🔎Federal parties agree to ask commissioner to investigate treason allegations in watchdog report

The federal government is calling on Justice Marie-Josée Hogue to investigate allegations of treason by current and former parliamentarians contained in last week’s alarming report from a national security committee.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told MPs on Monday that the Liberals would be supporting a motion brought forward by the Bloc Québécois to expand the Hogue Commission’s terms of reference “to allow it to investigate Canada’s federal democratic institutions,” including former and current MPs and senators.

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💰'Frustrated' B.C. premier says Quebec gets immigration money 'at the expense' of Western Canada

Federal immigration money is being “showered down” on Ontario and Quebec “at the expense” of Western Canada, British Columbia Premier David Eby said.

Eby said that Ottawa’s offer of $750 million to Quebec to help pay for a surge in temporary residents there is frustrating, and B.C. should also get a share.

According to Eby, there are 10,000 people coming to British Columbia every 37 days, refugees have to stay in homeless shelters and international students don’t have support.

#BritishColumbia #immigration
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Liberal plan passes with backing of other parties

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party opposed the Liberals' plan to increase Canada's capital gains inclusion rate on Tuesday, in a vote that still passed with the backing of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois.

The motion, paving the way for the Liberals to advance legislation to change Canada's tax laws accordingly, cleared the House of Commons by a vote of 208 to 118.

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Marc Miller defends $750M in immigration funding for Quebec, says B.C. premier was 'confused'

B.C. Premier David Eby was "confused" about the facts when he criticized the federal government this week for giving Quebec $750 million to manage asylum seekers, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday.

I think perhaps there is some confusion on the premier's behalf as to what this money was for. The suggestion was it was for temporary residents. That is absolutely not the case.

[The funding is ] to compensate Quebec for two fiscal years of costs they've incurred for the disproportionate flow of asylum seekers. I think perhaps he was confused about what the money was for.

#immigration #Quebec #BritishColumbia
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Singh pledges to eject NDP members if they colluded with foreign governments

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will kick any MP who knowingly worked with a foreign government to undermine Canada out of his caucus.

He said he is planning to read a national-security watchdog report, released last week, that revealed some parliamentarians have been collaborating with foreign governments for their own benefit.

He promised to take action if New Democrat MPs turn up in the report. No names have yet been released.

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Toronto unemployment hits 317k people, more than all of Quebec

Over the past year, the unemployment rate in Torono climbed 1.0 point (+83.8k people) to 7.9% (317.2k people) as of May. About 1 in 3 of Canada’s unemployment gains over the past year is in the region, which now has more unemployed people than the whole province of Quebec (241.2k people).

#Ontario
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#Trudeau
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Marc Miller says he's tired of people 'blaming immigrants for absolutely everything'

Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday he was “quite tired of the fact that people are always blaming immigrants for absolutely everything,” after Quebec Premier François Legault attributed “100 per cent of the housing problem” to the increase in the number of people arriving on a temporary basis.

The increase in mortgages, in mortgage prices, has nothing to do with immigrants.

he said.

Is he saying it's all the government's fault?

#immigration
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Poilievre is the sole party leader forgoing access to classified report on foreign interference

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is the only federal party leader foregoing access to a classified national security and intelligence watchdog’s report that says the country’s intelligence services believe some parliamentarians are “semi-witting or witting” participants in foreign-interference efforts.

Initially, Mr. Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet both rejected offers for the access to classified reports because they said it would muzzle their public efforts to hold the government to account. However, in the last week, top intelligence officials have said that secrecy rules would not prevent leaders from acting on the information they receive.

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🇨🇦🇮🇳Canada shares more information with India on Sikh murder case

Canada and India have increased their security exchanges in recent months over the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, including visits to India by senior Canadian officials to share a robust set of evidence on the case, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

But diplomatic relations between the two countries remain in a deep freeze ahead of the Group of Seven leaders summit in Italy this week, where both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in attendance.

#India
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🎯Canadian media a target for foreign interference: national security committee chair

All forms of media, including mainstream media, are being subjected to interference by bad actors, Liberal MP David McGuinty said.

The media was singled out in a recent report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, which McGuinty chairs. The document highlights how China and India are interfering with Canadian media content through direct engagement with journalists and media executives.

#China #India
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Damage done by 2024 wildfire season well below average so far, federal officials say

Canada's wildfire season is off to a slow start, with the number of hectares burned so far this year still below the ten-year average, senior government officials and ministers said in Ottawa Wednesday.

Last year at this time, almost three million hectares of forest had been destroyed by wildfires. Canada has lost just 500,000 hectares to fire so far this year.

#wildfires
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🇨🇦🇺🇦 Canada to send around 2,000 decommissioned CRV7 rocket motors to Ukraine

The Liberal government says it will start shipping decommissioned CRV7 rocket motors to Ukraine. National Defence said in a press release Thursday Canada will send an “initial tranche” of around 2,000 rocket motors.

Canada will also donate 29 surplus Nanuk remote weapons systems and more than 130,000 rounds of surplus small-arms ammunition.

How much of it will be wasted?

#Ukraine
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🇨🇦🇺🇦🇷🇺 Canada contributing $5 billion to new G7 deal being finalized to help Ukraine using frozen Russian assets

I can never get enough hugs from you.

- Trudeau told Zelenskyy at G7.

#Ukraine #Russia
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💰The U.S., with Canada's support, has proposed using the interest on roughly 200 billion euros in frozen Russian assets held mostly in Europe to secure a $50 billion US bank loan for ongoing support for Ukraine.

Trudeau first made the pitch to use seized Russian Central Bank assets in February during a G7 call, the government said. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland last month encouraged G7 finance ministers in Italy to use the assets to help pay for Ukraine's recovery.

#Ukraine #Russia
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📈Canada moves into top 5 countries in refugee claims

Canada was the fifth largest recipient country of asylum seekers last year.

According to the latest global trends report, Canada received 146,800 new claims in 2023, up from 94,000 the year before. Only four countries were ahead: the U.S. (1.2 million), Germany (329,100), Egypt (183,100) and Spain (163,200).

It was the first time Canada made it into the top five in at least six years.

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Judge rejects 'necessity defence' from B.C. climate activists charged in disruptive protests

Two climate activists charged in a series of disruptive protests on Vancouver Island cannot use a "necessity defence" to avoid punishment, a B.C. judge has ruled.

Protesters Howard Breen and Melanie Murray argued in provincial court that the increasingly urgent threat of catastrophic consequences related to climate change should make their alleged criminal behaviour excusable.

It's so uplifting when climate activists get punished for their actions.

#BritishColumbia
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💸Trudeau government to invest $110 million into “anti-racism strategy”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be spending $110 million in taxpayer funding on anti-racism and DEI consultants to fight what the Liberals consider the endemic problem of racism at the heart of Canadian society.

The Trudeau government announced the spending as part of its renewed anti-racism and discrimination strategy, with money being doled out to “hundreds” of projects across Canada.

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🌱💰Carbon tax will cost $25B in GDP in 2030, Liberals' own data show

The federal carbon tax will have a negative economic impact on Canada’s real gross domestic product (GDP) of $25 billion, or approximately one per cent, in 2030 according to the government’s own internal data it released on Thursday.

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🏠 Every new home built requires $100,000 in infrastructure spending

The report, funded by the Canada Infrastructure Bank, estimated the average cost of infrastructure needed to support housing likely exceeds $100,000 for each newly built home. That includes funding for resources such as public transit, roads, water lines, schools, fire halls or recreational facilities.

Now the question. Where to get the money when the budget deficit is off the charts and there is a housing crisis already?

#housing
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📉🇨🇳🇮🇳Most Canadians have a negative view of China and India

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians offering strongly negative assessments of two of the countries accused of meddling in Canadian elections.

🔹Four-in-five (79%) Canadians say they have an unfavourable view of China as favourability towards that country remains at a historic nadir.

🔹Further, positive appraisal of India has declined by 11-points in Canada since March 2023; a minority of one-third (33%) who say they view the country favourably are outnumbered by the majority (54%) who do not.

#China #India
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