“We’re Doing Our Job”: Diab

Immigration Minister Lena Diab yesterday denied responsibility for an audit that found her department was indifferent to known cases of fraud by foreign students. “We are doing our job,” she told the Commons immigration committee.

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Challenge Over Student Jobs

Opposition members yesterday challenged the Department of Immigration to account for policies that cost Canadians’ jobs. “The unemployment rate for students is at 18 percent,” Conservative MP Vincent Neil Ho (Richmond Hill South, Ont.) told the Commons immigration committee.

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Story Change Is Clerk’s Fault

An error by an anonymous clerk is to blame for records showing Prime Minister Mark Carney was untruthful with reporters when discussing his private meetings with Chinese Communist leaders, the Commons was told yesterday. The MP who uncovered the fact said Carney keeps “trying to change his story.”

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Terms Of Post Loan Disclosed

A large cabinet “loan” to Canada Post does not carry any interest or payment schedule, records show. Confidential terms of the agreement disclosed yesterday were sought by MPs suspicious that taxpayers would never see repayment: "We are just dumping money down the toilet."

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RCMP Unfazed By Auditors

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme yesterday would not discuss failures identified in a federal audit showing the force is short thousands of members despite exorbitant spending on recruits. “We move forward,” he said in a statement.

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Feds Would Hide Tax Names

Cabinet yesterday moved to limit the scope of an Opposition bill to publicly name corporate tax delinquents. “It’s an important measure of public transparency,” Conservative MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, Ont.), sponsor of the bill, told the Commons public accounts committee.

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‘We Found 60 Billion Dollars’

Cabinet has found $60 billion in savings in unnamed programs, says Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Budget documents tabled to date do not identify $60 billion in savings, and Champagne did not elaborate: "We should put the record straight."

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Forgot To Check For Results

A federal agency that spent $37.8 million last year to lower greenhouse gas emissions did not keep track of whether it cut emissions or not, says an internal report. Auditors complained of a lack of focus at the Clean Energy Innovation Research Centre: "Emissions are not consistently measured."

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Feds Cost Thousands Of Jobs

Policies enacted by two successive immigration ministers cost thousands of Canadian students' jobs, says a federal memo. The Department of Employment for the first time admitted an 18 percent jobless rate for Canadian students was due to “large numbers” of foreign students, contradicting earlier claims by Ministers Sean Fraser and Marc Miller: "Labour market outcomes have been worsening for youth since early 2023."

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Agency Confirms Ballot Error

Hundreds of voters abroad were improperly registered to cast ballots in the 2025 federal campaign, according to Access To Information records. Elections Canada did not say what if any impact irregularities had, though results were close in four ridings that went to judicial recount: "We will take necessary steps to ensure that automated preventive measures are in place before the next election."

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Libertarians Off Fed Ballot

Elections Canada has stripped the Libertarian Party of its federal registration for failing to meet a filing deadline. The Party’s leader said he was quitting political life: "It has been a very frustrating experience on my part."

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Ottawa Lost: A PM’s Refuge

Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s first Liberal prime minister, lived near Parliament Hill in a beautiful Gothic Revival home.  He was an honest, thrifty fellow who helped transform the country yet could not stand parliamentary life. “Politics is very low,” he wrote. Today the house is gone and forgotten, just like Mackenzie.

Book Review: System Failure

If mushrooms killed or hospitalized 10,700 Canadians every year MPs would order committee hearings and mushroom regulations would fly like confetti. Now replace the world “mushroom” with “traffic” and consider the fact accidents claim 10,700 casualties every year. This does not include 150,000 minor injuries.

Parliament for years has not enacted a single new traffic safety initiative. A bill that would have required installation of side guards on heavy trucks, C-344 An Act To Amend The Motor Vehicle Safety Act, died in the Commons in 2011. Ontario’s chief coroner said it would have saved bicyclists and pedestrians from being dragged to their deaths.

Author Neil Arason attempts to bring the country to its senses. No Accident is a compelling, plain-spoken appeal for what at first glance seems an incredible goal: to eliminate virtually all traffic fatalities.

Feds Admit PM Misled Media

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."

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See Outcry Over Immigration

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.”

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