Policy and Rights

The Ontario PC plan to protect workers and businesses includes: $10 billion in cash-flow support for Ontario employers through a six-month deferral of provincially administered taxes on Ontario businesses. $3 billion in payroll tax and premium relief for small businesses. $120 million to support approximately 18,000 bars and restaurants by increasing the LCBO wholesale discount from 10 per cent to...

British Columbia Premier David Eby holds a news conference in Vancouver to react to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to place 25% tariffs on Canadian products entering the United States.  In an initial retaliatory measure, Eby announces a directive to the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch to immediately cease the purchase of America liquor from Republican-led states and to remove top-selling U...

At a news conference on Parliament Hill, NDP MP Charlie Angus calls on Canadians to sign his “pledge for Canada” to defend what he calls Canadian values. The event comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s Feb. 1 tariff deadline approaches.  Angus is joined by John Cartwright, chair of the Council of Canadians, Esi Edugyan, a novelist, and Jean Teillet, an Indigenous rights lawyer. In Halifax, federa...

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Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the situation on the ground in DRC “remains volatile and dangerous.” During a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters today (27 Jan) Lacroix said, “The civilian population in a region that is already massively affected, and where the humanitarian challenges are daunting, certainly the risks of a broader humanitarian di...

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Green MP Mike Morrice and Jonathan Pedneault speak to reporters on Parliament Hill to announce Pedneault’s return as co-leader, pending a vote by party members. They are joined by members of the Green Party shadow cabinet. Pedneault stepped down from co-leadership of the party in July 2024 for health reasons. Canada-U.S. relations, Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly and...

Liberal MPs speak with reporters on Parliament Hill as a two-day meeting of the party’s national caucus continues.  Speaking on the state of the party as Liberals prepare to choose their next leader are Ministers Patty Hadju (Indigenous services), Jean-Yves Duclos (public services), François-Philippe Champagne (innovation), Harjit Sajjan (emergency preparedness), Marc Miller (immigration), Nathani...

Liberal MPs andLiberal MPs and ministers speak with reporters on Parliament Hill as a two-day meeting of the party’s national caucus gets underway. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ministers David McGuinty (public safety), Anita Anand (transport and internal trade), Melanie Joly (foreign affairs), François-Philippe Champagne (innovation), and Soraya Martinez Ferrada (tourism) comment on the feder...

 The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher today (23 Jan) told the Security Council that “the children of Gaza are not collateral damage” and are “as deserving as children everywhere of security, education and hope.” Before today’s meeting on the situation of children in the occupied Palestinian territory began, Russian Ambassador Vasily Ne...

Donald Trump speaking at the world economic forum and making comments about lowering the United States deficit to cancer and other places in the world and also talking about ending the war between Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Trump also makes comments about wanting to end nuclear arms around the world in starting with Russia and China Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast...

The topic is Jelena Dokic, Former World Number 4 Tennis Player, TEDx Presenter & Speaker, Commentator & 2-Time Bestselling Author, Addresses the National Press Club of Australia in partnership with Women in Media on "Unbreakable". Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/policy-and-rights--3339563/support .

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference in Montebello, Que., where he responds to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff threat against Canada. Trump has been threatening to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada since winning the presidential race, and last night signalled Canada and Mexico could face tariffs beginning February 1. The prime minister is in Mont...

President-elect Donald Trump will soon be sworn into the White House on Inauguration Day for his second term as president of the United States. The victory parade is also scheduled to begin indoors soon. President-elect Donald Trump is set to be sworn into the White House again. The Swearing-In Ceremony is slated to start at 12 p.m. The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee released the timeline of key...

The following statement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres was issued today: I welcome the announcement of a deal to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza. I commend the mediators — Egypt, Qatar and the United States of America — for their dedicated efforts in brokering this deal.  Their unwavering commitment to finding a diplomatic solution has been critical in achieving this break...

President Joe Biden strode into the White House four years ago with a foreign policy agenda that put repairing alliances strained by four years of Republican Donald Trump’s “America First” worldview front and center. The one-term Democrat took office in the throes of the worst global pandemic in a century and his plans were quickly stress-tested by a series of complicated international crises: the...

Press conference by Mr. Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. Shantanu Mukherjee, Director, Economic Analysis and Policy Division at UN DESA and Mr. Hamid Rashid, Chief, Global Economic Monitoring Branch, Economic Analysis and Policy Division at UN DESA, on the launch of the World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report 2025. The WESP report will also be la...

Ministers and Liberal MPs speak with reporters ahead of a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. This is the Liberals' first caucus meeting since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his intention to step down as prime minister and Liberal leader once his party has chosen a new leader.  Minister Dominic LeBlanc (finance, intergovernmental affairs) discusses his decision to not run for Liberal party...

Andrew Scheer and deputy House leader Luc Berthold comment on Justin Trudeau’s intention to resign as Liberal leader and prime minister, as well as the prorogation of Parliament until March 24. Scheer faces questions from reporters on concerns around potential foreign interference in the Liberal leadership race and on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose a 25 per cent tariff on al...

Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, Najat Rochdi, briefed Security Council members Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/policy-and-rights--3339563/support .

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini today (13 Nov) said the objective of the campaign to delegitimize the agency “is to strip the Palestinian from the refugee statue,” and “to undermine and to bury once for all the two-state solution.” Talking to journalists in New York after briefing the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, Lazzarini said, “we are experiencing the darkest moment for the...

Online forum on the War and occupation of Lebanon on remembrance day to end wars on these traditional, occupied, ancestral, and unceded national homelands of the Coast Salish peoples – specifically the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations. Moderator: Imtiaz Popat: Activist, journalist, filmmaker, founder of Coalition Against Bigotry-Pacific....

Occupied Palestinian Territory In Gaza city the UN along with our partners, are providing services to tens of thousands of people, including those displaced over the past four weeks from besieged North Gaza. Yesterday, one of the UN’s local partners was able to collect solid waste that has piled up along Tareq Bin Zeyad street. In multiple locations, partners are providing mental health and psycho...

MPs speak with reporters on Parliament Hill as they convene for the daily question period in the House of Commons. Ministers Steven Guilbeault (environment), Marci Ien (women and gender equality) and Sean Fraser (housing) as well as Liberal MPs Rob Oliphant, Ben Carr, Adam van Koeverden, Salma Zahid, Sean Casey, Chris Bittle and Yvan Baker comment on the election of Donald Trump as the 47th presid...

Vice President Kamala Harris said her heart is "full of resolve" after losing the presidential election to former President Donald Trump. "My heart is full today -- full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve," Harris said Wednesday at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, D.C. "The outcome of this election is not what we wan...

Torture & Inhuman Treatment - Special Rapporteur | Press Conference | United Nations Hybrid briefing by Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Sudan & South Sudan - UN Chief's Briefing | United Nations "Madam President, Excellencies, I thank the Council for the opportunity to discuss the utter humanitarian catastrophe engulf...