Mark Carney camp offers role to former Quebec premier Jean Charest: sources
Social Sharing
Prime minister-designate Mark Carney's team has approached former Quebec premier Jean Charest to offer him a role, Radio-Canada is reporting.
The nature of the position is unknown. But according to sources with knowledge of the discussion, Charest has no intention of becoming a minister.
CBC News is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Charest, who was instrumental in setting in motion the Canada-European Union free trade agreement (CETA), is currently a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Council on Canada-U.S. Relations.
In 2022, Charest ran unsuccessfully against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the party's leadership race. The former Quebec Liberal Party premier secured only 11.65 per cent of the popular vote compared to Poilievre who won 70.7 per cent.
Charest was also a Progressive Conservative MP in the 1990s and the federal party's leader.
WATCH | Charest says tariff threats are an opportunity to rethink Canada's economy:
How prepared is Canada for potential U.S. tariffs this week?
8 days ago
Duration 15:15
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand. They discuss the federal government's response as we near the latest date U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to launch 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. Plus, Jean Charest, a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, on his visit to Washington this past week and mixed messages from Trump.
While it is important for allies of Canada to defend the country, "no one is going to stand up for us in the way that we have to stand up for ourselves," Charest said in an interview last week with CBC's Rosemary Barton Live.
"We have to come to terms with the fact that we're going to live in a very different world. And that's true post-Trump," he said. "At the end of the day, it's about us. Our future. Set aside Mr. Trump. Set aside Mr. Starmer
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
DHL Express locks out workers across Canada
Unifor says DHL Express Canada locked out workers just after midnight today as the two sides failed to reach a contract deal, injecting more labour turmoil into the country's parcel delivery market. The union, which represents 2,100 truck drivers, couriers and warehouse workers across seven provinces, says they went on strike in response at 11 a.m. ET. Unifor says the German-owned carrier is proposing to change the driver pay system and planning to use replacement workers before legislation banning them comes into effect on June 20. The work stoppage, which affects package delivery across the country, comes as Canada Post remains at loggerheads with 55,000 workers, whose union last month imposed an overtime ban that scales back parcel services. Unifor says a work stoppage could disrupt next weekend's Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, where DHL is responsible for transporting the turbocharged race cars. Unifor says its bargaining priorities remain wages, working conditions and surveillance and automation in the workplace.
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Femicide must be defined in law, experts say as Ontario police use term in homicide cases
Article content As police in Ontario increasingly investigate killings of women and girls as femicides, advocates say a firm definition of the term must be embedded in the Criminal Code. Article content It's a change they hope could be on the table soon after Prime Minister Mark Carney proposed cracking down on intimate partner violence in this year's federal election campaign. Article content Ottawa police, who have been using the term since August 2024, said last week they were investigating the death of a 54-year-old woman as a femicide. They arrested a 57-year-old man and charged him with second-degree murder. Article content Last month, Kingston Police logged its first use of the label in a news release. Article content Police said they determined the death of a 25-year-old woman to be a femicide because it occurred 'in the context of intimate partner violence,' and they arrested a 26-year-old man for first-degree murder. They confirmed it was their first time describing a homicide in this way. Article content Police use the word so rarely that the Kingston example was a 'very significant' move, said Myrna Dawson, founder and director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. Article content 'That's not something that's really in their vocabulary right now. It's not something that is in many people's vocabulary as much as it should be,' she said. Article content Dawson, who is also a sociology professor at the University of Guelph, said the lack of Criminal Code definition is part of the reason why. Article content The observatory defines femicide as the killing of women and girls because of their gender. Article content The group also uses a framework from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime that lists 10 specific indicators that a crime could be considered femicide. Article content They include a woman or girl being killed by her intimate partner or family member, a victim having had a history of being harassed and sexual violence playing a role in the crime. In some cases, more than one factor can be at play. Article content 'They're killed in distinct ways from men and boys, and they're killed in many ways because of men and boys being entitled to relationships with them and expecting that women don't get to decide when they don't want a relationship any longer,' Dawson said. Article content Using the UN framework, her group has counted 1,014 femicides across Canada since it began tracking the killing of women and girls in 2018. Article content That included 187 femicides last year. A current or former intimate partner was accused in nearly half of those cases, the observatory found. Family members were accused in another 28 per cent of cases. Only six per cent of alleged perpetrators were strangers to the victims. Article content Though Kingston police have now called one case a femicide, the group's data suggests at least four killings since 2018 could meet the definition. Article content Article content Other groups are attempting the same work. The Ontario Association of Interval Houses, which tracks cases in the province, has identified five femicides in Kingston since late 2019. Article content Its executive director, Marlene Ham, said that without a universally recognized definition for femicide, different groups will end up with different numbers. Article content Adding a definition of femicide to the Criminal Code would allow better data on violence against women to be captured by police and national agencies such as Statistics Canada, both advocates said. Article content Kingston Police spokesperson Const. Anthony Colangeli declined to answer questions about what motivated the force to use the term femicide and whether it plans to use similar terminology in the future. Article content An Ottawa police spokesperson said the force started using the word femicide to 'highlight the realities of gender-based violence faced by women in our community.' Article content 'By using appropriate language to refer to these murders, we are continuing conversations about this subject that is often considered 'private.' We are raising awareness about an epidemic that is occurring and labelling these deaths appropriately,' the spokesperson said in an email. Article content In the absence of an agreed-upon definition, Ottawa police have come up with a list of 14 forms of violence that fall into the category of femicide, including intimate partner violence killings, the torture and misogynistic slaying of women, the killing of Indigenous women and girls, killing related to sexual violence and the 'non-intimate killings of women and girls.' Article content The force confirmed it does not use femicide to describe women killed in murder-suicides something Dawson said should change as it is 'a very common scenario in femicide cases.' Article content Other police forces, such as the Toronto Police Service, don't use the term femicide because it currently has no bearing on which charges police lay in homicides. The force does, however, lay terrorism charges in homicides where misogyny is a motivating factor. Article content Dawson says police are 'fighting an uphill battle' when it comes to using femicide terminology more consistently. Article content 'Police really need leaders to take the initiative, and by that I mean the federal government who decides what is a criminal offence and what should be labelled and legislated officially,' she said. Article content Carney promised in the campaign to make killings motivated by hate — including femicide — a 'constructive first-degree offence,' which means a first-degree murder charge would be laid even if the slaying was not planned and deliberate. Article content Chantalle Aubertin, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser, said in a statement the government is 'determined to bring forward legislation to advance this commitment as soon as possible.' Should the federal government enshrine a definition of femicide, Statistics Canada could record better data, Dawson said. Article content The agency already tracks homicides reported by police each year, and the genders of the accused perpetrators and victims. While a 2023 report on gender-related homicides of women and girls broke down some indicators of femicide, it only addressed some of the UN's indicators. Article content 'The more we know about these killings and the more we can contextualize them within that understanding of femicide, the more awareness that we can ultimately build and continue to have these discussions about prevention,' Ham said, noting a history of threats, violence and coercive control is present in many cases. Article content It's important to keep the conversation about violence toward women going, Dawson added, with an emphasis on how these killings differ from those targeting boys and men. Article content 'That's what we're trying to emphasize because if we don't recognize that, then our prevention efforts also don't recognize that, and we don't recognize the urgency of this.'
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Ottawa sending support from armed forces amid northern Ontario wildfire evacuations
A tour boat makes its way along the Rideau Canal as buildings are obscured with haze from wildfires burning in Canada's prairie provinces, in Ottawa, Friday, June 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Prime Minister Mark Carney says the federal government is deploying members of the Canadian Armed Forces to help evacuate a northwestern Ontario First Nation as wildfires rapidly spread in the region. Carney says Ottawa has accepted Ontario's urgent request for assistance in and around Sandy Lake First Nation, and the military will help with emergency airlift evacuations. The Ontario government says the Red Lake 12 wildfire, near Deer Lake First Nation, is out of control, more than 1,500 square kilometres in size and was threatening Sandy Lake First Nation as of Saturday night. It says the community is conducting a phase one evacuation of residents by air, and boats will be available if needed. The province says Deer Lake First Nation remains evacuated and is being protected by fire rangers. Carney says the federal government is 'prepared to mobilize every resource' to keep Canadians safe. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2025. The Canadian Press
