Quebec Premier Francois Legault said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to let migrants and asylum seekers know that they can no longer come to Canada.
According to Legault, the prime minister bears the brunt of the responsibility for the influx of illegal border crossings into the province due to his 2017 tweet.
“It is time for Justin Trudeau to put out a new tweet to say not to come anymore, because we have exceeded our reception capacity,” said Legault.
“So, Trudeau has a responsibility in this, listen, we have problems with housing, capacity in schools, staff in hospitals, at some point, Trudeau has to send a new message.”
While former US president Donald Trump was clamping down on immigration in 2017, Trudeau controversially tweeted that Canada would “welcome” all those “fleeing persecution, terror, and war.”
Immediately after the tweet, Canada’s southern border saw a spike in crossings, especially at the Roxham Road makeshift crossing.
Earlier this week it was revealed that Ottawa has been transporting migrants entering into Quebec via the controversial border crossing into neighbouring provinces at the request of Legault’s government.
“We are starting to see results (of this new approach),” said Quebec Minister of Immigration Christine Frechette. “We’re very happy with that.”
As of June, over 5,300 migrants have been bussed out of Quebec. The bulk of them have been moved into Windsor and Niagara Falls, Ontario.
“I don’t have information about what happened on Monday, but we are expecting that this new approach persists,” said Frechette.
Quebec has requested that it only take in up to 23% of asylum seekers moving forward.
There’s the growing sense that an ethics violation on the part of a Canadian politician is now a meaningless thing. It wasn’t always this way, but it’s become so under the Trudeau Liberal government.
On Tuesday, federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion found Liberal MP Greg Fergus guilty of contravening ethics laws by signing a letter of support for a private broadcasting company submitting a licence application to the CRTC.
The judgment reads, in part, that: “Dion determined that Mr. Fergus sought to improperly further Natyf Inc.’s private interests because he intervened in the decision-making process of a quasi-judicial tribunal.”
The rules allow MPs to write such letters, but parliamentary secretaries and cabinet ministers cannot and Fergus is the parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
While it sounds bad to read that someone was found guilty of breaking an ethics law, Canadians are increasingly learning that it doesn’t really mean much. There are no real consequences to such a finding.
The worst of Dion’s report was his statement that he’d like more politicians to undergo ethics training because he’s concerned by the increasing number who are found to be breaking the rules. They’re free to take or leave his offer.
Fergus, using a page from the Trudeau playbook, thanked Dion for the report and labelled his misstep an “unintentional error”.
Now I’m sure most people would agree that signing an inappropriate letter of support for a CRTC application is a pretty small offence in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to previous Liberal politicians’ ethics breaches. But what makes this one newsworthy is the sense that these violations are becoming normalized.
It was just the other month that the ethics commissioner found Minister Mary Ng guilty of ethics breaches for giving contracts to a friend. Then there are the famous ones involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
Canadians rightly laughed at the idea of the extremely wealthy Morneau facing a punishment of a $200 fine. And Trudeau has previously been fined $100 for breaches.
We need to ask ourselves: Do these violations actually matter or not?
The post of Ethics Commissioner was created in 2007 by the Stephen Harper Conservative government as part of their Federal Accountability Act. It was devised in the aftermath of the Sponsorship Scandal, where Canadians felt that there were perhaps too many shady dealings going on in Ottawa.
But since then, it’s become clear that this office has no teeth. Dion announced his resignation on Wednesday and as the search begins for a replacement, now is the time to have a conversation about what we want to do with this office.
Former Commissioner Mary Dawson said it was fine that there weren’t serious consequences because the mere public airing of a guilty finding is sufficient to inform the voter and let them judge their elected representatives accordingly at the ballot box.
But Dion disagreed and when he started the job he said he wanted the power to be able to issue fines of up to $10,000. It was a good idea but never came to pass.
For starters, $10,000 would be serious coin for most politicians (except for Morneau). But such a sum also sends a signal that this is a serious offence. A $200 fine is more equivalent to a parking ticket, which most people have likely received once or twice in their life.
We shrug off parking tickets. We shouldn’t shrug off political ethics breaches.
The next Ethics Commissioner should be granted powers to issue heftier fines. If this doesn’t happen, then we’re sending the signal that these rules don’t actually matter and so we might as well just abolish the position.
Another Liberal MP has been found guilty of breaking ethics laws. And as Canadians have now learned, there aren’t any real consequences that politicians face after these rulings.
Plus, a Canadian think tank official says Justice Minister David Lametti should “back off” from plans to expand assisted suicide to mentally ill Canadians.
And will Toronto Mayor John Tory actually resign? The embattled mayor may end up going back on his word after some high-ranking politicians are trying to get him to stay. Looks like Tory has brought chaos to Toronto politics.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Anthony Furey and Andrew Lawton!
A lawyer for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is pressuring the Trudeau government to release information about who stayed in a $6000-per-night hotel suite during a trip to England.
The organization said on Wednesday that a lawyer representing them appealed to Canada’s Information Commissioner, hoping to compel the Trudeau government to share information that it has redacted multiple times since October.
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to come clean and tell taxpayers who stayed in the River Suite,” said federation director Franco Terrazzano. “You don’t get to be prime minister and hide how you spend our tax dollars.”
Access-to-information requests are questions that anybody can submit to the government, and, within reasonable grounds, expect a response.
“Why did the PM think it was okay to bill taxpayers for a single night’s hotel bill what the average renter pays in three full months?”
Conservative MP @AndrewScheer slams the Trudeau government for inflation and for signing off on a $7000/night hotel room in London last fall. pic.twitter.com/opf79BiW4m
The system is designed to increase the transparency of government, letting people hold their leaders accountable in ways that promote best-behaviour and strengthen decision making.
Since last fall, the Toronto Sun and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) filed access-to-information requests about the government’s use of $6,000-per-night tax dollars on a hotel room in London. Neither the Sun nor the CTF has received a straightforward answer.
The government redacted its response to the CTF, saying the request cannot be fulfilled because of security and personal-information concerns.
The CTF challenged that claim.
A lawyer representing the CTF appealed to Canada’s Information Commissioner because it is essentially a “referee”, tasked with ensuring all requests are completed fairly.
The first-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act has come and gone with a whimper not a bang.
No big-rig trucks blocking the streets for weeks near Parliament Hill like with the Freedom Convoy a year ago. No high-pressure air horns at all hours of the night. No large police presence, although it was jacked up.
No bouncy castles.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the act a year ago, it basically put the entire population of Canada under house arrest and without much say. The RCMP was given the power to move out the convoy, seize property, and freeze the bank accounts of all involved.
Within reason, the RCMP was handed carte-blanche powers, the complete freedom to act as it wished or thought best.
Although it might not have riled an entire nation, it came close.
While this was the first time the controversial act was brought into play, it was reminiscent of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau involving its predecessor, the War Measures Act, in the early 1970s to deal with a murderous cell of Quebec’s separatist FLQ who kidnapped a British diplomat and killed a provincial Quebec cabinet minister.
When a journalist asked how far was he prepared to go? “Just watch me,” Trudeau famously replied.
Soon there were tanks on the streets of Ottawa.
Now, on the one-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, anticipation is building for the release of a national inquiry’s report into the historic series of events surrounding the powers used to end the Ottawa occupation and Canada-U.S. border blockades.
So far, the occasion was being marked in a quiet way on Parliament Hill, save for a handful of Freedom Convoy protesters seen downtown on Tuesday afternoon. According to Ottawa police, a morning convoy of unspecified size “safely passed through the city without any incidents.”
This, of course, is a definite change from this time last year when the streets were jammed with big-rig transport trucks, inflatables, and numerous anti-Trudeau and anti-vaccine signs, as well as a couple of Confederate flags and neo-Nazi decals.
On Monday morning, however, Ottawa police and bylaw officers had issued 244 parking tickets for violating the Special Event No-Stopping Zone restrictions, while 25 vehicles had been towed from downtown streets. At least 67 Provincial Offences Notices were also issued.
Parliamentary Protective Service officers arrested two people for trespassing on Parliament Hill Saturday afternoon.
“I’m happy to say there was a number of tickets, a number of tows. For the most part, we didn’t see another convoy or occupation arrive in our city,” Ottawa Coun. Ariel Troster said Sunday.
“We are never going to allow another situation again where people take up residence in our neighbourhoods and allow harassment of everyday people.”
Newly-elected Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who was not on council last year, told CTV News that police had reported no issues.
“As long as the protests are peaceful and as long as they are not disturbing the public in any significant way, that they are not making noise that traumatizes or triggers residents of Centretown, they’re not blocking roads or bringing vehicles in illegally, then they are welcome to demonstrate and express their opinions,” Sutcliffe told CTV.
“It’s not a large number of people and it’s not causing a lot of disruption at the moment.
“I think a lot of things are normal, business as usual.”
Meanwhile, as the public portion of the Emergencies Act inquiry has come to an end after six weeks of hearings, Commissioner Paul Rouleau said he heard enough to decide whether the Trudeau government was right to invoke the legislation for the first time in history.
Rouleau said it was clear the convoy exposed divisions and he hopes his report will help heal those wounds.
There were, by the way, 9,500 written submissions.
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi said that the government needs to act to prevent the “radicalization of white people” in Canada instead of focusing so much on Islamist extremism.
As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, while testifying before the Senate human rights committee, Nenshi accused some politicians of capitalizing on said radicalization.
“When do we start talking about the radicalization of white people in this country?” said Nenshi.
“When do we start talking about the fact there are generations – not students but the next generation up – people in their 20s and in their 30s and older who are feeling dispossessed, who are wondering about change in their community, who are very, very susceptible to radicalization messages?”
When asked what actions the government should take, Nenshi said that the Senate needs to put out a “strong statement” about Islamophobia.
“Number one is, we need a strong statement from this committee that across this country the importance of the dignity of Muslim people matters and that Muslim people cannot be used as political footballs,” suggested Nenshi.
According to the former mayor, Islamophobia in Canada intensified after 2015 under the former Conservative government.
“In 2015 things changed in a very significant way. Do I believe the government of that day in its Barbaric Cultural Practices Act and its niqab bans was particularly Islamophobic? Did I believe those people were Islamophobic? No. Do I believe they saw political benefit in a cost-benefit analysis by targeting Muslims? Yes I do,” Nensi claimed.
“I would submit to this committee our problem in this country is not the radicalization of Muslim men in this country. It’s important and we have to focus on it. When do we start talking about the radicalization of white people?”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent appointment of Amira Elghawaby as a special representative on Islamophobia has caused controversy for the Liberal government.
Past comments by Elghawaby have resurfaced in which she suggested that Quebeckers were inherently Islamophobic.
The appointment has caused Conservative leader Pierre Poillievre as well as the Quebec legislature to demand her removal from the position.
“I think Justin Trudeau made the wrong decision,” said QUebec National Assembly member Jean-Francois Roberge.
It’s been one year since Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to break up the peaceful Freedom Convoy protest underway on the streets in front of Parliament Hill. The move was unprecedented and extreme, but numerous polls have shown that a majority of Canadians supported it. Next week, the Public Order Emergency Commission will release its report examining the circumstances that led to the declaration. What are your thoughts about the convoy and the Emergencies Act one year later?
True North’s Andrew Lawton weighs in with his own and reads some of your questions and comments in this live edition of The Andrew Lawton Show.
A Canadian think tank official says Justice Minister David Lametti should “back off” from plans to expand assisted suicide to mentally ill Canadians.
Cardus health program director Rebecca Vachon said the results of a recent poll Cardus helped deliver should be a wake up call to the minister.
“The government should work to ensure Canadians can access all mental health and social services they need before even considering the possibility of expansion,” she said.
Vachon’s comments come two weeks after Lametti announced the government’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program for the mentally ill would be delayed another year due to safety concerns. Lametti said the program needed more time to safeguard against Canadians accessing assisted death without proper cause.
“The safety of Canadians just comes first,” Lametti said. “That’s why we’re taking the additional time necessary to get this right.”
The Liberal government previously sought to expand MAID beginning March of this year. The program would then include people who are mentally suffering, but not dying from their illness.
This expansion would add cases such as severe depression to the list that would allow someone to apply for MAID.
Critics argued this and other recent changes make “medical assistance in dying” an inaccurate title, and that the program should be retitled as “medically administered death” or “medically assisted suicide”.
Vachon is one of those critics. “The minister needs to back off from expanding medically assisted suicide to people suffering from mental illness,” she wrote.
Canada’s MAiD policy faced international scrutiny late last year after parliamentary committees heard that several Canadian Forces veterans had been offered MAID in unreasonable situations.
A prominent Forces veteran, retired Cpl. Christine Gauthier, testified she was offered MAID after five years of requesting a wheelchair ramp be installed at her house.
“I was completely shocked and in despair,” she told CTV News at the time. “It is remotely just what they’re doing: exhausting us to the point of no return.”
Veteran Affairs denied any employee ever offered MAID to Gauthier, and said the department found no evidence, but Gauthier later showed CBC News a copy of a letter she sent to the department detailing the offer, which she said took place over the phone.
“Do I believe them when they say they have no proof in their files? No,” she told CBC News.
She suffered permanent knee and spine injury in 1989 while training on an obstacle course.
This year, Canadians seem to be worried about issues similar to Gauthier’s, but also open to the concept of MAID.
In the Cardus and Angus Reid survey released on Monday, 55% of respondents said they were worried Canada’s MAID program would replace adequate social services.
Four-in-ten said the rising use of MAID since 2016 was a positive change, improving one’s end-of-life control, and two-in-ten said the rise was neither good nor bad.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has accused the Liberal government of poorly managing Canada’s military and exposing the country to foreign aggression.
Poilievre released a statement on social media on Monday, responding to the recent aerial objects flying through Canada.
“These […] violations of our national sovereignty should be a wake-up call for the Trudeau Liberals,” said Poilievre. “Due to Liberal mismanagement of national defence, Canada lacks effective early warning systems to detect this type of incursion.”
On Saturday, American fighter jets downed an aerial object near the Yukon, Alaska border, and on Sunday, American jets downed another such object above Lake Huron.
Poilievre said these cases show Canada has become unprepared under Trudeau.
The Leader of the Opposition criticized Trudeau’s decision eight years ago to cancel the purchase of F-35 aircraft – fighter jets similar to those used by Americans to shoot down each foreign object this month.
According to former defence advisor David J. Bercuson, that’s a reasonable point.
“I guess you could say that,” said Bercuson. “You have to ask yourself why there wasn’t a Canadian jet involved. And it could well be that our ancient [air] teams are simply not capable of doing the job.”
Bercuson, a well-known military historian, emphasized that Canada’s military has been struggling in recent years, including last October when defense Chief Wayne Eyre urged Canadians to fill 10,000 empty positions.
On Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau addressed concerns about the Canadian military, and how Canadian jets were seemingly absent throughout this month’s four cases of shot-down flying objects.
He said Canada was concentrating on getting the job done in partnership with the United States, and Canadian jets happened not to be the best option.
“Our focus was not on which side gets credit for what,” said Trudeau. “Our focus was on running the operation smoothly and successfully.”
Trudeau said this month’s aerial object incidents should assure Canadians that they are well protected, based on the execution of defense operations seen between Canada and the United States.
“That’s a perfect example of how seamlessly we work together.”
True North recently reported that Canada was upgrading a military airstrip in Inuvik as part of ongoing upgrades to its air force presence in northern Canada.
The number of Canadians struggling to keep up with day-to-day expenses and going into debt to sustain their families continues to increase since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a recently released federal government research report.
The reportConsumer Vulnerability: Evidence from the Monthly COVID-19 Financial Well-being Survey found that four out of ten Canadians (38%) say they are having to borrow money in order to keep up with their expenses, a 32% increase from August 2020.
Also, more than three times more Canadians say they have sought a loan from a payday loan company or online lender to manage their daily expenses. Nearly five percent of Canadians have sought these services.
Over the past few years, Canadians have dealt with rough economic conditions, from public health measures ordering businesses to close, to record inflation that peaked at 8.1% in mid-2022. As a result, more Canadians are seeing their personal financial affairs worsen.
The report found that 48% of Canadians say that they have dipped into their savings in order to cope with the effects of the pandemic.
Canadians are becoming more pessimistic with their financial outlooks as well, with a third of respondents saying they will never have what they want because of their financial situation – a 30% increase from August 2022. As well, 42% believe that finances control their lives.
The poll was conducted in September 2022, but the report was only recently posted.
These findings come amid a wave of opinion polls routinely identifying a sense of pessimism among the Canadian public. A recent Pollara Strategic Insights survey found that over half of Canadians believe they will not have enough money to retire.
Since March 2022, the Bank of Canada has been hiking up their interest rates in the hopes of bringing inflation down, with the policy rate reaching 4.5% as of January 2023.
