🏳️‍⚧️Trans military chaplain suspended over alleged sexual groping comment

A Royal Military College chaplain who was hailed by the Canadian military as an LGBTQ champion on Transgender Day of Visibility has been suspended following an alleged groping request.

Capt. Beatrice Gale had her chaplaincy revoked and was found to have violated military rules in a summary hearing because of “an inappropriate comment or request to another individual.” Gale was born a biological man but identifies as a woman.

Diversity hire is always a bad idea.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

💉Senior police officers say B.C. is not better off after drug decriminalization

Vancouver police’s deputy chief Fiona Wilson told Ottawa’s Standing Committee on Health that police are finding their hands tied when it comes to problematic drug use unless it’s in one of the areas specifically excluded from decriminalization rules.

We have been raising this issue since before decriminalization. What has happened is exactly what we predicted would happen.

Wilson said.

#BritishColumbia
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💉Poilievre says Eby should immediately end decriminalization pilot project

Justin Trudeau and the NDP premier share the blame. They are the ones that brought in decriminalization. Eby asked for it, Trudeau granted it, and they both put your tax dollars into heroin-grade opioids that can kill people and get our children hooked on drugs. So Eby and Trudeau are to blame for this radical, dangerous policy.

I’m calling on Justin Trudeau and NDP Premier Eby to end the decriminalization and the tax-subsidized drugs and immediately put all our resources into recovery and treatment that will bring our loved ones home drug free.

Poilievre said.

#BritishColumbia #Poilievre #Trudeau
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💰B.C.'s short-term rental regulations include $10K daily penalties for Airbnb, other platforms

Short-term rental platforms that violate B.C.'s pending regulations can face administrative penalties of up to $10,000 per day, officials announced Thursday.

Investigations into non-compliant companies and individual hosts will be conducted by a provincial enforcement unit, which will launch once the new rules take effect on May 1.

The Ministry of Housing said daily penalties will range from $500 to $5,000 for hosts, depending on the infraction, and reach as high as $10,000 for corporations.

#BritishColumbia
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🎓Canadians can’t cope with increasing numbers of international students: survey

A new online survey done out of Toronto shows Canadians believe there are too many international students.

🔹58 per cent of Canadians feel there are too many international students studying in Canada, up nine percentage points from a similar survey conducted in October 2023.

🔹61 per cent agree so many international students are being admitted into Canada due to mismanaged finances by post-secondary institutions in the country.

🔹66 per cent believe Canada cannot cope with the recent increases, including the high number of international students admitted who stay in the country following their education.

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💸 Canadian household debt nears $3 trillion, over 130% of GDP

Canadian households have slowed on borrowing recently, but they still accumulated a whopping amount of debt. Households debt climbed 0.3% (+$10.1 billion) to $2.94 trillion in February. This helped push annual growth to 3.4% (+$96.1 billion), and marks the fourth consecutive month of acceleration.

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🚙Three auto theft convictions should result in three years in prison, Pierre Poilievre says

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says a Conservative government would make sure auto thieves spend at least three years in prison if they are convicted for a third time, and ban house arrest for those convicted of an indictable offence.

#Poilievre
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🇨🇦🇨🇳 Chinese ambassador leaves posting in Canada

China's ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu has left his posting. He served as China's ambassador to Canada since 2019.

#China
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🏃‍♂️Vermont border patrol records highest number of illegal crossings from Canada in single month

Officials in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector in Vermont saw 1,109 apprehensions in March 2024, the highest recorded by the sector in a single month. The top three nationalities apprehended were 408 Indian, 323 Bangladeshi, and 170 Mexican nationals.

Don't get me wrong, but isn't Canada good enough for people from Bangladesh?

#US #immigration
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🏠📉New condo sales in the Toronto area hit 15-year low

There were 1,461 new condo sales in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in the first quarter of the year. That marked the lowest quarterly amount since the 2009 financial crisis.

Interest rates are high, rents are high, home buying is unaffordable, corporations are laying people off. We are in a full-blown economic crisis, but politicians don't want to call it what it is. As if no one is going to notice.

#housing #Ontario
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🇨🇦🇮🇱🇵🇸Jewish groups call for end to funding for Edmonton Pride centre over its response to Hamas attack

Jewish organizations are calling for funding to be stripped from the Pride Centre of Edmonton, arguing that its “egregious” conduct since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel ought to disqualify it from government support.

There are three things you can watch forever: fire burning, water falling and minorities arguing over who is most oppressed.

#Israel #Palestine
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🔫Canada Post refusing to collect banned guns for Ottawa's buyback program

Canada Post is refusing to collect firearms that were banned by the federal government in 2020.

Liberals promised a buyback program to remove 144,000 firearms from private hands in both the 2019 and 2021 elections. The government officially announced the process in 2020 and is now hoping to finalize it before the next general election, set for the fall of 2025.

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🎓Asylum claims by international students have risen nearly 650 per cent in the past five years

Experts warn that the study-permit system is being exploited as a way to enter and remain in Canada.

The increase in asylum claims coincides with a steep rise in the number of international students arriving over the past five years.

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🩺 Doctors ask Liberal government to reconsider capital gains tax change

The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing they will affect doctors' retirement savings.

Kathleen Ross, the association's president, says many doctors incorporate their medical practices and invest for retirement inside their corporations.

The proposed changes would increase taxes on those investments, something the association says will add "financial strain" for doctors who do not have a pension to rely on.

Ross argues the change could also affect recruitment and retention of physicians in Canada.

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🇺🇸🇮🇳🇨🇦 Sharp rise in Indians detained at US border with Canada

Border agents have recorded a sharp rise in Indians attempting to illegally enter the US from Canada in a trend immigration attorneys expect could continue until the election.

There were 30,010 Indian nationals apprehended at the norther border in 2023 compared to just 2,225 two years earlier during the height of the pandemic, according to CBP.

A further 16,622 have also arrived this fiscal year, which began on October 1.

🔎 Source
#US #India #Canada #border

☠️ Blood Meridian

🩺 Trudeau dismisses plea from doctors to reconsider capital gains tax change

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is rejecting a call from some doctors for his government to reconsider its planned capital gains tax hike.

Trudeau said the tax hike presented in the federal budget only asks "the wealthiest to pay a little bit more."

We just don't think it's right that a student, or an electrician or a teacher be paying taxes on 100 per cent of their income while others have the opportunities to use accountants and pay taxes on only 50 per cent of that income.

Canada is facing a severe doctor shortage. An estimated 6.5 million Canadians are going without access to primary care as family physicians retire en masse and medical schools struggle to recruit new residents to replace them.

#Trudeau #healthcare
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💰📉 Statistics Canada revealed global capital continues to flee Canada’s capital markets at a record pace.

🔹Canadian investors bought $24.2 billion in foreign securities in February, after sending $7.6 billion in January. The US was the biggest winner of Canadian investors chasing foreign investments. In total, a record of $16.3 billion in foreign bonds were purchased in February.

🔹Foreign investors dumped $8.8 billion worth of securities in February. This follows an unusually busy period of divestment over the past 3-months, amounting to a $31.0 billion sell off.

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📉Canada's retail sales fall, missing expectations

Statistics Canada said retail sales decreased 0.1 per cent to $66.7 billion, missing the agency’s early estimate of a 0.1 per cent gain.

Gas stations led the decline, falling 2.2 per cent. Core retail sales, which exclude fuel and motor vehicles and parts, were unchanged. Retail sales volumes fell 0.3 per cent.

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🪖Canadian military to destroy 11,000 Second World War-era pistols

The Canadian military plans to destroy 11,000 of its Second World War-era pistols by the end of this year.

The move comes as the Canadian Forces confirmed it has received the final deliveries of a new 9-mm pistol as part of a $19.4-million project.

The military purchased the Sig Sauer P320, which is being distributed to units. It replaces the Browning Hi-Power pistol that has been used by the Canadian Forces for decades.

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Canadians feel highest levels of anger, pessimism towards Trudeau government since 2018: Nanos poll

Anger and pessimism towards the Trudeau Liberal-NDP coalition have reached their highest levels since 2018, with nearly two thirds of Canadians saying they harbour primarily negative feelings towards those in power.

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🚙🔌Trudeau and Ford unveil Honda’s plan to build four new factories in Ontario

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday that Honda will build four new factories in Ontario, producing 240,000 electric vehicles as the Japanese auto giant expands its footprint.

#Ontario
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