Editorials - Feb. 23, 2024

In 2022, much of the world became aware of Alexei Navalny, the man who, until his untimely death last week, was Vladimir Putin’s leading opposition and a beacon of hope for Russians who longed to live in a proper democracy. Daniel Roher won an Oscar for his documentary about Navalny, showing a failed attempt to poison Navalny and his work to find out the truth about what happened to him, while rallying support. 

 

In the film, Navalny resists answering questions about being killed, should that come to pass, but eventually says that, if Putin succeeds in killing him, it shows the power of the movement. The film shows him get arrested for bogus charges and sentenced to years in prison, where he died last week. World leaders have been quick to condemn Putin as the perpetrator, finally finishing the job he started long ago.

 

This is not some minor disagreement in a third-world nation, this is the Russia that China calls a friend. The Russia that a major presidential candidate in the U.S. is encouraging to attack NATO nations that are behind in payment (Canada is one of those). The Russia that is carrying out unspeakable death and destruction in Ukraine while many here and in the U.S. defend its actions. This blatant political violence is not as far-flung as it might seem its echoes may reverberate close to home. 

 

Navalny represented hope to so many and he inspired others through his courage, bravery and resolve. Now he’s been swept under the rug just like so many other inconvenient challengers to authoritarianism. – SL

Most people aside from the absolute hard-liner libertarians have it in their hearts to forgive governments, businesses, whomever for some of the mistakes that may have been made in the thick fog of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, there are exceptions to the rule; decisions so poor, oversight so absent that one wonders, given all of the due respect and benefit of the doubt one can give, how they could have ever seemed like a good idea. This is where we discuss ArriveCan - the app meant to log travel and health-related information and the subject of a scathing report by Auditor General Karen Hogan.

 

What jumps off the page is that the final cost of the ArriveCan app  cannot be determined due to the scale of poor record keeping. Hogan said those responsible for the project “repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development and implementation of the ArriveCan application,” adding that, “this is probably the worst example that I’ve seen such a glaring disregard for some of the most basic and fundamental policies and rules.”

 

The figure being thrown around is about $60 million spent on the app and it’s the latest grenade being lobbed by federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in the hopes of showing the world that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s spending is out of control. It also serves as a perfect example of good, old-fashioned government bloat as a simple travel app originally planned to cost about $80,000 swells to a contract of nearly $60 million (or thereabouts, as discussed earlier).

 

The credibility of Trudeau’s government seems able to parry one big, final blow from Poilievre’s grenades, but it’s being ground down to a nub and many Canadians are losing faith in their leader. – SL 

Tribunal Watch Ontario is sounding alarm bells over the backlog crisis at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). 

 

In 2018, Doug Ford’s government chose not to renew the contracts of many of the tribunal system’s senior adjudicators, allowing their positions to be vacated. A backlog began, which was greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. A pivot to an online-only approach necessitated the hiring of new adjudicators, many of whom do not have specific expertise in the fields pertinent to each individual tribunal. Despite increased resources, the annual caseload has plummeted. Thousands of currently unresolved cases are affecting over a million residents province-wide and Huron County is no exception. Some local tenants have waited almost three years just to receive a date for their LTB tribunal, only to learn they had filed documents incorrectly, requiring a new tribunal date. 

 

Others have found navigating the government’s online portal to be a confusing barrier preventing them from successfully making their case to the tribunal - this is especially true for elderly or disabled tenants, or those who are new to Canada and speak English as a second language. 

 

Activist tenant associations in Goderich, Bayfield and Grand Bend have been forming as at-risk homeowners work together to learn their rights under the Residential Tenancy Act and navigate the tricky tribunal system. One such group, the Bluewater Village Tenants Association, have elderly members without internet - some of them have even gone into long-term care homes while awaiting a tribunal date as they allege property neglect and financial malfeasance. The province has wounded its tribunal system and is letting it fester. But those fighting for their homes believe that this wound will heal, if we stop ignoring it. – SBS