Past issues Subscribe

Oct 7 2023

Pharmacare priority. Israel attacked. Political moves. The Roundup

Oct 7, 2023
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada
NDP convention could see emergency resolution on pharmacare
The agreement has the NDP supporting the minority Liberals on key votes in exchange for progress on shared priorities, including pharmacare. [Global]
The task force is one of five measures announced by Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne Thursday in a bid to stabilize food prices. [Global]
Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the government continues to see immigration as another variable when it comes to erasing Canada's housing deficit. [Global]
The issue seems to have taken on an urgency as ghost guns get easier to make and the sheer volume of new guns makes them harder to trace. [Global]
Liberal MP Ken Hardie apologized for the Tweet, saying he had gone 'elbows up'. [National Post]
From the provinces

The party said Heather Stefanson, whose government was defeated in this week's provincial election, will remain at the Tory helm while a future leadership contest is being set up. [Global]
Vaughn Palmer: While the United party leader discounts the resurgent Conservatives, Premier Eby sees them as a serious threat to democracy. [Vancouver Sun]

DesRoches asked if paramedic recruitment was targeted more toward men or women. As a medical first responder himself, DesRoches said he had noticed “a lot of calls for lift assists” and had observed more women in the profession than in years past. [SaltWire]
Click to donate $3 a month to support this newsletter!
Elsewhere
The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip have carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday. [AP]

The Nobles of Iowa moved to blue Minnesota. The Huckinses of Oregon moved to red Missouri. Their separate journeys, five weeks apart, illustrate the fracturing of America. [NYT]
"“A couple of years ago, if you’d told me that someone named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running for president as an independent, I’d have said that it would really hurt the Democratic ticket . . . But RFK Jr. has such an odd mix of views, on a whole host of conspiracy theories, that he’s more appealing to far-right, libertarian sort of voters. I think he’s more likely to hurt Donald Trump than Joe Biden.” [Semafor]
The month blew past a previous record by 0.5C, and scientists are running out of ways to describe the recording-setting year. [Bloomberg]
A senior State Department official says Canada's dispute with India could make for fertile ground for foreign efforts to sow disinformation. [TorStar]
Media
John Cruickshank reviews The Postmedia Effect: How Vulture Capitalism Is Wrecking Our News by Marc Edge. [Literary Review of Canada]
The Canadian media landscape is changing too quickly to wait for a perfect version of the Online News Act, federal Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said Friday, while Google once again threatened to remove news links from its site. [CP]
Can u spare $5 a month for this newsletter? Click now!
Sci/Tech
3D Printer Uses Magnets To Break Speed Limits, Print at a Table-Shaking 800 mm/s
Magneto X “levitates” the tool head on magnetic linear motors. [Tom's Hardware]
iPhone’s Messages is prettier and makes you safer. [The Verge]
Issued this day ...
Issued this day in 1998: Scott # 1761: John Peters Humphrey. Design: Jim Hudson.
John Peters Humphrey (1905-1995), born in Hampton, NB. is credited as the principal author of the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

After studying at Rothesay Collegiate and Mount Allison University, Humphrey eventually transferred to McGill University where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree and, subsequently, a law degree. After practising law in Montreal for a few years, he joined the McGill faculty. In 1946, he was offered the position of Dean of Law at McGill but instead chose to take up a post at the UN. Humphrey became Director of the Human Rights Division in the UN Secretariat and was tasked with drafting the Declaration.

Unfortunately, his contribution somehow became obscured and a representative from France was credited as the "Father of the Universal Declaration" and awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize. More recently, however, researchers uncovered Humphrey's draft, typed with his hand-written notations and he was subsequently honoured with a UN Human Rights Prize. 

Humphrey worked with UN for 20 years, overseeing the implementation of 67 international conventions and the constitutions of dozens of countries. He worked in the areas of freedom of the press, status of women, and racial discrimination. Upon retirement from the UN, he resumed his teaching career at McGill. He established the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, founded the Canadian Section of Amnesty International, worked as a director of the International League for the Rights of Man and served as a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. 

Previous Issues

Load More