Canada

While Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has called for his removal, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says he will “leave the politics to the politicians.”

“We welcome diverse views, we welcome analysis, we welcome criticism of our work and our decisions,” said Macklem. “Canadians should be asking us tough questions.”

Poilievre has said he would fire Macklem if he became prime minister, criticizing him for record high inflation, record high housing prices and the bank’s quantitative easing program, which Poilievre says is “money printing.”

In Brantford, a small army of officers and a K-9 unit illegally detained and searched a suspect for drugs. The reason the officers gave for the pursuit and takedown? The cyclist was riding on the sidewalk without a light. The judge called the ruse “serious police misconduct” and tossed the drug evidence.

Toronto officers stood in a hospital operating room, without a warrant, while a doctor removed heroin from the rectum of an unconscious stabbing victim so they could seize it. Again, the judge threw out the drug evidence.

In Calgary, police trailed a 24-year-old suspect to a convenience store in 2019. Latef Tag El Din, who had a criminal record, was violating a house arrest order and had a loaded handgun hidden in his vest. As he made a break for the exit, an officer unleashed a police dog and tackled him to the floor. For hours after his arrest, officers ignored and mocked his repeated requests for medical treatment and one sang a song ridiculing his pleas for help. As blood seeped through the bandages covering the bite wounds on Tag El Din’s arm, officers taunted him with “laughter, sarcasm, song and judgment,” the judge said.

Canadian border officers have been reprimanded for hundreds of acts of misconduct over the past two years — including preferential treatment and criminal association — according to documents obtained by CBC News.

Details of the cases — all of which were deemed founded — were released under access to information law and cover the period Jan. 1, 2020 to Jan. 1, 2022.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said that, during the last fiscal year, it concluded 92 founded investigations. Of those, 12 saw border officers verbally reprimanded, 42 led to written reprimands and 38 ended in suspensions.