Who Did You Vote For?

Indeed:

Worries over the price of food have also fallen from 39 percent in 2023 to 33 percent this year.

In 2023, 19 percent of survey participants said they were concerned about crime and violence. This year that number jumped to 25 percent.

Canadians are also less worried about their personal finances (27 percent) than they were last year (31 percent) or in 2022 when 33 percent said they had a negative view of their finances.

Twenty-three percent reported being “extremely concerned” about having enough money to cover basic needs. That number is down from 25 percent in 2023.

However, the number of Canadians turning to food banks for help has gone up, with 58 percent saying they visited a food bank for the first time in 2024. Fifty-four percent said they use it one to three times per month with 16 percent saying they visit a food bank at least once a week.

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Data also indicated that 4 in 5 of the new users are people who have called Canada home for five years or less and usage by refugee claimants also doubled to 12 per cent over the previous year, both of which, the report notes, align with permanent and temporary international migration fuelling 97.6 per cent of Canada’s population growth in 2023.

Last month, Food Banks Canada’s latest Hunger Count revealed that 32 per cent of clients to food banks across the country are people who’ve been in the country for less than 10 years.

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Thanks for nothing, veterans:

Instead, in 2024, we are now a nation that recognizes the individual citizen, whose believe their own personal struggles are equally as valid as anyone else’s regardless of what they have done. This means for us younger veterans, going to the other side of the planet to fight wars is undervalued. It doesn’t seem to matter to other Canadians any more, especially if we come back injured and ask for help.

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Why even report crime?:

Quint's case is one of a growing number of criminal cases for which the merits of the charge are never tested at trial. Statistics Canada data reviewed by CBC Toronto shows a dramatic shift in criminal outcomes in Ontario over the last decade.

The majority of criminal cases in the province have ended with charges being withdrawn, stayed, dismissed or discharged before a decision at trial since 2020. In 2022-23, the latest fiscal year of data available, 56 per cent of criminal cases ended that way — a 14 per cent increase since 2013-14 when guilty decisions still made up most outcomes.

Justice system stakeholders say many factors go into decisions to stay, withdraw, or discharge criminal charges, including whether there's a reasonable prospect of conviction. But when it comes to stays or withdrawals for Jordan delay reasons, they told CBC Toronto a perfect storm of pandemic backlogs, increases in digital evidence, and a court system-wide shortage of resources are to blame.