
Separatists, Silos, and the Battle for Canada's Future
With the federal election behind us and America's interest in annexing Canada apparently on hold for the time being, it's tempting to think the worst of the recent crisis is behind us. My fear is that the real battle has only just begun.
Alberta's increasingly noisy separatist movement, and Premier Danielle Smith's willingness to amplify and enable it, creates a clear fissure that Donald Trump could exploit. The recent election helped expose the vulnerabilities in our informational ecosystem, ones that can and will be weaponized by foreign and domestic political actors. And our social media platforms continue to isolate Canadians in their own self-imposed silos, ones where things like facts and nuance barely stand a chance.
This is precisely why our Climate Solutions Reporting Project has become more vital than ever. As these information battles intensify, climate journalism stands as a crucial counterweight to misinformation and division. We've set an ambitious goal of raising $150,000 by May 22 to expand this essential reporting, but we can't get there without your support. Your contribution, pays for journalism that cuts through these silos and builds the informed consensus we desperately need in these uncertain times.
If Mark Carney government cares as much about protecting Canada's cultural and territorial sovereignty as it claimed during the recent election campaign, it will have to do more than just protect the status quo here. It has to meaningfully reinvest in the CBC and redirect its focus towards protecting our access to reliable news and information. It needs to crack down more aggressively on foreign-funded influence campaigns and the useful idiots who advance and amplify them domestically. And it should probably re-assess the value of its Online News Act, one that has only served to damage the access many Canadians have to news.
But there are also things you can do to protect Canada from these malign and malicious forces.
And yes, one of them is subscribing to Canada's National Observer. Like most online publications, we increasingly depend on subscribers to fund our journalism and share our work. And while other outlets might lean on techniques like rage-farming to drive their engagement and support, CNO is fact-based reporting.
By supporting independent journalism you're helping expand an ecosystem where the facts are checked, the details matter, and the noisiest voices (present company excluded, perhaps) don't get all of the oxygen. With each subscription you're helping build a place where we can talk about the country we want to build and share, and creating cultural momentum that becomes more irrepressible with each additional voice.
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Ottawa Citizen
16 minutes ago
- Ottawa Citizen
MacDonald: Canada must stop neglecting its spy agencies if it wants better defence
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Winnipeg Free Press
26 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Poll suggests half of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
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The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. That can include killing members of the group, causing them serious injury, deliberately inflicting conditions that can be dangerous to their lives, imposing measures to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children from the group to another group. Just less than half of the Canadian respondents, 49 per cent, said they agree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, including 23 per cent who said they strongly agree and 26 per cent who said they somewhat agree. Another 21 per cent said they disagree with the claim that Israel is committing genocide — 10 per cent said they somewhat disagree and 11 per cent said they strongly disagree. The remaining 30 per cent said they didn't know or refused to answer. Conservative supporters were the least likely to say they believe Israel is committing genocide, with 37 per cent agreeing with the statement and 33 per cent disagreeing. More than 60 per cent of Liberal, NDP, Green Party and Bloc Québécois supporters said they agree Israel's actions amount to genocide. The poll was conducted just days before the Canadian government took action against Israeli cabinet ministers it accuses of inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. On Tuesday, a group of five countries including Canada announced sanctions against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The five countries accused the ministers of calling for the displacement of Palestinians and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Last month, an open letter from Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Israeli military operations in Gaza and called the level of suffering in the territory 'intolerable.' The letter threatened concrete actions if the Israeli government did not allow more food aid into Gaza and end its military operations there. It also called on Hamas to release its remaining hostages. In response to the genocide question, 38 per cent of Americans polled said they agree Israel is committing genocide, while 26 per cent said they disagree and 36 per cent said they don't know. Supporters of the Democrats – 52 per cent – and Americans under the age of 35 – 53 per cent – were the most likely to call the situation in Gaza a genocide. More than half of Canadians, 54 per cent, said they don't follow news about the Middle East or the current conflict in the Gaza Strip. Just nine per cent said they're following news about the Gaza conflict very closely, and another 35 per cent said they're following somewhat closely. American respondents reported almost the same levels of engagement. Despite that, 49 per cent of Canadians and 54 per cent of American respondents said they feel they have a very good or fairly good understanding of the conflict in Gaza. Opinions on mainstream media reporting about the conflict were evenly split, with 20 per cent of Canadian respondents saying they feel the media has been 'generally balanced.' Another 20 per cent said they feel the coverage has been more favourable toward Palestinians and 21 per cent said it was more favourable to Israel. American respondents reported almost identical responses. Many Canadians surveyed were pessimistic about the possibility of a peaceful resolution. When asked whether they believe that lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians can be reached, 41 per cent of Canadian respondents said no, 28 per cent said yes and 31 per cent said they don't know. Canadian respondents over age 55 were the least optimistic — 51 per cent of them said a lasting peace cannot be achieved. Americans were more evenly split, with 34 per cent saying they think peace is out of reach and 33 per cent saying it can be achieved. The polling industry's professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. — With files from David Baxter This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025.


Winnipeg Free Press
33 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
In the news today: Trump's tariffs remain in effect, Canadians critical of Israel
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed… Trump's tariffs to stay in effect amid appeal A federal appeals court agreed on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs will remain in place while a case is heard — extending an emergency stay granted after a lower court found the devastating duties unlawful. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found 'a stay is warranted under the circumstances.' It provides a temporary victory for the Trump administration as it hits its first legal barriers for realigning global trade. 'The Trump administration is legally using the powers granted to the executive branch by the Constitution and Congress to address our country's national emergencies of persistent goods trade deficits and drug trafficking,' said White House spokesman Kush Desai in an emailed statement Tuesday. 'The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' stay order is a welcome development, and we look forward to ultimately prevailing in court.' Poll suggests Canadians critical of Israel A new poll suggests that nearly half of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza almost two years after the current conflict began. In a survey conducted last weekend, the polling firm Leger asked Canadians and Americans a series of questions about the conflict in the Gaza Strip. The polling comes as the federal government is under pressure to take concrete steps to condemn Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Leger asked respondents whether they 'agree or disagree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip' based on how they 'define what constitutes a genocide.' Feds look to boost weak summer jobs market The federal government is moving to shore up a historically weak summer job market for students — even as one economist argues tough employment prospects for young people suggest broader softness in the job market. Statistics Canada shone a light on the difficult employment prospects for students heading back to school this fall in its May jobs report last Friday. Roughly one in five returning students aged 15 to 24 was unemployed in May, the agency said. The last time the jobless rate for students was this high outside the pandemic was in May 2009. Also on Friday, the federal government announced an expansion of the Canada Summer Jobs program, which offers wage subsidies to businesses hiring young people for seasonal work. Concern in Canada after U.S. vaccine panel fired Canadian doctors and scientists say Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s firing of an immunization advisory committee south of the border is worrisome. On Monday, the U.S. health and human services secretary — a longtime anti-vaccine advocate — said he will appoint new members to the scientific group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccination. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said Tuesday that the move will foster more false anti-vaccine beliefs, not only in the U.S. but also in Canada. 'It creates a culture in which anti-vaxx beliefs are more accepted and challenged a lot less. And also it creates an environment where there's an alternative to an evidence-based recommendation framework,' she said. N.S. miners strike a century ago still resonates During Nova Scotia's storied 300-year history of coal mining, one deadly riot in 1925 proved to be pivotal for workers' rights in Canada. One hundred years ago today, William Davis — a 37-year-old Cape Breton coal miner and father of nine — was shot to death by a special constable hired by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) — a monopoly mine owner that had repeatedly turned to violence to end strikes over poor wages and unsafe working conditions. 'William Davis's story highlights the many sacrifices that those unionized workers made when they stood up against oppression,' says Danny Cavanaugh, president of the 70,000-member Nova Scotia Federation of Labour. 'It serves as a reminder of a historic struggle that workers faced to secure their rights.' Davis's death on the outskirts of New Waterford, N.S., commemorated every year in Nova Scotia on June 11, was the painful culmination of a long series of strikes and chaotic skirmishes. CRTC holds hearing on internet choice Canada's telecommunications regulator is expected to hear today from major providers and consumer advocacy groups at a hearing on shopping for internet services. Wednesday marks Day 2 of the four-day hearing, which is part of a CRTC consultation launched in December on how to help consumers shop for home internet plans following complaints it was difficult to compare their options. The regulator is considering a requirement for providers to display relevant information — such as price and speed — through a standardized label, similar to nutrition labels on food products that contain serving size and calorie data. The Canadian Telecommunications Association industry group, along with Telus Corp., Bell Canada and internet accessibility advocacy group OpenMedia are scheduled to present today. — This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025