 Good morning! It's Hanna Lee.
To cap off a week that lasted decades, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to shuffle his cabinet today. More on that below, but we'll be livestreaming the event from 10 a.m. ET.
We'll also look at the difficult process through which Palestinians get cash in Gaza and how exorbitantly expensive e-books are holding up the queue at one Ontario library. | | | Trudeau is shuffling his cabinet today. And this one matters more than most
| | |  | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a Laurier Club holiday party event in Gatineau, Que., on Dec. 16. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
| Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to shuffle his cabinet today. It comes at a crucial and fraught time for the Liberal leader, following a series of high-profile resignations and calls from within his own party for him to resign.
What could be changing: Sources told CBC News yesterday that the shuffle will involve at least 10 people.
That includes two potential additions:
- Ottawa MP David McGuinty, replacing Dominic LeBlanc as public safety minister. LeBlanc recently took over the finance portfolio from Chrystia Freeland.
- Toronto MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith is expected to take over housing from Sean Fraser, who resigned from cabinet Monday.
Who won't be part of the shuffle: Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor. Those discussions are over, LeBlanc recently told Brunswick News.
What it means for Trudeau: Don't take it as a sign that he's made his mind up about his future, a senior government source said. Since Freeland's sudden and unexpected departure, Trudeau has been seeking advice and reflecting, sources said.
He's also told MPs he'll take time to reflect on criticisms of his leadership. But they say he hasn't specified when he'd report back on that. It appears the opposition is growing — 16 Liberal MPs have now publicly called for the prime minister to step down. | | | | | | | | In related news: The NDP is sending mixed signals on whether it will vote non-confidence in the Trudeau government, which would trigger an early election. But the party's vague messaging doesn't appear to be hurting it in polls. | | | | | | | The only way Palestinians can get cash in Gaza is to use money exchangers — who take a big cut
| | |  | Mohammed Barghout, right, uses a money exchanger, left. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)
| With a war that has stretched on more than a year in Gaza, banks remain shut and banknotes are in short supply.
That means Palestinians looking to get cash are forced to digitally transfer money to men known as exchangers — who take a large cut for themselves.
Mohamed El Saife, CBC's freelance videographer in Gaza, spoke with Mohammed Barghout, who made a transaction with such an exchanger.
The 47-year-old lost his job as an IT engineer when the war began. With his family, he was displaced many times before sheltering in Khan Younis. He and his wife have three young kids and a baby, and on this day, he was looking to buy food and diapers.
Here’s what 200 shekels gets you in Gaza.
The exchange fee: Barghout exchanges 360 shekels ($144 Cdn). He is given 200 shekels, or just $80 Cdn, in return.
Diapers: Wartime inflation has sharply increased the price of scarce food and essentials, so what's left after the exchange doesn't go very far. He can't afford a packet of 30 diapers, which costs 100 shekels. He settles for 10 — that's 30 shekels.
Food: The small list he can afford includes four bananas, two hard-boiled eggs, feta cheese and two rolls of toilet paper.
What’s left: He has just 17 shekels remaining. The food he bought isn’t enough to keep the family full — and he knows he'll have to return to the exchanger again soon for the next meal. | | | | | | | | | | | Readers, libraries battle 'astronomical' hold queues on year's top e-books
| | |  | The Ottawa Public Library is seeing some major setbacks with its e-book borrowing program. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC)
| Get your reading list ready for the holidays — you could be in for a long wait at the library. E-books have surged in popularity, especially over the COVID-19 pandemic. Makes sense: They're convenient, accessible and, theoretically, copies are unlimited.
But the Ottawa Public Library is seeing some major setbacks with e-book borrowing.
Take its most popular book of the year — The Women by Kristin Hannah. It has 75 copies of the e-book, but the waitlist is 1,200 people and the maximum borrowing period is 21 days. So if you placed a hold on it today, you could be waiting well over a year to get it. The wait is similar for its other most popular titles.
Why this is happening: E-books are expensive — in some cases up to six times the price of the print edition.
But Mary Chevreau, head of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, mentioned another issue. Major book publishers throttle access to e-books, selling them to libraries for a limited time or a limited number of circulations — or even both. That means libraries have to repurchase access to the same book if they want to keep them in circulation.
That only began with e-books, she said.
It's a big contrast to physical library books, which tend to come with years of dog ears, coffee stains and random annotations in the margins. | | | | | | | | | In case you missed it
|
- The U.S. House rejected president-elect Donald Trump's plan to suspend the debt ceiling and fund federal operations. A U.S. government shutdown will happen if no deal is reached by the time the clock turns to Saturday.
- Over the last 18 years, both Conservative and Liberal federal governments spent at least $14.5 million fighting a well-known First Nations child advocacy organization in court.
- Canada's carbon emissions declined about one per cent in 2023 from the previous year, despite the population and economy growing. It's a small positive sign that comes at a crucial time — 2024 is set to be the hottest year on record.
- Today's episode of CBC's Front Burner interviews Timothy Snyder, an American historian. Looking back at past authoritarian regimes might help people understand Trump's second term in U.S. office, he says.
| | | | | | | And, something fun happening this weekend in Quebec...
| | | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation hits different in Quebec. Its director is about to see why
| | |  | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation — or as it's known in Quebec, Le sapin a des boules — plays at Montreal's Club Soda, complete with live actors on stage mirroring the scenes. (Communications Mingotwo)
| Jeremiah Chechik has attended plenty of screenings of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, his 1989 comedy directorial debut.
But the one he's attending this weekend, in his hometown of Montreal's Club Soda, will be unlike anything he's seen before.
Actors on stage will mirror scenes from the film, while audience members, many dressed in character, will shout out predetermined lines in reaction to key moments.
It takes a cue from screenings of the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show — and National Lampoon is a bit of a cult favourite in Quebec.
"I could be weeping profusely or burying my head in my hands," said Chechik. "I have no idea." | | | | | | | | | | | Today in History: Dec. 20
| | | 1803: With the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. buys most of what's now the central part of the country from France, nearly doubling its size.
1968: John Steinbeck dies. The legendary American author's classics include The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.
2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Ontario government announce a nearly $4-billion bailout package to General Motors and Chrysler to help them fend off bankruptcy.
| | | (With files from The Canadian Press)
Thanks for reading! Have a good weekend.
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