Latest news with #NDP
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Government alerted to no sexually graphic material so far in rural school libraries
No examples of potentially age-inappropriate content from Alberta's rural school libraries had landed on the education minister's desk by Tuesday morning. During a roundtable with about 20 reporters and other rural media representatives, Demetrios Nicolaides confirmed that the examples of graphic content the government was alerted to originated from four books in Edmonton and Calgary school libraries. But their existence nonetheless suggests that there's a standards gap when it comes to explicit material that could end up in the hands of children, he maintained. 'It's almost an impossibility to be able to know the full extent of the content of the vast majority of books that are published in any environment,' said Nicolaides, the member for Calgary-Bow. 'So these are ones that we do know of, of course, that were brought to our attention.' Regardless, don't expect the government to go through each library's collection, said Nicolaides, whose portfolio expanded May 16 to include childcare. 'How school boards have their libraries vet or sort content will probably be left up to them.' The UCP set up the roundtable to answer questions about the move towards provincial standards for school libraries in the selection and management of materials with sexual content. Explicit depictions of sexual and other acts in four graphic novels or graphic memoirs — books in comic-strip format — prompted the province to announce that it's investigating the idea of developing standards. The books were found in school libraries open to children in kindergarten and up. Feedback suggests that many school boards are comfortable with an overall standard being set, Nicolaides said, providing they retain control of acting on the province's direction through their own policies. 'That's probably the direction we'll go because there are a lot of nuances. We'll establish the 'what' — what we're trying to do, what we intend to do.' But the 'how' will stay with boards, allowing them to apply their 'unique circumstances, unique schools and unique dynamics' to the provincial direction. Nicolaides announced consideration of the new standards May 26, which the government backed up with an online survey of Albertans' thoughts on the issue. The survey closed June 6 and by Tuesday results were still being 'collected and collated,' Nicolaides said. Sexual depictions in the four books include masturbation, oral sex, pornography use and petting. Mentions of self-harm, sexual abuse and suicide are also present. The books were in libraries visited by students in kindergarten and higher grades, the government said. All four are coming-of-age books written by Americans and based upon their authors' life experiences. Three of them directly reflect experiences in the LGBTQ2S+ community. After hearing about the roundtable, the NDP maintained that the UCP is diverting attention from its own performance. 'This government continues to fund education at the lowest level in the country, leaving schools overcrowded and understaffed,' said Amanda Chapman, the opposition's shadow minister of education. 'Instead of addressing the urgent issues in our classrooms — like overcrowding, staffing shortages and Alberta's position as the lowest funder of education per student in the country — the Minister of Education is focused on staging political distractions,' Chapman said in an emailed statement. 'What's more troubling is the pattern we're seeing from this government: decisions made behind closed doors, performative consultations that offer no real clarity, and a consistent refusal to be upfront with Albertans about what they've heard and how policies will be rolled out.' Decisions on school library content should lie not with politicians but with teachers and library professionals. 'In many cases, there aren't even librarians available to make these decisions, let alone enough teachers or educational assistants to support our kids,' said Chapman, the member representing Calgary-Beddington. 'Albertans deserve a government that is transparent, ethical and competent — one that trusts experts to do their jobs and gives them the resources to do them well.' Nicolaides doesn't foresee a need for new legislation. Any standards the government creates will come into being through ministerial order. How or whether the standards apply to every age or grade range hasn't been determined. Nicolaides stopped well short of endorsing the four books, but he did say that sexually graphic content can be important for some ages and groups in some situations. 'Our major concern is around age appropriateness,' he said. Explicit books 'can be helpful resources to individuals who have a particular experience or have particular questions. And I don't have any concern with any kind of topic or subject being made available in school libraries.' Many school boards already have policies around content. Potential new requirements would be consistent across the province and would apply to public, separate, francophone, public charter and independent schools. A new standard would not affect materials in Alberta's municipal public libraries, including 55 of them located in schools. 'Those could be uniquely challenging scenarios,' Nicolaides said. He said he's talked the issue over with Dan Williams, the new minister of municipal affairs, but not in any depth. The Peace River representative was appointed May 26, after the last minster. Ric McIver, accepted the position of speaker of the legislative assembly. 'We have had some conversations, because he is interested in understanding a little bit more about what we're doing,' said Nicolaides. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Vancouver Sun
3 hours ago
- Climate
- Vancouver Sun
More evacuation orders to be lifted in parts of northwestern Manitoba after fires
Thousands more wildfire evacuees in Manitoba will start making the trek home in the coming days as officials in two northwestern communities lift their evacuation orders. The roughly 600 residents of the town of Lynn Lake will be allowed to return to the community 775 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg starting at 8 a.m. Friday. In a social media post, the town said buses would be arranged for those who need help with transportation. 'An evacuation alert will remain in place,' the town said on social media. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'While it is now safe to return, residents must remain prepared to evacuate again with little notice if fire conditions worsen.' Residents were forced out a little more than one month ago by an out-of-control blaze that currently stands at 71 square kilometres in size. Active fire and hot spots remain close, the town said. Suppression efforts are ongoing, but there is a continued risk of smoke and falling ash, officials said. Further south, residents of the city of Flin Flon could start coming home by the middle of next week as officials prepare to lift their mandatory evacuation order. Deputy Mayor Alison Dallas-Funk, in a social media post Thursday, said the order is expected to be lifted at 9 a.m. on June 25, about one month after the city's 5,100 residents were forced out by a massive wildfire that began days earlier in nearby Creighton, Sask. She said most critical services and businesses, including power and gas, would be ready to go by Sunday. Barring further fire activity, she said council would meet Monday to officially rescind the order. 'Please be careful, all of the highways are going to be extremely busy,' said Dallas-Funk. She said health services would be available in a limited capacity and added the grocery store won't have much in stock. Dallas-Funk said the town would work to secure buses to bring people home. Manitoba's wildfire service has said crews have made progress in combating the 3,700-square-kilometre fire near Flin Flon, but weather has hindered their efforts. The province has been experiencing what Premier Wab Kinew has described as its worst fire season in recent memory. At the peak of evacuations, about 21,000 people were out of their homes, putting pressure on the province's supply of hotel rooms and prompting Kinew's NDP government to encourage tourists to think twice about travelling to Manitoba. — By David Boles and Aaron Sousa in Edmonton Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Ticket balloting opens for NTUC's NDP celebrations at Marina Bay; nearly 20,000 attendees expected
Ms Natasha Choy (centre, left), co-chairwoman of the NTUC NDP Bay Celebrations organising committee, with rapper Shigga Shay (centre, right) and youth volunteers. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO SINGAPORE – Close to 20,000 people will celebrate Singapore's 60th birthday at The Promontory @ Marina Bay in 2025, an increase from about 15,000 in 2024. This is because the NTUC National Day Parade (NDP) Bay Celebrations will take place on three days – July 26, Aug 2, and Aug 9 – up from two in 2024. The celebrations will take place alongside the NDP preview shows and the actual NDP at the Padang. The bay celebrations are part of an 'expanded canvas' to mark Singapore's 60th year of independence. Ticket balloting for the event – co-organised by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the National Day Parade executive committee (NDP Exco) – opened at 5pm on June 20 and will close at 5pm on July 4. Singaporeans and Permanent Residents can apply for tickets at Each person can ballot for only two tickets. All attendees will receive an NDP pack. On all three days of celebrations, doors will open at 4pm for attendees, and performances by local artistes like Estelle Fly, Regina Song, Shabir Sulthan and Shazza will begin at 4.15pm. This will be followed by a live broadcast of the NDP preview shows or the actual NDP. During the broadcast, the NTUC symbolic moment will take place, with youth dancers and youth motivators forming a flash mob set with a remix of National Day songs. The night will end with performances by local rapper Shigga Shay and DJ Caden. Ms Natasha Choy, who is the co-chairwoman of the organising committee, said: 'This year, the NTUC NDP Bay celebrations are back, bigger and bolder, as we celebrate Singapore's 60th birthday. 'The theme for our celebrations is 'Majulah SG Youth', and we want to shine the spotlight on ( our young people's) passion and purpose.' In 2025, 24 youth leaders are part of the youth organising committee for the bay celebrations, which will involve more than 1,000 youth volunteers. Shigga, who will headline the show, told the media on June 20 that he will perform a 30-minute set featuring songs that reflect Singapore culture. One of them is his newest track, Peng, which features Singlish lyrics and words used by Singaporeans in their daily lives. 'It's a song that I created for Singapore. It represents everyday sounds and everyday words that we hear, like when you go to a drink stall and order drinks (like) kopi peng and Milo peng,' said the 32-year-old singer, referring to iced coffee and iced Milo. He also performed at the NDP in 2022 and 2023. At the bay, attendees can also enjoy a series of interactive installations created by more than 11,000 participants of NTUC roadshows at 14 institutes of higher learning from April to July. Among the works is Dream Exchange, a phone booth-style installation that plays more than 6,000 greetings recorded by students during the roadshows. Dream Exchange, a phone booth-style installation that plays more than 6,000 greetings recorded by students during the roadshows. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO Another installation is a collage of doodles by students, depicting how they view and relate to Singapore. A third installation, titled The Future We Create, is an AI-powered visual showcase generated from words penned by students on their vision of Singapore's future. There will also be an NTUC booth which provides resources for youth to pursue their aspirations. One of these is a career personality quiz, Rise And Grind, which helps youth explore job options that match their personalities. Mr Timothy Lim Zhi Heng, a third-year student at Singapore Polytechnic, is one of the student volunteers who helped create the personality quiz. Mr Timothy Lim Zhi Heng, one of the student volunteers who helped create the career personality quiz Rise And Grind for an NTUC booth. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO The 19-year-old, who is part of the marketing and communications team for the bay celebrations, told The Straits Times that his team helped to proofread the text for the quiz. He also helped to man the Dream Exchange installation at some of the roadshows. 'It was very fulfilling to see our hard work for the past five months come together, seeing the different installations pieced together and being brought to life,' he said. Successful ticket applicants will receive an e-mail from the organisers by July 8. The collection of tickets can be done from July 12 to July 13 and from July 18 to July 20 at the Great World, at the atrium on level one. Those collecting tickets on behalf of successful applicants will need to present the notification e-mail, the applicants' NRIC and their own NRIC. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Winnipeg Free Press
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
It doesn't have to be politics as usual
Opinion It usually takes a while for a new administration to slide into political gamesmanship. At first, it's all hearts and flowers and fair play — such as Prime Minister Mark Carney's pledge to call a byelection as quickly as possible to let Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre try to win his way back into Parliament. The byelection in question hasn't been called yet, primarily because there are rules and timelines that have to be followed for a newly elected Conservative to resign to create a space for a byelection. Battle River-Crowfoot MP Damien Kurek officially resigned on Tuesday. Kurek had to wait 30 days after his election was posted in the Canada Gazette before he could resign, the Speaker of the House of Commons has to inform Elections Canada of the vacancy and the earliest a byelection call could come is 11 days after that. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESs fileS Premier Wab Kinew The Governor General sets the byelection day chosen by Carney, who can pick a date as far as 180 days after Kurek's resignation. If Carney lives up to his word, Poilievre can quickly either be back in Parliament after a win, or leave the Opposition leader's official Ottawa residence and no longer be the Stornoway stowaway. But byelections don't always move that quickly — and a case in point is happening here in Manitoba. Back in late March, Progressive Conservative MLA Grant Jackson resigned his Spruce Woods seat to run in the federal election under the Conservative banner. Ever since then, his seat has sat vacant — meaning that, for 88 days now, his former constituents haven't had a representative in the Legislature. That's a point that's been made directly to Premier Wab Kinew in a letter from PC Leader Obby Khan: 'Summer is an important time in rural constituencies full of fairs, festivals and events and whomever should be elected to represent Spruce Woods deserves this opportunity to engage with their constituents,' Khan wrote. Likewise, constituents deserve the opportunity to make their concerns known to their elected representative. There's not much drama involved with a byelection in Spruce Woods. It's a reliably PC seat — since its creation in 2011, it has always elected Progressive Conservatives — and the governing NDP is comfortably in a majority position and doesn't have to pull out all the stops to try to win there. Kinew has moved more quickly on two other byelections — to fill the seats left vacant by the resignation of former PC premier Heather Stefanson and the death of NDP cabinet member Nello Altomare. Both of those seats — Tuxedo and Transcona and were seen as likely to elect NDP candidates and both did. And that brings the political gamesmanship back into play. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. Kinew could choose to delay the Spruce Woods byelection until as late as Sept. 24 — and it's entirely within his purview to do exactly that. But just because you can do something, doesn't always mean that you should. The only real questions are who benefits by delaying the byelection, and who loses out? If, in any way, it's voters who are losing out, the answer is a simple one. Set a byelection date as quickly as possible and leave the political strategy by the wayside. A significant portion of the public already believes that politicians don't have their best interests at heart and petty politics just strengthens the impression that politicians put their parties and their own futures ahead of the public good. Why fuel voter apathy and mistrust — especially in the case of Spruce Woods, where the prospective gains seem so small — when there's a chance to take the high road instead?
Vancouver Sun
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
After B.C. Conservative leader made claim of MLA blackmailers in his own party, NDP asked RCMP to investigate
The chair of British Columbia's NDP caucus has written to the RCMP requesting an investigation into allegations that former members of the B.C. Conservative Opposition tried to blackmail their ex-colleagues. The letter from Stephanie Higginson to Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald comes after B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad wrote to his party's own caucus warning about the alleged blackmail by three MLAs and their staff. On Monday, Rustad confirmed that he wrote a letter obtained by The Canadian Press in which he tells his caucus that their former colleagues and staff were threatening to release 'blackmail materials,' including secretly recorded phone conversations and text messages. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. One of the former party members said Thursday that he welcomed a police investigation, saying Rustad made the blackmail allegations to 'distract and change the conversation' about how his leadership was reconfirmed at the annual general meeting of the party. Independent Jordan Kealy said he had already asked for an audit of the leadership review. 'Maybe the Conservative Party, if they've got nothing to hide, will then open their books and actually show to their constituents, voters and members, that they're telling the truth,' Kealy said in an interview. Another of the former Conservatives, Dallas Brodie, said on social media platform X that Rustad had 'painted himself into a corner' with a 'big lie' about blackmail that he could not substantiate. Higginson said in the open letter written on behalf of the NDP caucus that there's a significant public interest in determining the facts. She said if any MLA or their staff are engaged in blackmail, British Columbians deserve to know, and perpetrators should be prosecuted. Rustad said in an interview on Monday that he did not personally have recorded evidence of blackmail, but would not say if the party possessed it. 'As I said earlier, I am not sure what has been provided to our legal staff around it. I don't personally have it,' he said. Asked if Rustad was available for an interview on Thursday, the B.C. Conservative Party said it had received advice not to comment further on the matter. Higginson said British Columbians deserved to know whether Rustad has any evidence to support his accusations. 'Given the accusations of criminal activity, it seems appropriate for police to examine any relevant information in Mr. Rustad's possession to determine if additional investigation and/or criminal charges are necessary,' Higginson wrote. Premier David Eby said earlier this week after learning of the blackmail allegations that Rustad needed to take the claims to police, and if he didn't, then the NDP would. 'It is a profound and serious allegation that also strikes at the core of this place behind me and the public's confidence in the fact that legislators and staff members need to be able to do their work for the people without interference,' Eby said during a news conference outside the legislature on Tuesday. Tim Thielmann is the chief of staff for the new One BC party formed by Brodie and Tara Armstrong, who is the third ex-Conservative MLA. He blamed Eby for the NDP calling in the police, saying it was 'extremely irresponsible.' 'By his own admission, he is relying upon John Rustad's claims of blackmail, and when John Rustad has been asked for evidence, he has been unable to provide a single shred,' said Thielmann. He called the accusations in Rustad's letter to the Conservative caucus 'desperate lies' that he 'invented' to attack people exposing what happened at the party's annual general meeting. He said the case could 'cross the threshold for public mischief.' Brodie made the same argument in her social media post. 'If Rustad asks for a police investigation knowing his allegations are false, he might himself be committing the crime of public mischief under section 140 of the Criminal Code,' she said. 'But if he doesn't, he will have exposed his own big lie. 'And as for David Eby, he should know better than to attempt to instigate a police investigation when he admits to having absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing.' Brodie was thrown out of the B.C. Conservatives over remarks about residential schools, prompting Armstrong and Kealy to quit the party in sympathy. Kealy, who is not a member of the new One BC party, said Thursday that he was 'completely fine' with the RCMP being called to investigate. 'I've got nothing to hide if they want to talk to me,' said Kealy. 'I have chosen to leave it to people that are in the position to properly investigate this thoroughly and to look into whether or not they're allegations being made falsely,' said Kealy. Armstrong said on social media on Wednesday that 'Rustad and Eby can throw around the accusations all they like but rest assured, the truth will always prevail.' Brodie has said Rustad and his team 'rigged' the Conservatives' March annual general meeting that endorsed his 'Team Rustad' slate of executive candidates, allegedly stacking the meeting with South Asian supporters paid 'to vote the way Mr. Rustad wanted.' Rustad's letter denied any wrongdoing at the meeting. — With additional reporting from Wolfgang Depner in Victoria Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here .
