CTVN - Monday, May 27, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #30

accounted for. Ctv's tony grace is standing by with more in the international newsroom and the devastating picture. What is the latest. >> Reporter: the landslide hitting friday while many people sleeping. The devastation and the scope of it becoming a lot more clear today. The government in papua new guinea estimating 2,000 people buried alive underneath the debris of the landslide. Here is a map showing where it happened. This is a mountainous region as you mentioned. Not a lot of census data to indicate how many people are missing or check that against figures provided by the local communities. Right now a sense of december per ragdesperation setting in. This is 6 to 8 metres of earth and rock and debris covering dozens of home in the area. Part of the problem this is a remote area in the mountain it's difficult to get heavy machinery. And the first excavator arrived yesterday. Acts of desperation and people digging with hands and sticks and garden shovels and anything they can gather together in order to try to access the area beneath the rubble to try to see if they can get anyone out alive. At this point, we understand that only about 8 people, 8 bodies have been removed from the debris of the landslide that happened after weeks and weeks of heavy rain. Then there's the question of getting aid in as well. That's a whole complicated thing in itself todd. There is tribal warfare in the area. And that means aid workers and experts who are trying to assess the stability of the land, they have to be shuttled in often with military escorts and slows the process down. Papua new guinea nearest neighbour australia is the first to pledge support to offer aircraft expected to be mobilized today and more equipment into the area. But you can just see by the images todd just an absolutely devastating and an absolutely unthinkable task and magnitude to try to help the communities devastated by this landslide that happened friday. >> Todd: ctv's tony grace in the national newsroom in ottawa. We want to bring you up to speed by another story in the middle east. Canada will grant temporary visas for 5,000 for those living in the war torn enclave and preparatory move in case they're able to leave in the future. And that is increase of a thousand temporary visas alocalled for a special prompt announced in december. Let's go to ottawa and hearing from the leader of the ndp jagmeet singh taking questions on that story and more. Let's listen in here. >> The liberals announced today that they're going to be increasing the cap on the gaza visa program from 1,000 to 5,000. What are your thoughts on raising the gap? >> Something we have to do. Take a moment to reflect what is happening right now. What we're seeing out of rafah is horrific. We saw women and children burned alive in tents. And what we have seen from this government is delay in action. So we're going to be asking questions in question period today what will it take for the prime minister, what will it take for the liberal government to finally send a clear message toll netanyahu that his actions are inexcusable. And that we demand this government take every step possible to prevent a genocide. [ Speaking french ] >> Voice of Interpreter: the measure of increasing the number of refugees to canada for people from gaza is something important that we support. But we need to take a moment to highlight what is going on right now. The images coming out of rafah are horrific. Women and children burned alive. What will it take to have this government send a clear message that what netanyahu is doing is completely unacceptable. What will the prime minister do to prevent genocide? That's my question today. >> Specifically on raising the number to 5,000, do you think that makes a difference? How many come through the program and do you think it will change for those people waiting in gaza? >> It's great question. The program so far has not worked. There's not been enough up take and clearly a demand. We have people that are suffering brutality and horror and violence that we have not seen before in recent years. This is so serious and horrific what we're seeing. And the program has not been working. So what we want is not just an increase in terms of making sure to bring a number of people out of the horrific situation. We want a program that works. To do that, we need to make sure that this liberal government hears from thecomplaints not working and not an up take in the program and not working and address the problems and ensure we are doing everything we can to save people's lives.

[ Speaking french ] >> Voice of Interpreter: the government said it's difficult to get the approvals with israeli authorities and egyptian authorities. Do you believe that reason given by the liberal government or do you think that they just increased expectations and wait times? >> Voice of Interpreter: I do understand there are some obstacles and challenges. I understand. It's unacceptable for the government to keep -- nothing more to do. The government has to take action with urgency. The level of urgency and crisis and horror of what is happening in gaza has attained levels that demand urgent action. >> Voice of Interpreter: right now, there are parliamentary hearings on anti-semitism going on. We have seen the university leaders are being -- are meeting with MPs. This reflects what is going on in the U.S. what do you think of this in the future? >> Voice of Interpreter: insurance when we talk about anti-semitism, it is a real problem. I fear for the rise in hate that we have seen across the country. I know that with what is going on, the war in gaza, this means that there is an increase in islamophobia and anti-semitism. This concerns me. And I'd like to create a space in canada where everyone can feel safe where we can deal with hate, whether that's jewish people, people of palestinian origin, muslims. Everyone must be safe in canada. I fear that there will be a rise of hate and tension at the time where we need more compassion and unity. >> Todd: some people listening to the ledder of the ndp and he and his colleagues need to get in there to question period. Let's listen in. [ Speaking french ] >> Voice of Interpreter: it will go up in the next few year according to the federal office that keeps an eye on banking in canada after the prime minister promised that interest rates would stay low for canadians. All this while the bloc is voting in favour of $500 billion of bureaucratic inflationist centralized spending that increases interest rates. When will the prime minister cut waste and lower interest rates? >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable deputy prime minister and minister of finance. >> Voice of Interpreter: , Mr. Speaker, the canadians don't care about canadians having a hard time paying their mortgages. We know this because have refused to support our canadian charter for mortgages which is really something that will help canadians. They oppose 30-year mortgages for first-time home buyers. The only thing that canadians are in favour of is cut cut cut. >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable leader of the opposition. >> Voice of Interpreter: cutting taxes, absolutely, Mr. Speaker. According to the journal de montréal quebec's taxpayers are being bled dry. Obviously it's not a surprise to see that 75% of respondents to a leger poll said they're not getting their money's worth. The liberal bloc meanwhile wants to increase taxes but at least accept my common sense plan to suspend gas taxes for the summer. >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable deputy prime minister and minister of finance. >> Voice of Interpreter: Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the conservatives don't have a plan. The only thing that the conservatives understand is austerity. The only thing that they can do is cut cut and cut some more. They want to cut our plan -- our dental care plan that is very popular in quebec. They want to cut our school food program. Once again a very popular program in quebec. Obviously they're not going to support our plan for young children. Very important for quebecers as well. [ End of interpretation ] >> The honourable leader of the opposition. >> After nine years, this ndp-liberal prime minister is not worth the cost of mortgages. 76% of which will become more expensive in the next three years according to the federal banking regulator. This after the prime minister said rates would stay low for long. We know that his massive

government deficits have driven rates up two percentage points higher than they otherwise would be according to scotia bank. Will he accept my common sense dollar for dollar plan to cap spending and cut waste to bring down interest rates so canadians keep their homes? [ Applause ] >> The Speaker: the honourable deputy prime minister and minister of finance. >> , Mr.Mr. Speaker, we know the canadians don't actually care about canadians who are struggling to pay their mortgage. We though that. When we put forward something very concrete to support those canadians, to strengthen canadian mortgage charter, they refused to support it. When we put forward a plan to help first time home buyers with 30 year mortgage amortization, the conservatives voted against it. The fact is the only thing these conservatives know how to do is cut cut cut. And the only canadians they care about are themselves. [ Applause ] >> The Speaker: the honourable leader of the opposition. >> Mr. Speaker, we have voted against everything this prime minister has done to balloon the cost of living of canadians, to increase food bank use by 50% over three years, to send one quarter of all young people to the food bank in three months alone. One quarter of all canadians skipping meals because they cannot afford a home. 8% increase in homelessness since 2019. 50 new homeless encampments in toronto now a total of 256 of them in the biggest city in the country. Why is it that the more they spend, the more canadians hurt? [ Applause ] >> The Speaker: the deputy prime minister and minister of finance. >> Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from the conservatives when it comes to supporting the most vulnerable canadians. The fact is when we formed government and when they left government, the poverty rate in canada was 14.5%. It is now 9.9%. The canada child benefit has lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, the gis helps 900,000 seniors, the only thing they know how to do is cut cut cut! Tory times are hard time, Mr. Speaker,. >> The Speaker: the honourable leader of the opposition. >> We know how to cut taxes, Mr. Speaker, that is why we reduced poverty and had affordable homes nine years ago when common sense conservatives were in government. Since that time, housing costs have doubled, mortgage payments have doubled, rent has doubled, the number of homeless encampments in canada is up by hundreds of percent. We now have one in four canadians skipping meals because they can't afford the cost of food. Will the government finally stop? Stop the policies that make canadians poorer, get off the backs of the working people, and let canadians keep their homes? [ Applause ] >> The Speaker: the honourable deputy prime minister and minister of finance. >> Mr. Speaker, we know what the conservatives really believe and what they really do. When this leader was in government, how many homes did he actually get built? Six Mr. Speaker. Just six homes. We know what conservatives do to programs that support the most vulnerable. Cut cut cut. We have put forward a national school program and dental care program and national learning and child care. They want to cut the programs, we won't let them Mr.. [ Speaking French ] >> Voice of Interpreter: deal with asylum seekers. Last thursday he wrote to the minister because nothing happened since then. I remind the minister that he said the status quo was no longer acceptable but since this meeting it's the status quo and the public services are having a really hard time, we have a working group not working. Is there a working group? When will they meet and when will they deliver results? [ Applause ] >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable minister of refugees and immigration and citizenship. >> Voice of Interpreter: thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to say to the house that the working group will be meeting in the upcoming week. But that doesn't mean that work hasn't been done upstream to get ready for those meetings. I spoke with the minister this morning and I'm looking to see the work move ahead. It was not acceptable. >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable member. >> Voice of Interpreter: since

2017, quebec has welcomed more than 50% of asylum seekers in canada and 22% of the population. I will remind the minister that he denied this imbalance for months. He even suggested that the idea of having a welcoming capacity was not necessarily a clear idea. He has since seen the light and only fools who don't change ideas. Now is he going to stop demonizing quebec and stop trying to buy time and finally make sure that this situation is fixed. >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable minister. >> Voice of Interpreter: it's true Mr. Speaker. We know that the bloc quebecois doesn't understand the capacity and desire to welcome but we are going to work to make sure that asylum seekers are welcoming across the country. There are several provinces that are taking on a nigher number and needs to be fixed. >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable member. [ End of interpretation ] >> It's difficult to describe the horror of what is going on in rafah. Women and children burned alive in tents. They were told they were in a safe zone in a refugee encampment. Yet, they were burned alive. What will it take for this liberal government to send a message to netanyahu that what has happened is inexcusable? What will it take for this government to take actions to prevent this genocide from happening? [ Applause ] >> The Speaker: the honourable minister for foreign affairs. >> Mr. Speaker, even in times of war, there are rules. Images coming out of rafah are horrific and heart breaking. Our position has been clear on rafah and we've been saying it now for weeks. Palestinian civilians don't have any safe space to go. The killing of innocent civilians is completely unacceptable. And the decisions of the international court of justice are binding. The level of human suffering is catastrophic and that's why Mr. Speaker, we need an immediate ceasefire. [ Applause ] [ Speaking french ] >> Voice of Interpreter: the honourable member. >> Voice of Interpreter: the images from rafah are horrific. Women and children have been burned alive. What will it take for this government to send a clear message to netanyahu that what he's doing is inexcusable? What is it going to take for this government to finally act to prevent this genocide? [ Applause ] >> The Speaker: the honourable minister of global affairs. >> Voice of Interpreter: thank you Mr. Speaker. Northern the time of war, there are rules to be followed and the images coming out of rafah are horrible and heart breaking. Our position on rafah is clear and we have been clear now for weeks. Palestinian civilians don't have anywhere to go. And killing innocent civilians is completely unacceptable. The decisions of the international court of justice are binding. The level of suffering for civilians is catastrophic and that is why there must be a ceasefire immediately. [ End of interpretation ] >> The honourable of calgary and forest lawn. >> After nine years of the ndp liberal homeowner is up because of the carbon tax scam leaves canadians with less money in the pockets and food in the bellies and gas in the cars. >> Todd: all right we've listening to question period on monday. And keep an eye on it. Get to breaking news we're tracking out of the province of quebec on monday and amber alert issued for two young children in the town of saint vallier that is located east of quebec city. It's across the St. Lawrence river in the an latch region of the province and police are looking for 3-year-old evelyne gourges and charles gourges and believed taken by a 40-year-old man kelly sutherland. -- keven gourgues. We're not sure of the relationship and we're trying to confirm that. See where saint vallier is relation to quebec city. They are reportedly in a 2013 white honda civic with the black hood on the car. Licence plate is 53v ace and anyone who may have any information related to their whereabouts is being asked to call the local police immediately.

>>> The prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu is now vowing there will be an investigation into an air strike in rafah in southern gaza that killed dozens of palestinian civilians. Netanyahu calling the attack a tragic mistake. [ Speaking Alternate language ] >> Todd: netanyahu speaking in hebrew there saying a million people have been evacuated but something went tragically wrong. The gaza health ministry saying at least 45 people killed including women and children. Israel is saying that the strike killed two senior hamas militants. Netanyahu saying the operation went wrong despite israel's ongoing efforts to protect and evacuate civilians in rafah. Aid groups saying this incident is not a surprise at all. >> From the beginning we've been saying nowhere safe in gaza. This just proves that point, that, you know, despite naming some zones as safe zones, as humanitarian zones as humanitarian corridors we know nowhere in gaza is safe today. Anywhere you are you can be killed by gun fire and bombing and fire or you can be dying from starvation or lack of access to clean water. So nowhere is safe in gaza today. This just exemplifies this in the most horrific way. >> Todd: here is a better look of the after math of the air strike on the camp in rafah and see tents reduced to ashes as well as charred vehicles. Comes just two days after the international court of justice ordered israel to end its military offensive in rafah. There are still tens of thousands of people in the area. The U.S. is now calling on israel to do more to protect palestinian civilians and also says it's now working with the idf or israel defence force, to investigate what exactly happened here. >> Everybody knows that there is a lot of civilian life being lost in gaza. But the recent study by the urban war institute at west point found in terms of raw numbers have been fewer casualties than pretty much any previous attempt in conducting war in the built up urban environment. You won't get to zero no matter how hard you try. >> Todd: gaza's hamas-run health ministry saying more than half of those killed in the strikes on the camp again women and children.

>>> Back in our country, an 8:00 A.M. deadline, 8:00 A.M. eastern in toronto come and gone for demonstrators at a pro-palestinian encampment at the university of toronto for them to clear out. Protest organizers say they plan to hold the ground in the effort to force the university to meet the demands. >> We owe it to the community and they led a rally with us and hundreds of workers come out that represents over a million workers 54 unions. It shows that the people are on our side. We have another meeting scheduled with administration at 5 P.M. and we are hoping to continue negotiation with them at that time. >> Todd: all right, 5:00 P.M. eastern, which is coming up in about two and a half hours. At this point it is a stalemate. U of t the biggest university in the country. By the way the protests have been there for about a month now and are officially trespassing. Not sure how it will play out and bring in ctv's christina with more on the action of u of t finally taking and places in calgary and edmonton they moved in much faster and u of t took a conciliatory approach and the protest kept growing and growing. >> Reporter: the date was may 2nd according to the university of toronto in which they determined the encampment was an encampment. And the university of toronto saying back then and again more recently that look while we as a university and educational institution and also canadian institution recognize people's constitutional rights and freedom of expression of course and your ability to protest and have a peaceful assembly, they say that their grounds are private grounds and while they do authorize a number of groups from time to time to make use of the property, anything that constitutes an encampment is trespassing. They said this earlier in the month I believe in end of april when they perhaps put out the notice. For sure the beginning of may. Yesterday the university of toronto issued a formal trespassing notice to protestors. This is after the president of the university of toronto put forward an offer to protestors quite thorough in what was being offered in terms of, you know, the list provided by the president. It wasn't some quick comment. It was a pretty thorough offer. And the protestors saying that's not good enough. They came forward with their own very thorough counter offer. Here we are a bit of a stalemate. You see the note from the university of toronto to the u of t community from the president up on the screen. Noting what I wanted to get to here your question what happens here next? The university of toronto is moving forward with an injunction essentially they are going to court and seek an injunction that says protestors you have to move. If not, you will be found in contempt of court. That is if the injunction is successfully granted. The protestors continue to stand their ground. They did not leave by the 8:00 A.M. eastern time deadline this morning. They remain according to u of t trespassing with the protestors saying we are not leaving until the demands are met. Here is more from one spokes person. >> My tuition is being used to fund the development of weapons and bombs being dropped on the palestinian people which is why we're here which is why we have no other choice but to continue these negotiations. So you know the injunction was on pause until tomorrow. The court said that, yeah, they're going to postpone the hearing until tomorrow. We have to kind of wait and see. Later this evening at 5:00 we have another meeting with the administration to hopefully get them to commit to divestment. >> Reporter: I want to clarify something. The university of toronto I'm trying to find for you the exact wording. If you don't mind here, todd, but what I want to get at is the university is quite clear they have no involvement in terms of any kind of military action on behalf of the israeli military and the war in gaza. So I just want to point that out based on the comments of that spokesperson for the palestinian group for the university of toronto. The university rejects the comments saying they're not factual. Saying something else that I want to point out, the palestinian protestors and the spokes people said that today's injunction was postponed. The information we have received is that the university has moved forward with an application of the injunction and there's been no date scheduled. We know these things can move quickly. And the university's position is that this will appear before a judge sometime in the next few days. In the mean time, the two groups are set to meet at some point today and the president says, you know, he is open to communication but again the protestors are quite adamant in the demands and essentially todd as we see standing their ground. No problems skipping this notice this morning. This trespass notice and essentially completely ignoring it saying we're not satisfied with what the university is offering and not going anywhere. >> Todd: ctv's christina tenaglia in the national newsroom with the latest. Thank you for bringing us up to

speed forest fire mean time the judge ordered pro-palestinian protestors to make some space at an encampment they set up at the university of quebec at montréal. Take a look. The demonstrators set up this camp weeks ago in the courtyard in the school in downtown montréal. The school objected and was granted an objection that now forces these protestors to stay at least two metres away from buildings as well as clear all access to doors and windows. The judge says city fire inspectors and university personnel must be allowed into the camp to conduct different safety checks. Of course, uqam is not alone. We're showing you at the university of toronto. Mcgill university mean time also dealing with an ongoing encampment. >>> It's a holiday in the united states today. Memorial day. But tomorrow donald trump will be back in a courtroom in new york city for the final stretch of the criminal trial. Closing arguments by both sides expected to last most of the day tomorrow. The prosecution will remind those 12 jurors of all of the financial paper trail they've been shown and witness testimony they heard during the trial including from a number of star witnesses including donald trump's former fixer and attack dog michael cohen and stormy daniels. After the jury will receive instructions from the judge and see whether or not donald trump is guilty on the 37 felony counts. >>> Officials say 20 people are dead after severe storms and tornadoes tore across parts of the southern and central united states over the past weekend. >> Hit so fast. It's just, you know, the only thing I can say is just pay attention to the weather alerts really. >> Todd: worse of the damage we're seeing is in states like texas and oakland arkansas. The weather is likely to continue today and also shifting east and storms expected in alabama up towards of new york city. The same systems causing recent thunderstorms in both ontario and quebec. >>> At least 16 people have been killed after a powerful cyclone crashed the coastline of bangladesh and forcing 800,000 people out of their homes. The storm swept through the region sunday before weakening this morning. Heavy rains and powerful trees toppling down on power lines as well because of the winds. That cut electricity to millions of people.

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