Counterpoint - Thursday, May 30th, 2019

Alex is joined by:

Tasha Kheiriddin 

Global News Contributor and Founder and CEO of Ellipsum Communications

and

Joe Mihevic

Former Toronto City Councillor

Topics include:

VP Pence came to talk trade--- and he and our PM exchanged celebratory jabs, but while Pence is behind the Warriors, there is one trade he wants more than any other….. SB: Are the Raptors now Canada’s team?

The NBA announced today that multi-platinum selling recording artists The Tenors will perform the Canadian national anthem tonight ahead of Game 1 of the 2019 NBA Finals. Seriously, couldn’t we do better than this??? The Tenors??!!

Bill 66 passed in April. This is a piece of legislation that allows municipalities and school boards etc to break the decades long practice of giving the same construction companies being awarded big contracts because of their affiliation with certain trade unions. In Toronto alone--allowing competition would free up to 400 million in one year.

Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will not commit to legislating an end to the -doing-nothing-will-they controversial Hwy. 407 lease, despite defending that tactic to break a contract with The Beer Store. Fedeli was asked if his government would be prepared to use legislation to back out of the 407 contract which sold the highway in 1999 for $3.1 billion. Doug Ford hates this deal. It is an awful deal--Should they look at getting out of it? 

Despite the Liberal government's vow to crack down on ultra wealthy tax cheats, the CBC learns that the CRA has been making deals with a number of tax dodgers who used the now-infamous Isle of Man scheme to hide their money.. The scheme enabled clients to dodge tens of millions of dollars in taxes in Canada by making it look as if multimillionaires had given away their fortunes to anonymous overseas shell companies and get their investment income back as tax-free gifts. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosted VP Pence today and raised concerns about what he called a “backsliding” on women’s rights in the United States. Pence is one of the most prominent American abortion opponents. And when the question about abortion was asked it was 50 shades of awkward. This was nothing more than a stunt to play politics to his base? But embarrassing Pence isn’t in our best interest?

Meanwhile, Disney is weighing in… is this something a private company should concern itself with? Disney likely to stop filming in Georgia if abortion law takes effect.

We learn that the Privy Council Office disclosed it conducted confidential polling related to an out-of-court settlement with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. months before Liberal aides sought a deal with the company. Ipsos washired to do the polling for one million dollars...and the issue polled very badly--- most participants felt like corporate criminals could buy their way out of prosecution, that it was an issue fairness of the justice system when dealing with the rich and powerful. And yet,the Trudeau gov tried to quietly ram it through anyway.

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