Canada pulls 41 diplomats from India after diplomatic immunity stripped

All but 21 Canadian diplomats in India have been pulled out of that country, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Thursday, confirming the slashing of diplomatic staff by roughly two-thirds amid ongoing tensions between the two countries.

Joly said India has formally conveyed its plan to Ottawa to strip diplomatic immunity from 41 Canadian diplomats and their 42 family members by Friday.

Canada has facilitated the safe departure of those diplomats and their families from India, she added, noting the stripping of immunity “would put their personal safety at risk.”

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Whistleblowers at dodgey Liberal green fund want Liberal government to protect them from career, legal reprisals by Liberal government

Whistleblowers at green fund want federal government to protect them from career, legal reprisals

Whistleblowers who exposed problems at a federal green fund are calling for protection from possible professional or legal retaliation.

The organization targeted by the whistleblowers earlier this year is Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a foundation created and funded by the federal government.

Under its ongoing agreement with Ottawa, SDTC has $1 billion in federal funds to distribute to small and medium-sized businesses in the clean tech field between 2021 and 2026.

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Majority — including two-in-five past Liberal voters — say Trudeau should step down

October 18, 2023 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made clear his intention to lead the party into the next election, scheduled for 2025. Most voters, including a large portion of his own party supporters, feel he should step down before the next election.

A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds more than half of Canadians (57%) holding the view that Trudeau should step down, while three-in-ten (28%) say he should lead the Liberals into the next election. Importantly, 2021 Liberal voters are divided, with close to equal numbers saying he should stay on (44%) or leave the party to a fresh face (41%).

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Anthony Furey: The Feds’ Carbon Tax Is Facing Increased Opposition

It’s nothing new to say that conservative politicians are speaking out against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s controversial carbon tax. They’ve been doing it for years, including waging court challenges against the pesky fee.

What’s different now though is more voices are joining the fray to critique the tax, as it feels increasingly unfair in the face of cost-of-living concerns. One of those voices includes a Liberal MP.

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John Ivison: A costly icebreaker bungle sinks Ottawa’s procurement department further into disgrace

Ministers were home in their ridings last week, offering thanks over turkey that they are not responsible for the Department of Public Services and Procurement Canada.

Jean-Yves Duclos is the latest unlucky inhabitant of the office that has been held by five of his Liberal colleagues in the past eight years.

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What the Canadian Government Funds in Hamas-Ruled Gaza

… The funding for humanitarian assistance goes toward basic education, health, and social services for Palestinian refugees via organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

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Documents reveal why RCMP didn’t pursue criminal probe of Justin Trudeau in SNC-Lavalin affair

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to pursue a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s actions during the SNC-Lavalin affair in part because the federal police force was thwarted in a bid to get confidential cabinet materials, newly released documents show.

… “The records show the RCMP is a negligently weak lapdog that rolled over for Prime Minister Trudeau by doing a very superficial investigation into his cabinet’s obstruction of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, not trying to obtain key secret cabinet communication records, and burying the investigation with an almost two-year delay,” he said.

The records suggest that when the force finished its assessment in 2021, there was a request from the RCMP commissioner’s office to ensure it had “pushed as hard as possible,” and “exhausted all avenues” to get evidence.”

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Supreme Court rules environmental impact legislation largely unconstitutional

I like stories that make Justin cry.

Canada’s top court has delivered a highly anticipated judgment, writing in a majority opinion that Ottawa’s Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is largely unconstitutional.

The IAA, previously known as Bill C-69, allows federal regulators to consider the potential environmental and social impacts of various resource and infrastructure projects. It was enacted in 2019.

The IAA has long been controversial among conservative politicians in Alberta, including former premier Jason Kenney, who frequently referred to it as the “no more pipelines act.”

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Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program is ballooning — creating a new class of wage slaves from abroad

This time last year, the media buzz about the labour market was over The Great Resignation, a bigger phenomenon in the United States but occurring here too, as workers took advantage of record-high job vacancy rates to abandon suboptimal jobs for better ones.

This year there’s an emerging made-in-Canada phenomenon that has barely generated a whisper, let alone a buzz: wage slaves from abroad. It’s a result of public policy.

The idea of owning workers seems like an abomination from another time and place. In Canada, in 2023, it’s difficult to comprehend how any worker could be beholden to a single employer.

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John Ivison: The leaders of the free world have no time left for unserious Canada

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Norman, the former vice-chief of defence, made a prediction that sounded overblown at the time.

“I really think the Americans are going to start ignoring us because they don’t think we are credible or reliable. They are not even putting pressure on us anymore,” he said in a January 2022 National Post interview, based on his conversations with contacts in Washington.

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Nazi in Parliament had major impact on Canada’s international reputation: Nanos poll

Nearly one in two Canadians say the recent errant honouring of a 98-year-old Nazi veteran in Parliament has had a major impact on Canada’s reputation abroad, while one third think Canada is providing too much financial support to Ukraine, recent Nanos polling finds.

Recent polling by Nanos Research, commissioned by CTV News to gauge Canadians’ views on the level of impact the widely-condemned Yaroslav Hunka invitation by former speaker Anthony Rota has had, indicates that 48 per cent of respondents felt it had a “major impact.”

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GREEN: Trudeau’s super-charged battery foolishness reaches new heights

Every week, it seems, we get another report revealing the deep thoughtlessness and fiscal recklessness of Ottawa’s electric car and electric-car battery fixation.

For example, the Parliamentary Budget Officer recently asked how long it will take for the federal government to see a return on the $28.2 billion of production subsidies to EV battery-makers Stellantis and Volkswagen. The answer — about four times longer than government originally claimed.

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Canada sent $50 million to Palestine in 2018 for ‘relief work’ despite aspersions about funds being channelled to Hamas

Hours after the State of Israel came under attack by Palestinian terror outfit Hamas, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday (7th October) condemned the killing of Israeli civilians.

In a tweet, he said, “Canada strongly condemns the current terrorist attacks against Israel. These acts of violence are completely unacceptable. We stand with Israel and fully support its right to defend itself.”

Foreigners find it odd that Justin Trudeau coddles terrorists at home and abroad.

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Canada is alone in the world

It has not been a happy time for Canada in international affairs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusation that Indian officials had been behind the murder of a Canadian citizen in Surrey, B.C., in June has sent our relationship with India into a deep freeze. To make matters worse, Canada found itself largely alone, with our friends and allies, who all have an interest in further developing a geostrategic relationship with India, hardly offering Canada their full-throated support.

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