Prime Minister Mark Carney misled media on his private meetings with Chinese Communist leaders, Privy Council records show. Documents written by cabinet aides directly contradicted Carney’s claims that he raised human rights and foreign interference with his Beijing hosts: "On human rights, with the President, yes, we did discuss human rights." READ MORE
Almost half of Canadians surveyed nationwide say immigration is “causing Canada to change in ways I don’t like,” according to in-house research by the immigration department. Two thirds complained immigrants must “do more to integrate.” The research followed Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s most recent cuts to quotas on a promise of “taking back control over our immigration system.” READ MORE
Cabinet agreed to ease some restrictions on migrant labour under lobbying by Tim Hortons franchisees, Access To Information records show. Operators claimed tens of thousands of jobs would go unfilled if they couldn’t hire foreigners: "The food service sector faces over 63,000 job vacancies." READ MORE
Cabinet's Buy Canadian policy does not mean a majority of supplies used in public works or home construction must be Canadian, Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said yesterday. “We’re not being rigid about this,” he told reporters. READ MORE
The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear gun owners’ challenge of Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s blacklisting of “assault style” firearms. Two lower courts upheld the ban as reasonable though it was introduced without data showing it would fight crime: "There is no way to know exactly." READ MORE
Defence Minister David McGuinty yesterday said cabinet for the first time will meet its minimum 2 percent NATO target on military spending by month’s end. MPs have noted the NATO calculations include budget line items of little military value like unarmed Coast Guard lifeboats: "We just can’t have creative accounting to get to 2 percent. We actually need capability to protect Canada." READ MORE
Weak growth forecasts for 2026 will get weaker yet, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday told reporters. A January 28 outlook is already out of date, he said: "It looks like it is going to come in lower than what we previously forecast." READ MORE
The Charter Of Rights in Canada is all about minority rights, not majority rights. The idea that Parliament wants to deal with all these difficult issues is simply a fiction. There’s been a lot of criticism of so-called judicial activism. This is but one example. They said we were reckless. I realized the sky was not going to fall. I mean, there are times when the courts have to act. To me it was an issue we didn’t need to go on debating indefinitely.
