More than a third of a million foreign students were allowed to remain in Canada as permanent residents in the past three years, the Department of Immigration disclosed yesterday. The number coincided with the highest federal immigration quotas in Canadian history: "It is too much too fast."
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday had no comment after police handcuffed a reporter who attempted to question the Minister. Freeland is a former newspaper executive who said any reporter could ask her any question "without fear of retaliation.”
Cabinet yesterday opened visa applications from Canadians for 1,000 cousins, in-laws and other extended family in Gaza. No rescues will be undertaken unlike a 2006 war evacuation from Lebanon that cost more than $90 million: "Movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging and may not be possible."
Canada Post yesterday said it will sell its wholesale shipping subsidiary SCI Group Inc. at an undisclosed price pending cabinet approval. The sale follows warnings the post office faced heavy losses in the past year: "How are we going to get to fiscal sustainability?"
A work-at-home computer technician fired in the last days of vaccine mandates has lost a bid to get her job back. The woman was the only one of 250 employees at the City of Moose Jaw to be terminated for declining to show proof of vaccination, her union told a Saskatchewan labour board: 'She was a good employee.'
The CRTC yesterday dismissed a request from MPs that it ban state-run Chinese propaganda from its approved distribution list of cable and satellite programming in Canada. A parliamentary committee recommended a ban on all TV shows financed by “authoritarian state-controlled broadcasters.”
Hydro Ottawa is charging the largest Freedom Of Information fee ever claimed by a public utility in Canada, nearly $700,000 over hidden records documenting its use of replacement workers in a 2023 strike. The utility’s conduct came only weeks before cabinet introduced a bill restricting use of replacement workers in the federally regulated sector: “It is a massive change.”
New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East ) will be a target of Communist Chinese agents “for her entire life,” she says. Kwan, a native Hong Konger with extended family in China, yesterday was granted standing at the federal Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference: "She was informed she will continue to be a subject of foreign interference for her entire life."
Spikes in payday lending coincide with extreme weather, Bank of Canada researchers said yesterday. A Bank report noted extreme cold or hot temperatures typically led to higher bills and “one of the reasons households resort to payday loans is to pay bills.”
Most Québec counties have lower potential for “economic development” and rank below the national average on productivity, a federal agency said yesterday. The figures follow a cabinet proposal to consider “economic status” for the French language: 'This is the reality on the ground.'
The Bank of Canada has quietly taken steps to control a “digital Canadian dollar” despite public claims it has no interest in the scheme, records show. The Bank in a Christmas filing under the Trademarks Act staked ownership of any “digital dollar” launched in Canada: "In terms of digital currency, it is not under the current legal framework."
Immigration Minister Marc Miller allowed 807,000 foreign students to work unlimited hours in Canada without any research on how it would impact Canadian jobseekers, records show. Miller said foreigners were not "taking jobs away from other people" but never asked his department for data: "Right now we have nil response."
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s wife Tara has stepped up trading in oil and gas stocks, records show. The family's fossil fuel investments continued even as Minister Wilkinson pledged to lead the “fight against climate change.”
Callers to the Canada Revenue Agency typically spent 15 minutes or more on hold last year despite record spending on call centres, figures show. Cabinet in 2018 approved millions in 1-800 upgrades on a promise of prompt service: "We’re still going to see these crappy results coming out of Canada Revenue Agency."
The Canada Infrastructure Bank lost almost $900,000 in consultants’ fees on a failed climate project, records show. The Commons transport committee has recommended the Bank close as a costly failure: "You haven’t got it done."
