Crime Cartel activity in Canada grew to become very prevalent during Trudeau era

That look when you rat on your ex boss.

Cartel activity in Canada ‘very prevalent now,’ former Trudeau advisor says

Organized crime cartel activity is “very prevalent now” compared to at least a decade ago, says a former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and listing those groups as terrorist organizations may help prevent a “national crisis.”

Jody Thomas says the government’s move to list seven transnational criminal organizations, including multiple drug cartels, as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code will give law enforcement more tools to go after cartel-affiliated criminal groups in Canada — particularly their finances — that will be “enormously helpful.”

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Most USAID staff laid off or placed on leave by Trump administration

The Trump administration has placed most United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employees back on administrative leave from midnight on Sunday and laid off hundreds more.

In addition to some 4,200 staff who are being placed on leave, at least 1,600 employees are being fired.

The move comes weeks after President Donald Trump’s initial attempt to eliminate thousands of USAID employees was held up by a legal challenge.

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The end of the transatlantic alliance

Europe has lost its way

There is no longer any doubt that Europe and America are parting ways. The death of the transatlantic relationship was foretold many times, but at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, it finally ended.

The great American-European divorce has played out in three areas — Ukraine, free speech, and trade. Last week, Donald Trump blindsided the Europeans with his announcement of peace talks with Vladimir Putin. (He said he would do this during his election campaign, but Europe’s leaders were clearly not paying attention.) Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, told the Europeans on Saturday that they will not be included in high-level peace negotiations.

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Doug Ford Spending $70 Million Of Your Money On A “Sikh-Punjabi” Long Term Care Home … Your Granny Gets SFA

Niwaas Long-Term Care, a not-for-profit organization, describes itself as “the first Sikh-Punjabi long-term care home in Ontario”. Its aim is to build a facility in Brampton that provides Sikh and Punjabi elders “with the medical care and support they need, in an environment that is familiar – with our food, our language, our culture and heritage”.

Cripes. What A Ho. h/t Patti Jo

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Taliban arrest British couple in their 70s for teaching mothers

A British couple in their seventies have been arrested by the Taliban, apparently for teaching parenting skills to mothers over 30.

Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who loved Afghanistan so much that they married in Kabul in 1970 after meeting at Bath University, have been running training projects in schools there for 18 years and stayed after the Taliban’s sudden return to power in 2021.

Barbie Reynolds even became the first woman to receive a certificate of appreciation from the Taliban.

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Ottawa’s Affordable Housing Plan Has ‘Unrealistic’ Price Tag of More Than $1 Trillion: Fraser Institute

The federal government’s plan to achieve affordable housing levels through additional building is “completely unrealistic” and comes with a price tag of over $1 trillion, according to a new report.

The Fraser Institute report “Canada Needs to Save Much More to Finance an Ambitious Investment Agenda” looks at what Canada needs to do to improve housing affordability and attract more business investment.

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Grandmother spoken to by police after criticising Labour politicians online

A grandmother was spoken to at her home by police after she criticised Labour politicians online for sending offensive WhatsApp messages.

In a series of Facebook posts Helen Jones called for the resignation of a councillor embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal which led to the sacking of Andrew Gwynne, the former health minister.

The 54-year-old school administrator, who was not accused of committing a crime, said she was left feeling scared to post on social media following the unannounced visit by two officers on Tuesday.

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WAGNER: Trump’s obsession with Canada is real

Recently, Brian Lilley of the Toronto Sun interviewed Steve Bannon about Donald Trump’s repeated comments about Canada becoming the fifty-first state. Bannon has long been associated with Trump, having served as his White House Chief Strategist in 2017, and continues to be a leading spokesman and organizer for the MAGA movement.

Lilley was probably hoping to get assurances that Trump’s comments about Canada were not serious and that he was just trolling Justin Trudeau. But that was not the message he received.

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Lawrence Krauss: Land acknowledgements often ignore history

I remember the first time I heard a statement at a public event along the lines of, “This building is located on traditional unceded Aboriginal land.” It was in Australia, and it struck me as disingenuous, simplistic and patronizing. If the people making this statement really felt that badly about the land they (and possibly their forebearers) lived and worked on for generations and ostensibly stole, then they would reasonably choose to give the land back along with all they had built upon it.

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Britain’s new blasphemy laws imperil us all

‘Let’s be clear, we don’t have blasphemy laws in the UK.’ So said Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s business secretary and premier solicitor impersonator, to the BBC earlier this week. Reynolds was pushing back against US vice-president JD Vance, who gave European leaders a very public dressing down at the Munich Security Conference last week for censoring their voters, and Britain for criminalising its Christians. Of course, Reynolds’s denial was about as trustworthy as his CV.

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A New Brookings Report Ignores Facts About Race and Violence

Being poor doesn’t make someone a murderer.

For decades, criminologists have pushed the debunked theory that poverty causes crime. The contents of a recent Brookings Institution report suggest that old habits die hard.

The report’s authors sought to answer a question: Why did homicides increase in 2020 and 2021 and fall in 2023 and 2024? The pandemic-era murder spike, they argued, “was directly connected to local unemployment and school closures in low-income areas.” While parts of this claim were coherent—unemployment and school closures left young males idle and free to act violently—why would the homicide increases have been tied to low-income areas? The authors argue that it was because people who grow up in poor neighborhoods “have fewer opportunities, weaker professional networks, and earn less income than those in other areas.”

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