NightOwl

Albanese said she was "in shock" when she learned Quebec had opened a trade office in Tel Aviv in June, even as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continued to rage and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians had been killed.

"Silence, or worse, the justification on the part of a small, but influential number of states, continued to allow and nurture the arrogance that is at the origins of Israeli behaviour today, as we talk," she said.

"It is extremely troubling to see countries which are members of the United Nations pontificate, call into question and cloud the meaning of international law and dehumanizing the victims of these past 12 months."

The Liberal government has been under intense pressure from the U.S. to boost defence spending. Last year, the Liberals announced more than $30 billion in new projects, with much of that going to U.S. firms.

Coercive interventions have been the preferred response to substance use in many countries. When evaluated, these programs are documented to have success rates lower than four percent. Beyond their marginal benefits, forced treatment programs come with their own downsides, including heightened risk of fatal drug poisonings.

In Massachusetts, where involuntary treatment has been the law of the land since 2018, the state public health department found that the risk of fatal overdose was twice as likely compared to post-voluntary treatment.

Last year the Red Deer Recovery Community opened its doors. The provincially funded 75-bed treatment centre is managed by Edgewood Health Network, a for-profit health care company which operates 11 similar sites across Canada. For Edgewood's services in Red Deer, the province has found itself dishing out $13 million a year.

With so much profit to be made, Bay Street has rushed to insert itself into the equation. Expecting huge returns, Peloton Capital Management (PCM), a billion-dollar Toronto-based private equity firm, began financing Edgewood Health Network's expansion 2021.

Neonicotinoid are a class of pesticides harmful to human brains and sperm and deadly to bees, insects and birds. They are banned in Europe because of the ecological harm they cause. Canada initially planned to follow suit, but relented after years of pressure by industry.

Critics were unconvinced by Naqvi's response.

"For the past decade, Health Canada has repeated the line that they are examining the evidence of harm from neonics, all the while continuing to allow their widespread use," said Lisa Gue, manager of national policy for the David Suzuki Foundation.

The federal government is poised to release their next-generation transit investment program, the Canada Public Transit Fund. It may surprise you to learn that not a single penny of this $30-billion program is allowed to go toward stopping transit service cuts. Since 2016, it has been the federal government's policy to limit the public transit funding it provides to building new subway or light rail infrastructure or buying new buses. It cannot be used to make existing transit more reliable by increasing service hours and the frequency of trains or buses. This is despite studies showing that these measures are the most important drivers of key outcomes like ridership growth and emissions reductions.