THE DECIBEL
Wednesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast features energy reporter Emma Graney on why Canada is falling behind in preparing for when the oil and gas sector declines. The Decibel is here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how Ottawa is still playing favourites with the carbon tax: “After a few detours, Ottawa’s carbon tax has finally arrived in Nova Scotia, with pump prices in the province surging on July 1. Gasoline taxes rose an eye-popping 16 cents a litre on Canada Day, representing five years’ worth of carbon-tax increases (plus the bonus of added HST). But how could this happen, one might wonder, when Canada has supposedly had a national price on carbon since April, 2019?”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on the shocking collapse in Canadian productivity: in spite of the Liberals’ best efforts, or because of them?: “For years now, scolds like me have been boring the pants off you with our interminable screeds about the problem of sluggish productivity growth. Oh God, we moaned, productivity in Canada is growing so slowly: slower than it was, and much slower than in other countries. This cannot go on; foundation of living standards; however will we pay for health care, etc., etc. So it may relieve you to know that this has ceased to be a problem. Canada’s economic problem is no longer slow or slowing productivity growth. It is declining productivity, in absolute terms – and not occasionally, or tentatively, but steadily, and without much prospect for improvement.”
Phoebe Maltz Bovy (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how the Waterloo attack is part of a broader trend of hatred for academia itself: “Many critiques of academia come from a place of ignorance, fuelled by incendiary media coverage, and do not accurately represent what goes on in the classroom. Others, however, come from people who do know what they’re talking about. Academic disciplines should be able to face criticism. That in and of itself doesn’t curtail free expression. It ought to be a healthy sign of academia’s real-world relevance. But it ceases to be so the moment the classroom itself is under physical attack. The takeaway from the horror in Waterloo is not that anyone skeptical of gender theory is somehow implicated in the attack. It’s that bare minimum, academic freedom is the ability to teach or take a class without the threat of deadly assault.
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