Supporters and foes of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper demonstrated on Saturday in cities across Canada after a week of political crisis.
Harper on Thursday obtained an unprecedented shutdown of parliament, thwarting an opposition bid to unseat his ruling Conservatives and install a leftist coalition.
The coalition opposed to Harper groups the Liberals, New Democratic Party (NDP) and the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
They accused the Canadian prime minister of failing to shore up the Canadian economy, and were angered by a proposal — since withdrawn — to cut subsidies for political parties.
Harper attacked the opposition which had sought to bring a motion of no-confidence against the government today, saying the coalition was led by socialists and separatists.
Most Canadians backed Thursday’s move by Governor General Michaelle Jean to suspend parliament and avert the vote, an Ipsos poll found.
Some 56 percent of respondents said they would preferred to return to the polls rather than let the coalition take power.
The coalition hopes to topple the government when work resumes next month.
If Harper’s government collapses, it will be up to Jean to decide if she calls new general elections or gives the coalition a chance to govern.
The biggest demonstration on Saturday brought out 2,500 people in Calgary, Alberta.
In Toronto, about 2,000 people rallied with Liberal leader Stephane Dion and NDP chief Jack Layton.
“Harper took an economic crisis and added the parliamentary crisis, but he then tried to transform it into a national unity crisis — all of this because he cares more about his job than your jobs,” Dion said.
Layton added that Harper “by closing down parliament ... has silenced your voice. He has turned his back on the economy and on the people who are being thrown out of work.”
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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