CSIS director testifies Trudeau government was warned repeatedly about Chinese foreign interference

OTTAWA – CSIS director David Vigneault told an inquiry Friday that he’s been warning the Liberal government for years that Canada has been slow to respond to foreign interference and is ill-equipped to combat it.

He also confirmed that had not verbally discussed the contents of three important briefing documents directly with the prime minister and his senior staff, although he had shared similar information with them on previous occassions.

I get the feeling that Trudeau and Vigneault are scamming us.

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An Ontario renter’s ‘scary’ situation with homelessness after landlords sell property

When looking back on how the last few years have gone, Robert Quinn, 61, says he is full of gratitude and proudly pulls out his keychain.

You would not think a keychain could have so much significance, but for Quinn, it’s a constant reminder of how far he has come.

Quinn is quick to show off the tags he has collected, one for each of the agencies that helped him find housing — his ‘badges of gratitude,’ as he calls them and most importantly, two keys.

This is Trudeau’s Canada.

h/t Patti Jo

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CSIS chief defends his spies’ work after PM casts doubt on reliability of agency’s reports

The head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service appeared before the foreign interference inquiry Friday to defend his agency’s work, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested he sometimes doubts the reliability of CSIS reports.

‘”There’s been a lot of comments made about the intelligence in the media and in commission,” CSIS Director David Vigneault told the inquiry Friday morning.

“Intelligence is a little like a puzzle. Sometimes we have a very clear picture of the puzzle. Sometimes, through the use of raw intelligence and assessed intelligence, we are building that picture, but what is important to remember is that this is done by professional, trained intelligence analysts and professionals that are bringing this together.

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Justin Trudeau launches sweeping plan to help ‘solve’ Canada’s housing crisis. What’s in it? Bullshit.

OTTAWA—The federal government is revamping its housing efforts with a new, multi-billion dollar plan based on a bold and politically-significant premise: this is how the Trudeau Liberals will help “solve” Canada’s housing crisis.

Released Friday, the new plan capped off the government’s pre-budget rollout of new housing measures over the past two weeks, and contained a suite of spending and policy changes aimed at spurring construction and helping those who are struggling to buy homes, pay rent, and find shelter from the streets.

Garbage. Canada lacks the capacity to build the number of homes needed and until and unless they turn off the immigration tap it’s just BS.

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Justin Trudeau brings That Guy with him to the public inquiry on foreign interference

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on the first sentence of his first answer at the public inquiry into foreign interference when it became clear that uh oh, he’d summoned That Guy.

You know the guy: Ask him a factual question and the response is a purring, generic values statement so distantly related to the original question they could legally get married.

That Guy. He’s around a lot.

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Poilievre attacks Trudeau for not reading intelligence briefing notes, breaking ‘with liberalism itself’

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre launched a full-fledged attack against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, accusing him of having broken “with liberalism itself” and the “ivory tower elites” and “so-called experts” who support him.

Poilievre was addressing the Canada Strong and Free Conference, formerly known as the Manning Conference, where hundreds of Conservatives meet annually in Ottawa.

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To address housing crisis, Canada needs to lower annual immigration intake

Canada needs a new approach to the housing crisis because we’re spinning our wheels in solving it.

For the next few years we must reduce our immigration intake, following the example of other immigration-friendly countries.

In doing so, we would finally address the demand side of the housing equation, after fixating with increased supply.

h/t PK who notes, the Star must had a mass fainting when this article appeared.

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Michel Maisonneuve: Rick Hillier is right to decry the death of the Canadian dream

While reading the news on Tuesday, Vimy Ridge Day, I saw a National Post opinion piece by my old friend Rick Hillier, our former chief of defence staff (CDS). He was decrying the death of the dream that was Canada, and it was hard not to agree with his sentiments.

Affordability (or the lack thereof), ideology politics, climate alarmism, higher taxes, mounting government debt, rising antisemitism, extreme immigration, leaders dividing us — the list of what ails our once-great nation goes on. I feel the same as Hillier, and got into real trouble for saying it during a November 2022 speech at the Canadian Museum of History.

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Terry Glavin: Trudeau just doesn’t think Chinese interference is anything to be angry about

There are two peculiar and paradoxical things about the disturbing revelations that have emerged over the past few days from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s public inquiry into foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

The first is that the most disturbing evidence entered into the record isn’t even really news. Pretty well all the bombshell revelations coming out of Justice Hogue’s commission hearings have been the subject of headline stories, one after the other, over the past five years.

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Budget 2024: A majority of Canadians think the Trudeau government is spending ‘too much,’ poll finds

The nation is days away from unveiling its federal budget for 2024, and a majority of Canadians are already upset.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy and finance minister Chrystia Freeland wrap up their cross-country tour promoting facets of the budget ahead of the event, a new Angus Reid Institute poll finds the attitudes of Canadians have soured — including previous Liberal voters.

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Canada needs to build 1.3M additional homes by 2030 to close housing gap, says PBO

Sod Hut

OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says Canada would need to build 1.3 million additional homes by 2030 to eliminate the country’s housing gap.

The newly released report looks at how many more homes would need to be built restore Canada’s vacancy rate to the historical average.

The report by Yves Giroux also accounts for the number of additional households that would form if sufficient housing were available.

What they don’t tell you is that Canada lacks the capacity to build that many homes.

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Michael Higgins: Trudeau’s Liberal democracy based on mistrust

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a long-winded, full-throated defence of democracy during his appearance before the public inquiry on foreign interference Wednesday afternoon. But if democracy is so important how about letting the citizens know what’s going on?

One thing that is becoming very clear in this inquiry is that lots of people in government knew foreign inference was a troubling problem, but nobody was too keen on telling the public.

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