When Americans consider Canada, they probably think of maple syrup and funny accents. They should start thinking about alarming amounts of authoritarianism.
What has been jokingly referred to as “America’s hat” has been going through a rough patch recently when it comes to protecting its citizens’ fundamental liberties.
And next on the chopping block appears to be free speech.
A little humility can go a long way, especially for those of us in places of leadership. Sadly, this conviction is seemingly absent in the Liberal government.
Tragically, it has become the habit of Liberal MPs to categorize anyone who disagrees with them as racist, misogynist, or even a Nazi.
At first glance, according to several commonly used indicators, Canada’s labour market has recovered from the initial COVID recession that began in 2020. Canada’s unemployment rate is now lower than when the pandemic hit, and the employment rate (the share of the adult population that’s working) has almost recovered to pre-COVID levels.
However, the story is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest. The latest monthly labour force statistics confirm that the government sector – not the private sector – has driven job growth since 2020.
Senior Canadian intelligence officials would support an inquiry into their organisation’s deeply contentious role in the smuggling of British schoolgirl Shamima Begum into Syria, the Observer has been told.
Sources have told Tasnime Akunjee, the lawyer representing Begum’s family, that there is significant concern within its ranks that a people smuggler working for Canadian intelligence helped Begum and two friends from Bethnal Green, east London, to join Islamic State in Syria. Until now, sources within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have kept their counsel over the scandal since it was revealed last week that the Metropolitan police in London allegedly knew that a people smuggler linked to western security services trafficked the then 15-year-old.
Housing, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen says the Department of Canadian Heritage will be improving its vetting process to make sure it doesn’t give money to organizations that espouse hatred — and those that do could be banned from future funding.
In an interview with CBC’s The House airing Saturday, Hussen said the federal government giving $133,000 (Liar – they got 600K) to the Community Media Advocacy Centre to develop and run an anti-racism strategy for broadcasters indicated a failure of the vetting process.
In posts on social media, CMAC’s senior consultant Laith Marouf talked about “Jewish white supremacists,” referred to some Indigenous and Black individuals using the term “house slave” and spoke about francophones in Quebec using the slur “frogs.”
The Laith Marouf scandal, for that is emphatically what it is, of a fully public (it was all on Twitter, some on tape and film) antisemite receiving more than half a million taxpayers’ dollars from the government of Canada, caught even the laziest eye. I have observed it was a singular instance of “paying” the fox to raid the chicken house.
Tax code matters are one of the more convoluted and least enthralling aspects of governance. Many politicians either generally avoid the topic or simplify it to the extreme: you either cut taxes or raise them.
Whether leaders assume a lack of interest on voters’ behalf, think they’re too dumb to grasp the details, or are in fact too dense to do so themselves, the effect is the same. Canadians miss out on lively debate and fresh ideas about a topic that greatly impacts their –– and the country’s –– economic health.
Trudeau is fucking over the poor to please the Corporate welfare class – Canada developing path to permanent residency for 500,000 undocumented workers
Terror suspects like Shamima Begum could be treated like victims if they exploit modern slavery laws, the terrorism watchdog warned last night.
Explosive claims in a new book that the so-called Jihadi Bride was smuggled into Syria by a spy working for Canada – before Justin Trudeau’s nation then conspired with the UK to cover up its role – emerged this week.
It sparked calls for an inquiry into claims the Met and the government knew the alleged people smuggler was responsible for helping Begum and her two fellow schoolgirls join ISIS while also working as a double agent.
Summer is nearly at an end. Parliament is about to resume. The Conservatives are about to elect a new leader. And our politics are about to enter a period of sharper definition, with clearer differences between the two main parties. Nowhere is this more true, seemingly, than over the issue of government involvement in the media: broadcast, print and internet-based.
Organizers of the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa have asked a court to unfreeze $450,000 in donations they received so they can pay for lawyers to represent them at an upcoming public inquiry into the Emergencies Act.
Money given to the convoy through crowdfunding platforms GoFundMe and GiveSendGo was put into escrow under court order, pending a proposed class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Ottawa residents and businesses.
Last week’s visit to Canada by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did little to help ease his country’s energy crisis. Germany desperately needs Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) now, not hydrogen that won’t be available in smallish quantities until years from now.
The visit also opened more wounds with Alberta, as the prime minister scoffed there is no “business case” for LNG exports to Germany — a comment that surprised many participants at the Canadian Energy Executive Association Forum held in Banff last Thursday. If anyone can judge whether LNG will be profitable or not, it’s an oil and gas industry willing to invest billions of dollars in it. The real reason Canada still does not have LNG exports today is not the “business case” but the “political case”: federal regulations focused on GHG emissions to the exclusion of Canada’s interest in contributing to the world’s energy and security needs.
Canada developing path to permanent residency for undocumented workers
Canada’s undocumented workers could gain a new avenue to permanent residency through a program under development by the federal government to tackle the underground economy.
It is a pivotal turning point for some of the 500,000 undocumented residents estimated to be in Canada. Many work precarious and often exploitative jobs in construction, cleaning, caregiving, food processing and agriculture.
Undocumented residents face a range of vulnerabilities, including poor mental and physical health caused by social isolation and abusive working conditions.
The Trudeau government is fighting inflation on the backs of the poor. Mass immigration ensures depressed wages. The Bank of Canada has recently instructed the corporate class not to increase wages, how convenient.
Joe Oliver: Trudeau’s growing isolation on fossil fuels
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be feeling isolated in his campaign against fossil fuels, especially Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), as leaders around the world reduce their countries’ reliance on inadequate renewable energy and tone down their own rhetoric about lowering GHG emissions. But for political and ideological reasons his government cannot admit to the terribly damaging consequences of its green policies and the urgent need to fundamentally change course. To the contrary, it keeps doubling down on its climate obsession.
… A political opponent doing something wrong does not give cover for someone else to do the same. If Justin Trudeau and his team of Liberals are as concerned about the state of our political discourse as they claim to be, why do they continue to make things worse?
Ottawa’s luxury tax on high-priced cars, planes and boats is coming into effect today, despite warnings from some critics that the measure will hurt the economy and turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth.
As of Thursday, luxury cars and personal aircraft with sale prices of over $100,000 and boats for personal use with price tags of more than $250,000 will be slapped with a 10 to 20 per cent tax.
The measure received final approval this past June and is expected to raise $163 million in new revenue per year.
