Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that he would delay judicial changes which continue to be the focus of widespread public protests. The concession came after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed a willingness to postpone a parliamentary vote. Netanyahu suggested he was motivated by the “possibility of preventing a civil war through dialogue,” but Ben-Gvir said “the reform will pass” eventually. [node:read-more:link]
Draft amendments the Official Languages Act, introduced by the government 13 months ago as Bill C13 and still before a House committee, is raising concerns about how it could affect minority English-language rights in Quebec. The main point of contention is a reference to the province’s Charter of the French Language and how it could further entrench use of the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights. [node:read-more:link]
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today that his involvement in plans to overhaul the country’s fourts is an illegal conflict of interest. “You must refrain from […] initiatives to change the judiciary, including the makeup of the committee for the appointment of judges,” she said in a letter to the PM, who faces prosecution for corruption. [node:read-more:link]
Almost simultaneously with the arrival in Ottawa of President Joe Biden today, it’s reported that Canada and the U.S. have an agreement permitting them to turn away asylum seekers at their borders. Disclosed by an official in Washington, the agreement evidently is scheduled to be signed before Biden heads home March 24. [node:read-more:link]
Police fired tear gas at violent black-clad anarchists in Paris today as hundreds of thousands of otherwise mainly peaceful protesters marched across France against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the national pension age to 64 from 62 this year. In a ninth day of nationwide protests, train and air travel was disrupted while professionals walked off the job. [node:read-more:link]
The UN marked World Water Day by warning that supplies are increasingly at risk around the world because of increased urban demand. On average, it said today, “10 per cent of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress” as the world is “blindly travelling a dangerous path” toward unsustainability. [node:read-more:link]
Confirmation that the RCMP are investigating two Chinese “covert police stations” in Quebec has prompted China’s foreign ministry to say that Canada should “stop sensationalizing and hyping the matter and stop attacks and smears.” The stations ostensibly are supposed to be helping expatriates with paperwork, among other things, but there have been allegations of intimidation and harassment the RCMP say “won’t be tolerated.” [node:read-more:link]
Draft changes to Ontario labour law would leave employers who withhold foreign workers’ passports or work permits facing stiffer penalties. “One group of workers who are often forgotten are migrant workers,” Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said March 20. during a press conference on Monday. “My message to those scumbags out there abusing migrant workers is this: you can run, but you can’t hide. We will find you, fine you, and put you behind bars.” [node:read-more:link]
Faced with widespread domestic and international protests, the Israeli government today proposed a change to its planned overhaul of the country’s judicial system. The concession would give the right-wing coalition government less power to appoint new judges, who are currently selected by a committee comprised of politicians, judges and legal experts. [node:read-more:link]
The Treasury Board Secretariat says that the Canadian Human Rights Commission discriminated against its own black and racialized employees. It was responding to a policy grievance filed in October by nine employees’ unions alleging that they and others had faced “systemic” racism, sexism and discrimination. [node:read-more:link]
The International Criminal Court today issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his alleged responsibility for deporting children from occupied Ukraine to Russia. A similar warrant was issued for his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova [node:read-more:link]
In what it says is an effort to increase public trust, Alberta plans to mandate vest-mounted cameras for police. Public Safety & Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis says that “by documenting the behaviour of the police in public, collecting better evidence, and improving our approach to resolving complex complaints during investigations”, cameras are “an objective measure to show what occurs.” [node:read-more:link]
A $2.8-billion settlement agreement between the federal government and plaintiffs representing 325 First Nations whose members went to residential schools has been approved by Federal Court of Canada. Justice Ann Marie McDonald said in her March 9 ruling (Docket No. T-1542-12) that the settlement does not release the government from similar future lawsuits. [node:read-more:link]
A 48-year-old Saudi held without charge for nearly 21 years by the U.S. at Guantánamo Bay has been repatriated, the latest in a series of similar releases. Ghassan Al Sharbi, whom the Department of Defense said has “physical and mental health issues”, had been compliant in detention and was found to have had no leadership or facilitator roles in al-Qaeda. [node:read-more:link]
The government of Georgia, a former Soviet republic hoping to join the European Union, is “unconditionally” withdrawing draft legislation its critics said could stifle media freedom and civil society. President Salome Zourabichvili, who said she would veto it, likened it to Russian law used to clamp down on dissent. [node:read-more:link]
