As Canada faces crippling debt, it must do the unpopular thing and cut elderly benefits

As Canada faces crippling debt, it must do the unpopular thing and cut elderly benefits

The government can reduce its spending while better targeting those genuinely in need

The Carney government regularly describes its fiscal approach as “ambitious” and “transformational,” but in reality it’s simply perpetuating a fiscal decline that’s plunging Canada deeper into red ink. To truly transform federal finances, the Carney government must reduce spending, even in areas that are politically unpopular. And to truly be ambitious, it should start by reducing elderly benefits – Ottawa’s largest single spending item.

h/t Mauser

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Here’s how much Canadians are earning on average — and the province where wages are highest

Here’s how much Canadians are earning on average — and the province where wages are highest

New data from Statistics Canada has revealed how much Canadians earn on average per week, along with average earnings across each province and territory.

The findings, which use data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), show that the average weekly earnings in Canada reached $1,333 in March 2026, up by 3.5 per cent compared to March 2025. This follows 2.8 per cent year-over-year increase recorded in February.

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SPECIAL REPORT: Four and a half years — disciplinary tribunal for vaccine-sceptic Ottawa cop nears its end

SPECIAL REPORT: Four and a half years — disciplinary tribunal for vaccine-sceptic Ottawa cop nears its end

OTTAWA — Ottawa Police Service (OPS) officers are effectively being warned against exercising their discretion to inquire about potential criminality related to “controversial” and “political” matters, a lawyer told the Western Standard.

Bath-Sheba van den Berg, a lawyer representing Const. Helen Grus, a detective with the OPS found guilty of discreditable conduct in March of 2025 following an internal professional disciplinary tribunal, said the OPS’s persecution of her client would undermine police officers’ willingness to take initiative with inquiries involving informal orthodoxies of political nature, including those revolving around “COVID-19 vaccines” marketed as “safe and effective” by all levels of Canadian government and ancillary institutions.

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Welfare Sperm?

Same sex couple puzzled by fertility tax credit that doesn’t cover sperm

A same-sex couple in Saskatchewan who is considering options to have a baby was disappointed to learn a provincial fertility tax credit doesn’t cover one key ingredient: sperm.

Saskatchewan introduced the Fertility Treatment Tax Credit (FTTC) last year – a 50 per cent refundable tax credit for eligible treatments, prescription drugs and other fertility expenses.

h/t Patti Jo

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WARMINGTON: Extortion by bullet has families wondering if Canada is still for them

These victims of extortion are so afraid of criminals from India operating in Canada that they will only talk if their face and voice are altered to be unrecognizable.

Even before they shoot up your house comes the terror of the threatening phone call saying if you don’t pay them, they’ll riddle your residence with bullets while you are asleep.

Hmmmm

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Poilievre calls for emergency debate on recession in letter to Carney

In a Sunday morning letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for an emergency parliamentary debate to address the state of Canada’s economy.

“You promised you would deliver the fastest-growing economy in the G7. You delivered the only recession in the G7,” wrote the Official Opposition leader.

On Friday, a report from Statistics Canada showed the country’s economy contracted slightly for the second quarter in a row — meeting the technical definition of a recession.

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A guide to the (many) groups running Alberta’s separatist and remain camps

A guide to the (many) groups running Alberta’s separatist and remain camps

Who’s leading the “remain” side in this divisive, near-existential referendum on separation for Alberta? And who’s leading the “leave” side, pushing for a future binding independence question?

These are simple questions. There are not simple answers.

If there’s one thing that unites the disparate sides of this debate, it’s that neither is organized by a single, top-down umbrella group.

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Thousands are now Canadians under new citizenship law. Half of them are Americans

Thousands are now Canadians under new citizenship law. Half of them are Americans

Thousands of people around the world have received Canadian citizenship certificates as a result of a change late last year to federal law.

Half of them Americans, CBC News has learned.

In the first three months since the change, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued proof of citizenship certificates to 4,075 people under citizenship by descent provisions in Bill C-3.

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BARBER: Canada’s free speech crisis is no accident

BARBER: Canada’s free speech crisis is no accident

Recent Canadian legislation increasingly aligns Canada with approaches taken by the European Union (EU). Canadian Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, passed third reading in the House of Commons on March 25. Both the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) have expressed significant concerns regarding the provisions of this bill.

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Canada’s top-skilled workers are leaving for the U.S. in droves for lower taxes and higher pay: TD study

new report from TD Economics warns that Canada is losing its highest-skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and STEM graduates to the United States through a slow, largely invisible syphoning—calling the phenomenon a “silent brain drain.” The crisis, it argues, is less about who Canada can attract than who it fails to keep.

Much of the outflow never registers in Statistics Canada’s emigration data because it occurs through U.S. employer-sponsored work visas—temporary and semi-permanent pathways that conventional brain drain metrics simply don’t capture. Of the partial data Statistics Canada was able to retrieve, the agency determined that, in 2023, 18,590 Canadian residents emigrated to the U.S. permanently, with 30 percent of those people not being born in Canada.

Alternate link.


Report .pdf below

Canada’s Silent Brain Drain TD Bank report

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Former child soldier deported for ‘serious criminality’ managed to sneak back into Canada

Former child soldier deported for ‘serious criminality’ managed to sneak back into Canada

A former child soldier from Sierra Leone who dodged deportation from Canada for a decade has been sentenced to five months in jail for returning to this country illegally.

Ibrahim Jalloh, a convicted fraudster and drug trafficker, was ordered out of the country in June 2012 for “serious criminality,” but he wasn’t actually deported until Dec. 29, 2023. Jalloh was sentenced earlier this spring in Alberta’s Court of Justice after police found him in Calgary on Dec. 31, 2025, contrary to an order not to return to Canada.

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Police say investigation into disappearance of 14-year-old girl is continuing but no charges laid

Police say that the investigation into the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl who was missing for nearly two weeks is continuing but that no criminal charges have been laid.

Toronto police provided the update to CP24 on Friday afternoon, less than a day after the girl – named Esther – was located safe by officers at an Etobicoke home.

Police initially told CTV News that the investigation into the disappearance of the girl was concluded, however they now clarify that the case is still being investigated.

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Canada slipped into a technical recession on an annualized basis as economic growth stalled in 1st quarter

Canada’s economy contracted in the first quarter on an annualized basis by a slim margin, marking the second consecutive quarter of such decline — which some would call a technical recession.

Statistics Canada said real gross domestic product fell 0.1 per cent on an annualized basis in the first three months of this year. That comes after a downwardly revised contraction of one per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Two consecutive quarters of contraction in economic growth is termed a technical recession.

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