Winnipeg Free Press

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The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which is behind the study, would not share details about whether the group will look at remote work, despite it becoming a hot topic among public ser- vants after many were required to return to the office at least three days a week in September. Treasury Board spokesperson Martin Pot- vin said the group “will explore a wide range of issues and opportunities” based on members’ areas of expertise. Maria Gintova, an assistant professor at Mc- Master University’s department of political sci- ence, said the group should be taking remote work into account. “I think it’s an integral component of any kind of productivity study or any kind of future hu- man resource planning,” said Gintova, who has researched the Ontario provincial and the feder- al public service. “It’s happening, like it or not, and the lack of strategic consideration here will … come back and bite.” Gintova said she was not necessarily surprised the working group wasn’t looking at remote work. She highlighted a recent study in the Inter- national Public Management Journal that found only eight out of 56 departments in Canada’s federal and provincial governments conducted “thorough analyses of employee productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, or equity with telework prior to implementing their post-pandemic tele- work policies.” The study group has held two meetings so far, with several more planned throughout the winter. A final report with advice and recommenda- tions is expected to be delivered to the president of the Treasury Board by the end of March. Former Treasury Board president Anita Anand launched the government-led task force last year. She said the group would look at issues includ- ing the uses of technology, the size of the public service, the relationship between the public sec- tor and the private sector and overall declining productivity. The Government of Canada website for the initiative said the study will examine how pro- ductivity is measured in other countries and look at how those tactics could be applied in Canada, while exploring areas where the public service can increase its productivity and finding ways to improve service delivery to Canadians. The working group’s members include former bureaucrats, academics and researchers. Bruske, who noted the project was launched in response to concerns that productivity was lagging, said she can’t share much information about the group’s work. She said it’s looking at how to quantify produc- tivity and the work has not yet reached a solu- tions-finding stage. “We haven’t carved out any one particular thing,” Bruske said, adding the group is looking at the entire public service, including Crown cor- porations. “My role there is to make sure that workers’ voices aren’t being lost when we’re trying to find ways to improve public sector productivity.” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told Radio-Canada on Tuesday that it doesn’t matter if public servants work from home, so long as their work gets done. He also said work is not get- ting done within the federal government, though he did not offer details about public servants’ pro- ductivity. Poilievre called for public servants to be given clear assignments and be monitored to ensure they’re completing their tasks. He also said he would cut the size of the federal public service, arguing that Canada has far too many bureaucrats. — The Canadian Press CATHERINE MORRISON B.C.-based climate activist deported to Pakistan after protest charges BRITISH COLUMBIA-based environ- mental activist Zain Haq was aboard a plane in Toronto on Sunday afternoon, awaiting a nearly 14-hour flight to Pak- istan, where he said he was looking forward to seeing his family and eating the food. But Haq was not on the plane by choice. He was being deported follow- ing the expiry of a temporary residency permit and a failed bid by his Canadian wife to sponsor him to stay. The couple had been living together in Vancouver. Still, Haq said he was “feeling at peace” with his fate. “I’m looking forward to whatever the next years are (going to) look like,” he said, as other passengers boarded the flight to Karachi on Sunday. Haq and his wife, Sophia Papp, had been hoping for a last-minute interven- tion by either the federal public safety minister or the immigration minister to stop his deportation, but a reprieve didn’t come. Haq initially came to Canada on a stu- dent visa from Pakistan. He co-found- ed the activist group Save Old Growth and pleaded guilty to mischief charges in 2023 over his role in environmental protests that blocked Metro Vancouver roadways. He was granted a temporary resi- dent permit last spring, but it expired in October and Haq’s challenge of his deportation in federal court was un- successful. Public Safety Minister David Mc- Guinty or Immigration Minister Marc Miller could have intervened to stop the deportation, but neither of them stepped in before Haq’s flight from To- ronto to Karachi took off on Sunday. Haq said his wife is planning to trav- el to Pakistan in the near future to join him. The couple wants to return to Canada someday and he said they intend to file an out-of-country spousal sponsorship application on humanitarian and com- passionate grounds, though the process can take years to get through. Haq said he has no ill will toward those involved in the decision to deport him, but he believes it was “unethical” to have him removed from the country. A spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the department could not comment on specific cases due to privacy legis- lation. Papp said she had been emotionally “oscillating” between desperation and hope they would get a call allowing her husband to stay, a “miracle” that never materialized. “I’m kind of all over the place,” Papp said Sunday. She said the Canadian government could still reverse the deportation or- der even after Haq is back in Pakistan, but she’s meeting with the couple’s law- yer on Monday and plans on trying to get her husband back “as quick as pos- sible.” “There was a lot of shady stuff that happened and things that were not very transparent,” she said of the deporta- tion process. Papp said she plans to apply for a visa to travel to Pakistan to join her husband, after the couple parted ways Saturday night in Vancouver as Haq followed an order to report to the Can- ada Border Services Agency. Papp said she’s been grateful for the “endless” support they’ve received from friends and family, but she is disappointed the ministers didn’t inter- vene. “I feel really let down by my home in Canada,” she said. “I also know that this is not necessarily personal. I do believe that both ministers are good people.” — The Canadian Press DARRYL GREER 22 killed hours before deal to extend troop-departure deadline M AYS AL-JABAL, Lebanon — Is- raeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday opened fire on pro- testers demanding their withdrawal in line with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 22 and injuring 124, Lebanese health officials reported. Hours later, the White House said Sunday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend the deadline for Is- raeli troops to depart southern Lebanon until Feb. 18, after Israel requested more time to withdraw beyond the 60- day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hez- bollah war in late November. Israel has said that it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not reestablish its presence in the area. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw. The White House said in a state- ment that “the arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in ef- fect until February 18, 2025.” It added that the respective governments “will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after October 7, 2023.” There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government, but Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed the extension. The announcement came hours after demonstrators, some of them carrying Hezbollah flags, attempted to enter sev- eral villages to protest Israel’s failure to withdraw from southern Lebanon by the original Sunday deadline. The dead included six women and a Lebanese army soldier, the Health Min- istry said in a statement. People were reported wounded in nearly 20 villages in the border area. The Israeli army blamed Hezbollah for stirring up Sunday’s protests. It said in a statement that its troops fired warning shots to “remove threats in a number of areas where suspects were identified approaching.” It added that a number of suspects in proximity to Israeli troops were apprehended and were being questioned. The development in Lebanon comes as Israel kept thousands of Palestin- ians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday, accusing Hamas of violating a fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement addressing the people of southern Lebanon on Sunday that “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable and I am following up on this issue at the high- est levels to ensure your rights and dignity.” He urged them to “exercise self-re- straint and trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces.” The Lebanese army, in a separate statement, said it was es- corting civilians into some towns in the border area and called on residents to follow military instructions to ensure their safety. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal Movement party is allied with Hezbollah and who served as an interlocutor between the militant group and the U.S. during ceasefire negotia- tions, said that Sunday’s bloodshed “is a clear and urgent call for the inter- national community to act immediately and compel Israel to withdraw from oc- cupied Lebanese territories.” An Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, posted on X that Hezbollah had sent “rioters” and is “trying to heat up the situation to cover up its situation and status in Lebanon and the Arab world.” He called Sunday morning for residents of the border area not to at- tempt to return to their villages. UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the head of mission of the UN peacekeep- ing force known as UNIFIL, Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, called in a joint state- ment for both Israel and Lebanon to comply with their obligations under the ceasefire agreement. “The fact is that the timelines envis- aged in the November Understanding have not been met,” the statement said. “As seen tragically this morning, con- ditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the Blue Line.” UNIFIL said that further violence risks undermining the fragile security situation in the area and “prospects for stability ushered in by the cessation of hostilities and the formation of a gov- ernment in Lebanon.” It called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, the removal of un- authorized weapons and assets south of the Litani River, the redeployment of the Lebanese army in all of south Lebanon and ensuring the safe and dignified return of displaced civilians on both sides of the Blue Line. In the village of Aita al Shaab, fam- ilies wandered over flattened concrete structures looking for remnants of the homes they left behind. No Israeli forces were present. “These are our houses,” said Hussein Bajouk, one of the residents. “However much they destroy, we will rebuild.” Bajouk added that he is convinced that former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs in September, is really still alive. — The Associated Press KAREEM CHEHAYEB AND ABBY SEWELL BILAL HUSSEIN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Lebanese women hold portraits of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as they check the destruction in their village in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village, on Sunday. Joly says Canadian released from detention in Afghanistan OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canadian David Lavery has safely made it to Qatar from Afghanistan with the help of the Qatari government. The Canadian Armed Forces veteran went missing in Kabul back in November, according to the Veterans Transition Network. Lavery had been working with the group to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghani- stan. The Veterans Transition Network said he was believed to have been detained by the Afghan government. The country has been under Taliban rule since 2021. Joly says on social media that she spoke with Lavery and he is “in good spirits.” — The Canadian Press ;