“A CAMPAIGN AGAINST JOURNALISTS” — As more female journalists in Canada report receiving threatening, racist, misogynistic messages , some media outlets are fighting back.
On Thursday, Toronto Star public editor DONOVAN VINCENT wrote in a column that the Star, the Hill Times, Global News and the Canadian Association of Journalists have sent a letter to the chiefs of police in Toronto and Ottawa and several federal ministers, including Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO. “A key point of the letter is that the harassment seems to be part of a campaign against journalists,” Vincent wrote. “We’ll wait to see what comes of this effort. But I’m certain about one thing: the voices under attack will not be silenced.” MIXED MESSAGES — Ontario Health Minister SYLVIA JONES would like to reassure you that, despite what you’ve been reading about emergency room closures and staff shortages, the province’s health-care system is not in crisis . Also, she would like you to know that “ all options are on the table ” when it comes to fixing the situation that is not a crisis, and those options may or may not include privatization, which is not a word she said herself. Also, she would like you to know that you will always be able to access health care without paying out of pocket, whether or not the province embraces privatization (a word she did not say) to solve the problem that is definitely not a crisis. So that’s where we are. — From the Globe and Mail’s ROBYN URBACK : “The catastrophe that is the current state of Ontario’s health care system is visible to anyone who interacts with it, which eventually, will be everyone. The minister only makes herself seem appallingly uninformed by pretending otherwise.” — To be fair to Jones, Ontario’s situation is hardly unique. Hospital beds are being closed in communities across Alberta. The amount of money Quebec has spent on private health-care workers has quadrupled in the past five years in response to the labor shortage. New Brunswick is also reporting temporary closures to health units. — What’s Ottawa’s role in all this? Give more money, the provinces would be quick to say. But this week, health experts are offering another suggestion. The federal government should come up with a national system for tracking medical professionals, they say, to make it easier to address problems before they become crises (not that this is a crisis). “We’re at the end of many years of poor planning and lack of planning,” Canadian Medical Association president KATHARINE SMART told the Globe and Mail’s CARLY WEEKS . “Now suddenly we’re in a dire situation.” — Related listening: On the latest episode of the Herle Burly podcast , former premiers CHRISTY CLARK, KATHLEEN WYNNE and STEPHEN MCNEIL discuss the state of healthcare. HOUSING PRICE DROP — Desjardins economists have some good news or some bad news, depending on your perspective. In a report Thursday , they said they expect home prices to drop 23 percent by the end of next year from their peak in February 2022. That’s a significant revision from their June forecast, when they predicted a 15 percent drop. They attribute the change to weaker housing data and more aggressive rate hikes from the Bank of Canada than expected. — Good and bad: “Both home sales and prices have contracted quickly and are likely to fall further over the next 18 months,” the report reads. “While we don’t want to diminish the difficulties some Canadians are facing, this adjustment is helping to bring some sanity back to Canadian real estate.” Desjardins said it expects the central bank’s policy interest rate to top out at 3.25 percent this year — it’s currently at 2.5 percent — and that the bank will begin cutting rates by the end of next year. — What’s next: Statistics Canada will next report inflation numbers on Aug. 16. The Bank of Canada’s next rate announcement is scheduled for Sept. 7. — Related: Tumbling commodity prices “could mean the worst of inflation is over,” the CBC’s KYLE BAKX reports . | 
