In The News for April 12: Do Canadians feel safer today, in a post-pandemic world?

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Wednesday, April 12, 2023 …

What we are watching in Canada …

A new poll suggests most Canadians feel they’re less safe now than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, and most think the provincial and federal governments are doing a poor job of addressing crime and public safety.

In an online survey, Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies asked how the level of crime and violence in a respondent’s home community today compares to how it was before the pandemic began in early 2020.

Nearly two-thirds of those who took the survey said they feel things are worse — with 32 per cent saying crime and violence has gotten “much worse” and 32 per cent saying it is “a little worse.”

A quarter of respondents said the situation hasn’t changed, and eight per cent said they don’t know. Just two per cent of people said the situation is “a little better.” 

The most common type of unsafe situation people reported was “aggressive behaviour,” which the survey identified as issuing threats, yelling or causing someone to fear for their safety. Of those surveyed, 20 per cent said they’d experienced such behaviour and 19 per cent said they feared for their safety at least once in the last six months. 

Asked for their opinion about a list of actions to make communities safer, respondents overwhelmingly called for tougher penalties for people found guilty of committing violent offences and for better mental health supports, with those options getting 81 per cent and 79 per cent support, respectively.

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Also this …

The Bank of Canada is set to announce its interest rate decision this morning.

Economists widely anticipate the central bank will continue to hold its key interest rate steady at 4.5 per cent, even as the economy is running hotter than expected.

Despite elevated interest rates, the economy continued to grow at the start of the year, while unemployment hovers near record lows.

The Bank of Canada has said it is hoping to see the economy slow further, while working to get the country’s annual inflation rate back to its two per cent target.

In February, inflation fell to 5.2 per cent, marking the second month in a row that inflation came in lower than forecast.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

Commissioners in Memphis are scheduled to decide Wednesday whether to return a Black Democrat to the Republican-led Tennessee House after he and a Black colleague were kicked out of the Legislature following their support of gun control protesters.

The Shelby County Board of Commissioners set a vote to determine whether Justin Pearson will be sent back to the Legislature in Nashville. Republicans banished Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones last week over their role in a gun control protest on the House floor in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead. 

The Nashville Metropolitan Council took only a few minutes Monday to unanimously restore Jones to office. He was quickly reinstated to his House seat.

The House’s vote to remove Pearson and Jones but keep white Rep. Gloria Johnson drew accusations of racism. Johnson survived by one vote. Republican leadership denied that race was a factor, however.

Ahead of the vote, Pearson is set to lead a march from the National Civil Rights Museum to the county commission’s office in downtown Memphis.

The expulsions last Thursday made Tennessee a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy and propelled the ousted lawmakers into the national spotlight. In the span of a few days, the two had raised thousands of campaign dollars, and the Tennessee Democratic Party had received a new jolt of support from across the U.S.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Recent Chinese air and sea drills simulating an encirclement of Taiwan were intended as a “serious warning” to pro-independence politicians on the self-governing island and their foreign supporters, a Chinese spokesperson said Wednesday.

The three days of large-scale air and sea exercises named Joint Sword that ended Monday were a response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week during a transit visit to the U.S. China had warned of serious consequences if that meeting went ahead.

“The People’s Liberation Army recently organized and conducted a series of countermeasures in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding waters, which is a serious warning against the collusion and provocation of Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a biweekly news conference. “It is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary and regularly sends ships and warplanes into airspace and waters near the island.   Such missions have grown more frequent in recent years, accompanied by increasingly bellicose language from the administration of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Any conflict between the sides could draw in the U.S., Taiwan’s closest ally, which is required by law to consider all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”

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On this day in 1945 …

More than 1,000 German and Dutch Jews were liberated by Canadian forces from a camp near Westerbork, Holland. The camp was used as a gathering place for Jews, including Anne Frank, who were sent to death camps farther east.

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In entertainment …

Jeremy Renner attended the premiere for his new series Tuesday, capping a remarkable recovery less than four months after the “Avengers” star was nearly killed in a snowplow accident.

Renner was surrounded by family and supporters at the “Rennervations” premiere in Los Angeles, where he posed for photos and did interviews, at times making use of a cane and a knee scooter. At one point he flashed photographers a thumbs-up sign while moving down the carpet. 

Renner was crushed by his 6.35-tonne snowplow on New Year’s Day while trying to help free a relative’s car at his Nevada home. The actor has said he broke numerous bones and suffered a collapsed lung and pierced liver in the accident.

“Rennervations,” which premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, follows Renner as he transforms large vehicles into community spaces for young people in India, Mexico, Chicago and Nevada. Renner said his aim was to give young people access to things they might not already have and present opportunities they might not know existed.

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Did you see this?

The Northwest Territories government says it spent $716,00 to address a cyberattack in November.

It says it signed two work orders under existing contracts to help with containment, investigation and response efforts. 

The territory says the cybersecurity threat was contained and remediated without the exposure of personal or private information.

The cyberattack was made public by Cabin Radio late last week after the local news organization reported that it received an anonymous tip. 

The territorial government has released few details, citing confidentiality reasons. 

Todd Sasaki, a spokesman for the Department of Finance, did not respond to questions about the date and time the attack occurred and how the territory’s information technology systems were affected.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2023

The Canadian Press