The Canadian government has said no to Toronto’s request to make having small amounts of drugs not a crime because they don’t think it will keep people safe and healthy.
“Minister Saks said she has concerns about whether the police can make the new plan work, if it will keep young people safe, and if important people in the government of Ontario will support it. ”
Ottawa decided to change its mind the day after the Ontario government asked the city to stop the request. The Ontario government thinks the request is a bad idea.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones and the province’s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner wrote a letter to Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, saying that the province will not support the request made to Health Canada in early 2022 for an exception to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Premier Doug Ford said again that his government will not support the request. He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, asking Ottawa to stop approving new safe supply sites.
“We told Toronto Public Health that we don’t and will never support their request to make illegal drugs legal,” Ford said. “We officially confirm to the government that we completely disagree with their proposal. ”
Ford and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre both said they don’t think the prime minister should agree to Toronto’s request.
Toronto’s request to decriminalize drugs gained attention again after British Columbia requested to make the use of certain drugs illegal in public spaces, because there were problems with a previous exemption order.
Drde Villa said on Friday that since decriminalization is not an option anymore, it’s important to invest in other evidence-based solutions.
She said the province needs to provide more money and make it easier for people to get different kinds of treatments to help with the drug problem.
De Villa told CP24 that her request is based on the best medical advice for the health of the public. “By the end of the day, I’ll keep working as a doctor to offer advice, but it’s up to the elected officials to make the decisions,” she said.
On Friday, she said she supports Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s idea to work together with all levels of government to tackle the “complicated problem. ”
Toronto Public Health is ready and wants to work with others to find ways to help with this important and urgent health problem, de Villa stated.
Before the government made a decision on Friday, Chow wrote a letter asking all levels of government to work together to fight the opioid crisis.
She said they should have a Crisis Centre open all the time, more treatment options for substance use, homes for people with many needs, and more things to help.
“I think that by offering more treatment choices, we can greatly lessen the harmful effects of drug toxicity in Toronto and Ontario,” Chow wrote.
She also said, “We all believe that it is very important to get more treatment. ”
Chow said that the debate about decriminalization doesn’t matter unless people struggling with drug addiction have the right housing and treatment they need.
Tag: Ontario
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Toronto’s proposal to decriminalise ordinary drug possession denied by Canadians
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64 individuals detained by Ontario Provincial Police over child sex abuse
The police in Ontario have caught 64 people who are accused of hurting children. They have a total of 348 charges against them. The investigations covered the whole province.
The police announced the arrests at a press conference in Scarborough on Wednesday morning. They were sharing more information about a major investigation called Project Aquatic.
The police started the case in February 2024. It involved 129 different investigations from all over Ontario about online sexual abuse material.
Det.-Sgt. Tim Brown said on Wednesday that 34 children were found as part of the investigation. The police said that because of Project Aquatic, 30 more children were kept safe. Brown explained that means taking children out of a dangerous situation where they could be harmed.
The police took more than 600 electronic devices as part of their investigation.
“People of all ages, from teenagers to old people, were arrested,” said Brown. “We find people who break the law in the whole province, from all different backgrounds and ages. ”
The police say that in one instance, a person arranged to meet with undercover investigators because they wanted to meet a child for a sexual reason. The police said another person had about 21 terabytes of data with pictures and videos of children being abused.
Toronto police said to CP24 that 13 people were arrested in the city and together they are facing 69 criminal charges.
Most of the investigation was done when investigators responded to complaints from electronic service providers, Brown said.
“We are working very hard to keep putting pressure on anyone who tries to hurt our children,” Brown said to the media. These dangers are not only found in hidden parts of the internet. Predators follow children.
Signy Arnason, who works at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said that Cybertip. ca, the tipline for reporting online child sexual abuse and exploitation in Canada, gets 2,000 to 3,000 tips every month.
“In our work, we have seen more and more adults who are interested in children in a bad way. ” “These online groups share and promote sexually abusive content involving children, and they even give each other advice on how to do it,” she said.
“They make it seem like it’s okay to sexually abuse and use children. ” In these communities, some people are very focused on certain victims, they try to find them and even follow them when they grow up. The dark web and AI generated images make the problem worse.
Arnason said that in Canada, there has been a huge increase in the number of reports about images made by artificial intelligence in recent years.
“That equation has two sides. ” Some people are trying to use technology to make fake images of child sexual abuse. She said it’s a nightmare for the victims to see new abusive images of themselves.
Young people are using AI generators to create nude images of kids at school and think it’s funny. That problem has become very big and now schools all over the country are facing it suddenly. We know it’s very upsetting and harmful to young people especially.
She said that the government needs to do more to handle the situation, like making new rules.
“We know that the police in Canada are overwhelmed and do not have enough resources. ” Many phone lines in different countries. “We are getting a lot of reports about child sexual abuse and online sexual violence towards young people,” she said.
This problem needs many different groups to work together, like police, governments, websites, teachers, parents, and organizations like ours. We all need to work together to fight it. It’s not enough yet.
She said that tech companies need to do more to keep children safe.
We need to protect children online the same way we protect them in real life. “Companies that make technology have too much power and only care about making money, even if it hurts kids. We can’t rely on them to keep kids safe on their own anymore,” she said.
“Stopping people from uploading bad pictures, quickly removing them, and making sure people are trained to do the right thing are all very important in protecting kids from being hurt on the internet. “ -
Honda anticipated to reveal its EV battery factory in Ontario
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, along with Honda executives, are likely to say today that the Japanese car company is going to build a factory for making batteries for electric vehicles in Alliston, Ontario. This is part of a $15 billion plan to invest in the area.
Experienced people who know about the project say that Honda is changing its assembly plant in Alliston so it can make electric cars.
The $15-billion project has a new factory and an electric car battery plant nearby, and two other factories in Ontario making key parts for the batteries.
There might be some money from the government to help with the project, but it’s not a special deal with extra money to persuade a company to build in Ontario instead of the United States.
The government wants to give an Electric Vehicle Supply Chain investment tax credit of 10% to help companies like Honda. This would be on top of the 30% Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment tax credit they already get.
Honda is building a new electric car battery plant in Ontario. This will be the third one in the province, after Volkswagen. Thomas and a Stellantis LG factory are in Windsor.
Honda’s agreement also includes two important suppliers for their batteries – cathodes and separators. The places where these facilities will be located will be announced later.
The agreement happened after Honda bosses and the Ontario government had lots of meetings and talks that started after the last big government announcement at Honda’s Alliston facility.
Trudeau, Ford, and Honda bosses were there in March 2022 when the car-maker said they would start making hybrid vehicles at the factory. The government is giving $131. 6 million to help with the project.
This made people start talking about putting more money into electric cars. Talks about this started in the summer, the sources said.
The Canadian Press released this report on April 25, 2024. -
Ontario’s minimum wage to increase in the autumn
The Ontario government led by Doug Ford plans to increase the minimum wage in the fall Starting on October.
The lowest amount of money workers can be paid in the province will increase to $17. 20 from the current minimum wage of $16. 5
The province announced on Thursday that the minimum wage in Ontario will go up by 3. 9% each year, which is based on the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI). This increase will make Ontario’s minimum wage the second highest in Canada.
The rise is happening because it’s difficult for people to afford things in the province. An employee earning the lowest wage and working full-time will get a raise of $1,355 per year, according to the government.
In 2023, 935,600 workers were making $17. 20 or less per hour.
The province said they are making the move on the same day they released their annual sunshine list, which shows how much money government workers in the province make.
This is an important news story. More is coming. -
Court dismisses charges against Ontario police officers engaged in 18-month-old’s fatal shooting in 2020
Three police officers in Ontario who were accused of a crime in connection with the death of a one-year-old boy in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario. In 2020, some things were taken back.
In Newmarket, Ontario. court building on Monday, Judge Paul L. Bellefontaine said they are dropping the charges against OPP constables Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly, and Grayson Cappus. The three police officers were accused of causing the death of an 18-month-old boy named Jameson Shapiro. They were charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault, and firing a gun recklessly.
The charges were canceled because the prosecutors didn’t think they could prove the officers were guilty to a jury.
On November on May 26, 2020, Jameson’s dad, who is 33 years old, was involved in a car chase with the police. During the chase, Jameson was shot and killed by the police. Earlier that day, the police were told that Jameson’s father had taken the child. This information was given to the Ontario Special Investigation Unit, which looks into cases where the police have caused serious harm or are accused of sexual assault.
Jameson died right away, and his father died in the hospital almost a week later. The police watchdog said that evidence showed that the officers’ gunfire killed both Jameson and his father. However, the officers were only charged for the child’s death.In January 2021, the SIU said that the three officers who shot their guns did not want to be asked questions and were not required by law to do so. At that time, the SIU had talked to 18 police officers and 14 regular people for their investigation. The SIU accused the officers in August 2022, almost two years after the incident.
In a statement on Monday, the Ontario Provincial Police Association said that the withdrawal was a vindicating result in a tragic case.
“When something like this happens, it hurts the families, the community, and all of us who work in law enforcement,” said President John Cerasuolo in the statement. “We are committed to helping and keeping people safe, and we take this responsibility very seriously. ” “Sometimes, when police officers deal with very dangerous and quickly changing situations, things can turn out differently than they expected. ”
Cerasuolo said the association has always said that the officers did a good job and acted bravely, and they are sure that the officers will not be found guilty in court.
“It’s important for people to know that when the police are accused of a crime, they are considered innocent until proven guilty. In this case, it was decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict them. ” “Our officers were just doing what they were trained to do,” he kept talking.
After their court appearance, Pengally’s lawyer, Joseph Markson, told reporters that he felt relieved.
Markson said it’s the fair result. “We’re happy that the system is working and we always believed in Const. ” Pengally showed a lot of courage, bravery, and professionalism on this sad day.
Attorney Joseph Markson talks to the press after charges against the Ontario provincial police officers involved in the 2020 shooting of an 18-month-old in Kawartha Lakes, Ont. , are dropped
People who are affected by the deaths are being told to get help from the Canadian Mental Health Association.