‘This is not the time to garden’: Calgary expected to face water crunch for another week
Calgarians rose to the occasion and cut their water consumption Friday, but there’s still work to do, city officials said at a media briefing Saturday morning.
Mexico's Senate passed a bill early Friday handing control of the country's recently created National Guard over to the military.
When the National Guard was created under a Constitutional reform in 2019, it was placed under civilian control. But most of its training and recruitment has been done from within the army.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says the guard must now be under military command, to prevent corruption. The lower house of Congress already approved the measure, and Lopez Obrador is expected to sign it into law.
Opposition parties said late Thursday they will file court appeals, claiming the measure violates the Constitutional guarantee on civilian control.
"Public safety is not achieved by violating the rule of law, by violating the Constitution," said Sen. Claudia Anaya Mota, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, who vowed that opposition would quickly file a court challenge.
For years, Mexican politicians had widely agreed the country needs to improve its often corrupt, underpaid and ill-trained civilian police forces, and stop relying on military forces to fight drug gang violence. Even Lopez Obrador had, earlier in his career called for soldiers to return to the barracks. He later said he changed his mind.
In 2019, the president dissolved the old civilian Federal Police and promised the National Guard -- which unlike the United States, is completely federal and never commanded by state governors -- would remain under the control of the civilian Public Safety Department.
But that created a bureaucratic headache for the armed forces, who supplied most of the National Guard officers from the ranks of the army and marines; those officers retained their place in the military, and were considered on-loan to the new force.
Lopez Obrador no longer has enough votes in the Senate to change the constitution once again -- that would require a two-thirds majority -- and so his party simply changed the secondary laws governing the guard on a 71-51 vote.
Amnesty International said Friday's vote "will lead to more human rights violations."
"We have already seen the disastrous results of the militarization of public security forces in Mexico over the last 16 years," Edith Olivares Ferreto, director of Amnesty International Mexico, wrote in a statement, referring to rights violations and increased violence.
Of the more than 110,000 members of the National Guard, more than 80 per cent came from the army and the navy. The National Guard is only functioning because of the military leadership that organized it and the military's extensive logistics capabilities.
Nada Al-Nashif, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, wrote that "the reforms effectively leave Mexico without a civilian police force at the federal level, and further consolidate the already prominent role of the armed forces in security in Mexico."
Lopez Obrador responded angrily to criticism of the move Friday, saying he was "surprised by the attitude of some conservative legislators, their level of hypocrisy and cretinism."
He brushed off criticism by outside groups, saying "the human rights and international organizations that kept silent like accomplices during the whole period of massacres and torture, and protection of organized crime, they never said anything and now they are so worried about militarization in Mexico."
The president has entrusted the military with more responsibilities than any Mexican leader in recent memory putting them in charge of not only battling drug cartels, but also fuel theft. He had them build a new airport for the capital and a tourist train on the Yucatan Peninsula. They build bank branches in rural areas and were key in the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The military has been in the streets in a critical security role for years, well before Lopez Obrador took office. It has been accused of human rights abuses and the United Nations has long called for it to be taken out of policing.
Neither the National Guard nor the military have been able to lower the insecurity in the country, however.
Critics say the National Guard lacks the investigative and intelligence capacities of a police force. They are a visible presence on patrols and respond to violence, but do little to prevent it.
Calgarians rose to the occasion and cut their water consumption Friday, but there’s still work to do, city officials said at a media briefing Saturday morning.
Israel on Saturday carried out its largest hostage rescue operation since the latest war with Hamas began, taking four to safety out of central Gaza amid the military's heavy air and ground assault. At least 94 dead Palestinians, including children, were brought to local hospitals, a health official said.
An Ontario man says he’s still considering selling his house, despite this week’s interest rate cut, with his mortgage payments set to leap over $2,000 next month.
A freighter in Lake Superior hit something underwater on Saturday and started taking on water, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Decorated figure skater Tessa Virtue and Toronto Maple Leaf Morgan Rielly have hired a lobbyist as they seek permission to paint the exterior of their Rosedale heritage home, despite objections from city staff.
Kate, the Princess of Wales, apologized for missing Saturday's final rehearsal before the Trooping the Color parade in honor of the king's birthday.
Authorities are using boats to patrol the ocean and warning swimmers about sharks this weekend along Florida's Gulf Coast, where three people were hurt in two separate shark attacks on Friday.
A thick and heavy fog has been laying siege to the skies over St. John’s, and drawing a heavy toll from some airplane passengers who’ve seen their travel plans pummelled with no end in sight.
A federal judge in New York has given the go-ahead to a Long Island woman's class action lawsuit that claims consumers are being duped by Cold Stone Creamery when they purchase certain flavours that "do not contain their represented ingredients."
Showing off the latest purchase in his Eaton's collection, Corey Quintaine joked he is rebuilding the former flagship store that used to sit at 320 Portage Avenue one Facebook Marketplace purchase at a time.
After learning about food security at school, 11-year-old Violette Ferguson wants fresh eggs and to change the rules around chickens in the city.
An Ontario powerlifter caught a mild cold last year. Six days later, he was fighting for his life in the ICU.
Marking a milestone, Lakeshore resident Olga White celebrated her 107th birthday in style Wednesday.
The municipality of Tantramar, N.B., is holding a sale to get rid of surplus items it acquired after the Town of Sackville amalgamated with smaller communities last year.
For several weeks, a mysterious social media user has apparently been leaving $50 bills hidden across Metro Vancouver.
A statue dedicated to the Royal Regina Rifles Regiment has been officially unveiled in France just ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
A Cape Breton is this year's recipient of the McEuen Scholarship, which gives him basically a full ride to the medical school at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Mounties in Kelowna nabbed a would-be burglar with an apparent sweet tooth over the weekend.