Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
Cbcnews. Ca. We are standing by for the Prime Minister’s daily briefing. Today, not expected to focus on COVID-19, which is what he has usually been doing at this time of day for the past several weeks. This week, though, he and several ministers, including the deputy Prime Minister, will be speaking yet again from the west block of parliament hill and, again, not from his cottage, Rideau cottage, as he has been doing. There is another announcement expected today. This one on guns. Specifically new restrictions to ban certain makes and models of weapons with some specific characteristics, military-style or assault-style weapons. I should point out that we’ll have full coverage of that for you. But this time each day, again until just recently this has been really about the pandemic and public health briefings. So that is why we’ve been carrying it in this way. It is an important part of you knowing more about the pandemic and how to deal with it in your community. But we will delve into this shift for the government’s focus today with our reporters and we’ll also get some opposition reaction from Andrew Scheer as soon as the Prime Minister is done speaking. So, I’ll bring in My colleagues. Cbc’s catherine cullen and the host of “power & politics”, Vassy kapelos, to help us set this up. a bit of a change today for the Prime Minister. and I want to be really transparent about it because we have been covering this because obviously the announcements have been primarily about COVID-19 and there is a huge importance to people getting that information. Not to diminish what the Prime Minister and the government might be announcing today. But this is a distinct change in what we’re talking about. This is a different kind of policy that they’re announcing. It is one that they promised during the election campaign and it’s one that they said they intended to bring before the pandemic started. and now perhaps pushed faster because of the shooting in Nova Scotia. They are doing that today. Vassy, what do you think we should expect based on some of the reporting that we have done already this week.
Vassy:
Yeah. It is form set that backdrop as you’ve done, though, rosey. While this is a major change in policy, all we’ve been hearing about, as you point out, is COVID-19 and policies related to that. This is the first shift away from it. This is something the government – actually the liberals started talking about well before the campaign and actually was asked to do or to act on by various municipal leaders. I’m thinking, for example, Valerie planter, the mayor of Montreal as well as john Tory t mayor of Toronto. That happened a long time ago, following pretty violent incidents in both Quebec but also in Toronto. The government then conducted a series of consultations, which wrapped up a full year ago. From that point on, they promise some action on gun control. They got more specific in the campaign. They then, you know, re announced that they were going to do the things that they did in the campaign toward the end of the year. The Prime Minister started getting questions on this again following what happened in Nova Scotia. He then, towards the end of last week, I think, said well if we have some cooperation with the opposition parties or might move fast, we might end up prosbro* deicing something on this or doing something on this. He didn’t directly tie the two, but he was at the time getting questions about what was happening in Nova Scotia. What we do anticipate today is that the government will introduce a list that doesn’t have to go through the legislative process, that they can do through their own cabinet of specific military-style assault weapons that they are looking to ban. What will be interesting to see hfp-I think two things I’m watching for. First our colleagues at the “globe and mail” are reporting that though they promise add full buyback programme for those restricted weapons in the campaign that it instead will not be a full buyback programme. and in fact, if you own one of them, one of those restricted weapons, you will be allowed to keep them under sort of specific conditions. I don’t know what the conditions are. I’m interested to see how that plays out because that certainly will anger some of the people who have been asking for more severe gun control. But might also appease people who were worried about new restrictions, unfairly or undully impacting law-abiding gun owners. The second part of this is the timing and it is worth questioning. We have to remember in Nova Scotia what we know from the RCMP so far is obviously the gunmen had a strong arsenal of various weapons. But we’re told that he had no license for them and that, in fact, most of them, other than one, came illegally from the United States. We don’t know all the details about that arsenal. We don’t know everything about how he obtained them. But that is the information we have so far. Which, you know, also prompts the question, even if you are going to restrict these weapons that may not actually have made a difference in Nova Scotia. But I’m keen to see how the Prime Minister explains the timing of this, the pivot away from the COVID-19 related policy.
Rosemary:
I think it is also worth mentioning some other reporting that our colleague, j. P. task er did around the previous piece of gun control legislation, bill c-71, which was passed through legislation in parliament last year. But then had to be enacted in certain ways to pass into law. and not everything happened under that piece of legislation. The government says that it was, in part, because an election got in the way and there were all sorts of timing issues. That may be true, but they didn’t even finish the first part of gun control that they had actually legislated. They didn’t put all of those factors, those pieces in place before. So, it will be interesting as well to see whether there’s a commitment today to finish up bill c-71. I’ll also just mention, before I bring in Catherine, that the Prime Minister is also scheduled to speak with the Prime Minister of new Zealand today who, of course, moved very quickly on gun control after a shooting took 51 lives in two mosques in new Zealand. So, the pressure to act on policy, whether it existed before or not, it is fairly normal, I think, that politicians are called on to act in the wake of gun crimes, Catherine. That is sort of what happens. Whether it is something that you promised before or not, there is usually an additional push to see some sort of change with gun control after a tragedy like we saw in Nova Scotia.
Reporter:
Yeah. and particularly important as you mentioned because our colleagues in radio-Canada obtained a list of the firearms that they believe are going to be banned and the come that they looked at actually does link the weapons that will be banned to various shootings. Sandy hook, new zealand, the moncton shooting, las vegas shooting, dawson college shooting. Le we can expect to see it’s clear that the rationale that the government presents today when they talk about how they made these choices, some of the feelings in the wake of these shootings will come into it. It’s going to be interesting to see how they talk about that buyback programme. It does explicitly say in the liberal campaign material that they are going to be introducing a buyback programme for all military-style assault rifles legally purchased in Canada. and as the globe’s reporting does point out, it puts them in a position where people in favour of fire arms will not be happy with this announcement in in ways and we’re seeing criticism about the timing of this and whatnot. They are happy to not see a full buyback programme. It will be very interesting to see what kind of political rationale the government offers for that.
Rosemary:
So wait to see if they do, indeed, confirm the globe’s reporting there. The cost of the buyback programme had been slated at about $250 million. Although many people thought it could be much, much higher because there are a lot of weapons in that list that Louis got. It does give the estimated number of weapons that exist in this country. Ok. I’m going to stop just for a moment, if I can, to turn to other news before this briefing gets under way in about seven minutes’ time because I did want to go back to the story that the Prime Minister was out talking about at this time yesterday and that we continue, of course, to track as well. As ships and aircraft continue to scan the waters off Greece for five Canadian forces members that are missing, still missing, after that NATO helicopter crash. Murray Brewster is a senior defence writer with CBC news and he is with us again from Ottawa. We did get the names and some pictures to put to the five people missing. Give us the latest on how that search is going.
Reporter:
The search is continuing, rosey. As far as we know, at the moment, there has been nothing at issue found in terms of perhaps survivors or even remains or even in terms of the equipment or any kind of debris. It’s not going probably go on too much longer because standard operating procedure for search and rescue is about 72 hours. Now the water and weather conditions are calm so that does give rescuers hope. But 72 hours is usually the maximum before they decide to turn and call it a recovery operation. Now some of the obstacles to the recovery operation were outlined in yesterday’s briefing by the chief of the defence staff and that is essentially some of the wreckage has been spotted perhaps as much as 3, 000 metres down at the bottom of the ocean. and it is a rather large debris field. So, that is going to make it very complicate for any recovery operation to take place. Whether the government is going to have to call in some extra help from allies, it is an open question right now. Last night I had a conversation with haj it sajjan and he is saying that calling in all allies with deep diving capability are still on the table. These are things that we’ll watch for in the Prime Minister’s briefing today.
Rosemary:
Just another question about trying to understand what happened. I understand they have the voice data recorder and another piece of equipment that they already managed to recover. Beyond recovering the bodies, the souls that were lost. How important would be any debris in terms of giving us a sense of what actually happened?
Reporter:
It is very important because, in most accident investigations and crashes, the investigators try to essentially re-assemble aircraft and that tells them an awful lot because it would tell them about, for instance, give you an idea of the speed of the impact. It would give them – if there is a part missing or in some particular way not related to the impact. That could say something about whether it was a mechanical failure. It is very important for them to collect as much of the aircraft as they possibly can. Before determining precisely what happened.
Rosemary:
Ok. Murray Brewster, thank you for all of your hard work on this. We’ll come back to you if you have more updates for us. Thank you so much. All right. We’ll go back to My colleagues. Vassy kapelos and Catherine Cullen, as we wait for the Prime Minister and a slew of ministers to come in today to speak to us, not about the pandemic response, but a response of a different kind and that is around gun control measures. I do want to take a minute as we wait for the Prime Minister to talk about the other announcement that happened earlier today at 9:30 with the finance Minister and the governor of the bank of Canada, Steven poloz, and that was the announcement of the new governor of the bank of Canada, tiff Marlin who will be in place at the beginning of June. and while he may not be a familiar face to everybody just now, he had previously been at the bank of Canada and left to become a dean at the business school at the university of Toronto. and this is of particular importance to talk about it now, I think, because of the economic recovery that is on the other side of what we’re dealinging with now. and how important the bank’s monetary policy has been to try and make sure that we come out of it with some chance of success so it is good to know who the governor will be once Mr. Pol oz leaves and good to know that he actually didn’t want to stay on and that is why I wanted to spend a little bit of time on it, Vassy. He does have experience with financial crises and certainly was asked some of those questions today, too.
Reporter:
Yeah. He was asked a lot of questions about the current crisis and how deep it is and he definitely went into some detail why he believed it was unprecedented and, therefore, why the response has to be unprecedented as well. He spent decades at the bank of Canada so he is not a stranger to the organization but he stepped away to become dean of the rottman school of management in Toronto. He served as the deputy governor but was passed over in 2013 for Stephen poloz. I think you’re absolutely right to point out it’s almost different times. The monetary policy of the bank of Canada, most especially in tough economic times, has proven to be obviously incredibly important. But we have seen over the past few months a sort of almost unique way of presenting that sort of fix and alongside the finance Minister. We’ve seen a series of press conferences, for example, where the magnitude of the crisis is acknowledged by both of them, both Stephen pol oz and bill morneau, sitting side by side and each rolls out what the policy will be to try and bridge the gap or rectify the damage that’s being done or will be done. and so this job that he is taking on right now is important in the best of times and in the worst of times. But in the extra, extra worst of times that we’re in right now –[laughter]quickly, it is even more significant. Some of the things that he talk about, for example, the magnitude of the crisis, the magnitude of the response, we don’t know exactly what form that takes as far as the monetary policy is concerned. But we can expect it to be significant in an ongoing way. and that is not just important in the acute time we’re in right now where we’re feeling it so deeply, but also in the recovery. So stephen poloz has provided a prescription right now for the acute pain we’re feeling. But Mr. Macklem will be providing a prescription for riping the band-aid off and trying to heal the wound. and that will be very interesting to see how it might differ from the different set of policies that have put forth or what he means when he says unprecedented.
Rosemary:
and right now the bank has run out of options, frankly n terms of monetary policies and the next options to go into negative interest rates, what they were also asked about today and Mr. Macklem as well said we’ll do what is needed. It’s also worth knowing about him that he was, I AM told, one of four Canadians that were inside the room when the group of seven finance ministers made the decision back in the fall of 2008 to fully back the banking system, which was on the verge of collapse in the world as we know. and Mr. Macklem was there with Jim flaherty at the time as that decision was made, as they were discussing what that would mean and how that backing by banks around the world would try to, you know, manage the damage that ended up being substantive. But this is on a totally different level. and I do think it’s good for people to know that he has that kind of experience with a financial crisis as well. He does, though, and I think we’ve only got about a minute, Catherine, it does mean that someone else at the bank didn’t get the job and that is a little bit of a surprise to some, too.
Reporter:
It’s so relevant for the audience in terms of what is happening. He made the contrast between what happened in 2008. He said that was a crisis within financial institutions. Now we are talking about a medical crisis and he had something quite pointed to say about how to deal with I. He said you need to overwhelm a crisis and think beyond the normal responses and restore confidence and talked about the role that the bank can play going forward, trying to be as transparent with Canadians as possible about what they think might happen. But he acknowledged, just as we hear from public health officials every day, there is so much that is unknown at this time, that the bank will have to look at a multitude of scenarios and he’s calling for bold action in the face of this, praising what the bank and federal government have already done.
Rosemary:
Ok. Appreciate that. and Carolyn Wilkins is the central bank’s senior deputy governor and she is one of the people ha that we thought might get the job. She will remain in her position and she has been critical to some of the monetary decisions that have been made over the last couple of weeks. They’ve all been made very quickly. Here’s the Prime Minister with cabinet ministers. Expecting today a different kind of announcement about gun policy from Mr. Trudeau. Here we go.