It was voted for, after all:
In reality, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax – meaning in this context the federal fuel charge on 22 different forms of fossil fuel energy, including gasoline and natural gas – is not a major contributor to reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions.
The fuel charge will increase by 18.75% to $95 per tonne of emissions on April 1, up from $80 per tonne, on its way to $170 per tonne in 2030. That will raise the cost of gasoline alone by 20.91 cents per litre compared to 2019 when it was first imposed, on its way to 37.43 cents per litre in 2030.
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Almost half of Canadian job seekers (46%) believe there will be fewer job opportunities in their field in 2025 compared to a year ago, according to a new Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey. This is a significant increase from 2024’s survey when only 31% of job seekers expected fewer job opportunities than the previous year.
While one-third of job seekers (36%) believe opportunities in their field in 2025 will remain consistent with 2024, less than 1 in 5 (18%) believe there will be more job opportunities this year in their field.
Pessimism prevails as almost two-thirds (62%) say it will be difficult to find a job in the next six months, while 38% believe obtaining employment in that time will be easy.
Other key findings include:
Job Search Duration: Around half of job seekers (56%) believe they can find a job within six months, a significant decrease from 63% a year ago. The remaining 44% believe it will take them more than six months to find a job, up from 37% last year.
Motivations for Job Change: Employed job seekers are primarily looking for better compensation (43%), improved work-life balance (41%) and better growth opportunities (36%).
Job Preferences: Most Canadian job seekers (75%) are willing to accept full-time positions, while two in five are willing to accept part-time positions (40%), 28% are willing to accept contract/freelance positions, and 21% are willing to accept temporary or seasonal work.
Challenges: The most significant challenges listed by job seekers include finding opportunities that match their qualifications (57%), securing jobs with the pay they need to cover basic expenses (49%) and standing out in a competitive market (46%). Interestingly, women are more likely to reply that it will be challenging to secure a job that pays enough to cover expenses (55% vs. 44% of men) and stand out (51% vs. 42% of men).
Barriers: The top barriers to employment are lacking skills (hard skills, soft skills or communication skills) (39%), companies claiming to be hiring but merely collecting applicants/resumes to review (34%) and being underqualified (28%). Gen Z are most likely to report being underqualified as a significant barrier (43% compared to 25% for millennials, 30% for Gen X and 10% for boomers).
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A poll commissioned by CBC News has revealed that over 80% of newcomers to Canada believe that the country’s immigration system is bringing in too many people without proper planning.
In November, Pollara Strategic Insights conducted a survey involving 1,507 individuals to learn about their experiences of immigrating to Canada.
One key finding was that four-in-five newcomers believe the Canadian government has accepted “too many immigrants and international students with no planning for adequate housing, infrastructure, or having sufficient job opportunities.”
Did you come to Canada because you wanted to be Canadian or did you come because someone left the door open?
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Many Canadian parents remain wary of Covid and flu shots for children despite ongoing immunization campaigns, says in-house Public Health Agency research. Pandemic mandates did not improve compliance rates, data show: “Have you ever been hesitant to vaccinate your child against Covid?”**
Let's not forget the moral decline, too:
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) has introduced a petition to Josie Osborne, the BC Minister of Health, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC) to investigate the euthanasia practice of Dr. Ellen Wiebe.
"There have been many controversial euthanasia deaths associated with Dr Wiebe and we believe that there may be many more concerning deaths that were carried out by Dr. Wiebe," the petition on CitizenGo explains.
"We believe that it is likely that Dr. Wiebe has participated in non-compliant euthanasia deaths and legal sanctions or sanctions on her medical license are likely.
"Until an investigation is completed, Dr. Wiebe’s medical license should be temporarily suspended in order to protect people."
In December, a 52-year old businessman and father of three received medical assistance in dying (MAiD) while on a day pass from a psych ward in Vancouver. He suffered with chronic back pain and long-term mental illness. The family of the man, named JMM in B.C. Supreme Court documents, claims he suffered a wrongful death in December 2022.
The filing accuses Wiebe and her clinic of malpractice. The family seeks damages for the alleged wrongful death and a declaration that the man’s Charter rights were breached and that the MAiD framework is invalid and unconstitutional.
Justice Simon Coval signed an injunction on October 26, 2024 preventing Wiebe from giving an Alberta woman a MAiD scheduled for the next day. The claim stated that the woman did not qualify for MAiD because she was neither terminally ill and had no irremediable medical condition.
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Two disabled Canadians are concerned with a Canadian ethicist who says it makes sense to remove organs to people prior to their medically-assisted death, The Federalist reports.
Rob Sibbald, an ethicist of the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, broached the discussion in a 2018 article he co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sibbald said some MAiD patients might care to die first, but others might want their organs put to maximum good use. Thus, taking the organs first would facilitate “the option of donating as many organs as possible and in the best condition possible.”
The ethicist reiterated his opinion at the Critical Care Canada Forum in November 2018. He said, “I know there’s perhaps not an appetite to go there, but raising the question — is the dead donor rule even relevant?”
“I think legally, yes, we do need an answer, and we’re going to come to that,” Sibbald said. “But of the possible solutions to our pragmatic issues, we can continue to allow physicians to decide and let the conflict go to the courts.”
The Federalist presented Sibbald’s comments to Robert Foley, a disabled Canadian who had been encouraged to receive MAiD four times.
““His statement is like, ‘We’ll just do it anyway, we’ll let the physicians do it. And after they start doing it, if there’s ever a complaint, then it will go to the courts, and then the courts can decide if this is right or wrong,’” Foley said. “It could be they’re already doing euthanasia by organ harvesting, we just don’t know about it.”
Foley suggested euthanasia was a “sliding practice” of “ableism” that kept expanding “eligibility criteria” and “organ harvesting methods.”
“The human race is not mature enough to have euthanasia and assisted suicide legalized anywhere. The focus should be on improving supports for vulnerable persons to live and improving palliative care at end of life,” he insisted.
In 2023, 83% of Canadian organ transplants were from “deceased” donors. Of these 952 donors, 67% were brain dead, 27% died after losing a pulse, and 6% were MAiD recipients. In Quebec, 14% of organ donors were from MAiD recipients in 2022.
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