The natural robbery governing party:
There’s a government in place, with all its executive branch tools, pragmatists argue. Plus, proroguing Parliament — hitting the reset button — is a tactic that’s been deployed by a host of prime ministers, including Sir John A. Macdonald, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, Stephen Harper and now Justin Trudeau. Never has a governor general said no to a prime minister’s request. In 2020, then Gov. Gen. Julie Payette agreed to prorogue Parliament on flimsier grounds in the aftermath of the WE Charity scandal and a Liberal government cabinet shuffle.
The applicants’ glimmer of hope lies in the 2019 decision of the Supreme Court of the U.K., which ruled then-prime minister Boris Johnson had prorogued unlawfully to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s Brexit negotiations. If the Federal Court in Canada decides in a similar fashion, not only would Parliament resume immediately but future prime ministers might not be so cavalier in reaching for the prorogation button.
The game is rigged, so, no.
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The leaked document, marked “SECRET/CanadianEyesOnly,” was reviewed by The Bureau investigative journalist and author of Wilful Blindness Sam Cooper. It said CCP actors from the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa were targeting various candidates through diaspora community leaders.
The brief warning that CCP operatives were guiding community figures “to arrange direct channels of influence over politicians” was circulated within top government agencies including Global Affairs Canada, the Privy Council Office and the Communications Security Establishment.
Considering China's presence in Canada, I don't recall Canadians boycotting China or waving the maple leaf.
How strange.
Not strange when one thinks about it:
Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould in a confidential interview with the RCMP urged police to widen their investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group scandal, newly-disclosed records show. Access To Information files released yesterday by the group Democracy Watch noted Wilson-Raybould’s pleas were ignored: “I don’t know, we didn’t know, we don’t know.”
**
Organized crime cartel activity is “very prevalent now” compared to at least a decade ago, says a former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and listing those groups as terrorist organizations may help prevent a “national crisis.”
Jody Thomas says the government’s move to list seven transnational criminal organizations, including multiple drug cartels, as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code will give law enforcement more tools to go after cartel-affiliated criminal groups in Canada — particularly their finances — that will be “enormously helpful.”
“Organized crime, no matter what shape it takes, is a threat to us, and we’re seeing an increase in it,” she told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.
“I would say that 10, 15, 20 years ago, we would not have used the word cartel with regard to activity in Canada, but it’s very prevalent now. It’s becoming a problem and we have an opportunity here to get a grip on it before it becomes a national crisis.”
A recent Criminal Intelligence Service Canada report said organized crime groups involved in manufacturing fentanyl operate mostly in British Columbia and Ontario. Beyond those provinces, crime groups engage in distribution and trafficking, and increasingly rely on street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs, the report said.
While cocaine remains the most common drug market for organized crime groups in Canada, the report found involvement in fentanyl has increased by 42 per cent since 2019. Many crime groups are actively engaged with Latin American drug cartels to facilitate drug shipments and have linked with American groups in the trafficking of firearms into Canada, according to the report.
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The Leger poll found that only 12% of Canadians think businesses pay most of the cost of the industrial carbon tax, while 70% said companies pass on some or most of the expense to consumers. Another 19% said they were unsure.
“The poll shows most Canadians understand that a carbon tax on business is a carbon tax on Canadians, and that makes life more expensive,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director.
“A carbon tax is a carbon tax is a carbon tax, and Canadians can’t afford to keep paying more to fuel up their cars, heat their homes, or buy groceries.”
The federal industrial carbon tax applies to sectors such as oil and gas, steel, and fertilizer production.
Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney has promised to repeal the consumer carbon tax but tighten regulations on the industrial carbon tax. He has argued that shifting the tax burden to businesses means “large companies pay for everybody.”
Poll results show that 45% of Canadians believe most of the cost of the industrial carbon tax is passed on to consumers, while 25% think some of the cost is passed on. Only 12% said businesses bear most of the cost.
Terrazzano dismissed Carney’s claim, arguing that industrial carbon taxes make everyday life more expensive for Canadians.
“Carbon taxes on refineries make gas more expensive, carbon taxes on utilities make home heating more expensive, and carbon taxes on fertilizer plants increase costs for farmers, which makes groceries more expensive,” he said.
CTF is pressing Carney to clarify the real financial impact of his proposed changes. “Canadians have a simple question for Carney: How much will your carbon tax cost?” Terrazzano said.
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The Fraser Institute report “Canada Needs to Save Much More to Finance an Ambitious Investment Agenda” looks at what Canada needs to do to improve housing affordability and attract more business investment.In the report author Steven Globerman notes the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) estimates an additional 3.5 million housing units will need to be built by 2030 to maintain affordability.Globerman, a senior fellow and Addington Chair in Measurement at the Fraser Institute, said for the federal government to meet the goal, an estimated $331 billion to $364 billion in additional capital investment will be needed each year from 2025–2030, requiring more private sector investment and domestic savings.Using a baseline cost estimate of building a single unit, which was developed by Steve Lafleur of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Globerman estimated how much financial capital will be needed to finance the construction of 3.5 million more homes.In a low-cost scenario, the per-unit cost was estimated to be $472,376, while in a high-cost scenario, the estimated per-unit cost is $520,274.Based on the lower cost estimate, an additional 3.5 million housing units by 2030 would need projected funding of $1.653 trillion over the next five years.“If one uses his higher cost estimate, the projected funding needed is approximately $1.821 trillion,” he wrote.
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Small and medium sized businesses lost about $60 billion in the first year of pandemic lockdowns and travel bans, Statistics Canada figures showed yesterday. Data were drawn from firms that applied for interest-free loans at taxpayers’ expense: “We need to keep businesses going.”**
Liberal ridings are not Tokyo and they never will be:
It will be up to future Parliaments to finance a long-promised high speed rail venture, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Trudeau’s latest pledge of bullet train service from Toronto to Québec City came 58 years after the Department of Transport first studied the concept: “This is real now.”**
And yet people say to tariffs - "bring it on!":
U.S. tariffs would drive the Canadian economy into the worst recession in a generation, says Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem. Recovery would take at least two years, the steepest decline since 1992: “There won’t be a bounce-back.”**
Global Health Imports Corp., an Alberta medical supply firm co-founded by Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre), is blacklisted from bidding on any federal contracts for five years. The Department of Public Works put the firm on its Ineligibility And Suspension List: “Information brought to our attention recently concerning an Edmonton Police Service investigation kind of put us at the right threshold to take action.”**
At this point, we must ask if there is some sort of grift going on.
We sure as hell don't have money for this:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not rule out sending Canadian troops to Ukraine as part of a possible ceasefire deal, when asked about the prospect during a peace and security summit Monday in Kyiv. ...
Earlier Monday, Trudeau announced that Canada will provide $5 billion in aid to Ukraine using revenues from frozen Russian assets, after years of Ottawa promising to forfeit holdings associated with Russia’s government and its oligarchs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Canada on Monday for its support to date, particularly training soldiers and helping supply “Canadian high-level optic technologies” for drones on the battlefield.
A man of the people:
John and Kenneth Irving, whose family is estimated by Maclean’s to be the fourth-wealthiest in Canada with a net value of $14.47 billion, both donated $1,750 — the legal maximum— to Carney. So did Scott McCain, chair of McCain Foods, whose family according to Maclean’s is the fifth-wealthiest in the country with a net worth of $13.16 billion. Members of the Desmarais (net worth $9.9 billion) and Bronfman (net worth $3.6 billion) families also donated the maximum.
Bruce Flatt, billionaire and longtime chairman of Brookfield Corporation, gave Carney — his former colleague — the highest amount as well. Jack Cockwell, Flatt's predecessor at Brookfield who still sits on the corporation's board, also gave Carney's campaign the full $1,750. Forbes ranks him as a billionaire.
It's not just billionaires. Over a dozen powerful Canadians, many of whom are currently pushing for legislative or regulatory changes federally, are lining up behind Carney.
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Mark Carney as a federal advisor and prospective prime minister should disclose assets including his stock portfolio, debts and income sources, the Opposition said yesterday. Carney, a multi-millionaire, has to date withheld disclosure of dealings with federally regulated firms: “Carney must come clean.”
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Recently, Mark Carney sat back and failed to negate the claim that he deserved credit for having saved Canadian banks from the misadventures of our American neighbours during the 2008 financial crisis. Carney can claim no such credit. In actuality, there are historical reasons for Canada’s lack of vulnerability to such financial upsets, including a divergent institutional pathway and regulatory changes recommended by Canadian Supreme Court Judge Willard Estey that safeguarded Canada’s banking system from the financial crisis.
Good.
If the public believes in it so much, they can pony up the cash for it themselves:
Abortion Care Canada (formerly National Abortion Federation Canada), a national group that seeks to connect Canadians to abortion services, claims that it may have to shut down after Health Canada turned down their request for a renewal of annual funding.
According to CTV, Abortion Care Canada has received around $2.2 million since they established their abortion fund in 2021. ACC asked for another $1.3 million for the upcoming fiscal year from Trudeau’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund but was denied.
The Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund was launched in 2021 with $45 million to promote abortion access across Canada, with the Liberal budget last fall promising another $90 million over the next six years and committing to make the fund permanent. Of course, all of that is on hold now that Parliament is prorogued, and abortion groups are concerned that a changing political landscape may mean a leader who is not as committed to abortion as Trudeau.
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