📍Toronto

These days it's either Pride parades or marches for Palestine. And nothing in between.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Conservatives call for hearings into how terror suspects came to Canada

The federal Conservatives say Canadians deserve answers about the immigration and security screening processes undertaken for a father and son the RCMP recently charged in connection to an alleged foiled Toronto terror plot.

On July 28, the RCMP arrested Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and Mostafa Eldidi, 26, in Richmond Hill, Ont. The two were "in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto."

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🍁 Maple Chronicles

No wonder his wife left.

#Trudeau
🍁 Maple Chronicles

‘Don’t be pooping on the beach,’ Doug Ford says of Ontario town saga

Anyone heading Wasaga Beach shouldn’t be “pooping on the beach,” Premier Doug Ford says as the Ontario town fights back against what it says are misleading social media posts.

Those posts claim people are defecting in the sand at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, and the town’s mayor says Wasaga Beach’s image is being “gravely harmed” by them.

“It’s a very popular beach,” Ford said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday.

“They have no proof people are pooping in the park.”

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🏠Rent in Canada now averaging $2,201 per month, with some markets seeing big jumps

Rents are still rising in Canada but the year-over-year pace of growth has slowed, according to a new report.

The data from Rentals.ca and Urbanation says asking rents for all residential property types averaged $2,201 in July, up 5.9 per cent from last year.

Vancouver saw a roughly seven per cent decrease in July rents from last year to leave its average at $3,101 and Toronto had rents decline five per cent to $2,719.

Quebec City, on the other hand, had a 21 per cent increase to $1,657, Halifax had an 18 per cent increase to $2,373, and prairie cities like Saskatoon, Edmonton and Regina also saw double-digit gains.

#housing
🍁 Maple Chronicles

Trans Mountain pipeline helps fuel Canada's surprise trade surplus in June

Canada unexpectedly recorded a $638 million trade surplus in June as an expanded crude oil pipeline and surging global demand for gold drove exports higher.

Statistics Canada noted the size of the surplus was “close to the typical bounds of monthly revisions,” having revised the previous month’s trade balance upward by about $320 million.

Exports rose 5.5 per cent overall in June, outpacing a 1.9 per cent rise in imports.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Public servant named in ArriveCan controversy denies responsibility for contracting issues

A public servant who has been named multiple times in parliamentary hearings on the ArriveCan controversy is denying responsibility for the project's contracting issues.

Diane Daly, an employee with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), appeared Wednesday before the House public accounts committee, which has been investigating ArriveCan's soaring costs.

Daly told the committee that she was seconded to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) while ArriveCan was being developed. She said she had no authority to make decisions about the contracting process and insisted that her role was largely an administrative one.

No one wants to take responsibility.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Canada unexpectedly loses 2,800 jobs in July

Canada's economy shed a net 2,800 jobs in July, as gains in full-time work were offset by part-time job losses, while the unemployment rate remained at a 30-month high of 6.4 per cent, data showed on Friday.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Real estate insolvencies in Canada set to surpass levels of global financial crisis

Residential property developers are facing rising insolvencies as they struggle with higher borrowing and construction costs – and industry experts warn the trend is likely to worsen as interest expenses remain elevated.

From January to May this year, there was an average of 20 real estate, rental or leasing insolvencies in Canada every month. Companies either sought bankruptcy protection or filed creditor proposals to make it easier for them to manage their debts under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

At this pace, Canada is on track to reach about 240 real estate insolvencies this year, which would be 57-per-cent higher than 2023 and 13-per-cent higher than 2009, when a wide swath of businesses ran into problems owing to the financial crisis and global recession.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

❗️Appeal court strikes down law on searching phones, tablets and laptops at border

The law allowing Canadian border officers to search people’s personal devices is unconstitutional, Ontario’s top court has ruled, giving Parliament six months to come up with new legislation.

The Ontario Court of Appeal said in a 114-page decision released Friday that there’s a need for a higher threshold justifying a search of travellers’ phones, tablets and laptops, after concluding the current law violates the right to be free from unreasonable searches guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🩺 These 17 cancers are on the rise in younger generations

The study, published in The Lancet this month, found that 17 of the 34 most common cancers diagnosed between the ages of 25 to 84 are on the rise in younger people. More than half of the cancers are linked to obesity, consistent with the rise in childhood obesity among recent generations.

The rise in cancer rates was particularly evident in millennials born around 1990. The number of new cancers of the small intestine, kidney and pancreas was two to three times higher in people in their mid-30s than in boomers — specifically those born around 1955.

#healthcare
🍁 Maple Chronicles

Most Canadians think adding Mark Carney to cabinet would have no benefit to Trudeau

While Canadians have a more favourable view of former central banker Mark Carney than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, most don’t think adding him to the minority government’s cabinet would help the Liberals’ fortunes, according to a new poll by Nanos Research.

The poll shows 39 per cent of respondents believe appointing Mr. Carney as finance minister would have no impact on how people vote. A further 29 per cent said it would help the Liberals be more competitive in the next election, 8 per cent said it would make the incumbent less competitive, and 24 per cent said they were unsure.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Athlete, OnlyFans star Alysha Newman twerks to celebrate winning Olympic bronze medal

Canadian pole vaulter and OnlyFans star Alysha Newman went viral last Wednesday after celebrating her Olympic bronze medal by twerking.

Soon after concluding her record-setting performance, Newman shook her butt toward the crowds and television cameras — a move that would later divide the Internet on whether she was trying to promote her OnlyFans or just celebrating with a dance.

We don't claim her.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

👊Another massive brawl took place in Khalistan Brampton on Friday.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Canada’s temporary foreign worker program a ‘breeding ground’ for modern slavery, UN report concludes

A final report by UN investigator Tomoya Obokata concludes that Canada’s temporary foreign worker program is a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.

The special rapporteur retains the view that the temporary foreign worker program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights.

states the final report, which is dated July 22 and was recently posted online.

That's one hot take. The UN is a joke.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

New human rights commissioner resigns before starting role

Canada's human rights commissioner Birju Dattani has resigned before ever officially starting the job, according to a post on his LinkedIn account.

Dattani agreed to go on leave last week — the day before he was set to officially begin his role — following complaints about past comments and actions of his that were called antisemitic by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

Invisible forces at work.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Mom fights back in grizzly bear attack

A brave Yukon mom who was attacked by a grizzly bear while jogging said her 2-year-old daughter was her inspiration to survive.

🍁 Maple Chronicles

Organized crime shifting to domestic fentanyl production

Organized crime groups have begun making more fentanyl in Canada rather than importing it from abroad, the RCMP says. The shift began in 2019, following a halt in production from overseas markets.

Isn't it wonderful to see domestic production flourishing under Trudeau?

🍁 Maple Chronicles

🗳A former Progressive Conservative is launching a new political party

A new political party will appear on the ballot in two upcoming by-elections as the Canadian Future Party seeks to introduce itself officially as a centrist option for voters it argues are growing weary of an increasingly polarized environment.

The party, approved by Elections Canada last month, will field candidates in the LaSalle—Émard—Verdun and Elmwood-Transcona races in September.

🍁 Maple Chronicles