Justin Trudeau. Image credit: Official site

Daniel Jean, Trudeau's national security adviser, led the talks with Wang Yongqing, the secretary-general of China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, CBCNews reports said..

"The two sides agreed that neither country's government would conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors," said a communique from the Prime Minister's Office.

Canada and China also discussed about a possible extradition treaty which Canada said is a long way to go but is desired by China, said the statement.

The topics of the agenda included Cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, combating organized crime and regional security issues like the crisis in Syria and North Korea's nuclear sabre-rattling.

The two sides also discussed judicial and rule of law issues, the government statement said.

John McCallum, the former immigration minister now serving as Canada's ambassador to China, had previously flagged judicial issues as an area of disagreement between the two as Canada tries to deepen its economic ties.

"We disagree on the death penalty," McCallum told a House Commons committee in March.

"We disagree on some aspects of the rule of law and privately and publicly on how the Chinese government treats human rights advocates."
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(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

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                                    Marie Claude Bibeau. Image credit: Twitter handle

Despite many requests for more money, Bibeau acknowledged, during an interview on Friday, she would prefer to have more funding for international development, NationalPostNews reports said.

According to United Nations (UN) target, Canada, like the United Kingdom, was required to have spent 0.7 percent of its gross national income on foreign aid in contrast to the present 0.26 percent.

The government was also asked, by the November report of a Liberal-majority Commons committee, to try to reach the UN target by 2030.

But Bibeau emphasized the reason for government’s changed approach was to ensure $5-billion fund to achieve the maximum impact.

In 2002 under a Liberal government, the then-Canadian International Development Agency, which is now amalgamated in Global Affairs Canada, decided to focus on nine countries as enhanced partners.

In 2005, a list of 25 partners was suggested.

Due to the restriction of this strategy under Harper’s Conservative government, in 2009 only 80 percent of the budget was allotted to 20 priority countries.

By 2014, 90 percent of budget was earmarked for 25 countries: five in the Americas, seven in the Asia-Pacific, 10 in sub-Saharan Africa, plus the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and Ukraine.

Although Harper government said this decision was based on the rationale that allocating more money in concentrated areas would provide more effective aid with improved results, but the government received criticism for including countries based on Canadian trade interests, particularly in Latin America and Ukraine.

After a review of foreign assistance that included broad consultation, Canada’s focus on specific countries was rejected.

A detailed rationale was not included in the policy released Friday. It only said that they were looking for a more flexible approach.

Bibeau emphasized that funding will be refocused on the poorest and most vulnerable countries keeping in mind the new feminist policy.

“It might mean a bit more (funding) somewhere, a bit less somewhere, a bit more focus on a certain area,” said Bibeau, news reported.

Without going into specifics, Bibeau said a full half of funding would be committed to sub-Saharan Africa having low-income populations and added there would be allocation of funds for female empowerment projects.

She wanted to increase the funds for such projects, from 2.6 percent in the 2015-16 fiscal year, to up to 15 per cent by 2020-21.
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Local organization of about 30 developing countries, over five years, would receive $150 million in funding for “Women’s Voice and Leadership Program.”

 “My target is really 100 per cent. I’m asking all our partners to have a women’s empowerment component. … And if they don’t have any, the project has to be approved by the minister… we obviously always want to be sure that Canadian money is well-utilized,” said Bibeau, News reports said.
 
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

#AutismSpectrum,  #MichaelCoteau, #IntensiveBehaviouralIntervention; #IBI,          #AppliedBehaviourAnalysis #ABA; #OntarioAutismProgram, #BruceMcIntosh, ​ 
 
Toronto, June 10 (Canadian-Media): The launch of new autism program, this week, by Liberal government was expected to run more smoothly than last attempt which had created outrage and protests among thousands of families, media reports said.

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 Image of Michael Coteau: Twitter handle

Direct involvement of families and advocates, this time, during the process of developing the program and inclusion of many elements families have been urging for 12 years, were the key factors in the expected smooth running of the program, said Ontario Autism Coalition president Bruce McIntosh.

"Twelve years is a hell of a long time to be yelling about something," said McIntosh, CBCNews reports said.

Another positive factor of the new program was the absence of the severity of diagnosis as a limiting factor, enabling availability of intensive services to previously rejected kids anywhere on the spectrum.

Children would begin moving into the new program and intensive therapy will not be limited to children under five, said Michael Coteau, Minister of Children and Youth Services and Minister Responsible for Anti-Racism, announced regulation of applied behavioural analysis practitioners.

"Ontario's behaviour analysts are optimistic about the impact this commitment can have on the lives of individuals receiving behaviour analytic services," Louis Busch, president of the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis, said in a statement.

The government’s announcement of merging Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) into a service to tailor the intensity of therapy to a child's individual needs had received a very positive response.

This was in contrast to the government’s announcement, last year, that during the rollout of the program for two years, it would stop funding IBI for kids over four, forcing them to pay $8,000 for private therapy during the transition.

The parents, of hundreds of children, were agitated when they learnt, after waiting two or three years on the IBI wait list, that they were removed from the list in exchange for a small amount of money to cover a few months of therapy.

After assuming his new job, Coteau announced these families would get successive payments of $10,000 for private therapy until the new program was up and running and he moved up the start date for the program to 2017.

Although the newly designed $533-million Ontario Autism Program still does not distinguish between ABA and IBI, but it is reported to be open to all an estimated 40,000 children and youth in Ontario under 18 with a diagnosis anywhere on the autism spectrum.

It was reported that a 1-800 number will provide a single point of contact for information and referral, and each family will have a service co-ordinator and will get a family services plan that will be updated based on need.

The families, through this new program, would also have the option of a direct funding allowing families to either receive funds to pay for private therapy or use government-funded services.
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A new review mechanism is also being designed to enable these families to challenge a treatment decision.
 
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

#IndigenousWomen, #Montreal’s375thbirthday, #HannahClaus, #FirstNations
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Toronto, June 5 (Canadian-Media): To Commemorate Montreal’s 375th birthday, artists, throughout the summer, will be displaying new work of art on window fronts across the city of Montreal as part of the annual Les fenêtres qui parlent summer art project, which translates to "the windows that talk”, media reports said.

One of the participating artists of this year, Hannah Claus, of Mohawk and English heritage, would reportedly contribute to 19 different window displays, one for each neighborhood.

Topic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls appealed to Claus most, because as Claus said this " issue is something that is seen as not as prevalent in Quebec. In the headlines you see it as more so happening in the west and in B.C.”

“I wanted my windows to really speak about something that was important, and have them really talk," said Claus, CBCNews reports said.

Claus labelled the series of her displays "je me souviens," which translates to "I remember" and added that the title points to the Quebec’s motto seen on licence plates.

Claus decided to create different styles of windows, some honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women, while others displaying statistics, and still others displaying statistics of the rates of violence experienced by Indigenous women in Quebec.

Claus had done a video project, in 2015, in which she filmed people from three First Nation communities, Odanak, Kanesatake and Kahnawake as well as people from Montreal as they were writing out the names of missing or murdered Indigenous women.

Claus retained the original copies of the handwritten names for use in this new project.

"[These windows] have more of a punch to the gut really … I didn't want this [project] to be just a commemoration," she said. "I wanted it to be understood as something that is a crisis, is ongoing and hasn't been resolved."

Claus's displays rose in popularity in Rosemont and Outremon where these remained for four days, with the most recent display being in the Pierrefond-Roxboro neighbourhood.