Canada’s immigration system is broken, Prime Minister Mark Carney said last night. “The system isn’t working,” Carney told French-language viewers in the first televised debate of the general election: “Would you say the immigration system in Canada went off the rails in the last seven or eight years?”
A federal judge has dismissed calls for an independent investigation of alleged inside dealing at the Canada Revenue Agency. Employees accused a former assistant commissioner, Ted Gallivan, of approving a “secretive tax deal” for a wealthy corporate lobbyist: “It is clear the Agency launched several internal investigations into the state of the workplace.”
A First Nation audit of misspent federal grants reported that members destroyed financial records covering years’ worth of expenditures, say Access To Information documents. Auditors hired by the Department of Indigenous Services complained they were unable to investigate numerous irregularities due to missing files: “There are concerns that documents were intentionally taken from the First Nation and destroyed.”
Angry Green Party organizers yesterday stormed out of a news conference after being disqualified from TV debates for the first time in 10 years. The Party reneged on a promise to nominate a full slate of candidates in the April 28 election: ‘You may be frustrated and angry.’
Any prolonged trade war will drive Canada into a grinding recession resulting in bankruptcies and joblessness, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. The future was unclear and risk-filled, he said: “The outlook is really clouded.”
Organizers of national election debates dropped immigration from tomorrow’s English language telecast but not the French debate scheduled this evening at 6 pm Eastern. No reason was given. Provinces outside Québec have seen the highest rates of immigration and most opposition to record quotas: “Do you feel there are too many, too few or about the right number of immigrants coming to Canada?”
Liberal MP Ya’ara Saks (York Centre, Ont.) last night blamed media conspiracies in dismissing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s contacts with friends of China. Saks made the comment in a heated B’nai Brith election debate as her Conservative opponent expressed astonishment: “Is that your idea of what you’re going to censor, when people talk about what is happening in our election right now?”
The new Parliament must amend the Criminal Code to prohibit hate speech under the guise of religious instruction, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said yesterday. It follows a 2023 incident in which a Muslim speaker wished death on Montréal Jews while reciting a Quran prayer: “O Allah, destroy the enemies of the people of Gaza.”
Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday confirmed Conservatives will defund CBC-TV English language services if elected April 28. The Crown broadcaster should rely on advertising income, subscription fees or viewer donations, he said: “Let Canadians enjoy it as a non-profit.”
A Crown corporation specializing in real estate is taking credit for 13,000 housing starts in the past nine years with a few thousand more expected by 2030, says a federal memo. Canada is short 3,870,000 additional housing starts, by federal estimate: ‘You have a good place to call your own at a price you can afford.’
Cabinet’s $191,000-a year Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia should be fired, the Canadian Future Party said yesterday. Amira Elghawaby, a former Toronto Star contributor, must be removed and her budget revoked, said the Party’s platform: “Remove the position and budget.”
New York Consul Tom Clark billed thousands in expenses unrelated to promotion of Canadian trade including junkets to examine “high school culture” in Bermuda and an $1,800 luncheon on Indigenous art, records show. Clark in Commons committee testimony said he was tirelessly focused on promoting “partnerships with American business.”
Any future Conservative cabinet would enact strict new penalties for anti-Semitic crimes, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Protests targeting Jews marked a “breakdown in our society,” he said: “I can assure you they will be penalties that are so massive there will never again be some punk thinking even once of throwing a Molotov cocktail into a Jewish business.”
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday said opinion polls were underestimating Party support and would be proven wrong. “Polling does not seem to capture New Democrat support,” he told reporters: “Do you believe the polls?”
No major national party is interested in developing a nuclear weapons program, according to a Ukrainian Canadian Congress election survey yesterday. Parties were polled on a Congress proposal to build Canadian warheads: “Do you support Canada developing an independent nuclear deterrent?”
