Monthly Archives: May 2020

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill Tuesday May 26, 2020 in Ottawa. The government a minority government, remember has been able to operate with minimal oversight since March.

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

While Canadians struggle with government-imposed restrictions on their movements, their businesses and their employment, and face fines or even jail time for failing to quarantine properly, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to do its best to shield itself from parliamentary accountability during the pandemic.

The government a minority government, remember has been able to operate with minimal oversight since March. Thats when all the parties agreed to temporarily adjourn Parliament, as part of the emergency lockdown measures brought about by the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Since April, thanks to a Liberal motion opposed by the Conservatives, but adopted with the support of the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Qubcois, the Trudeau government has only had to answer to an all-party special committee on the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The 30-member committee meets through videoconference twice a week, and one day a week in the House of Commons, with time allotted for opposition members to question ministers but only on issues related to the pandemic.

What might look like Question Period when the committee holds its meetings in the House of Commons has in fact been a pale imitation of the real thing.

Mr. Trudeau has meanwhile been able to stand in front of a microphone every day, far from Parliament, and make announcement after announcement about new programs.

The special committee meetings have been accountability-lite some of the fizz, none of the calories and now even they are coming to an end.

Under a new Liberal Party motion on track to be adopted on Tuesday evening with the support of the NDP, the special pandemic committee will cease to exist as of June 18, and Parliament will remain suspended until Sept. 21.

There will be only three scheduled days this summer when opposition MPs will be allowed to ask questions of the government. As well, only a handful of committees will be allowed to hold meetings, and must do so remotely.

Most worrying of all, under the Liberals latest plan, a whole-of-government committee will have exactly four hours on June 17 to debate, and then approve without amendment," more than $150-billion in new spending on proposed COVID-19 relief programs.

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Those spending estimates have not been released, so its impossible to say exactly whats included. But what it is safe to say is that your average family spends more time deciding on a new washing machine than Parliament is going to be given to consider tens of billions of dollars in new authorities.

This is not how Canadian democracy is supposed to work. We largely agree with the Liberal emergency measures but thats not the point. As keeper of the public purse, the House of Commons is in charge of approving, or not, government spending. While successive governments of all stripes have done their best to minimize this role, none has ever gone quite as far as cancelling the tabling of an annual budget, and then reducing debate on its near-budget to half a days work.

We live in a difficult time when the federal government is working in overdrive, and will likely need to do so through the summer, but the elected body that it reports to has been jammed into neutral. Thats not Canadian-style responsible government, especially when the government in question is a minority.

Parliament should be, and could be, sitting. You only have to look around the world to see that legislatures have found ways to continue their vital role during the crisis. That includes parliaments in Britain, Germany and France.

As businesses across Canada begin to be allowed to reopen, its becoming increasingly difficult to understand why Parliament cant. A recent report by the House of Commons Administration says it is ready to hold virtual sittings, or hybrid sittings in which some members are in the chamber and others are at home.

The Liberals and the NDP need to make an immediate U-turn and support the return of Parliament. The tools exist to practise both physical distancing and democracy. We dont have to choose.

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And the need is urgent. Canadas limitations on large in-person gatherings could well continue into 2021. The Trudeau government might be happy to go a year with a silenced Parliament, but nobody else should be.

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Liberals to Parliament: Well govern without you, thanks - The Globe and Mail

Former CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter delivered a scathing critique of news outlets, saying two out of three leading cable news sources, in particular,"are unrelentingly liberal in their fear and loathing of President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump marks 'very sad milestone' of 100K coronavirus deaths DOJ: George Floyd death investigation a 'top priority' Lifting our voices and votes MORE."

Sauter, who served as CBS News president on two occasions in the 1980s, asked in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published on Sundaywhether a large segment of the public will "ever put stock in journalism it considers hostile to the countrys best interests."

The highly influential daily newspapers in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Boston are now decidedly liberal, Sauter wrote.

On the home screen, the three broadcast network divisions still have their liberal tilt. Two of the three leading cable news sources are unrelentingly liberal in their fear and loathing of President Trump," he added, appearing to refer to MSNBC and CNN.

The news media is catching up with the liberalism of the professoriate, the entertainment industry, upscale magazines and the literary world. Recent arrivals are the late-night TV hosts who have broken the boundaries of what was considered acceptable political humor for networks," he continued.

To the journalists, including more than a few Republicans, [the president] is a blatant vulgarian, an incessant prevaricator, and a dangerous leader who should be ousted next January, if not sooner," he later added.

Sauter, also a onetime president of CBS Sports, also asked what media coverage will look like if Trump wins a second term.

How will a large segment of the public ever put stock in journalism it considers hostile to the countrys best interests? he asked.

Sauter's perspective comes as the news media's credibility rating fell to a new low in a recent poll by Morning Consult, with those identifying as Republican primarily driving the number down.

"Among Republicans, perceptions of four media outlets have fallen more than 20 points since the last presidential election. In December 2016, at least roughly half of Republicans thought The Wall Street Journal (64 percent), The New York Times (52 percent), CNN (51 percent) and MSNBC (48 percent) were credible," reads the Morning Consult findings. "Four years later, those figures now stand at 41 percent for The Journal, 29 percent for the Times and 27 percent for both CNN and MSNBC."

The overall share of U.S. adults who said nine leading media outlets ranging from CBS News to The New York Times are credible dropped more than 9percentage points since December 2016, from 60.6 percent to 51.2 percent in May 2020, according to the poll's findings.

--This report was updated at 10:57 a.m.

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Former CBS News president: Most major cable news outlets 'unrelentingly liberal' in 'fear and loathing' of Trump | TheHill - The Hill

FridayMay22,2020at7:30AM

The following is a letter to the editor.

After reading many Letters to the Editor and also many opinions by educated individuals with pile-it-higher-and-deeper degrees, etc., I have come to the conclusion many folks are on one side of the political fence or the other.

Never mind all the liberal news articles by the associated depressed and other news outlets The Daily Telegram and Monroe News carries, I just wish folks would apply critical thinking instead of criticizing differences. That being said, I have a short test so you can decide what side of the fence you are on. Here goes: If a conservative doesn't like guns he won't buy one; if a liberal does not like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat; if a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone. If a conservative is down and out, he thinks how to better his or her situation; a liberal wonders who is going to take care of him. If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels; liberals demand those they don't like it to be shut down. If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church; a liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and Jesus silenced. If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it; a liberal demands the rest of us pay for his. If a conservative reads this, he will share it with his friends so they can have a good laugh; a liberal will delete it out of his mind, because he is offended by the truth.

Our first president was quoted, I would rather die on my feet, than to live on my knees. Do you think he would be a conservative or liberal today?

Mark Masters

Morenci

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Letter: The differences between a liberal and a conservative - The Daily Telegram

On Monday around 8am, a white woman named Amy Cooper was walking her dog unleashed in a protected area of New York Citys Central Park, a wooded space called The Ramble.

Christian Cooper (no relation), a Black man and a bird-watcher, asked Amy to leash her dog. Dogs must be leashed in Central Park from 9am to 9pm, but in the Ramble they must be leashed at all times. Christian later said that he had been worried about the delicate ecosystem of The Ramble and the way in which the dog might affect the birds.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Amy, clearly offended, responded by saying that she was going to call the police on him. The video Christian took ended up online, and almost instantly went viral.

In response to the video, many on social media began to speculate and insist that Amy Cooper was a Trump supporter and a member of the MAGA movement.

However, campaign contribution information with donations to Democrats such as Barack Obama, Pete Buttigieg, and John Kerry leaked online earlier today appeared to suggest that Amy actually identifies as a liberal. If true, this matters, because in this political era, during this most critical US presidential election, it is necessary that we understand and recognize that white violence transcends party lines and political ideology.

In the video that Christian recorded, Amy can be heard saying, "I'm taking a picture and calling the cops, as she appears to strangle or roughly handle her dog with the pets collar. "I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life."

Amy repeatedly and insistently stresses the term African American, giving viewers the impression that his race is significant here, perhaps in terms of how he can expect to be treated by the police. Incidents of police brutality against Black people are not rare, as Amy Cooper must surely be aware of. In fact, just today, news broke that another unidentified Black man has died in Minneapolis, seemingly gasping, I cant breathe as a police officer keeps his knee on the mans neck.

White violence is not the sole domain of Trump supporters, or open white supremacists. White violence is pervasive, spreading everywhere and tainting everything. And when we overlook liberal white racism, we put ourselves in grave danger, because liberal white people often live closer in proximity to Black folks than their conservative peers. There's a chance the Amy Cooper we see in that viral video may not be the same Amy Cooper whose details were leaked onto social media but as a New York City resident, she's still statistically much likely to be a Democrat than a Republican, and the conversation about white liberal racism is long overdue.

Many believe that if we just get Donald Trump out of office and replace him with a white liberal or a white moderate, racialized violence will abate in this country. But thats not necessarily the case. Moderate and liberal politicians have all aided in such violence becoming the norm as well. Martin Luther King Jr. himself warned of the particular danger of this type of racism. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection, he wrote in his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

And that lukewarm acceptance can quickly turn into threats or actual violence, when white people that their supremacy and their spaces are being threatened. Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg may well be a Democrat and a self-identified liberal, for instance, but his handling of the killing of Eric Logan by police traumatized the Black community.

Assuming that Amy Cooper is a white conservative Trump supporter desensitizes us to the ways in which even progressive white people protect their spaces from Black people. We cannot assume that a liberal or even a progressive political future will save Black people from white fragility and white supremacy and white violence. A long legacy of considering themselves superior doesnt go away just because someone has a D for Democrat behind their name, or on their voter registration.

In a city and a state that skews heavily liberal, there's a good chance Amy Cooper is the ideal liberal on paper. She also threatened to call the police and falsely report an African American man was threatening her life in a country well-known for allowing fatal police brutality against unarmed, innocent Black people.

But Amy Cooper is not an anomaly. She is, unfortunately, the norm.

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It looks like Amy Cooper, the white woman in the viral Central Park video, is a liberal. That's important - The Independent

OTTAWA Facing a significant drop in donations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal Liberal, Conservatives and New Democratic parties have all applied for the Trudeau governments wage subsidy.

The information first began trickling out publicly on Friday afternoon when Karl Blanger, former NDP national director and now consultant and radio columnist for Gatineaus 104.7 FM, revealed that his former party had applied for the subsidy.

Im not sure I would have made the same decision, but at the same time, I understand why theyre making it. If they are indeed facing the situation where they would have to layoff employees, then their own workers shouldnt be excluded because of who they work for, Blanger later said in an interview with the National Post.

When later approached by media, the Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada also confirmed that they had also applied for and received money from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).

Only the Bloc Qubcois said it had not applied for the federal program, nor did it plan on it in the future.

Launched on April 27, the CEWS covers 75 per cent of eligible employers payrolls up to a weekly maximum of $847 per employee for up to 12 weeks starting March 15.

To be eligible, an organizations revenue must have dropped by at least 30 per cent in one month since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Private businesses as well as most non-profits are eligible. Political parties are the latter.

All four federal parties said that the cancellation of in-person funding events and a drop in donations as millions of Canadians lost their jobs led to a significant fall in revenue over the past two months.

As an organization, we rely heavily on the donations of individuals, especially for our day-to-day operations which are 100% funded by our donors, Conservative spokesman Cory Hann explained. The party employs about 60 people both full and part time.

We understand that many Canadians are not able to give at the moment, which is why weve been taking a different approach on donation asks and operations that take that into account, he continued, adding that remote work has also led to unexpected expenses.

The health and safety of Canadians is always our top priority, and all in-person fundraising events were paused as of early March, Liberal Party spokesperson Braeden Caley wrote in a statement. The Liberal Party of Canada has met the eligibility criteria for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy in recent weeks and received that support.

Support was definitely staying strong following the election and into this year. And then in March, when the pandemic was declared and everything kind of shut down, we saw a drop in our numbers in March, and then a more significant drop in April. We anticipate the same for May and for the next little while, NDP National Director Anne McGrath explained in an interview.

Her party was the only one that accepted to detail how much its revenue had dropped since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to McGrath, the party collected approximately $297,000 in March 2020, compared to $375,000 in the same month last year.

The decrease was even steeper in April, when the party registered $275,000 in donations, compared to $400,000 at the same time last year.

I wouldnt identify it as drastic, but it is significant enough, McGrath said. We want to maintain our staffing levels and not layoff people. Many of the people on our staff are single parents, students and people who are new Canadians.

If the NDPs application is approved by the Canada Revenue Agency (it should be), the money will serve to pay the partys roughly 35 full and part-time employees.

As is the case for all political parties, MPs and their political staffs salary are not eligible to be covered by CEWS, since they are not employed by their party. They are paid through an independent budget from the House of Commons.

The program is there to prevent layoffs, right? And everybody is experiencing a downturn in their in their revenues. And so I think it makes sense (for political parties to apply). From my point of view, its the responsible thing to do, McGrath added.

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Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats all apply for COVID-19 wage subsidy to pay their workers - National Post

Like many sectors, higher education is in a panic about coronavirus survival rates. Small liberal arts colleges that are tuition dependent are at particularly high risk. To be sure, there is a lot to worry about: most obviously, endowment losses due to stock market declines and the prospect of lower enrollments if too many accepted students take a gap year. Family economic woes causing a decline in the number of returning students, perceived or real quality control issues with remote learning, and the threat of more disruption or a coronavirus cluster on the campus could also wreak havoc on an institutions bottom line.

Despite some bold and early announcements that face-to-face instruction will take place in the fall, we all know that such instruction might not be possible or wise. A good deal of institutional thinking currently revolves around reconfiguring the calendar to anticipate and diminish disruption. But institutions should be thinking more about how to authentically market what they offer, and they need to explicitly address legitimate concerns of parents and students. To do so, small liberal arts colleges need to innovate in order to deliver on what they already do best.

First and foremost, our colleges need to make good on the rhetoric that the safety of students and employees comes first. The jig is up if getting room and board fees in the coffers trumps the well-being of the campus community. Even if it seems that institutions can open safely, a hybrid model that allows remote-learning options for students who might be able to afford college if they can forgo room and board fees, or who might be high risk, sends a clear message that different needs will be honored.

Planning now for such a hybrid model also means that a college will be halfway there to a total remote-learning environment should that again become necessary. Such a model also accommodates high-risk faculty. Community-minded values are one of the appeals of a small college. Planning for the next academic year should build on -- rather than violate -- those values of care.

What are some specific steps that small colleges can take in the challenging months ahead?

Small liberal arts colleges focus on low faculty/student ratios and small classes that allow meaningful mentoring relationships with faculty members as well as peer education. What if a British-style tutorial were part of every first-year students experience? Among smaller groups, meetings powered by Zoom can foster intellectual community, while online discussion forums can require students to respond to one anothers writing. Many faculty members at liberal arts colleges have the pedagogical chops to do this work well. Colleges that can clearly communicate that such high-quality experiences can be expected in person or at a distance are more likely to be able to recruit an incoming class.

Intensive research seminars where faculty-guided independent work is supplemented with a cohort of peers who can help vet one anothers projects and learn to ask (and answer) critical questions about both the research process and its products should be provided for upper-class students. This seminar could be a prelude to capstones in the major or to other high-impact experiences such as internships. Such offerings would be in keeping with and an extension of research opportunities already on offer at many liberal arts colleges.

Some students might elect to study pandemic-related topics in an effort to process the experiences of this moment. Others might need to lose themselves in a passion that seems distant from the horrors of the present. Enabling students to make their education their own is a hallmark of the liberal arts experience, and additional intensive research and writing experiences can aid emotional and intellectual development during these unprecedented times.

Liberal arts colleges should also use this moment to integrate career coaching throughout the curriculum. First-year tutorials and research seminars are the perfect places to do some of that work. The next few graduating classes will be entering a brutal job market, and we owe our students careful instruction in the development and transferability of marketable skills.

One of my regular course offerings at the liberal arts college where I teach is Novel English Majors, which is focused on both literary and career narratives. Im already thinking about strategies for coping with a pandemic and post-pandemic economy and how students might be able to capitalize on recently being forced to up their technological game for remote learning. Making a case for the economic value of the liberal arts experience adds value to the education we offer rather than detracting from it. We owe it to students and parents to ameliorate rather than add to the economic hardship that is now irrefutably part of the zeitgeist.

Part of career coaching involves connecting current students with alumni. Current students benefit from hearing firsthand about the twists and turns that professional trajectories take. Millennials who had to find their way during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 will be particularly helpful to the next few graduating classes, since real talk about navigating a spiraling economy can prepare and empower students. But we also have a responsibility to those very same alums who are now navigating the second major economic crisis of their careers. Especially if our institutions have spaces in virtual classes, why not invite alums to sign up for some lifelong learning at steeply discounted prices?

Small-scale, caring communities. Intensive mentoring and research experiences. Relationships and connections that last a lifetime. Lifelong learning. These are the signatures of small colleges. If we hold fast to our core educational values while innovating for a new, potentially virtual normal for a time, well give ourselves and our institutions a chance to survive this pandemic.

Just as important, well hopefully prepare the next generation to not repeat the myriad mistakes that brought us to this cataclysm. Colleges committed to ensuring that we dont end up with a lost generation of traumatized students are likely to earn their future.

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How small liberal arts colleges can best weather the pandemic (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed