Latest news with #CanadaEmergencyResponseBenefit
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Climate
- Winnipeg Free Press
Speed and imagination needed for climate crisis
Opinion We've all seen the faces. The exhausted, care-worn, frightened faces of people who have spent days breathing in the ash-filled smoke of wildfires, while praying the winds don't change and rain will come just in the nick of time. But when the prayers don't work, and your town is just 400 metres away from a wildfire that covers 46 square kilometers, you get into your car, on a bus or an airplane and get the hell out. Journalists call them 'evacuees.' What they really are is climate refugees, people forced flee their homes to escape disasters that are far from 'natural'; disasters which scientists have been warning us about for decades, ones that are being driven, in large part, by a vast, human-driven planetary change. A change in the global climate fuelled by our addiction to oil and gas. David Lipnowski / THE CANADIAN PRESS Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force help evacuate Abbie Duskun (seated) and her daughter Veronica Clarke as they board a C-130 Hercules aircraft in Norway House June 5, at the Norway House Airport as crews continue to fight wildfires in northern Manitoba. The result is bigger more intense wildfires that race across forests and grasslands at speeds up to 22 kilometres an hour. Once they reach a critical mass and intensity, those fires then go on to create their own weather systems. Pyrocumulus clouds form which can generate thunderstorms and lightning strikes that further extend the fire, while the heat of the blaze itself creates its own wind, which in turn, can produce fire whirls — essentially tornadoes of fire. And after 20 days of fires burning or igniting in every region of Manitoba, our premier, Wab Kinew, finally named this fire season for what it is: 'a sign of a changing climate that we are going to have to adapt to.' He's right, at least in part — climate adaptation is important. But halting the progress of the climate change that's driving these disasters — whether wildfires, collapsing glaciers, drought or catastrophic flooding — is even more essential. That can only happen if every level of government in Canada puts its shoulder to the wheel and stops tinkering around with a little change here and a little change there. Because it's as clear to me, as it is to world's climate scientists, that we're long past the stage where incremental change can solve this crisis. We need to address the cause of the climate crisis head on, and what that will require is both speed and a leap of imagination. The same level of speed the Trudeau government exhibited when it announced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in March 2020 and less than a month later delivered cheques to those in need during the pandemic lockdown. The same kind of imaginative leap our wartime prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, made when Canada, Great Britain and Europe were faced with a world war and the global threat of fascism. His government, with the help of businessman and politician C.D. Howe, transformed Canada from an agrarian-based economy to an industrialized one over the course of the war. To achieve that goal, top private sector managers worked for the government for a dollar a day supported by their company payroll. And from 1940 to the end of the war excess profits were taxed at 75 to 95 per cent and corporate taxes were increased so that 'no man should find himself richer at the end of the war than he was at the beginning.' So, what would happen if we used that same speed and level of imagination to transform Canada from a fossil fuel based economy to a clean energy one? What if Kinew, Canada's favourite premier, joined with the world's favourite banker, Prime Minister Mark Carney, to sit down and draft a battle plan to address climate change that would speed us into a better, safer future? It's not impossible when you consider the precedents for fast, radical government action. And who knows, by retooling, re-educating workers and recruiting the best and brightest to government to lead a just, clean energy revolution, we might just beat the Trump tariff crisis at the same time. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. But here's the thing — we need to tell our governments that they need to act now and quickly to address the climate crisis. And we need to tell them that not once, not twice, but again and again. We also need to own the fact that we, as a society and culture, are all culpable in this crisis. That our overconsumption, our social media fed fantasy-like expectations and disproportionate sense of privilege has helped land us in this mess. We and our governments seem to have misplaced the notion of the need for common sacrifice to achieve a greater common good. I very much hope we can find it again. Otherwise the fires, the floods and the global droughts we're now experiencing will just keep coming — and they'll keep getting worse. Erna Buffie is a writer and an environmentalist. Read more @
Toronto Star
15-05-2025
- Toronto Star
Toronto man who used COVID-relief money to help fund ISIS sentenced to 12 years
A Toronto man who financed ISIS using bitcoin, pandemic relief payments and money raised from bogus GoFundMe campaigns was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Monday. The acts committed by Khalilullah Yousuf, 37, that occurred between 2019 and 2022, are 'exceptionally troubling,' Ontario Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly said. Yousuf pleaded guilty to financing terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist group. Although he did not plead guilty to a third offence, facts heard in court demonstrated that he facilitated terrorist activity, Kelly said. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Court was told Yousuf redirected more than $35,000 he received from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) — which provided financial support to Canadians directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — and money collected from multiple GoFundMe campaigns purported to benefit charitable causes to individuals in the United States and overseas associated with ISIS. He also created and disseminated pro-ISIS propaganda for the purpose of radicalizing and recruiting people to join or support the Islamic State. This included material that glorified mass killings, said federal prosecutor Martin Park reading from an agreed statement of facts. Initially, Yousuf used MoneyGrams and Western Union to transfer cash, before switching to the cryptocurrency bitcoin because, he wrote to someone, it was the best way to move money without leaving a trail, Park said. A note found on Yousuf's computer indicated he believed an Islamic caliphate is the only acceptable form of rule. Not much is known about the defendant, the judge stated. He has the support of his family — one man was in the otherwise empty courtroom on Monday — and he has engaged in a program designed to address the factors that can lead to violent extremist activities. Wearing a long black beard, dark grey hoodie and slacks, Yousuf declined to address the court Monday when asked if he had anything to say before the judge retired to consider his sentence. But he was polite and responsive when asked if he understood the significant implications of his guilty pleas. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Crown and defence lawyers agreed he should receive a sentence of 12 years. Factoring in credit for time served, Yousuf has nine years and 105 days left. He has been in custody since December 2022. Kelly said she believed 12 years is a fit sentence for such serious offences. But she noted that his pleas saved weeks of court time in a trial and prevented 'the further advancement of a platform' due to the public nature of such a proceeding. 'I do hope that the rehabilitation does work, Mr. Yousuf both for you personally and for the safety of our community,' Kelly told him. She followed the recommendation that he serve half of his sentence before becoming eligible to apply for parole. Yousuf faces no immigration consequences because he is a Canadian citizen.
Toronto Star
06-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
B.C. ombudsperson finds request for repayment of provincial COVID-19 aid unjust
VICTORIA - British Columbia's ombudsperson says the provincial government unfairly required some workers to repay $1,000 they received after losing their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BC Emergency Benefit for Workers was introduced in 2020 and, in an effort to work quickly, the B.C. government initially required recipients to also be receiving the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
Winnipeg Free Press
06-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
B.C. ombudsperson finds request for repayment of provincial COVID-19 aid unjust
VICTORIA – British Columbia's ombudsperson says the provincial government unfairly required some workers to repay $1,000 they received after losing their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BC Emergency Benefit for Workers was introduced in 2020 and, in an effort to work quickly, the B.C. government initially required recipients to also be receiving the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit. Jay Chalke's office says in a news release that the province was unaware that some people who had lost their job due to COVID-19 were being paid through other federal benefits, including employment insurance. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke releases a report during a press conference in Victoria, April 6, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito He says the B.C. government paid those applicants, then ordered them to repay the funds. Chalke says people applied for the benefits in good faith to get through a crisis, then were ordered to pay back the money, not because they lost their jobs, but because of how a federal benefit claim was processed behind the scenes. His report makes one recommendation that the Finance Ministry change the Income Tax Act to extend the benefit eligibility to workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 but were excluded only because of employment insurance claims. Chalke says 'it was unjust for the province to require repayment in such circumstances.' Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Sign up for The Warm-Up The report also found some eligible workers were told to repay even though they met all the criteria. It says the repayment letters people received were confusing and offered no explanation as to why they were being asked to repay the benefit. The report also says the ministry did not use available federal data to verify their eligibility and instead placed the burden on the individual. 'This report isn't about trying to undo a program that was created in a hurry,' Chalke says. 'It's about what governments do when they later find out that parts of those programs were flawed.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.
