David Akin's Roundup: Mail again. Kinew's call. Carney phones.
SUN OCT 12
Canada
Rotating postal strikes underway in Newfoundland, Ontario and B.C.
The rotating strikes follow CUPW’s decision to scale back from a nationwide walkout and instead target select locations. The union says this approach is meant to apply pressure on Canada Post while allowing some mail and parcel delivery to continue. | Globalnews.ca
Shifting global picture disrupted Canada’s national security strategy update: memo
The Liberal government’s efforts to revise Canada’s national security strategy hit a snag when it became clear earlier this year that many of the assumptions underlying the work were “no longer valid,” a newly released memo reveals. John Hannaford, the Privy Council clerk at the time, told Prime Minister Mark Carney in the memo that “changes to Canada’s strategic environment” meant work on a draft of the document was based on outdated premises. | CP
MP warns senators against further Indian Act changes without House of Commons input
Witnesses testifying before the Senate committee on Oct. 1, including Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, said while the legislation is a good first step, sex-based discrimination is still baked into the Indian Act. They want senators to make even more people eligible for status. Liberal MP Jaime Battiste, a member of the House of Commons committee on Indigenous issues, told The Canadian Press said that’s a noble goal but the Senate isn’t the place to introduce sweeping changes to the law beyond those in the proposed legislation. “It’s not something that we should rush into and put an amendment (in) that potentially impacts generations of First Nations status Indians,” Battiste said. | CP
NDP MP Heather McPherson talks affordability, Palestine at uOttawa town hall
Dozens turned up at Morisset Library for an event co-hosted by Carleton University’s NDP. McPherson has expressed interest in leading the New Democrats with the party’s leadership election looming in March. McPherson talked up a bill she previously put forward to ensure federal funding goes to universities. | The Charlatan
The Provinces
Wab Kinew calls on Mark Carney to end Chinese EV tariffs
On Saturday, Kinew sent a letter to Carney’s office referencing recent remarks by the Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di. In an exclusive interview with CTV Question Period airing on Sunday, the ambassador said that China is prepared to lift retaliatory tariffs on canola and pork if Canada removes the 100-per-cent tariff on electric vehicles made in China. “This is a critical moment,” Kinew said in his letter. “The retaliatory tariffs imposed by China have already caused steep price declines for canola, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Manitoba farmers and the stability of rural communities. | CTV
Alberta’s pipeline pursuit could erode Indigenous support for infrastructure projects, B.C. First Nations leader says
Coastal First Nations president Marilyn Slett, however, has tied consent for some of those projects to the existing ban on oil tankers on the North Coast. “Premier Smith’s continued talk of oil pipelines and tankers, and the risk of a catastrophic oil spill in B.C.’s coastal waters, is not nation-building. In fact, it risks the goodwill and support of First Nations for more realistic and economically valuable nation-building projects in B.C. and beyond,” Ms. Slett said in a statement. Her organization represents nine First Nations whose traditional territories line the North Pacific Coast. | The Globe and Mail 🔐
More than 4,500 Quebec municipal candidates elected by acclamation
Nominations for the provincewide municipal elections that include approximately 1,100 municipalities closed on Oct. 3. The 4,560 officials include 564 who ran as mayor and 3,996 who ran as councillors, according to figures shared Friday by Quebec’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. | CP
Elsewhere
Carney condemns Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy during call with Zelenskyy
A readout about the call issued by the Prime Minister’s Office says Carney condemned the attacks, and that Canada is closely co-ordinating with Ukraine on new ways to support defending Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and ensuring Ukraine has sufficient gas supply as winter approaches. Power was restored to more than 800,000 residents in Kyiv on Saturday, a day after Russia launched major attacks on the Ukrainian power grid that caused blackouts across much of the country. | CP
China defends rare earth export curbs as ‘legitimate’
China accused the U.S. of “double standards” and defended its new export controls on rare earths as a “legitimate” measure under international law. The Chinese commerce ministry said that the U.S. actions “seriously undermined the atmosphere of the economic and trade talks between the two sides.” | CNBC
Most Americans think Trump is trying to exercise more power than previous presidents
Nearly seven-in-ten Americans (69%) say President Donald Trump is trying to exert more power than his predecessors – and far more see this as bad for the country than good. Over six-in-ten think Trump has improperly used his office to punish people who say things he doesn’t like, with 90% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans holding this view. | Pew Research Center
Media
Canada’s National Observer unveils a powerful tool for fighting disinformation
“As a national reporter, Civic Searchlight is helping me connect big picture politics and policy with real communities and real people. So much important work happens at the municipal level, and local discourse offers us insights that can’t always be captured by nation-wide opinion polls,” said reporter Natasha Bukowski, who recently used Civic Searchlight to understand how the debate around AI data centres is playing out at the municipal level. | National Observer
Science and Technology
Cambridge University launches project to rescue data trapped on old floppy disks
The idea of a modern conservation lab helping people read their ancient WordPerfect documents or lost BASIC code might seem quaint or cute, but the initiative is rooted in real urgency. The library holds more than 150 floppy disks across its collections, including items from the Stephen Hawking archive, early research drafts, personal files, and software written for now-defunct machines. | Tom’s Hardware
Issued this day …
… in 1999. Sc 1812 Millennium Issues (Dove). Design: Pierre-Yves Pelletier.
