Latest news with #Canadian Press
National Post
a day ago
- Politics
- National Post
Canada's first-past-the-post voting system is constitutional, Ontario appeal court rules
A woman casts her vote in a federal election. Photo by Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press/File OTTAWA — A panel of three Ontario Court of Appeal judges unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of Canada's first-past-the-post electoral system in a ruling released on Monday. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The system, laid out in the Canada Elections Act, sees the candidate who receives the most votes in a given riding or electoral district become the member of Parliament. Fair Voting BC and the Springtide Collective for Democratic Society argued in court that the first-past-the-post system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' guarantee of effective representation. The groups also said the system leads to the under-representation of women and other groups in Parliament, breaching the Charter's equality rights provision. Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again In a proportional representation system, the number of representatives a political party elects reflects the percentage of the total vote the party receives. In November 2023, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the challenge from Fair Voting BC and Springtide. It said that while a proportional representation system would be a fair alternative to the current system, it's not required by the Constitution. In its decision, the province's Court of Appeal also rejected the groups' key arguments. 'The electoral system is not in conflict with either the right to vote or the right to equality. It does not violate the Charter,' Justice Grant Huscroft said in written reasons delivered on behalf of another judge on the panel. 'The appellants' arguments that the electoral system violates the Charter are, in essence, a repackaging of failed political arguments as constitutional rights violations.' The expert evidence 'put forward in support' of those arguments, Huscroft wrote, is 'replete with highly contestable policy arguments about which reasonable disagreement abounds, not only in the academic community but amongst the public at large.' 'This evidence demonstrates the shortcomings of constitutional litigation in addressing public policy disagreements,' he added. The short answer to the argument that the electoral system violates the Charter is that Canadian citizens are free to vote for anyone they choose, and for any reason they choose, Huscroft added. 'There is no constitutional requirement that their individual choices aggregate in a way that achieves some ideal of representational diversity,' he wrote. 'Neither the political party affiliation nor the personal characteristics of the candidates who win election are relevant to the constitutionality of the electoral system.' During the 2015 election campaign, then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised it would be the last federal election held under the first-past-the-post system.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
McGill unions say university is threatening free speech over pro-Palestinian support
People walk through McGill University's campus in Montreal on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov) Four unions at McGill University say the school is attacking free speech by threatening to suspend funding for a student organization because of its support for a pro-Palestinian group. McGill sent a notice of default earlier this year to a social-justice student group, demanding it stop supporting Students for Palestine's Honour and Resistance. The pro-Palestinian organization was one of the groups that started a months-long encampment on the university's downtown campus last year. The unions, representing some McGill professors, staff and teaching assistants, say the university is intimidating and threatening to dismantle the social-justice group. McGill also announced this spring it was moving to cut ties with the university's student union for similar reasons. That decision followed a three-day student strike over McGill's investments in companies linked to military action in Gaza, which led to dozens of classes being blocked or interrupted. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2025.
National Post
01-08-2025
- Business
- National Post
Ottawa's top HR official aims to reduce excess senior executives in public service: memo
'Dilution and duplication lead to unnecessary layers of decision making and unclear accountabilities,' federal Chief Human Resources Officer Jacqueline Bogden wrote in her memo. Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/File OTTAWA — After 10 years of constant growth, the federal government now says there are too many senior executives in the public service, slowing productivity and creating workplace conflicts. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors In an internal memo Wednesday obtained by National Post, the federal Chief Human Resources Officer Jacqueline Bogden is clear: there are more assistant deputy ministers (421) in the bureaucracy than permanent positions at that level (355). Now, the top human resources official says her office will be cracking down on the overage, an exceptional move after years of substantial growth of the federal public service. Your guide to the world of Canadian politics. (Subscriber exclusive on Saturdays) By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again Bogden said just the assistant deputy minister (ADM) — the second highest ranking position in most departments — cadre ballooned by 50 per cent (or 140) since 2015. 'There is a need to take additional proactive measures to address the ADM overage situation and contain future growth of the ADM cadre,' Bogden wrote. An ADM's salary can range from $197,774 to $260,719 depending on their years of experience as well as their pay classification, according to the government's website. Bogden's memo says her office is implementing two new measures until the end of the year to address the overage. The first aims to reduce the number of ADMs by reviewing existing positions, particularly 'higher risk' situations where the senior executive is on a temporary assignment with no subsequent permanent position. The memo does not say if those positions will be demoted, eliminated or transformed into permanent positions to reduce the 'overage.' The second aims to 'contain' the growth of the ADM cadre by requiring all departments to get permission from her office before promoting a new person to the position. The internal announcement comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney's government is asking most departments and agencies to find spending cuts worth 15 per cent by 2029. It also comes after years of tremendous growth of the public service under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020. Over his tenure, the public service grew by over 100,000, from 257,000 in 2015 to 358,000 this year, according to government data. Though Bogden's memo focuses on the ADM cadre, it also included a recent report by the Public Service Management Advisory Committee warning that there are too many executives overall in the public service.
CTV News
15-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
CRTC to look into improving Canada's public alerting system in new consultation
Canada's telecommunications regulator is launching a consultation aimed at improving the national public alerting system that is used to warn Canadians about emergency situations such as severe weather and other concerns to public safety. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ian Young
