Home equity savers typically pay it forward to make their children homebuyers, says a Bank of Canada study. Researchers said the incidence of parents co-signing mortgages tripled in a decade: "How important are parents?"
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Pedestrian crossing downtown Ottawa marked by silhouette: John Cleese performing Silly Walk…”
Border towns have a unique world view rarely documented by historians. The city flag of Lethbridge, Alta. is red, white and blue. The Columbia in British Columbia is named for an American schooner. New York’s Buffalo News used to publish a monthly commentary of legislation passed by Parliament. Most residents of Emerson, Man. can name the best place to eat in Fargo, North Dakota.
Author Brandon Dimmel documents this border culture and its cataclysmic change born from fears of terrorism more than a hundred years ago. Engaging The Line is a smart, crisp account of the First World War’s impact on border life. The topic is not merely timely but compelling.
Most interesting in Dimmel’s account is the story of Windsor, Ont. and neighbouring Essex County, a place so Americanized newsboys used to hawk the Detroit Free Press on local street corners. Longtime residents still speak with a slight Michigan accent discernible to fellow Canadians.
More than 3,000 Gazans to date have been approved for visas to enter Canada, says a Department of Immigration briefing note. Staff boasted Canada with its 5,000-visa program was “the only country in the world” to offer residency to Gaza residents ineligible under immigration programs: "We are being as flexible as possible."
Media and public health agencies have misled Canadians on the true impact of federal drug policy, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday told reporters. “Be more responsible,” said Poilievre: "Results of their policies are plain for all eyes to see."
Jews last year were targeted in more police-reported hate crimes than any other group, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Anti-Semitism led all other hate crime categories though Jews account for less than one percent of Canada’s population: "I never thought in my lifetime I’d see anti-Semitism like this in our streets."
A $500 million Loblaw Companies class action settlement in a bread price fixing scandal represents a fraction of industry profits from the alleged conspiracy, according to court records. Loblaw yesterday apologized for cheating customers: "Sorry."
The federal archives must release all relevant records to determine how many children died at Indian Residential Schools, the Senate Indigenous peoples committee said yesterday. The recommendation follows contradictory evidence regarding “unmarked graves.”
A taxpayer-funded guidebook instructing schoolchildren to identify the Conservative Party with bigots was approved by then-Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen’s office, Access To Information records show. The guide also called the Red Ensign a hate symbol and provided tips on how to confront classmates with incorrect thinking: "Hype up the initiative."
Bank of Canada analysts yesterday disputed cabinet claims immigration is an immediate net benefit to the country. Immigrants typically drive up rents, are slow to get a job and contribute “to inflationary pressures in some sectors,” said the Bank: "Housing supply has not kept up."
Cash grants to Ukrainian war refugees have cost taxpayers more than $753 million to date, records show. The Department of Immigration earlier acknowledged a “perception of unfairness regarding the treatment of the Ukrainian population.”
MPs yesterday voted to investigate the purchase of a luxury condominium in Manhattan for Tom Clark, former CTV announcer appointed last year as Canada’s $205,000-a year Consul General in New York. Members of the Commons government operations committee expressed outrage at the $9 million expense for a high-rise penthouse with four bathrooms: "I hope Mr. Clark enjoys it until the day after the next election."
Liberal appointee Annette Verschuren breached the Conflict Of Interest Act in voting a $217,661 grant to her own company, the Ethics Commissioner ruled yesterday. Verschuren, a Liberal donor, was chair of now-disbanded Sustainable Development Technology Canada at the time: "She was required to recuse herself from those matters and failed to do so."
Federal regulators should be wary of meeting privately in barrooms with lobbyists, says the Federal Court of Appeal. The reprimand to the CRTC followed a 2019 beer summit between then-CEO Ian Scott and Bell Canada’s chief executive that was photographed by a passerby: "Why were the two together? What was discussed?"
Liberal caucus members yesterday sat quietly for nearly an hour as Conservative MP Larry Brock (Brantford-Brant, Ont.) repeatedly described Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a habitual liar. Speaking at the Commons government operations committee, MP Brock said Trudeau was a “very good liar” with a “penchant for lying.” No Liberal MP objected: "What’s the relevance?"
