On the face of it, Friday’s jobs report was a good one – we added 90,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1%.
But a deeper look at the numbers give cause to worry on two fronts.
The federal government is changing its policy around when it would recognize a Palestinian state in response to what it describes as unacceptable positions and actions taken by both the Israeli government and the Hamas militant group that controls the Gaza strip.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said it will now consider recognizing a Palestinian state before the terms of a two-state solution are finalized. Until now, Canada’s position has been that it would recognize a Palestinian state only as the last step in such a process.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has proposed to increase the Canadian journalism labour tax credit at the rate of an extra $104 million.
The tax credit, also known as the “media bailout,” was first established in 2019.
Canada has consistently ranked as one of the most generous countries in the world when it comes to foreign aid, claiming seventh place in Official Development Assistance among OECD countries in 2023.
The country’s foreign aid for the 2022-2023 fiscal year topped $16 billion, or about a half percentage of the country’s total GDP, recently released aid data shows. The year’s aid had a sharp rise compared to the previous two years of approximately $8 billion annually, driven primarily by help for Ukraine refugees and asylum seekers.
The Liberal government says its foreign aid is directed by its Feminist International Assistance Policy, stressing that it has a focus on “gender equality.”
MONTREAL — One way Canada plans to shrink the number of temporary residents is to offer them the opportunity to remain permanently, the immigration minister said Friday, but that doesn’t mean everyone who wants to stay will be able to.
Marc Miller met with his provincial and territorial counterparts for the first time since he announced an unprecedented plan to set limits on the number of new temporary residents.
It seems rare when all three levels of government in Canada agree these days, but one such issue — at least in Brampton — is curbing so-called “diploma mill” colleges.
In January, federal Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller announced a two-year cap on new student visas starting this fall. Miller said the decision was, at least in part, aimed at eradicating private post-secondary educational institutions he described as “the diploma equivalent of puppy mills” and “fly-by-night operations and backdoor entries into Canada” with dubious academic standards.
They were supposed to be outstanding – on paper. In the real world, they’re closer to the upper end of mediocre. So much promise, never realized. Reputation is way up here; results are somewhere down there.
I’m talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs. I’m also talking about Canada.
OTTAWA – Canada abstained on a motion at the UN General Assembly Friday designed to move the international body towards recognizing Palestinian statehood.
The motion passed by a wide margin, with only the U.S., Israel and a handful of other countries opposing the move. The motion recognizes that a Palestinian state is ready for admission to the UN. The UN Security Council has already rejected granting a Palestinian state full diplomatic recognition and Friday’s vote calls on the Security Council to reconsider that choice.
Abstention is just cowardice in this instance. Too many votes at risk for Junior to do the right thing I suppose.
India says that Canada has shared no evidence to back up its allegation that the Indian government was involved in the death of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada last year, despite recent arrests in the crime.
The spokesperson for India’s external affairs ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, also reiterated India’s longstanding allegation that Canada harbors Indian extremists.
Three Indian nationals who had been living in Canada temporarily were charged on Thursday for their alleged role in the assassination of the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia last year.
Alberta’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions (including government, corporations and individuals) have been more successful and far less economically crippling than Ottawa’s.
Huh!? Surely that can’t be right. The Trudeau Liberals have been environmental fundamentalists — cultists even. They have imposed (often unconstitutionally) a no-more-pipelines act, a tanker ban, the cancellation of three major pipelines, regulations for a net-zero power grid, the Just Transition to renewable energy, EV mandates and, of course, the carbon tax.
I first Googled “How do I become a Canadian spy” in July 2005. I was living in London, U.K. working in finance when a bus and several subway stations had just been blown up by domestic homegrown terrorists only a few blocks from my office. Fifty-two people were killed and 770 were injured. Just four years earlier when two passenger planes hit the Twin Towers murdering nearly 3,000, I was a senior at Brown University in Rhode Island. This was followed by terrorists killing 191 civilians on a Madrid train. For those who don’t remember this time period, it was the age of terrorism. It was an age where not only did you know what the threat was, but it felt very real and dangerously close.
Ottawa Phasing Out Hotel Subsidies for Illegal Immigrants and Refugees by 2026
Ottawa is phasing out hotel subsidies for illegal immigrants and refugees, with local authorities being given the responsibility of finding “permanent, sustainable” housing for foreigners by 2026.
“Funding in 2026 will be conditional on provincial and municipal investments in permanent transitional housing solutions for asylum claimants,” the immigration department wrote the Senate national finance committee, as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.
However, people on social media were angry that all Canadians don’t get free admission.
“Why do we even pay taxes?” one person asked. “What is the benefit to living in Canada?”
New Canadians Get Free Admission to Parks
Newcomers to Canada and new citizens can explore the country’s national parks for free this year.
According to Parks Canada, national sites including the Canadian Rockies, parts of the Maritimes, and everywhere in between, can be accessed for free for those new to the country.
Free admission applies to Canada’s national historic sites, national parks, and marine conservation areas and can be claimed through the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s Canoo mobile app.
Oh that’s great nothing like a little ethnic vote buying.
Canada’s renters are showing more signs of financial stress amid rising debt costs than homeowners facing higher mortgage rates, according to a new analysis from the central bank.
The Bank of Canada released its Financial Stability Report for 2024 on Thursday.
Overall, the central bank said that signs of financial stress were rising back to normal levels after “sharp declines” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stood by her government’s budget at a parliamentary committee Thursday, defending the carbon tax and the Liberals’ economic performance from Conservative MPs.
The House of Commons Finance committee took a break from a filibuster, where Conservative MPs have been pushing to have former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney testify, to have Freeland testify.
