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On October 18th, 1929, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council reversed a decision by the Canadian Supreme Court ruling that women were not “Persons” according to the British North American Act – and marking it the first ever Persons Day in Canadian history.
The Persons Case enabled women to work for change in both the House of Commons and the Senate. It also meant that women could no longer be denied rights based on a narrow interpretation of the law.
The Globe and Mail reported that India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar confirmed he had spoken to Blinken and the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan about Canadian allegations of New Delhi’s possible involvement in the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
CBC »
Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry will be in Ottawa Thursday to sign a memorandum of cooperation on electric vehicle supply chains.
Yasutoshi Nishimura will be accompanied by a delegation of Japanese businesspeople representing its battery supply chain association (BASC) and corporations like Panasonic Energy, Asahi-Kasei, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo.
Japanese media reports previewing the trip over the past week suggested that in return for financial, scientific and technical help, the Canadian government intends to offer subsidies for new Japanese investments in this sector — similar to other electric vehicle battery deals struck in collaboration with the provincial governments of Ontario and Quebec.
Max Fawcett, National Observer »
Trudeau’s 2017 decision to appoint Richard Wagner as former chief justice Beverley McLachlin’s replacement speaks to that lack of partisanship on Canada’s highest court. After all, the prime minister who first appointed him to the Supreme Court was one Stephen Harper. “Cabinet ministers, as we all know, come and go,” former federal justice minister and University of Alberta professor of law Anne McLellan told the CBC back in 2017. “But the chief justice, once appointed, will be there, bar unforeseen situations, up until mandatory retirement.”
That Trudeau chose to put a Harper appointee in that most powerful of roles speaks to the reality that Canada’s high court is fundamentally different than the one in the United States, where justices almost never break ranks with the party that appointed them. So, too, do some of Trudeau’s other appointees to the Supreme Court, who include Nicholas Kasirer (who was first appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal by Harper) and Malcolm Rowe (who advised Conservative Fisheries and Oceans Minister John Crosbie from 1986 to 1992).
In a media statement, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on August 10 that an additional 78 countries had been added to a list of destinations approved for group tours and package travel. Travel agents from mainland China work from this list when they promote and book foreign travel for Chinese nationals.
In response to an inquiry from CBC News about China’s rationale for excluding Canada, the public affairs office at China’s embassy in Ottawa wrote that lately, the Canadian side has repeatedly hyped up the so-called ‘Chinese interference’ and rampant and discriminatory anti-Asian acts and words are rising significantly in Canada.
The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safety and legitimate rights of overseas Chinese citizens and wishes they can travel in a safe and friendly environment, the embassy added.
» China’s Communist Party, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Media Statement
Pierre Poilievre falsely claimed Canadians will not be able to see news on the internet under the new law.
National Observer reports that the leader of federal Conservative Party made the remark after Meta announced it will remove all news in Canada from its social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram in response to the Online News Act that requires tech giants to enter into agreements that compensate Canadian news outlets for content thjey repurposed on their platforms.
However, the Conservatives’ 2021 campaign platform under then-leader Erin O’Toole proposed a similar policy, calling on tech giants to fairly compensate media for the content they create through an arbitration process.
According to the much respected Henley Passport Index, which ranks the world’s passports based on official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 🇨🇦 Canadians can claim the world’s 7th-most valuable passport this year – up from 8th last year. Canada had been ranked 8th since 2021.
In a bit of a shakeup, 🇯🇵 Japan has been knocked off the top spot on the Henley Passport Index for the first time in five years and bumped into 3rd place. 🇸🇬 Singapore is now officially the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free. 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇮🇹 Italy, and 🇪🇸 Spain all move up into 2nd place with visa-free access to 190 destinations, and Japanese passport holders join those of six other nations — 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇫🇷 France, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇰🇷 South Korea, and 🇸🇪 Sweden — in 3rd place with access to189 destinations without a prior visa.
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