Hello,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time this year.
“I’ll be following public health guidelines and isolating. I feel okay, but that’s because I got my shots,” Mr. Trudeau said in a tweet posted Monday morning.
The Prime Minister went on to encourage people to get vaccinated and boosted.
Monday’s news comes after Mr. Trudeau returned to Canada following a visit to the United States for much of last week.
He was at the North American Aerospace Defense Command complex in Colorado Springs as well as in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, attended by leaders from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
In January, Mr. Trudeau announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, and was isolating as a result.
Prior to that announcement, the Prime Minister said he would be isolating after one of his children received a positive test result.
Following his positive test, Mr. Trudeau participated virtually in proceedings in the House of Commons, including an address on the situation in Ukraine.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you're reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY'S HEADLINES
CANADA SORRY FOR SENDING REPRESENTATIVE TO RUSSIAN EMBASSY PARTY - The Canadian government said Sunday it was wrong to have sent a senior representative to a recent Russia Day party at the Russian embassy in Ottawa, and vowed officials would not attend festivities with Moscow’s diplomats again. The apology was issued hours after The Globe and Mail published a story on the incident. Story here.
END NEAR FOR COVID-19 TRACING APP - Ottawa is expected to announce the shutdown of the national COVID-19 contact tracing app this week, months after changes to PCR testing regulations in many provinces had rendered it largely useless across much of Canada. Story here.
NEW ELECTIONS WATCHDOG - The vice-chairperson of broadcasting at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, has been appointed as Canada’s new elections watchdog. Story here.
ONLINE BILL DEBATE CUT SHORT - The federal government is cutting short debate by MPs of its online streaming bill, a move Tories are condemning as draconian and disturbing. Story here.
AFGHANS AWAIT CANADIAN HELP EXITING COUNTRY - Afghans who worked for the Canadian government in Afghanistan are still waiting for federal immigration authorities to contact them, a month after Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said those who are seeking resettlement in Canada would hear from his department within weeks. Story here.
TOUGH TO LEARN FRENCH IN SIX MONTHS: QUEBEC GOVERNMENT STUDY - A report commissioned by the Quebec government — and then kept hidden — lays out in detail why many newcomers are likely to require more than six months to learn French, contrary to new rules put forward in the province’s updated language law. Story here from CBC.
SPORT MINISTER SETS FUNDING STANDARDS - Canada’s national sports organizations will have less than a year to meet new standards for governance, accountability and safer sport practices if they want to receive government funding, Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge said on Sunday. Story here.
WON’T USE NOTWITHSTANDING CLAUSE: ANGLADE - As a provincial election looms later this year, Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade says a Liberal government would not use the notwithstanding clause proactively to protect bills from court challenges. Story here.
BC LIBERALS CONSIDERING NAME CHANGE - British Columbia’s Liberal party, which is not affiliated with the federal Liberal party, says its delegates have voted to begin a process to potentially change the party name. Story here. Meanwhile, there’s a Vancolour interview here with Mr. Falcon, the party leader.
PROBE UNDER WAY INTO EVENTS AROUND PARLIAMENT HILL LOCKDOWN - An investigation into a “potential threat” that led to the lockdown of Parliament Hill for a time was in its second day Sunday, after police in Ottawa determined there was no danger to public safety. Story here from CBC,
CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP RACE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL - Scott Aitchison is in Ontario all week. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown is in Brampton and Mississauga. Jean Charest is in Toronto. Pierre Poilievre is in Ottawa. No details available on schedules for Monday of Roman Baber and Leslyn Lewis..
TEAM POILIEVRE INFLATED MEMBERSHIPS: RIVALS - Pierre Poilievre’s two main rivals in the federal Conservative leadership race are accusing the perceived front runner of inflating the number of party memberships he claims to have sold in advance of the Sept. 10 vote to decide the next party leader. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, June.13, accessible here.
BENNETT IN TORONTO - Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett was scheduled to make a funding announcement in Toronto on mental health promotion across Ontario.
SAJJAN IN VANCOUVER - International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan, also minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, was scheduled to speak to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade on new economic opportunities in Vancouver’s tech community.
WILKINSON IN OTTAWA - Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson attended the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada 2022 conference in Ottawa and was scheduled to speak at three events including the opening ceremony.
BERGEN WAS IN KAMLOOPS - Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen was in Kamloops last Friday, visiting the former Kamloops Residential School, according a post on her twitter account. There was no advance advisory to the media on Ms. Bergen’s trip.
COMMONS COMMITTEES - Commons committees scheduled for the rest of Monday include a meeting of the standing committee on health on the subject of the “Emergency Situation facing Canadians in light of the COVID-19 pandemic” - Details, including video link, here. There’s a full committee schedule here. There’s a list of Senate hearings here.
THE DECIBEL
Erica Alini, the Globe’s personal finance reporter, is on Monday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast to discuss the federal Pay Equity Act that would require federally regulated companies to disclose salary data. June 1 was the deadline for employers to submit their first rounds of data. The legislation would help address salary gaps. Ms. Alini breaks down how this legislation might affect salaries – even those not covered by the bill – and offers advice on how you can take this kind of data to your employer when it comes time to negotiate a raise. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
The Prime Minister is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19. Prior to news of the positive test, he was scheduled to hold private meetings and attend the Laurier Club Summer Reception and Garden Party, an annual donor appreciation event.
LEADERS
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is in Montreal for the kickoff of 100th birthday festivities for former Quebec premier René Lévesque.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
TRIBUTE
DAVID TARAS - A memorial service was held Monday for David Taras, a noted professor in Communications Studies and the Ralph Klein chair in Media Studies at Mount Royal University, in Calgary. He died last week. Statement here and story here from The Calgary Herald.
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political inertia keeping vaccine mandates past their time: “The political inertia inside Mr. Trudeau’s seven-year-old government is so heavy that the Prime Minister and the people around him don’t even seem to feel the nudges of MPs in their own party – the folks in touch with constituents – who are telling them it is time for those mandates to go.”
Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how the House of Commons should continue to be a hybrid workplace, even after the pandemic: “Permanent hybrid models for parliamentary business can promote diversity in representation by increasing flexibility for those many Canadians combining work and care responsibilities, such as those looking after young children, elders or ailing family members. Women and racialized minorities with strong intergenerational family settings may benefit most from such an arrangement. A hybrid House of Commons also diminishes the need for burdensome back-and-forth travel to MPs’ constituencies, particularly for those representing Canada’s rural, remote and Northern regions.”
Jonathan Malloy (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how the Ontario Liberals can’t be counted out: “Before the 2018 election, the party could boast that it had won every election since the beginning of the 21st century, governing Ontario for 15 years. Now, it has proven itself unable to even recapture official party status in the provincial legislature. Now, pundits are mulling the party’s failures, and even the merits of a potential merger with the Ontario NDP. Its leader, Steven Del Duca, has already resigned. But like the proverbial cockroach in a nuclear war, the Liberal brand has remarkable staying power in Canada – and it would be premature to predict the Ontario Liberals’ demise.”
Erin Tolley (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how women and racialized candidates are being set up to fail: “Political parties are the central pressure point in any effort to address electoral under-representation. The problem isn’t really voter bias: Canadians tend to base their voting on party and leader preference, and this inclination tends to override all but the strongest prejudices against local candidates. There also isn’t a shortage of qualified candidates, but parties frequently underestimate the electoral potential of those who don’t fit the mould. If all parties nominated a more diverse slate of candidates in winnable districts, elected institutions would be more representative.”
Toon Dreessen (Policy Options) on “bland Ottawa” needing a grand vision worthy of a national capital: “Ottawa is a city caught for decades in a struggle between what should be the grandeur and charm of a national capital, and the harsh realities of conflict between three levels of government, a lack of vision and poor decision-making by leaders at all levels. The result is a city that lacks contemporary architectural beauty and a sense of purpose. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
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Ian Bailey