Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application She had the ability to bring people together A simple phone call could last for hours and Sally loved nature and found peace with tending her houseplants bird watching or simply walking through the botanical gardens where she only lived across the street from every aspect of her life with her family being the most important stories and had many anecdotes that would recall her knowledge of history her telling stories she could not be stopped Coming from a very large family she never ran out of love for all of us Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had a clear message to the President of the United States: “Canada will fight back We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentConservatives will fight for your job we will fight for your chance at owning and paying off a home and we will fight for your retirement We will overcome this attack on our economy and Pierre Poilievre has outlined our plan to do it followed by goods we don’t need and goods we can get from elsewhere counter-tariffs must not be a cash cow for the government Almost every penny of the tariffs collected should go to tax relief – none of the money should go to new government spending and programs we must immediately pass a Bring It Home Tax Cut This will neutralize the effect of the tariffs and unleash massive investment in making our economy self-reliant we must immediately repeal the Impact Assessment Act to get projects built and refineries that will bring home jobs our jobs and pay cheques and help us sell more overseas Six, let’s get the provinces together to knock down trade barriers and become one national free market economy, so we can bring home lower prices for Canadians. Seven, we must secure our borders and rebuild our military to assert our sovereignty and strength in the world. All these things—axing taxes, building homes and pipelines, fixing the budget, stopping crime—were great Conservative ideas before the tariffs. They are absolutely necessary now. Canada will be self-reliant, sovereign and stand on its own two feet. As Pierre Poilievre has pointed out many times: “What binds us together is the Canadian promise: That anyone from anywhere can achieve anything—that hard work gets you a great life, in a beautiful house, on a safe street, protected by solid borders and brave troops under our proud flag. To preserve that flag and its promise we must work together, fight together and win together.” Because our country is worth fighting for. For our people. For our land. For our home. For Canada. Let’s bring it home.  Arnold Viersen is the MP for Peace River–Westlock, including Whitecourt transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy We continue our election candidate profiles with another one of the incumbants Arnold Viersen is running for the Conservatives in Peace River-Westlock he says it’s “time for a change” in this country “I think that our opposition to the carbon tax over the last nine years has paid off and even the Liberals have now turned it off We are wanting to put in a permanent ban on the carbon tax with our ‘Axe the Tax’ message and we want to bring safety and security back to our communities crime has gotten out of hand under the Liberals.” Viersen was first elected as an MP back in 2015 He says energy infrastructure has been one of the major things he’s heard from people “Getting pipeline built and getting out from the Americans as our only market Having east-west pipelines is something that Stephen Harper ran on back in 2015 and I’ve been running on that banner for a long time Looking forward to having the opportunity to approve national building pipeline projects across the country.” Viersen says he’s also heard alot about crime issues and concerns on the economy You can listen to the full interview below This article was published more than 6 months ago Conservative MP Arnold Viersen listens to a speaker during a news conference on May 27 The podcast interview that earned Conservative MP Arnold Viersen a newspaper across the nose this week was fascinating and confounding just like Cirque du Soleil: There’s so much interesting stuff here To recap: Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith has a podcast called Uncommons on which he chats with various experts His conversation with Mr Viersen began with a long discussion of C-270 a bill they’ve worked on aimed at curbing non-consensual online porn The Tory talked about his staunch opposition to abortion (he’s tabled 19 petitions on it), and his opinions on same-sex marriage and cannabis legalization (he would vote no to both if given the chance) When his Liberal colleague probed him on whether he felt like he was wandering in the wilderness within his caucus Viersen suggested it was not quite the solo quest Mr “Caucus is on a spectrum on pretty much every issue,” he said The reaction from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was quick and blunt “I disagree with Arnold Viersen’s statements and the positions he took on this podcast They do not represent the positions of the Conservative Party or myself as leader,” he said in a statement no laws or rules will be passed that restrict women’s reproductive choices he declared changes to same-sex marriage a non-starter Mr. Viersen issued a public climbdown, but his caucus colleagues were livid with him was this a cross-partisan conversation aimed at understanding how a political adversary thinks and the way it turned out is why we can’t have nice things Or was this a cynical bear trap laid out for what turned out to be an amazingly co-operative bear Viersen’s office did not respond to an interview request he says this was what these podcast conversations always are: a broad ramble through a bunch of different ideas that he found interesting “I actually thought that was the most interesting part of the conversation A useful person to ask about this sort of thing is Alex Marland He’s the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at Acadia University and basically the Jane Goodall of explaining politicians What he found interesting is that an MP would be “so stupid” as to talk to an opposing MP in a minority Parliament about something he’d been told to clam up about “It tells me that the MP probably knew exactly what he was doing and it was a purposeful decision to defy the leadership because this individual feels so strongly about this,” he said it’s tempting to think that the intended audience is Canadians at large but it’s really a warning to Conservative MPs and candidates: This is what happens if you freelance he predicts consequences that go beyond simply being denied a critic position Viersen who run afoul of party edicts end up ostracized by colleagues which further reinforces message discipline creating a sense of the caucus aligned behind the leader and the leader as the unquestioned authority on message and policy Marland is co-author of the forthcoming book No I in Team: Party Loyalty in Canadian Politics and in their research it’s unequivocally clear that before social media politicians had freedom to say all sorts of things that wouldn’t be tolerated now – for better or worse we should have a legislature where people have more independence to express themselves but we live in a world of muscular political parties in which everything is structured around managing their reputations and unified messages “But at the cost of a lack of authenticity and politicians who for the most part are representing the party and the leader and all sorts of people feeling kind of alienated because their politicians are nothing but mouthpieces.” Once, almost 20 years ago, a keen young MP heard that journalist Paul Wells was working on a book and sought him out to share one specific thought on what was interesting about the rise of Stephen Harper “Everyone thinks he seduced the centre,” the MP said “It’s actually the way he tamed the right.” Harper enacted all sorts of flagrantly centrist policies without ruffling socially conservative feathers was Pierre Poilievre Report an editorial error Report a technical issue Editorial code of conduct Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following Shannon Proudfoot is a feature writer in The Globe and Mail's Ottawa Bureau She loves the hidden complexities and human side of politics and big news moments - not just what happened An incurable \"process nerd,\" she's convinced anything is fascinating if you watch long enough and ask enough questions to understand how it works Shannon was raised in a working-class family in Sault Ste Marie and can't quite shake her fascination with how social class figures in public life - or she was the Ottawa bureau chief for Maclean's and wrote for Sportsnet magazine Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. 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Or sign-in if you have an account OTTAWA — Liberal MPs say Conservative MP Arnold Viersen is being “silenced” as a House of Commons committee is attempting to study his bill to stop online sexual exploitation while child protection groups are calling on MPs to put aside their differences and move the bill forward with or without him Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience seeks to prohibit individuals and companies from making distributing or advertising pornographic material without having first made sure that the people depicted were at least 18 years of age and gave their express consent The bill received unanimous support from all parties in the House of Commons earlier this year and was sent to the justice committee to be further studied It is a rare occurrence for legislation emanating from the opposition as they rarely make it this far in the process Your guide to the world of Canadian politics By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of First Reading will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. the work of the justice committee has halted with Viersen ignoring requests to testify on his own bill and his Conservative colleagues filibustering the committee to prevent a vote on an extension of the study of the bill for another 30 days C-270 could be sent back to a still paralyzed House with no amendments by Nov 19 — and no clear deadline for when or if it will be adopted in third reading “It’s a lot of effort to go into preventing him from testifying for an hour,” Liberal MP Chris Bittle said in an interview about the Conservative filibustering Bittle added that pro-life groups “would be shocked to find out that one of their most vocal pro-life members is being silenced by the party.” said that he would personally be “furious” if his own colleagues were preventing him from testifying on his own bill Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office declined to comment when asked if it has specifically forbidden Viersen from speaking to the committee on his private member’s bill And Viersen has so far ignored requests for comment from the National Post NDP MP Alistair MacGregor said the focus on Viersen is “a bit of a distraction” and that he is not “absolutely necessary” to have as a witness why are the Conservatives not allowing the committee to formally request an extension to study the bill?” Multiple groups who have supported C-270 are calling on MPs to set aside their differences and move the legislation forward to better protect victims of online exploitation “Out of respect for survivors and the protection of every Canadian we encourage the committee to move the process forward without delay,” said Janet Campbell the president and CEO of The Joy Smith Foundation which raises awareness about human trafficking “This is a human rights issue that everyone on the committee should want to see in place to protect their own loved ones and the constituents that they serve,” she added Some have even given submissions to the committee arguing there should be a stronger emphasis on monetization or artificial intelligence-generated images in pornographic content But they agree C-270 is a good first step in protecting women and children director of public policy at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada said she wants MPs to know that Viersen’s bill is “much needed and overdue.” “Bill C-270 will help to prevent the distribution of child sexual abuse materials and intimate images shared without consent Preventing sexual victimization online is something MPs from all parties can support,” she said Beazley added her organization highlighted the “escalating threat of generative AI which creates explicit images using both real and AI-created images of children and adults” and is asking the committee to ensure that that type of content is addressed Friends of Canadian Media wrote a submission to the committee arguing that the bill could go even further by making it illegal to not only advertise pornographic material that is non-consensual or depicts minors but also placing advertisements next to this content making money off it must also be illegal,” reads the submission federal lawmakers have been studying how to best respond to the removal of child pornography and non-consensual intimate images or videos from streaming platforms such as Pornhub but have made little progress in changing laws Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne brought forward S-210 in 2021 which would effectively implement an age verification mechanism when accessing sexually explicit material on the Internet and has raised widespread privacy concerns from civil society and legal groups the federal government tabled its long-awaited Online Harms Act which seeks to force online platforms to monitor and remove harmful content including non-consensual intimate images and content that victimizes children such as sexual abuse which has caused the opposition and critics to raise concerns about its impact on freedom of expression online Given the political landscape and the likelihood of elections being called in the short term Penny Rankin of the National Council of Women of Canada is urging MPs to put in place any legislative measure that could help better protect children online We are so far behind in addressing legislation to protect our kids online And while C-270 does not “tick all the boxes” in her view This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account planes and artillery loudly prepared to cross the Rhine River in Germany a final push by the Allied forces to cross into Germany The deafening sound of the vehicles could have drowned out any radio traffic The Germans flew reconnaissance flights over the action and started shelling The real Allied crossing of the Rhine would take place a few days later, against almost no opposition from the Nazis. The success of Operation Viersen was thanks to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops multimedia tactical-deception unit in the U.S Army — created and positioned rubber inflatable tanks relayed false radio messages and manufactured warlike sound effects Jewish nonprofit: Wars, antisemitism affect 170 Columbus-area Holocaust survivors' well-being “They were figuring out how to create a big Hollywood set to fool Nazis,” said TammyBrown marketing and communications director of the National Veterans Memorial andMuseum The National Veterans Memorial and Museum is host to an exhibit celebrating their achievements “Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II,” which runs through Aug includes reproductions of inflatable artillery interactive displays and numerous sketches and paintings made by the soldiers during their time in France The exhibit was created in 2019 at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans and is being shown for the first time in Ohio, fittingly during the 80th anniversary month of World War II’s D-Day. “The Ghost Army was largely unknown until recently because it was classified through1996,” said Chase Tomlin associate curator at the New Orleans museum “Most people were not aware that a unit like this existed but because of the PBSdocumentary (“The Ghost Army,” 2013) and the Congressional Gold Medal just presented this year (For those interested in additional reading Tomlin recommends Rick Beyer’s 2015 book “The Ghost Army of World War II.) The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops included artists who, after the war, would become well-known names in the United States: fashion designer Bill Blass wildlife artist Arthur Singer and television writer Eddie Haas who “A lot of them took their skill sets home and became comic-book illustrators “Many returned to art institutes on the G.I One of those attending the recent opening of the exhibit in Columbus was Pamela Pastoric of Willoughby his name changed for simplicity after the war — wasattending the Columbus College of Art & Design on scholarship when the war broke out He enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.Pamela Pastoric said that her father usually said he was involved in camouflage whenasked what he did in the war Other artist-soldiers would say that they “blew up tanks,”which of course was true given the necessity to inflate the rubber decoys Pamela Pastoric said that her family has a number of watercolors that her father created while stationed in Europe Marion Pastoric returned to Ohio and finished his art degree at the Cleveland School of Art At the time of the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony this year seven members of the23rd Headquarters Special Troops were still alive much of the fabricated equipment was kept but in secret so that thetechnology couldn’t fall into other hands Similar tactics were used during World War II in North Africa in 21st century warfare; the Ukrainians have built fabricated rocket-launching systems that force their enemy into wasting time and resources While the Ghost Army’s Operation Viersen — when the Germans were fooled in thinking the Allies were crossing the Rhine at a false location — was probably the most successful a fair amount of the other operations greatly added to the war effort but an Army analysis a few decades after the war didestimate that they saved between 15,000 and 30,000 lives,” Tomlin said “That was thanks to these guys who were artists who put themselves in harm’s way.” “Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II” continues through Aug 25 at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum active-duty military and Gold Star families; $18 for adults; $16 for senior citizens; $13 for college students; $11 for ages 5 to 17 and free for ages 5 and younger Parking is an additional cost. For more information, visit nationalvmm.org. Arnold Viersen has been re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Peace River-Westlock. The results in the riding have him winning with over 70% of the votes. We talked with him this evening about his thoughts on the election here, the results from the rest of the country and his priorities moving forward in Parliament. You can listen to the full interview below. Peace River–Westlock show Arnold Viersen re-electedWhitecourt and Peace Country voters tasked to choose a rep in Canadian Parliament Conservative MP Arnold Viersen is going back to Ottawa after the 2025 federal election in the riding of Peace River–Westlock We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentViersen came out ahead in early counting during election night “We’re excited to get back and get to work for northern Alberta,” Viersen told the Whitecourt Star on Monday night Even if the Liberals form the next government Viersen said the Conservative have made progress moving the Liberal Party on issues and we will continue to battle the carbon tax and the Liberals have said they’re in favour of pipelines and energy corridors,” he said Viersen also expressed hope for more interprovincial trade we were hoping for a Conservative government,” he said With 245/273 polls counted, preliminary results are: Viersen has represented Peace River–Westlock since the riding’s first election in 2015. He was re-elected in 2019 and 2021. “I’m super-excited about the vision that Pierre Poilievre has brought to Canada; he’s been a bold leader,” Viersen told the Whitecourt Star at the start of the campaign. “I think our ‘Axe the tax’ – removing carbon tax and making work pay again – has been a message that resonated with Canadians.” Barrhead farmer Landen Tischer ran to represent the region for the NDP, which placed second in Peace River–Westlock last election. “It is the people’s decision, and I want to help give them a choice,” Tischer told the Whitecourt Star. “We’ve got to build Canadian and buy Canadian.” Meanwhile, Markowski, a University of Alberta student, was the Liberal Party’s candidate. In Markowski’s opinion, the most important issue this election is how the U.S. has become an unreliable trade ally. “I think we need strong leadership to make sure that we’re headed in the right direction, and I think that’s (Liberal leader) Mark Carney,” Markowski said. “We need a government that’s going to be caring for everyone.” Finally, Darrell Teske, a Westlock County home builder who’s worked as a teacher with Pembina Hills School Division, ran as an independent. “If I felt our current MP was doing their job, I wouldn’t be so compelled to run,” Teske told the Whitecourt Star. “I’ve always been a Conservative, but I don’t believe our MP is representing Conservative values.” Whitecourt and Woodlands County fall in Peace River–Westlock, along with Barrhead and Westlock counties, Fox Creek and Valleyview.   The Peace Country’s Big Lakes, Peace, Fairview, Lesser Slave River, Smoky River, Northern Sunrise and Birch Hills districts are also included in the constituency.  This election, the riding has been expanded to include all of Mackenzie County in the North Peace, gaining the High Level area. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Peace River–WestlockWhitecourt and Peace Country voters go to the polls on April 28 With the federal election called for April 28 incumbent MP Arnold Viersen became the first candidate for Peace River–Westlock confirmed by Elections Canada We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentViersen is running as the Conservative candidate and said he has launched his campaign having already travelled 3,500 kilometres across the riding as of April 1 “I’m super-excited about the vision that Pierre Poilievre has brought to Canada; he’s been a bold leader,” Viersen told the Whitecourt Star Viersen has represented Peace River–Westlock since the riding’s first election in 2015 Whitecourt and Woodlands County fall in Peace River–Westlock Northern Sunrise and Birch Hills districts are also included in the constituency the enlarged riding is 159,635 square kilometres with a population of approximately 113,907 Green Silvaine Zimmermann and independent Darrell Teske Viersen said he believes the most important issue is “to make work pay again in this country.” He charged that the Liberal government has been “insistent on keeping our resources in the ground and taxing work.” “Getting resource development happening across Canada and getting energy pipelines to each of the coasts continue to be the most important pieces for Alberta,” he said tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump and concerns over Canadian sovereignty have come to dominate the campaign Viersen characterized tariffs as “a symptom” of the issue of a lack of resource development “We are woefully dependent on the American economy,” he said agricultural and manufacturing products go to the United States he cited the old Harper government’s free trade deals with other countries Viersen added that the Conservatives would scrap the Impact Assessment Act which allowed federal regulators to consider environmental impacts of proposed pipelines “We will have to negotiate with the United States to try to ensure that we don’t live under tariffs,” Viersen told the Star. “I would prefer a tariff-free relationship with the United States.” While diversifying markets is one way to protect Canadian sovereignty, Viersen also argued that the military needs to be maintained “to respond to threats.” “That includes being able to control the North,” he said. “A Conservative government will be pursuing an enlargement and funding of the military.” Regarding Poilievre’s repeated call to “axe the tax,” Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney moved first, suspending the carbon tax for consumers. Despite this, Viersen said there is still more to be done on the tax. “I’m super-excited about the cancellation of the carbon tax,” Viersen said.  “We celebrate the end of the carbon tax, but the Liberals have just turned it off at this point; the legislation still exists.” Viersen said the Conservatives would repeal the legislation, including the industrial carbon tax, arguing this will reduce costs of living. As of the start of April, 338canada.com projects Peace River–Westlock as “safe” for the Conservatives. However, Viersen said that he isn’t taking a win for granted. He is highlighting a number of Conservative promises in the campaign, including a capital gains exemption for one year. “We’re talking about incentivizing investors to invest in Canada,” Viersen said. Crime is another issue, with Viersen saying Peace River–Westlock isn’t “immune.” “It’s this revolving door of people out on bail committing crimes,” Viersen said. “It should be jail, not bail, for these repeat offenders, so we definitely want to reform the bail system.” Amid ongoing controversy over federal funding to the Sustainable Development Technologies Canada (SDTC) fund Peace River–Westlock MP Arnold Viersen spoke in the House of Commons in late October We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentViersen called for documents related to the SDTC fund to be turned over to the RCMP joining other Conservative MPs in taking this position “We need to ensure that our finances are respected and that we are not allowing entities to enrich themselves off the taxpayer dollar with no benefit to the public good,” Viersen said in a statement SDTC was established in 2001 to support clean technologies and had a $1 billion agreement with the federal government to provide funding to projects the federal government transferred funding from SDTC to the National Research Council following Auditor General Karen Hogan’s examination of 58 STDC projects and that 90 funding requests (worth approximately $76 million) were approved despite possible conflicts of interest On Oct. 21, Viersen told the House, “We are not asking for the documents for ourselves. We are saying to hand these documents over to the RCMP.” Viersen said that while the government has an ethics commissioner and an auditor general, “all of those people are not judging the criminal element of this particular thing.” “We feel that the RCMP should have those documents in order to build the case we want it to build,” Viersen told the House. “This is entirely within the purview of Canadian Parliament. It is one of the privileges of members of Parliament to ask for these documents.” Viersen’s riding Peace River–Westlock includes Whitecourt, Fox Creek and Barrhead. The money will go towards renovating the Viersen facility and installing a new packaging line for Twix chocolate bars Mars is to invest €40m ($43.3m) in a chocolate factory in Germany in part to support production of its Twix brand The four-year project at the site in Viersen in western Germany will see Mars install a new packaging line for Twix chocolate amid what the company said was growing demand for the product The move would mean the additional bars could be packaged on-site A portion of the investment will also go into improving “the ergonomics of the workplace on the production lines” and supporting “more sustainable production” MD of the local Mars Confectionery Supply unit The privately-owned group employs more than 320 people at the Viersen site which produces chocolate bar brands Twix and Balisto Mars processes 59,300 tons of chocolate goods (equal to around ten million pieces of chocolate) a day The company is aiming to manufacture 70,000 tons in 2026/2027 More than 2,200 workers staff work across Mars’ six sites in Germany which are located in North Rhine-Westphalia Bavaria and at its M&M’s flagship shop in Berlin Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis “We are very proud that our volumes are growing while at the same time significantly reducing our factory’s energy requirements and emissions” adding the cash injection marked a “contribution” to its goal to hit net zero emissions in its “entire value chain by 2050” the Snickers producer committed to cutting carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 across its full value chain The group has made numerous updates to its emissions targets over the past few years Mars announced it would look to hit net zero by 2050 the company said it had so far cut emissions by 8% Nominations are now open for the prestigious Just Food Excellence Awards - one of the industry's most recognised programmes celebrating innovation This is your chance to showcase your achievements Don't miss the opportunity to be honoured among the best - submit your nomination today Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network. This study investigated whether children with and without dyslexia differ in word learning and whether phonological cues to word class play a role. If children with dyslexia have difficulties with implicit learning, they might be less sensitive to such cues. Children with dyslexia showed lower word learning outcomes in the naming phase. However, phonological cues did not affect word learning in either group. Regression analyses indicated that phoneme awareness, receptive vocabulary, and nonword reading were predictors of word learning for all children. These findings indicate that Dutch children with dyslexia have more difficulty in recalling novel words, fitting in with their phonological difficulties. Phonological cues to word class did not contribute to word learning in either group. Volume 3 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/flang.2024.1389301 This article is part of the Research TopicSpoken Language Processing in Developmental Dyslexia – Beyond PhonologyView all 4 articles Introduction: This study investigated whether children with and without dyslexia differ in word learning and whether phonological cues to word class play a role If children with dyslexia have difficulties with implicit learning Methods: A group of 89 Dutch primary school children from Grades 3 to 6 participated in a word learning experiment consisting of children with dyslexia (n = 44) and typically developing children (n = 45) Test items were four monosyllabic ‘verb-like' nonwords (e.g. voek) and four bisyllabic ‘noun-like' nonwords (e.g. They were presented as novel verbs or nouns in a two word sentence frame (e.g. “I voek” or “a voek”) paired with pictures of unfamiliar actions or objects “I voek,” “a banijn”) or inconsistent (e.g. “I banijn,” “a voek”) with word class The word learning experiment consisted of a repetition Results: Children with dyslexia showed lower word learning outcomes in the naming phase phonological cues did not affect word learning in either group Regression analyses indicated that phoneme awareness and nonword reading were predictors of word learning for all children Discussion: These findings indicate that Dutch children with dyslexia have more difficulty in recalling novel words fitting in with their phonological difficulties Phonological cues to word class did not contribute to word learning in either group To further understand the relationship between dyslexia the current study reports on a word learning experiment in children with and without dyslexia and produce novel words of low phonological complexity with phonological cues that were either consistent or inconsistent with grammatical class (i.e. These phonological cues served to investigate whether children with and without dyslexia are sensitive to phonological cues and use them to support word learning The preschool/preliteracy vocabulary delay is thus not necessarily persistent These findings do not point toward a persistent vocabulary deficit in dyslexia If a language learner is sensitive to such phonological cues this may facilitate word learning and strengthen the link between phonological and semantic representations These findings suggest that these phonological cues may aid word learning in Dutch children As a consequence of such an implicit learning deficit children with dyslexia might be less sensitive to phonological or syntactic cues that could foster word learning through efficient categorization of new words It is therefore an open question whether phonological cues are used for grammatical categorization to the same extent by children with and without dyslexia As far as we are aware, the only available evaluation of the use of cues for grammatical categorization in word learning of children with dyslexia comes from Gilliver and Byrne (2009) they looked into form class cues contributing to noun learning of English-speaking 4- to 5-year-olds The reading risk status of these preschoolers was established on the basis of phonological awareness the Rhyme and Final Sound test and vocabulary children had to repeat six (three-syllable) names for novel creatures and identify the correct picture in a recognition task (e.g. “Which one is schmalenork?”) There was a correlation between reading risk and recall; children with better recall had a lower risk for reading problems but no such correlation was evident for recognition children were presented with (one/two-syllable) novel words which could refer to a proper name (“Point to the one that is daxy”) or a category name (“Point to the one that is a daxy”) Performance on this task was not related to reading risk status which means children at risk were equally sensitive to form class cues (i.e. signaling the difference between proper names and category names) children were presented with a short story in which novel proper and count nouns were presented “This is a fomp called zikt”) they were asked to recall both the proper names (“Do you remember who this creature is?”) and the category name (“Do you remember what kind of creature this is?”) Children with a lower reading risk were better able to recall the targets and were better able to provide the word class Gilliver and Byrne (2009) take their findings to relate to the capacity of phonological and/or working memory: children at risk performed more poorly at recalling novel words which requires more detailed phonological representations—and possibly greater processing demands—compared to recognition Although the correlations between risk status and the learning outcomes (recall and word class accuracy) were weak-moderate only these findings warrant further research on the ability of children with dyslexia to use cues for grammatical categorization and the type of cues they may be able to use they speak to the influence of increasing task demands (e.g. production) and deficits in underlying skills that may affect the quality of phonological representations of new words The aim of the present study was to move beyond general aspects of literacy and phonology involved in word learning in children with and without dyslexia and assess to what extent word learning is influenced by phonological cues for grammatical class and (deficits in) phonological (literacy-related) and semantic (language-related) skills Word learning was evaluated across different phases (repetition These different response types place different demands on the required level of detail of phonological representations of new words The novel words were either consistent with their word class (a verb-like monosyllabic item in a verb frame referring to an action; a noun-like bisyllabic item in a noun frame referring to an object) or inconsistent (a noun-like item in a verb frame the following research questions were addressed: To what extent do children with and without dyslexia differ in the repetition and naming of novel words in word learning To what extent do phonological cues for word class (noun verb) affect word learning in children with dyslexia and typically reading peers Which literacy- and language-related skills contribute to word learning and are effects moderated by decoding ability It is therefore an open question whether such cues play a different role for children with and without dyslexia we expected that both literacy-related (phonological awareness nonword reading) and language-related (vocabulary and sentence repetition) skills would contribute to word learning in children with and without dyslexia especially when more detailed phonological representations are required (i.e. Background characteristics of the dyslexia and typical reader groups Independent samples t-tests indicated that both groups differ significantly on literacy skills. In addition, both groups differ on a range of phonological skills generally impaired in dyslexia (i.e., phonological awareness [PA], alphanumeric rapid automatized naming [RAN], and verbal memory; Vellutino et al., 2004; Moll et al., 2014) The groups do not differ on general language skills As the group of children with dyslexia was significantly older than the control group age was taken into account as a covariate where needed The groups did not significantly differ in the division of sex (χ2 = 0.56 A word-learning task was designed for this study The task consisted of a first exposure phase an identification phase (phonological recognition) and a naming phase (phonological recall or production) the nonwords were presented as nouns or verbs in a phrase (“I verb” or “A noun”) paired with pictures of unfamiliar objects or actions the novel verb “Ik voek” (I voek) was coupled to a novel action (e.g. a drawn picture of a girl covering her eyes) Children were told that they were going to learn eight new words and were encouraged to try and remember them in which children heard a known noun or verb and were asked to repeat the word in which children heard the eight novel words again and were asked to repeat them children heard all the words once again and were asked to try and remember them Children were allowed to listen a second time if they wanted to The subsequent identification phase was a three alternative forced-choice task in which children were shown the same picture again and heard three nonwords: the correct one and two foils or distractor items Children were asked to identify which of three words was the correct (newly learned) word The nonword foils were items that they had not heard before one monosyllabic and the other bisyllabic (e.g. for target “voek” the options were “guik,” “safel,” “voek”) Same-syllable foils had only minimal phonological overlap with the target word (i.e. one vowel or coda consonant for monosyllabic words and maximally two phonemes for bisyllabic words) the foils all had similar cues to word class (such as a schwa in the final syllable) as they were drawn from a larger list of suitable test items designed for this experiment Children always received feedback on their response (“Yes children were shown the pictures a final time and asked to produce the words Overview of phases and stimuli presentation in the word learning experiment The experiment had three response phases (repetition One point was awarded per correct answer across these phases Relevant outcomes were proportion correct answers per response phase the total proportion correct across the three phases and the percentage of correct phonemes (PPC) in the repetition and production phase Children were tested individually by trained and supervised graduate students during the spring semester Testing took place at school during one test session that lasted for about 1 h with a few short breaks were part of a larger test battery and administered in a fixed order (see section 2.2) except for the spelling task that was paper-and-pencil-based Findings were reported back to parents and clinical practices through a summary at the sample level An outlier analysis using z-scores (< −3.3 or > 3.3) showed that there were 11 minor univariate outliers there were four multivariate outliers on the word-learning outcomes based on the Mahalanobis distance (i.e. the scores of these children on word reading and spelling measures All outliers were retained in the analysis because they concerned plausible raw scores Missing data analysis showed that 0.16% of the data was missing (i.e. Descriptives for the word-learning outcomes oral-language and literacy-related skills per group Group differences across consistency conditions for percentage phonemes correct (PPC) in the naming phase with error bars and significance for main effect of group ***p < 0.001 Before the regression analyses for predicting word learning could be performed, correlations were checked (see Table 4) The correlation analysis showed that the word-learning phases are weakly to moderately related to each other but only the production score is moderately related to the total word-learning score The PPC scores for word learning are not correlated with each other but the repetition PPC and production PPC scores are moderately related to their whole-word counterparts and moderately to strongly to the total word learning score These correlations indicate that the PPC and whole-word scores for the naming phase measure partly distinct aspects of word learning Regarding the relations of the word learning scores with the underlying skills the correlations show that the patterns are not the same for the whole-word proportion and the PPC scores Focusing on the scores from the naming phase (i.e. the whole-word production score is only weakly related to PA whereas the PPC production score shows moderate correlations with PA This suggests that literacy-related skills (and deficits associated with dyslexia) as well as oral-language skills play a role in verbal learning of new words Zero-order and partial correlations controlled for age show comparable patterns of results Zero-order and partial correlations between word learning phases and predictors In the first step, age, PA, RAN, VSTM, vocabulary, sentence repetition, and nonword reading were added (Model 1, see Table 5) and nonword reading (p = 0.03) contributed a small but significant amount of variance to the percentage correctly produced phonemes during the naming phase the variables in the model explained 42.8% of the variance in the PPC score for word learning Regression models for PPC production score with nonword reading as moderator In the second step, the interactions between significant main effects (PA and vocabulary) and the moderator (nonword reading) were added to the model. However, the interaction between PA and nonword reading had to be excluded due to multicollinearity. The resulting model (see Model 2, Table 5) was significant and indicated that vocabulary (p = 0.02) and nonword reading (p = 0.03) still contributed small but significant amounts of variance to the percent correctly produced phonemes during the naming phase the interaction effect was not significant indicating that the effect of vocabulary on verbal word learning is not different at various levels of nonword reading the fit of the model was not significantly better than the first model the variables in Model 2 explained 43.9% of the variance in word learning The only differences are that here the main effect of PA remains significant and the effect of vocabulary disappears in Model 2 interactions between word reading and both PA and vocabulary could be included in the model as there were no multicollinearity issues we aimed to further understand the relationship between dyslexia We tested whether children with dyslexia showed similar word learning outcomes as typical readers and whether children with dyslexia were equally sensitive to phonological cues for word class Monosyllabic (‘verb-like') and bisyllabic (‘noun-like') novel words were either presented as verbs (e.g. paired with a picture of an action (for verbs) or object (for nouns) The phonological structure of the targets was thus either consistent or inconsistent with word class (verb or noun) We first assessed whether differences existed between children with and without dyslexia on the repetition and/or naming of novel words in word learning (RQ1) we assessed to what extent the phonological cues to word class aided word learning in children with and without dyslexia (RQ2) we examined which literacy- and language-related skills contributed to word learning across reading levels (RQ3) The hypothesis that children with dyslexia show lower performance in word learning specifically on the naming (production) of novel words was confirmed Groups did not differ in repetition (immediate recall) or identification (phonological recognition) of the novel words children with dyslexia had more difficulty in the naming (production) phase in which they were asked to recall the target after a delay Children with dyslexia made more errors overall although the distribution of errors did not differ in the two groups Children with dyslexia showed lower performance on mispronunciation detection (i.e. requiring access to a detailed novel phonological form) two syllables) or phonologically similar to one another (similar sounding foils had different final phonemes requiring production of the novel phonological form) children with dyslexia showed lower performance when words were more phonologically similar be stressed that our findings stem from concurrent data and do not rely on a longitudinal study of the influence of phonology (phonological form and phonological cues) on word learning In sum, the current findings are in line with previous studies on the phonological deficit (Swan and Goswami, 1997; Ramus and Szenkovits, 2008) and studies that show phonological difficulties contribute to word learning (problems) in children with dyslexia (Thomson and Goswami, 2010; Litt and Nation, 2014; Alt et al., 2017, 2019; Adlof et al., 2021) this study shows that retrieving and producing phonological forms of novel words is challenging for children with dyslexia We found no evidence of an implicit learning deficit as neither group used phonological cues for word class the lack of an additional impact of the phonological deficit on word categorization may act as a buffer for language acquisition This indicates that word learning and word reading are important to consider as separate aspects in relation to dyslexia It is likely that children with dyslexia need more exposure to novel words to form sufficiently detailed and robust phonological representations The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The studies involving humans were approved by the Ethics Committee of Utrecht University The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements Written informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the participants‘ legal guardians/next of kin Writing – review & editing The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research Open access publication of this manuscript has been funded by the University of Oslo We would like to thank the students for their assistance in data collection and the children for their participation The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Sietske van Viersen, Uy52YW5WaWVyc2VuQHV1Lm5s †These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Already have an account? Log in here and members of the board of Regents during the Farewell Adams Tower Center Ceremony on May 4 The Sam Viersen Gymnastics Center Expansion and Improvements model The OU Board of Regents will consider the design phase plans for expansion of the Sam Viersen Gymnastics Center a tailgating and major event day policy and details regarding NIL activities among other agenda items during its meeting on Wednesday The expansion to the gymnastics center calls for roughly 15,734 square feet of additions to the facility which is on Imhoff Road next to the site of the future Love’s Field The agenda also notes approximately 2,146 square feet of renovations to the existing building where both the men’s and women’s teams train The women’s team has won six national championships The men’s team has won 12 national championships The regents initially approved the expansion plan in their May 2017 meeting as an addition to the Campus Master Plan of Capital Improvement Projects for the Norman campus The expansion and renovations are expected to cost $13,750,000 Students pay about $14 in fees that support the Daily If you're not a student and value our work Also noted in its agenda is how OU’s early move to the Southeastern Conference next summer means it will see a decline in Big 12 conference distribution The agenda shows OU expects to generate approximately $4.6 million less in athletic revenue in the next fiscal year than it’s expected to end with this year During OU’s regents meeting on May 5, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. estimated Oklahoma would forgo close to $40 million in the distributable revenue share it holds in its Big 12 TV rights through its early transition to the SEC. The loss is expected to be temporary considering the SEC’s deal with ESPN Also included in the agenda is the discussion of a Tailgating and Major Event Day Policy for home football games and other substantial events. The regents will attempt to "set clear expectations" about tailgating on OU’s campus. Tailgating is currently prohibited, per a policy last updated in August 2022 Brooks Mall and areas adjacent to Brooks Mall including the lawn north of the stadium and lawn south of Wagner Hall the northeast corner of Lindsey and Jenkins Streets The regents will review the appointments and contracts of newly-hired wrestling coach Roger Kish and women’s soccer coach Matthew Mott The agenda also calls for the annual review of the contracts of women’s basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk men’s golf coach Ryan Hybl and women’s and men’s gymnastics coaches KJ Kindler and Mark Williams OU’s administration received interim approval to amend certain regents’ policies so the university could benefit from Oklahoma’s recent Name, Image, and Likeness Act which allows the university to have an enhanced role in NIL activities The administration is requesting that those interim approvals be approved and ratified by the board The regents will also honor the accomplishments of recent OU teams 2023 women’s gymnastics and 2023 women’s basketball Editor's note: This story was updated at 9:29 a.m on June 14 to reflect the proper spelling of Jennie Baranczyk's surname Students pay about $14 in fees that support the Daily. If you're not a student and value our work, please disable your ad blocker or click here to match that if you can. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page You will also start receiving the Star's free morning newsletter Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks in the House of Commons on May 29 Arnold Viersen's decision to discuss his positions against abortion same sex-marriage and the legalization of cannabis on a podcast is being described as just short of treasonous by fellow MPs Arnold Viersen’s decision to discuss his positions against abortion OTTAWA — Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are furious at a member of their own caucus for going offside the leader’s positions on hot button social issues — but also because Alberta Conservative MP Arnold Viersen spoke out about them at all Viersen’s decision to discuss his long-standing positions against abortion same sex-marriage and the legalization of cannabis on a podcast hosted by a Liberal MP is being described as just short of treasonous by fellow MPs who’ve been told for months by Poilievre that any discussion of issues outside of the “core priorities” is off-limits without express approval from on high The party is 20 points ahead in most polls which many credit to a disciplined focus on economic themes And although support may not remain that high through until the next scheduled election in 2025 the prospect of a so-called “bozo eruption” by one of the party’s own ranks high among Conservative MPs and advisers’ list of fears Off-message outbursts on sensitive subjects were believed to have cost the Conservatives the 2004 election against a weakened Liberal government No Conservative MPs would go on the record with the Star to discuss Viersen’s remarks or to share their thoughts on his future with their team eye rolls and a fair bit of venting emerged — as did a statement from Poilievre that directly contradicted Viersen’s positions and restated that none of them are now or ever will be party policy Poilievre also sought to remind the socially conservative wing of the party that he doesn’t need it in his corner unlike past Tory leaders who had counted on that voting bloc for support “I disagree with Arnold Viersen’s statements and the positions he took on this podcast They do not represent the positions of the Conservative party or myself as leader,” Poilievre’s statement said Canadians are free to love and marry who they choose Same sex marriage is legal and it will remain legal when I am prime minister Poilievre pointed out that during his party’s 2022 leadership race he made numerous comments in support of same-sex marriage and against any laws restricting abortion — and won the contest decisively “I will lead a small government that minds its own business letting people make their own decisions about their love lives Viersen made the comments on Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith’s podcast Uncommons ostensibly to discuss his work on protecting people from exploitation by pornographic platforms Erskine-Smith switched to a probe of Viersen’s well-documented socially conservative positions among other things presenting him with hypothetical bills and asking how he’d vote Viersen said he’d vote down gay marriage and also against the legalization of cannabis He also restated his opposition to abortion Viersen has introduced petitions in support of tighter controls on abortion and attended this year’s anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill despite Poilievre’s request to stay away Viersen told Erskine-Smith in an email that he felt ambushed by the interview and it wasn’t a good faith discussion a message Erskine-Smith read off the top of the podcast The Liberal MP said he felt raising the issues was fair game given Viersen’s history of advocating against abortion in particular the internal blowback against Viersen — and externally from the Liberals and New Democrats who touted his comments as examples of what a Conservative government would do — came within hours of Erskine-Smith posting the podcast Friday The Liberals in particular have been pressing Poilievre recently on abortion repeatedly accusing him of being against women’s rights Viersen’s remarks added new fodder for those attacks By midday Saturday, Viersen had issued a statement noting his comments did not reflect Poilievre’s policies He did not return a request for comment from the Star on Monday Viersen voted virtually on Monday on the Tories’ latest motion against the carbon levy Whether he will show up in person for what could be an exceptionally tense caucus meeting Wednesday remains to be seen It’s also uncertain if Poilievre will mete out any punishment several Conservatives told the Star: Tory MPs could eject Viersen from their caucus using legislation known as the Reform Act; Poilievre could prevent Viersen from seeking re-election as a Conservative; or he could simply become a political pariah sit on committees or receive support for any of his backbench endeavours Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account Conservative MP Arnold Viersen told host and Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith that he would vote for a bill that made cannabis illegal again if given a chance The comments came in a relatively friendly exchange between the two MPs posted on May 31 on Erskine-Smith’s podcast called Uncommons Erskine-Smith has hosted the show since 2020 and other subject experts on various Canadian political issues.  The interview with Viersen was centred around Bill C-270 known as the Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act (SISE) a private member’s bill introduced by Viersen in 2022 but it also delved into the broader issue of social conservatism in Canada.  Erksine-Smith pressed Viersen on what he framed as a contradiction between a conservative ideology that wants the government to leave people alone with more socially conservative ideas centred around policing people’s personal behaviour such as abortion or gay marriage or cannabis Sharing that he uses cannabis to manage symptoms from Chron’s Disease “If there was a vote to recriminalize cannabis are you going to make me a criminal again?,” to which Viersen replies: “Your predictions are correct Yeah.” This remark was met by an exasperated Viersen also told Erskine-Smith that he does not see a contradiction in social conservatives like himself claiming to want the government to leave people alone while also criminalizing and policing some peoples’ behaviour Erskine-Smith also suggested cannabis could help with Vierson’s poetry “…if you want the rhyme to flow better Such sentiments from the Conservatives around cannabis are not uncommon who has a storied anti-cannabis history in the House as one of those who led the charge to oppose legalization in the first place has long said the party would push back on legalization.  In 2019, she told the Globe and Mail last year that the party wouldn’t roll back cannabis legalization but would like to make major changes to it supporting larger companies over smaller ones while also wanting to pare back packaging restrictions for foods and drinks.  Recently, another Conservative MP in Ontario has called on the federal Health Minister to look at issues with medical cannabis home grows. Conservatives have also continued to call for an end to a medical cannabis “loophole” On April 20 of this year, Erskine-Smith spoke with Gladu on a broad range of topics She rebutted Erskine-Smith’s assertion that the sky did not fall after Canada legalized cannabis claiming there is under-enforcement of the regulations and a 32% increase in drug-impaired driving She also criticized legalization for allowing provinces to manage distribution and sales complaining about the number of cannabis stores in Ontario provinces have jurisdiction around distribution and sales and any attempt to take that power away would have been unconstitutional and the number of cannabis stores in Ontario is directly due to the management of the file by Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government.  Gladu and the rest of the Conservative party all voted against legalizing cannabis, save for one Conservative MP, Scott Reid (ON), who says the party punished him for breaking ranks on the bill.  and NDP MP Don Davies are co-chairs of the federal cannabis caucus.  Featured image of Arnold Viersen via YouTube If you'd like to support independent industry media we have several options to become a StratCann Supporter Conservative MP Arnold Viersen listens to a speaker during a news conference in Ottawa in 2021.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press Canadians who are staunchly pro-choice should listen to Conservative MP Arnold Viersen’s appearance on Uncommons a podcast run and hosted by Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith They will – or should – walk away reassured I will grant that Mr. Viersen is pretty much the physical manifestation of the caricature the Liberals paint of the Conservatives every election. As Mr. Erskine-Smith pointed out during their conversation, Mr. Viersen celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States. He is a regular fixture at anti-abortion rallies across the country Erskine-Smith posed a series of rapid-fire questions about whether he would support legislation to restrict or abolish certain rights or freedoms (gay marriage Viersen responded as any good Conservative caricature would: vote them all down But here’s the thing: If you actually listen to Mr you’ll realize his performance was absolutely dreadful And he couldn’t articulate a single argument or coherent thought Viersen if he wants abortion “restricted such that it’s not available.” again like the premise is quite off,” and then proceeded to talk about the “humanity of the preborn.” He was then asked what he means when he says he wants to “strengthen protections for the preborn in Canada.” there would be a recognition of their humanity,” he replied then posed a rhetorical: “Where does that flow from there?” instead stammering out something about how Canada is the only country in the world “with no preborn protection rights.” It went on like that for nearly 20 minutes Mr. Viersen complained to Mr. Erskine-Smith after the appearance that he felt ambushed; he says was invited on to talk about Bill C-270 (which is about online exploitation) and that the conversation they did have was “not a good-faith discussion.” But one would think if a parliamentarian has spent his political career advocating for abortion restrictions he would be capable of navigating a few straightforward questions about his stance Viersen could have used the opportunity to talk about sex-selective abortion or late-term abortion which are facets of the abortion debate that are more palatable to a wider Canadian audience then whined about the interview after the fact Worse yet for Mr. Viersen, he was frog-marched out after the podcast was published to deliver a statement clarifying that his comments didn’t “represent the positions of the Leader nor the policies passed by Conservative Party members themselves.” “On these issues,” he said in the statement “the status quo will remain under a Conservative government.” This is the hidden Conservative agenda to abolish abortion that we’re supposed to be worried about He knows the game the Liberals play every election For him to move on the “hidden agenda” that Stephen Harper never got around to in his near-decade as prime minister better ambassadors and a plan that doesn’t include sloppy frog-marches and embarrassing climbdowns Canadian women should be reassured that one of the most outspoken anti-abortion MPs currently in the CPC caucus can’t spit out a cogent sentence on his stance Canada’s Politics and Government News Source Since 1989 By entering your email address you consent to receive email from The Hill Times containing news, analysis, updates and offers. You may unsubscribe at any time. See our privacy policy Enjoy unlimited website access and the digital newspaper Abortion is a ‘terrible human rights tragedy in Canada and the greatest human rights violation of our time’ Calling abortion “the greatest human rights violation of our time,” one of Canada’s Conservative MPs says he “feels so good” that Roe v The move opens the door to individual states passing laws criminalizing abortions across America. The State of Missouri immediately criminalized abortions Friday While Canadian political leaders described the Supreme Court decision as “horrific” and a “50-year regression in human rights,“ at least one federal Conservative MP said he “celebrate(s) the decision coming out of the United States today.” “Guys, historic what happened today, the United States has overturned the terrible decision of Roe v. Wade from 1973,” Conservative MP Arnold Viersen said gleefully in a video livestreamed from the parking lot of Edmonton’s airport Friday afternoon “This was what embedded abortion as a right in the United States that’s been overturned now so that is big news,” Viersen said and this is something that is a terrible human rights tragedy in Canada and the greatest human rights violation of our time and something that motivates me to be engaged in politics and I hope that it engages you as well.” Viersen explained that the “decision came out while I was in the air,” so his impromptu livestream video showed him “reacting to it in real-time.” “I know that many people have been working for a very long time for the overturn of Roe versus Wade,” Viersen added “The pro-life movement in the United States has been working hard on this for generations and it feels so good to have a win having folks that have worked so hard … to see that coming into fruition.” history being made today,” Viersen said triumphantly We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets We value your contributions and help in correcting them Stay connected with our award-winning non-profit journalism by signing up for our newsletter: Arnold Viersen voted against second reading of a bill meant to change some rules around conversion therapy “While Conservatives are not opposed to banning conversion therapy we want to be clear on what we are banning,” says Viersen in a telephone interview Bill C-6 was tabled to add parts of conversion therapy to the Criminal Code of Canada which would make it illegal for adults and children to be forced to undergo the controversial therapy Viersen says something that concerns him is a line from a letter of endorsement of the prospective bill from the Canadian Psychological Association refers to any formal therapeutic attempt to change the sexual orientation of bisexual gay and lesbian individuals to heterosexual (e.g. and individual or group counselling (Bright prayer or religious rights being possible for conversion therapy,” explains Viersen “We expect to be banning things like electro-shock therapy and lobotomies “We are asking the government to fix the definition and a handful of MP’s including Viersen voted against it Viersen also talked about a motion put forward in the House of Commons by Northern BC MP Todd Doherty calling for a national 3-digit phone number for suicide support and prevention “Todd is a great advocate for those who are suffering from PTSD and working to prevent suicides in the areas where people are uniformed,” says Viersen “There are already suicide prevent hotlines all across the country so to bring them all together with a solitary number I think is a good idea.” Viersen also commented on the political situation south of the border and says Canada will have to work closely with the US Administration “I am looking forward to having some official numbers coming out of the states,” he says “One side is for sure very friendly towards Alberta energy and the other side President Donald Trump approved the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2017 Joe Biden said on the campaign trail that he would cancel the project if he becomes President A new bill pitched by Peace River–Westlock MP Arnold Viersen would allow authorities to unlock electronic devices when investigating child sexual exploitation We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentBill C-370, the Bringing Home Justice for Victims of Serious Crimes Act, received the first of three necessary readings in the House of Commons on Dec. 7, Viersen’s office told Postmedia. “There are few things more frustrating to law enforcement than to have the legal right to access potential evidence but the inability to actually access it due to the ‘virtually locked door,’” Viersen said. Viersen, a Conservative MP whose riding includes Whitecourt, Woodlands County, Barrhead, Fox Creek and Valleyview, introduced Bill C-370 as a private member’s bill to overcome this obstacle of encryption. “(Encryption) can impede investigations on critical files such as child sexual exploitation and human trafficking,” Viersen said in a statement. “Encryption technology can deny justice to victims of these serious crimes, many of whom are children.” The bill would give a judge the power to order a person to unlock an electronic device, when law enforcement already has a warrant to search the device. This power would apply to “a narrow range of serious offences” including child sexual exploitation, abduction and terrorism, according to Viersen’s office. “As technology continues to progress, Parliament must ensure law enforcement has the tools needed to secure justice,” Viersen said. The bill would also create a penalty for disobeying the order, similar to that for obstruction of justice. Viersen’s office quoted some groups in support of the bill, including the Canadian Police Association. “Cellphones are ubiquitous tools for criminals, particularly in areas like child sexual exploitation and human trafficking,” said Tom Stamatakis, Canadian Police Association president. “This proposed legislation would, where appropriate and independently authorized, give front-line police personnel the ability to better investigate certain serious crimes.” Viersen’s office told Postmedia it is unknown when the bill might be submitted to Parliament for second reading. Viersen might work with a senator to introduce the bill in the Senate to speed up the legislative process, according to his office. Get the most important Gymnastics stories delivered straight to your inbox Message Invalid character found in the request target [/scrums/episode/mmiwg-calls-to-justice-conservative-mp-arnold-viersens-comments--june-3-2024?id\u003d6f490a93-20c5-4bc2-8137-85fa3cce6254 ] The valid characters are defined in RFC 7230 and RFC 3986 Description The server cannot or will not process the request due to something that is perceived to be a client error (e.g. Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen tells the Trending 55 Newsroom that he has a number of priorities for when Parliament resumes The Canadian Parliament will get back in session later this month and Viersen says this session will be about “holding the Prime Minister to account.” “Bring the interests of Northern Alberta to Ottawa is going to be the top priority We’ve seen already the Prime Minister talking about capping oilsands emissions and no discussion and no realization around the equalization discussion here that we had in Alberta We’ll bring that there and also push for the appointment of the new Alberta senators who have just been elected.” Viersen also says that he’ll continue his work on the parliamentary committee to end human trafficking “We got reconstituted here just the other day and the first action we did was we wrote a letter to all the party leaders basically saying hey this supply chain reporting legislation that Parliament’s been kicking around for about 20 years let’s get it done It was in the Liberal platform and was also in our Conservative platform so between the Liberals and the Conservatives we should be able to get it passed.” The Parliament session will begin on November 22 You can hear our full interview with Viersen below