Parses captions for PM Trudeau's daily speeches and presents them in a more human readable format
Operator:
[voice of interpreter] Le devoir.”
Question:
How much has the liberal government received in the form of the wage subsidy?
Answer:
I do not have those details. The wage subsidy was introduced originally to help businesses and other organizations, including non-profit organizations, in order to help them keep their employees, translators, receptionists, and so forth. and people that are working right across the country in various organizations and need to bring home a paycheque in order to feed their family and pay for their groceries. These organizations are receiving that money to help workers.
Operator:
Follow up.
Question:
I understand that you may not have those details, but I would like to know whether you would commit to make those numbers public. The NDP Has made that commitment. The green party has already told us how much money it would receive. We know that if it’s not voluntarily that the party reveals it, it will simply be rounded up in other expenses, Ina report. So as the leader of the party, will you instruct your party to reveal how much money you’ll be receiving?
Answer:
Yes, absolutely. and, in fact, the measures we have taken in relation to the wage subsidy were brought in with full transparency and all businesses that use the wage subsidy across the country will be transparent as well. But yes, I will ensure that the liberal party does share that information. [end of translation].
Operator, next question.
Operator:
Next question, MIA rabson, “the Canadian press.” line open.
Question:
Good morning, Prime Minister. Yesterday you seemed a little reticent to comment directly on some of the – specifically on the incident in Nunavut with thercmp. You say this morning that you’redisturbed by what you’ve seen, but what do you say to indigenous Canadians who when the police show up feel fear and not safety?
Answer:
I think far too many Canadians feel fear and anxiety at the sight of law enforcement officers and authorities of various ways because we have and continue to have systemic racism in this country, systemic discrimination. That means that indigenous Canadians, racialized Canadians are vulnerable in these situations. This is not something that is new for racialized or indigenouscanadians. This has long been their reality. But over the last weeks, we’ve seen a large number of canadianssuddenly awakened to the fact that the discrimination that is a lived reality for far too many of our fellow citizens is something that needs to end and that is something we are workingon. [voice of interpreter] we know that for far too many Canadians who are indigenous or racialized, their reality when they interact with the authorities may be very different from that of the rest of Canada. They are – we know about the existence of systemic racism and discrimination in our systems, and that has to change. Minority Canadians experience that racism all the time, and I would say that the majority of Canadians probably did not suspect how serious the problem was. So this week we are realizing that we need to take severe measures to address that problem. [end of translation].
Question:
Yeah, I’m just wondering what specifically you are planning to work on when it comes to dealing with the fear that some people feel when the police show up. Saying it’s not okay is one thing, but what specifically is your government going to be putting on the table to try and stop this?
Answer:
There have been many reports and recommendations, including to the calls for justice in the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls that have laid out concrete steps that need to be taken. We will be moving forward on those. I will be discussing those and other measures with cabinet thisafternoon. I will also be talking with the commissioner of the RCMP. I will remind people, however, that the federal government doe shave authority over the RCMP, but we need to work with provinces and municipalities to cover all police forces and justice systems across the country. These are the kinds of things we need to do as a country across all orders of government in the coming days. [voice of interpreter] of course, as a cabinet and a government, we will be talking about what we can do directly, particularly with respect to the RCMP. But of course the different levels of government also have authority over various police forces in the country. We must work together to deal with those issues, not just gradual progress, as we’ve been seeing for quite some time now, but some real concrete progress for millions of Canadians who are experiencing discrimination on a daily basis.
Question:
Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Trudeau. I’d like to come back to the $14billion that you have offered to the provinces. So this is an offer. How is it received? would these be targeted transfers? would the money have to be spent based on federal criteria? can you give us an idea of what that would be?
Answer:
Yes, they would be targeted transfers. We know that right across the country Canadians must have the same tools and confidence about a potential second wave in order to reopen the economy. We have a very clear idea and have shared that with respect to the essential conditions for that safe reopening. So this money will be there to ensure that all Canadians, whatever their jurisdiction or whatever region they live in in the country will have whatever they need so we can reopen the country. [end of translation] yes, these are measures and funds that will be targeted towards very specific standards that need to be met for Canadians right across the country. We know that reopening the economy is going to require to have certain things in place for it to be safe for Canadians to have confidence. The federal government wants to make sure that right across the country, every single Canadian has what they need to be able to restart safely. We look forward to working with the provinces to make that happen. [voice of interpreter].
Follow up, Melanie.
Question:
Thank you. Mr. Trudeau, I would just like to know how your counterparts reacted to your offer. But with respect to the CERB, it’s almost the end for the first wave of people benefittingfrom this. Now, in order to be able to – in order for these people to be able to prepare for the future, have you decided to extend it or will you be ending the program?
Answer:
Well, first of all, the conversation with the provinces was positive last evening, but of course there area lot of details that will have to be discussed in the coming days. We do hope to be able to get that money out to them soon so they can help Canadians across the country, so that Canadians will feel confident about a safe reopening of the economy. With respect to CERB, we know that there is a deadline coming up and that’s why we’re working as a government to look at the next steps. We will be advising Canadians and the media as to what we expect to do when we have made that decision in the coming days. [end of translation].
Thank you. Operator, next question on the phone.
Operator:
Next question dill an Robertson, Winnipeg free press. Line open.
Question:
Good morning, Prime Minister. Manitoba premier Brian pallistersaid he would ask your cabinet to change the tone on indigenous people holding ceremonies violating public health orders. I wonder if you buy the argument that the Minister is raising a different standard on race and creed.
Answer:
As a government, we have been clear that local authorities need to work with the people to make sure they aresafe. We need to make sure we’re doing everything in line with public health in order to keep our communities safe. Obviously the situations will vary across the country in terms of what is needed to do, but working with local public health authorities is essential to keep all Canadians safe. [voice of interpreter] I think we all expect local authorities and local leaders, whether they’re indigenous or municipal, to work with health care experts, to ensure that we are introducing the right measures to protect citizens. Of course situations will vary from one region to the other of the country, depending on their COVID-19 situation. But we are asking all community leaders to work with public health authorities to ensure that the right decisions are made to protect their citizenses. [end of translation].
Question:
Further to mia’s question about police and indigenous people, I’m wondering what concrete actions are on thetable, such as paying for body cameras as part of the RCMP contract police agreements or outside of your jurisdiction, ifyou’re considering implementing a national standard that would apply to city police forces.
Answer:
We’re looking at a range of options. As we know, there has been gradual progress over the years, but it hasn’t been enough. Today and in the coming days, we will continue to look at ways of moving forward significantly to ensure that we reduce systemic discrimination in this country and that all Canadians, indigenous, racialized, and others feel safe in this country, in their country. [voice of interpreter] of course we will be working in the coming days on measures that could be brought in to ensure that we are reducing systemic discrimination in our system and ensure also that racialized and indigenous Canadians feel safe at home. There’s work to be done, but we have made progress over the years. But it was gradual progress. Now we need clear steps and new measures to be taken.
Question:
Radio-Canada. There are hundreds of Canadians who are currently stuck in morocco and cannot leave. There are others who are stuck elsewhere in the world, who would have liked to be able to leave on the first flights, but now they’re not able to do that. They’re wondering what is the federal government doing, what will it do. They feel abandoned. Some of them have medical conditions and they can’t go just anywhere to try to get backhere. What do you say to those Canadians who are currently stranded somewhere else and wantto come back to the country?
Answer:
We organized hundreds of repatriation flights and brought back thousands of Canadians from various parts of the globe. Our government worked with many other countries and many airlines in order to help a large number of Canadians to return. We also know that there are people who are still stranded abroad, and that’s why we brought in measures to provide loans to them. We will continue to work to try and help them as much as possible. But we’re all in very difficult circumstances now with COVID-19. [end of translation] we have since the beginning of this pandemic engaged in hundreds of flights to repatriate tens of thousands of Canadians from around the world. We know there is more to do. There are more Canadians who need to come home. It is extremely difficult as a situation, which is why we’ve ensured that there were loans available to Canadians stuck overseas to help them out through this difficult time. We will continue working with them as best we can to help themout. [voice of interpreter].
Question:
Now, 2, 500 jobs will be abolished between now and the end of the year, primarily in Quebec but elsewhere as well. What do you say to the people in charge of bombardier, who are not using the wage subsidy in the midst of this pandemic? can you help these employees and can you help the aeronautics sector that will be in trouble, not only this year, but in the coming years?
Answer:
We introduced measures to help employees in every sector of the country. We will be working with employers to ensure they have the opportunity to help their workers. We know the aerospace industry and particularly the airlines are facing particularly crisis because of the decline in travel these days. Private jets have fewer buyers these days, so we know that it’sa problem and that a number of these companies are in trouble. We will try and do what we can to help the employees. [end of translation] we will continue to work with industries across the country who are affected by this pandemic. Obviously aerospace industries, airlines, are particularly affected with the ceasing of global travel and with the fact that the demand for purchasing business jets has decreased dramatically. We will continue to put forward measures to support workers across the country, as we have, and we will work with industries and individual companies to try and ensure that they have access to all the supports that we have put forward. But obviously this is a difficult time for many workers across the country and we will continue to look for ways to help them.
Question:
Tom Perry, CBC news. You said in your opening remarks that we need to change the systems that do not do right by many indigenous and racialized Canadians. You’ve been talking a lot about systemic racism lately. What do you think needs to change in policing and do you think racism in police ranks is part of the problem?
Answer:
I think as with so many systemic challenges, there are multiple factors that come into this. We need to work together as a country, but we need to engage and listen to racialized communities, indigenous peoples, as we have been through the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, as we have through the path to reconciliation. We need to continue to engage, to look at concrete measures. We’ve made gradual progress over the past years, but gradual progress, incremental progress, just isn’t enough. We need to make stronger and bigger changes and that’s exactly what we’re going to workon.
Question:
is racism within police, within the policing system, is that part of the problem being faced by indigenous people, racialized people?
Answer:
I think when we look at systemic racism, there are, of course, individual challenges. On the individual situations that we’ve seen over the past number of weeks highlighted, obviously there need to be careful and full investigations into those situations. But we also need to take a step back and look at the scope of the system and address the challenges that exist within there. [voice of interpreter] I know that when we talk about the systemic problem, yes, there are individual elements of that, but it’s also the system that has to change. and the examples that we have seen recently, say, in the last 10 days, make it clear that there has to be investigations conducted on those individual situations so we know exactly what happened. But we also need to reflect on the system as a whole and address these problems and transform the system so that racialized and indigenous Canadians are better protected. [end of translation].
Question:
I asked your office this earlier this week and they weren’t able to answer so I hope you can. You have spoken many times about the need for more and better dis aggregated data in Canada, and yet when you were setting your government’s priorities last year you did not make universal, widespread, dis aggregated data collection a mandate for Minister Bains. You only mandated him to do it for the census which is only every five years. Why is that?
Answer:
We recognize there have long been challenges in Canada about collecting dis aggregated data, it’s indeed a challenge around the world. Which is why a number of years ago we invested millions of dollars to statistics Canada to start improving our ability to collect race-based data, disaggregated data. We know there’s a lot more work to do and that’s what we’re working on. [voice of interpreter] a number of years ago we realized that we need to have better data, including geographic data. That’s why we did invest additional funds in statistics Canada so we can do better in that regard. There is still a lot of work to be done and we will do that. [end of translation].
Question:
We know that the COVID-19 crisis disproportionately affects women, but we don’t know what the effect is on racial minorities because the data is not collected. Why should people take you seriously now when you did not make it a priority when you set the priorities across the board?
Answer:
As I said, we have made great investments to the collection of dis aggregated data. We have made progress on that, but there is much more to do, not just at the federal level, but in the provinces as well. Through the early days of COVID-19, we collected numbers of cases without even having age or in some cases gender data on who was being affected. So we know we need to do much better to properly understand where things are hitting hardest in this COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, however, we haven’t waited until we get data to address the challenges posed by certain vulnerable populations. We’ve flowed greater funding to comity organizations and grassroots organizations that are helping out people we already know to be more vulnerable and marginalized. We will continue to do that, but we need to do a better job around dis aggregated data and that’s what we will do. [voice of interpreter] right from the start, we realized that the data collected on COVID-19 cases lacked a lot of detail. We didn’t have the age of many of the infected Canadians. So we knew that we had to do more. But at the same time, we also knew that the most vulnerable communities would be disproportionately hit and affected. That’s why we invested money in community organizations that aid the most vulnerable Canadians so that we are there to help. But we must do more. [end of translation].
Question:
Kevin Gallagher, CTV national news. There is a March happening in Ottawa to protest racism. Can you tell us if you’ll be joining that March and what type of message you think you’d like to send to those protesters? if you’re not going, can you tell me why you won’t be going to the March?
Answer:
Canadians right across the country are joining together and standing up to speak out clearly about the systemic racism that has existed for far too long in our country. We have thousands of people stepping forward to highlight the challenges and to show that they want to be allies. I salute the work they’re doing. I highlight our government will be a partner. I look forward to continuing to see thousands of Canadians protesting peacefully right across the country. [voice of interpreter] I know that there are great many Canadians across the country who are peacefully demonstrating to express their concern about systemic discrimination and anti-black and anti-indigenous racism. We must work together as a country to improve things. I AM happy to see people peacefully demonstrating for change. [end of translation].
Question:
I want to ask you as well. Major telecom companies in Canada have decided against using huawei. Canada’s five eyes allies have ruled against using huawei. It’s been two years. What’s taking so long for you to decide about using huawei in Canada?
Answer:
We continue to work with our intelligence agencies and our security services to take the right decision for Canadians as we move forward and ensure that we remain competitive, while keeping Canadians safe and keeping their businesses safe. [voice of interpreter] we will continue to work with our intelligence agencies and security agencies to ensure that we’re making the right decisions to protect Canadians and Canadian businesses, while also ensuring proper competitiveness for our country. [end of translation]