Some media companies have been denied status by Ottawa as a so-called Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization, eligible to claim payroll tax credits from Ottawa’s $595 million news media bailout. They will also thus likely be unable to receive payments from Google’s promised $100 million annual contribution to Canadian media under the Online News Act.

Here’s how bad things have gotten in Canada’s troubled newspaper industry: one bankrupt chain is now being taken over by a chain that is effectively bankrupt. Believe it or not, there is a high-finance method to this madness, but as CD media columnist Marc Edge explains, it takes a vulture capitalist mindset to wrap your brain around it.

Old journalists need to get over their resistance to press subsidies, writes CD media columnist Marc Edge. The real threat to press freedom is not subsidies, but in how they are provided. Canada, and especially its most hide-bound old journalists, could learn a lot from other countries about how to foster a healthy news ecosystem through smart media subsidies.

Journalism purists argue that any government funding would taint news media, but the crisis has grown to such an extent that subsidies are now considered by most to be by far the lesser of two evils. Some countries have found ways of subsidizing news media that leave little question about their independence from government.

With Google’s latest financial contribution, Canada’s emerging online news media have some hope for a change. As Marc Edge explains, with the money being doled out by the Canadian Journalism Collective instead of Big Media, there is a better chance for them to compete for it on a level playing field. The twist is just the latest in the long-running soap opera that has been the Online News Act

Québec’s ambitious strategy for regional development across the entire lifespan of rechargeable batteries proposes real benefits in a challenging transition away from fossil fuels and dependence on conflict resources, but at what cost? As the meeting between Attal and Legault shows, Québec’s future is being shaped to cater to big capital.

The Ottawa Declaration on Canadian Journalism is little more than a symbolic gesture of protest, but considering its source it no doubt sets the subsidies up for cancellation should the Conservatives form the next government as expected. That would precipitate a worse crisis, leaving cities from coast to coast without a major source of news.

While the US claims that Mali is turning the screws on the mining industry because it wants to hand lucrative gold mines to Russian interests, these reforms are part of a broader anti-colonial uprising sweeping the region. If Mali continues to put pressure on Canadian mining companies, it would not be unreasonable to assume Ottawa may involve itself in the dispute.

The 2024 budget does not get us anywhere near the kind of public leadership that we need. But the increase to capital gains taxes is an important, if minor, reversal of tax cuts that increased the wealth and power of the richest families at the expense of everyone else. That increase needs to be defended against the vested interests that will refuse any challenge to their power.

Budget 2024 took a significant step towards tax fairness by increasing the capital gains inclusion rate on Canada’s richest individuals and corporations. Tellingly, a measure designed to tax the rich to fund crucial public investments has caused a wave of outrage amongst a very vocal minority. Muneeb Javaid of Canadians for Tax Fairness explains.