Author: Alex Dhaliwal

Ottawa is back with another attempt to police the internet and critics are saying that the Safe Social Media Act mirrors the Liberals’ previously abandoned online harms bills, using child protection as political cover for sweeping new powers over what Canadians can say online.

Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, proposes a permanent framework that shifts decisions about acceptable public discourse from citizens to regulators, bureaucrats, and major tech companies.

Earlier internet regulation proposals included Bill C-36 (2021) and Bill C-63 (2024), both of which were dropped after snap elections. The former called for a chief censor with powers to block websites, while C-63 proposed a “digital safety ombudsman” with more limited content-monitoring powers.

Dr. Michael Geist, a law professor with the University of Ottawa, called it déjà vu, noting he urged removing C-63’s “contentious provisions” in Feb. 2024 to focus debate on platform regulation.

In Dec. 2024, then-Justice Minister Arif Virani said Bill C-63 would be split to speed passage after civil liberties pressure. The first part focused on child online safety via a Digital Safety Commission; the second, covering Criminal Code and Human Rights Act reforms, died after prorogation in Jan. 2025 and again last month.

Meanwhile, the latest bill consolidates C-63’s first part into a single commission that sets rules, enforces compliance, handles complaints, audits platforms, issues penalties, and grants exemptions.

Combined with a social media ban under 16, porn age verification (Bill S-209), and a Digital Safety Commission, Bill C-34 becomes an “everything-at-once” approach to online safety, according to Geist.

On Wednesday, Heritage Minister Marc Miller echoed concerns over child safety, citing rising online child luring and sexual exploitation linked to increased suicidal ideation among targeted youth.

“Behind every one of these stats is a child, a family, and a life,” he said, noting the most important consideration of C-34 was to “protect kids” from harm.

The Safe Social Media Act features seven categories of “harmful content,” largely revolving around child sexual exploitation. It also targets content that foments hatred, content that incites violence, and terrorism or violent extremism content.

Dr. Geist says a bill focused on a “duty to protect children through design” could pass easily, but argues the government instead bundled it with cabinet-driven age verification rules and a powerful commission whose key criteria remain undefined.

Moreover, the academic warns that a social media ban for under-16s raises “serious privacy concerns” for millions of Canadians.

Under Bill C-34, age verification rules will be reviewed by the Commission for privacy and free-expression compliance, with potential privacy risks, repeated verification, and exemptions if child safety standards are met.

Adding to the uncertainty, Minister Miller said the under-16 social media ban would take effect immediately once C-34 receives royal assent, less the regulatory review. However, the bill says otherwise.

Dr. Geist says the act’s uncertainty and “trust us” approach will likely result in delays, challenges, and court cases. Its legislative text was not publicly released until after the media presser on Wednesday evening.

Under Bill C-34, the Commission could also issue removal orders on social media posts deemed to undermine “social stability,” including “harmful content” said to “foment hatred,” according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

Christine Van Geyn of the Canadian Constitution Foundation says the bill’s definition of “harmful content,” especially “hate,” is overly subjective.

Much of the concern, Geyn says, is recycled from Trudeau’s failed Online Harms Act, including the Digital Safety Commission. She argues it would act as a federal speech regulator, pushing platforms—under complaint pressure and legal risk—to remove controversial content rather than protect open debate.

Hate speech is already illegal in Canada under Criminal Code provisions. Previous bills to expand regulation to legal online content deemed “likely to foment detestation or vilification” failed.

Should Bill C-34 pass, the Digital Safety Commission will write the rules, enforce them, and decide which platforms escape the ban restriction, a bureaucracy comparable to the CRTC, which has sweeping regulatory powers.

“This bill is a sneak-attack on our constitutionally protected right to free expression,” Van Geyn wrote on X.

“The government knows it cannot directly ban unpopular, rude, divisive, transgressive or even offensive speech, so it is outsourcing this censorship role to online platforms by creating a regulatory chill.”

A 2024 Public Safety Canada study found 60% of young Canadians viewed social media as “totally or mostly positive,” with negative content mainly involving name-calling and appearance-based comments.

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Cenovus Energy says it will be impossible for the private sector to finance the proposed pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast under Ottawa’s current regulatory framework.

Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie made the comments at the Global Energy Show in Calgary on Tuesday, adding that the Liberals’ industrial carbon pricing system leaves Canadian oil uncompetitive on the global market.

“Neither the Pathways project nor the West Coast pipeline really make any sense,” he said.

The CEO’s comments contradicted an earlier speech from Canada’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, who claimed that the pact with Alberta created “a carbon market that works” to give investors long-term certainty, and “a practical middle ground.”

McKenzie, who heads one of Canada’s largest energy companies, said the industrial carbon levy also inhibits the production growth needed to supply the proposed pipeline, which aims to transport one million barrels of oil per day.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith echoed Hodgson’s stance during her own speech, saying that there is “increasing scrutiny and concern” regarding how energy is produced, adding that Alberta will prioritize “maintaining a stable, reliable supply of energy while continuing to reduce emissions and support innovation.”

However, McKenzie said the only certainty the Ottawa-Alberta deal provides investors is that Canada remains “increasingly out of step and uncompetitive.”

“None of our customers have ever suggested or even asked about the carbon intensity of our crude,” he said. “Industry has been clear that the industrial carbon tax is insidious and it should be revoked.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for the system to be removed altogether when asked about the future of the industrial carbon tax in the wake of the Carney government signing a memorandum of understanding for a reduced rate on Alberta.

“We should get rid of the carbon tax,” said Poilievre on Wednesday. “The industrial carbon tax is a costly, job-killing disaster that will push business and money out of our country and push the cost of food, housing and everything else higher.”

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Author: Quinn Patrick

A trucking company linked to a fatal crash in Brandon, Man., had its safety permit revoked several years ago before resurfacing under a new name, a practice that has become increasingly common among bad actors in the transportation industry.

Manitoba Transportation Minister Lisa Naylor confirmed the driver, Brijpal Panwar, had previously worked for Conquer Transportation Inc. in Alberta, formerly known as Conquer Transport Inc. in Manitoba.

Panwar, 35, allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Richmond Avenue and Highway 110 last week and collided with a westbound SUV at highway speeds.

The crash killed the 49-year-old woman driving the SUV. Panwar has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.

In 2021, Conquer Transport lost its Manitoba safety certification “for ongoing deficiencies in safe operation and non-compliance” after racking up 30 convictions over three years across five provinces.

“Alberta Transportation is actively working with Manitoba Motor Carrier Enforcement and the Brandon Police Service to confirm the identity of the two (2) carriers involved,” a spokesperson for Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen told Juno News. “If it is confirmed that an Alberta-based carrier was involved in, or responsible for, this tragic incident, Alberta will take decisive action without hesitation, in accordance with applicable legislation and enforcement authorities.”

Companies with lengthy violation records have been known to re-emerge in new jurisdictions after losing their permits elsewhere. They are commonly referred to as “chameleon carriers.”

Naylor is calling on federal Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon to crack down on bad actors in the trucking industry by launching a national database to flag safety issues early and track repeat violations.

The database would be designed to identify companies such as Conquer Transport Inc., which re-emerged after losing its Manitoba safety permit, shifting from a Manitoba-based company in 2018 to Conquer Transportation Inc. in Alberta in 2022 after six convictions.

Three of those convictions occurred between 2023 and 2025 and involved Conquer vehicles operating in Manitoba with maintenance or equipment standard violations.

Last year, Conquer vehicles were taken out of service at least four times after failing inspections.

The company was also ranked among the 225 highest-risk carriers in Alberta out of more than 18,000 companies registered in the province.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for national unity, urging Canadians opposed to separatism to listen to Western separatists’ concerns rather than alienate or attack them. He also urged Albertans not to give up on the country generations of Albertans helped build and defend.

In a keynote address in Calgary, Poilievre launched his campaign for “a strong Alberta” within a “united Canada,” promoting national unity while addressing many of the grievances driving separatist sentiment in Western Canada.

Speaking at a legion hall, Poilievre called on Albertans to honour the soldiers who gave their lives fighting for Canada.

“Making Canada was hard. Before we risk it, let us remember the Albertans who sacrificed to provide this inheritance, the people who, through hardship and heroism, never gave up on Canada,” He said. “The warriors who built this legion and haunt its halls, and the brothers that did not return, they never gave up, and neither should we. The Canada for which they died is the Canada for which we must live.”

Poilievre told the Calgary crowd he takes immense pride in Alberta’s workers, ranchers, roughnecks, farmers and small-business owners, whom he described as having made the province “the engine of Canada’s national economy.”

He argued that a big part of the issue is that the federal Liberal government has failed in its duties under part of Canada’s constitution, the British North American Act, while encroaching on other areas that were meant to remain within the provinces’ jurisdiction.

Poilievre said the Constitution assigns responsibility for schools, hospitals and natural resources to the provinces, while granting the federal government authority over borders, national defence, criminal law and the movement of goods and services across provincial and international boundaries.

“Each level of government should do only what that level can do,” Poilievre said. “That approach, for most of our history, kept government affordable and accountable, and left maximum freedom for people and provinces to do what worked for them. It also kept us out of each other’s hair, and that all made sense.”

He said the feds are not required to put up stop signs, approve mines, build roads or hospitals within a province, but are needed to make cross-country railroads or pipelines, or to buy fighter jets to protect Canada.

“The problem lately has been that the federal government has been terrible at the things that are its job, while sticking its nose in things that are not its job,” he said, calling federal management over defence, borders, immigration, law and others a “brutal failure.”

“They admit this now, those are all federal responsibilities, and yet they have had the audacity to impose themselves on provincial areas like taxing industrial carbon, seizing people’s hunting rifles, and blocking oil and gas projects that are strictly within provincial jurisdiction, which has got in the way of Alberta’s and Canada’s biggest industry at massive expense to our entire country.”

He also called out the “destructive ideology” of the Liberal government, which he says has “downgraded and denigrated” Canada’s “common identity” by cancelling Canada’s symbols, shaming its heroes, and promoting a “post-national state” which he says drives Canadians further apart.

“If you want frustrated Albertans to vote for Canada. The absolute worst thing we can do is dismiss their legitimate grievances and thus signal there’s no hope of fixing them at all,” Poilievre said.

He noted that under Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper, the separatist movement in Alberta was non-existent and the Quebec separatists were defeated, with the Bloc Québécois holding only one seat.

“We thought referendums on separation were a thing of the past. Today, 10 years later, hundreds of 1000s of Albertans have signed a petition to leave, and polls put the separatist party Quebecois in first place in Quebec, running on an explicit platform of separation,” he said.

He said the Liberals’ anti-business tax hikes, inflationary spending and anti-energy policies have fueled separatist sentiments as the federal government continues to expand into provincial jurisdictions laid out in Canada’s founding documents.

“Albertans are not even looking for an apology or compensation, they just want these things to stop happening. They want they are not actually looking to Ottawa for a handout; they’re looking for Ottawa to get out of their way and off their backs for the province to finally have respect within Confederation.”

He urged Canadians who still believe Canada should remain united to “listen carefully” to the concerns of Canada’s independence movements rather than demonize them for wanting to separate.

“They do not have a problem with their fellow Canadians or even with Canada itself. They have a problem with the federal government. We don’t need a different country in Alberta, we need different government policies in Ottawa,” he said.

“Demonizing people who have lost hope in Canada is no way to restore it. Name-calling, fear mongering, and ostracizing will only worsen and broaden the divide,” he said. “A better way is to listen, understand, persuade, and address the easily solvable problems they are asking us to fix.”

He said that instead of telling Albertans how bad it would be to separate, Canadian patriots should talk about how great a unified Canada would be once Alberta is respected by the country it has fought to uphold.

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

Prime Minister Mark Carney is attending Question Period far less often than his predecessors, drawing scrutiny as Canada enters a “technical recession” after a third GDP contraction in four quarters reported by Statistics Canada.

A Global News analysis of House of Commons Question Period attendance found Carney has shown up at just 33 of the first 123 Question Periods in this Parliament, well below former prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, even as Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre presses for answers on the economy.

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said he expected Mark Carney to answer questions after Statistics Canada reported a third GDP contraction in four quarters. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth indicate a recession.

The analysis found Prime Minister Mark Carney attended just 33 of the first 123 Question Periods in this Parliament (26.8%), compared with 51 for Justin Trudeau (41.5%) and 80 for Stephen Harper (65%).

“Question period, where normally prime ministers go to answer, especially in a moment of crisis… you’d expect him to be accountable… but he’s not showing up,” Poilievre told reporters Monday in front the House of Commons.

The Opposition leader sought to challenge his Liberal counterpart over what Conservatives call a “full-blown” recession, saying Carney skipped Question Period to avoid questions about his economic record.

Conservatives point to two consecutive GDP declines, 112,000 jobs lost in early 2026, and food insecurity affecting about a quarter of households as evidence of Canada’s recent economic performance.

Poilievre mocked Carney as a “great economic genius,” saying he prioritizes photo ops over questions on the economy.

During the photo op, the Prime Minister posed for photos in a hard hat but did not take questions on the StatCan report.

He shook hands with workers, then left the manufacturing floor as media were asked to leave, according to a Parliamentary Press Gallery pool report.

When questioned about his attendance record on April 22, Carney said, “I answer questions all the time… and I believe in [my] ministers, secretaries of state, parliamentary secretaries responding.”

During a testy Tuesday exchange with Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu, Poilievre said Canadian workers are “tired of a prime minister who causes this recession” and avoids Question Period, again noting Mark Carney’s absence.

“This is people’s lives,” he continued. “They’re tired of working six days a week and not able to afford their rent. They’re tired of showing up at the grocery store and having to hand products back at the checkout because they can’t afford to pay them. They’re tired of making their way over to the food bank and finding that the food bank is empty.”

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Carney took media questions five days after the StatCan report, attributing “economic weakness” to lower immigration and avoiding the term recession. He did not appear in the House of Commons.

“Are we in a recession?” a reporter asked. Carney avoided the question, saying his government is building a “stronger, more resilient, more independent” economy and attributing weaker performance to lower immigration.

Asked the same question by Poilievre on Wednesday, Carney deflected blame onto U.S. tariffs and the Iran war without citing domestic policy.

Poilievre earlier said it would take an “emergency debate” to force Carney to “do his job,” but Commons Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia rejected the request, saying it did not meet the requirements.

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

A Conservative MP is raising explosive allegations about Mark Carney’s corporate past, accusing him of ties to environmental destruction in Brazil and claims involving deforestation, Indigenous displacement, and slave-labour violations during his time at Brookfield Asset Management.

Steven Bonk says the accusations are so serious they raise fundamental questions about the Prime Minister’s credibility on climate policy, pointing to what he calls a stark gap between Carney’s global environmental rhetoric and his company’s record on the ground.

“I want to be very clear, these are very serious allegations: They include human rights abuses, accusations of slavery, deforestation of the rainforest,” Conservative MP Steven Bonk said Thursday in a video posted to X.

“I can’t believe that I’m having to clarify that Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, had or didn’t have slaves.”

According to Global Witness, Brookfield cleared 9,000 hectares of Brazilian forest for soy production between 2012 and 2021, producing emissions equivalent to 1.2 million London–New York flights.

The report Slash and Sell revealed Brookfield’s operations were also linked to an attempted Indigenous eviction and alleged violations of anti-slave-labour laws in the Cerrado.

As a senior Brookfield executive and UN climate envoy, Mark Carney oversaw the sale of deforested land linked to alleged human rights abuses and slave-like labour, despite previously arguing that companies should address environmental harm before divesting assets.

Before the UK Environmental Audit Committee in Oct. 2022, Carney said companies should address environmental harms through a “managed phase out” rather than selling problematic assets.

He reiterated this stance at COP27, saying: “Don’t divest your way out of the problem.”

But as Brookfield’s vice chair and head of transition investing, Carney oversaw the land sale and was later promoted to chair of its asset management division. Brookfield has not disclosed the sale price.

“This guy was trotting around the world with his elbows up, telling everyone that they need to reach net zero by 2050,” MP Bonk said.

“They have to drive an electric vehicle to save the environment while Mark Carney and Brookfield are leveling the rainforest.”

According to satellite imagery, Brookfield farms were linked to deforestation that reportedly generated about 600,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions between 2012 and 2021, damaging the Cerrado, a key carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot.

Brookfield Asset Management also faced allegations of clearing critical forest for cash crops and attempting to displace Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon for cattle and mining development.

“This is all happening when Mark Carney wrote to members of GFANZ urging them to stop financing deforestation, warning the world will not reach net zero by 2050 unless we halt and reverse deforestation within a decade,” MP Bonk said.

Alongside his role at Brookfield Asset Management, Carney served as the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, advised the UK government at COP26, and co-founded GFANZ, which calls on members to end deforestation financing.

“This couldn’t get any worse, and then you read the slave labour findings.

Global Witness says a Brookfield ranch sold in 2022 after a court freeze was linked to efforts to evict an endangered Indigenous community, and that a Brookfield-controlled firm was fined US$163,000 in 2021 for slave-labour violations at another farm. Carney was vice-chair at the time of the ruling.

According to court documents and media reports, police found 42 farm workers living in slave-like conditions at a farm in 2014, including 28 housed in a 70-square-metre building with no toilets or showers.

Brookfield has denied the allegations, saying it complied with all laws and regulations and is committed to the highest ethical standards.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Bonk. “Can you imagine for one second if Pierre Poilievre or a company that he was connected to had these kinds of accusations against him? The legacy media would have lit their hair on fire.”

“Millions of people voted for Mark Carney because they thought he was a champion for the environment, for green energy. This could not be further from the truth.”

In September 2022, GFANZ, which was led by Carney, urged members to end deforestation financing and adopt deforestation-free supply chains by 2025. A month later, it dropped its Race to Zero requirement ahead of planned independent monitoring, raising accountability concerns.

A 2022 Global Witness analysis found GFANZ members held US$8.5 billion in investments in companies linked to deforestation despite net-zero pledges.

Veronica Oakeshott, the Forests Campaign Leader at Global Witness, argues that if companies tied to “green finance” leadership are failing on deforestation, it exposes weaknesses in a system built on voluntary corporate climate commitments under initiatives like GFANZ.

Brookfield Asset Management and its major banking backers—HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America—joined GFANZ in April 2021, but have since withdrawn from the group.

Oakeshott called the Brookfield–GFANZ relationship a “troubled alliance,” while Brookfield said in 2022 it still supported Brazil’s “net-zero” transition.

The firm still holds tens of billions in Brazilian assets, including infrastructure, energy, gas pipelines, nuclear and hydroelectric plants, and shopping malls, but has exited mining and forestry.

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

A young Canadian software engineering graduate told Parliamentarians on Thursday that he still can’t find an entry-level job in his field, prompting Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos to tell him: “At least you’re employed.”

“Are you working now?” asked MP Fragiskatos. “Yes,” replied Ethan Miranda, the recent graduate. “Though, I’m not working as a software engineer.”

“I understand that, but at least with the time that you’ve devoted to your studies… I’m glad to hear that you are employed,” the MP concluded.

The exchange at the committee comes amid concerns from economists and Opposition MPs that past Liberal immigration policies have contributed to rising youth unemployment.

Last year, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani launched a petition calling for an end to the temporary foreign worker program, citing concerns about immigration levels, job displacement and wage suppression.

A 2023 Immigration Department questionnaire, the only federal study on the issue, found there were 1,040,985 international students in Canada, with 81 per cent participating in the workforce. Among those employed, 38 per cent worked more than 30 hours per week off campus despite federal limits.

On May 26, Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Nicolas Vincent said immigration is partly contributing to elevated youth unemployment, noting young workers now account for nearly a quarter of the long-term unemployed — more than during the early 1990s or 2008 crisis.

“Not only are young people over-represented in the ranks of the unemployed, they also make up almost a quarter of the long-term unemployed, a share that has more than doubled since 2022,” Vincent told academics in Montreal.

From 2019 to 2023, approved temporary foreign workers in food and retail rose 211 per cent, according to a Bloomberg analysis of government data, with many entry-level roles traditionally filled by young Canadian first-time workers.

“Young people tend to work in sectors that are sensitive to swings in the economy such as retail or culture and recreation,” Vincent said, amid pressure from “a large influx of young [foreign] workers” in entry-level jobs.

Hiring for workers under 24 has fallen 5.5 per cent since 2022, while hiring has risen among workers over 55, he added.

A 2025 Abacus Data poll found majority support for ending the program among 30–44-year-olds (more than 50 per cent) and 48 per cent of 18–29-year-olds, with lower support among those 60+ (37 per cent). Support is highest in the Prairies and lowest in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and is split among Liberals.

That aligns with recent youth unemployment rates among those under 24, which peaked at 16 per cent in Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by New Brunswick (15 per cent), B.C. and Nova Scotia (13 per cent), Manitoba (12 per cent), Saskatchewan (11 per cent), and Quebec and P.E.I. (10 per cent).

A committee report urged Cabinet to ensure immigration plans include labour-market impacts on young workers, entry-level job availability, wages, and housing pressures.

The latest Immigration Levels Plan vowed to reduce Canada’s temporary population to less than five per cent of the total population by the end of 2027. Targets for new temporary resident arrivals are set at 385,000 in 2026 and 370,000 in 2027 and 2028.

Foreign nationals in Canada on temporary permits, including students and workers, are estimated at 2,069,477 this year, down from 3,049,277 in 2025, including an estimated 129,000 with expired permits.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada rules previously capped international student work at 20 hours per week, until then-minister Sean Fraser suspended the limit in 2022, calling it “a great day for the economy.”

At the time, postsecondary-aged jobseekers saw unemployment reach as high as 17 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador and 16 per cent in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick, according to Statistics Canada Labour Force data.

In 2024, Cabinet reinstated a 24-hour weekly winter-only cap on international student work hours, while Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said youth unemployment is driven by “many factors” and not linked to the policy change.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s news division released a video urging Canadians to “trust” its reporting, saying Canadians will “never ever” have to determine what is “real and what’s fake” in its coverage.

Critics online weren’t convinced, with many on X pointing to CBC coverage of major political flashpoints, including the reported discovery of unmarked graves near Kamloops in 2021 and the 2022 Freedom Convoy, as well as what they describe as “lies of omission” in covering some international stories while overlooking others of a similar nature.

“You will never ever have to wonder what is real or what is fake if it comes from CBC News,” Brodie Fenlon, General Manager and Editor in Chief of CBC News, said in a video posted to Instagram. “At CBC, our journalism is fact-checked, it’s verified. We don’t put anything out into the world unless we know it to be true, or if we haven’t verified it, then we’ll tell you that.”

The video continues, stressing that the state broadcaster, which receives approximately $1.38 billion annually from the federal government, is made by humans and meets a “really high bar” of standards.

“We’re accountable for our journalism, and in the rare cases where we get something wrong, we’ll own it. We’ll tell you what we got wrong and how we fixed it,” Fenlon said. “You will never ever have to wonder what is real or what is fake if it comes from CBC News. That’s the invitation. Choose news, not noise.”

CBC English TV’s prime-time audience share has fallen from 7.6% in 2017-18 to between 4.4% and 5.2% in recent annual reports, a decline of roughly one-third to two-fifths.

In response to a Wednesday post by Juno News managing editor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa sharing the video, critics pointed to several instances where they said the CBC blurred the line between politically charged fiction and accurate reporting.

One such article was reporting on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s claim that they uncovered “confirmation” of 215 children buried at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. To date, no bodies have been found at the site, and full excavations haven’t taken place despite millions of dollars in funding for the First Nation to do so.

The article includes an editor’s note stating the band later clarified the discovery was of soil anomalies they believe may indicate unmarked children’s graves.

Following media reports—some more definitive than others—more than 132 churches have since been burned or vandalized, as the Catholic Church ran the school.

Another critic pointed to one of the CBC’s now-deleted footage of what appeared to be a man in an ICU bed hooked up to a ventilator, supposedly due to the COVID-19 crisis. The CBC had to apologize for airing the image “outside of the context of training facilities.” Critics at the time said that using the image exaggerated the severity of hospital crowding during COVID-19.

In response to the video, National Post columnist and drug policy advocate Adam Zivo pointed to a CBC article, which he said prioritized defending the Liberals’ “safer supply” drug policy over fully disclosing that one of its sources used diverted “safer supply” hydromorphone.

“The CBC was so committed to defending the Liberals’ safer supply experiment that they essentially lied to Canadians — including parents with vulnerable children — about the dangers of diversion,” Zivo wrote on X. “They put kids at risk for the sake of their partisan agenda.”

The article omitted the facts that the drugs were obtained, not by a doctor, but were resold by one of the government programs’ clients.

Others pointed to reporting by the CBC itself during the Freedom Convoy protest against vaccine mandates. CBC’s reporting at the time focused on outliers such as a man carrying a Swastika flag or a Confederate flag, without reporting that videos showed the latter being told to leave the protest by others. These two incidents took place amid a protest, which at its peak was estimated to have up to 18,000 people.

Alexander Zoltan, a Western Standard reporter, pointed to footage of CBC News stating that “swastikas being painted onto Parliament Hill being used to deface property,” despite no evidence of such a case.

CBC coverage at the time was largely negative toward the protest, which many attendees said was a call to end lockdown and vaccine mandate measures.

Another critic pointed to what they described as a contrast between CBC coverage of George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. and its reporting on the murder of English teenager Henry Nowak.

One critic, Maret Jaks, used AI to compare coverage, claiming the CBC published 15 articles about George Floyd in the first week, not including video reports, compared with one article on Henry Nowak.

Police body cam footage released by police after Nowak’s murderer Vickrum Digwa, shows that police handcuffed him after he informed them multiple times that he was stabbed. Police said, “I don’t think you have a mate.”

Before police arrived, Nowak’s murderer, Digwa, told police that he was the victim of a racist attack from a white teen. There are several moments in the distressing police footage where Nowak says, “I can’t breathe,” but he was ignored by the police, who arrested him before he died from his injuries.

Notably, these were the same words George Floyd said multiple times before his death, which was ruled a murder.

Digwa stabbed Nowak five times, including with a ceremonial Sikh blade, a Kirpan.

The CBC wrote one article about the incident, only to write that the “far-right hijacked” Nowak’s murder to “trigger another battle over race.”

In a separate post, Zivo wrote that he doesn’t “recall” the CBC condemning the “far left’s” “politicization” of George Floyd’s death, which led to several deaths and millions of dollars of property damage to businesses and communities across the U.S.

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

CBC was flooded with angry emails after former host Travis Dhanraj told MPs he was instructed to keep Conservatives off the air, according to Access to Information records. In discussing his March 10 committee testimony, one manager said: “We don’t hit the mark in every story.”

A Blacklock’s Reporter report detailed strong public reaction to Dhanraj’s testimony, with largely negative views of the public broadcaster.

“You guys are awful. Your bias is obvious,” wrote one viewer. “The truth is finally out. Canadians have lost trust in CBC,” said another.

A third called it “a travesty” for CBC to take taxpayer money while promoting only a Liberal viewpoint, adding: “CBC has become Canada’s Pravda.”

In an Access to Information email, CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon said the network seeks balance “over time,” not in every story, acknowledging: “We don’t hit the mark in every story, newscast or program.”

Fenlon said the broadcaster receives bias complaints from all sides, calling them a concern for leadership. This contrasts with Dhanraj’s testimony alleging “centralized control and bias” and repeated blocking of Conservative coverage.

Dhanraj faced pushback for interviewing Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman and was not allowed to contact Pierre Poilievre. He only took the Canada Tonight host role expecting to lead the show, including booking guests.

“I tried to do my job as a journalist,” Dhanraj told the heritage committee on Mar. 10. “Within months I was pulled off the air, disciplined, restricted from speaking, stripped of my prime time program and eventually forced out altogether.”

Last fall, Dhanraj filed a human rights complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, alleging workplace discrimination based on race that forced him out of his role.

He later launched the podcast Can’t Be Censored with Karman Wong, saying his aim is to assess whether the $1.6B taxpayer-funded broadcaster applies the same standards it expects of others.

In Apr. 2024, Dhanraj was disciplined over an X post on CBC executive bonuses and funding. In recorded exchanges with Andree Lau, he defended it as journalistic, while she cited concerns over integrity, conflict of interest, and criticism of the employer.

CBC confirmed the meeting occurred but said no formal discipline was issued, while Dhanraj’s lawyer called it “disturbing” and an attempt to intimidate him over internal criticism.

Dhanraj called on Fenlon to air his hearing live and unedited, saying it could easily be streamed on YouTube, to no avail. The committee meeting was streamed by Juno News here.

After the former host’s Mar. 10 testimony, viewers emailed CBC managers alleging “grotesque Liberal bias” and criticizing the network for not airing the hearing. “Where is your coverage?” one asked. “Where is your statement [on] censorship?”

Critical emails continued, with another viewer calling CBC “useless” and “biased” and insulting staff. The Ombudsman replied, asking the viewer to remain “polite and respectful” in future correspondence.

A 2025 Canadian Heritage study, Shooting the Messenger, found journalists at CBC reported hurtful remarks from conservative politicians or rival media, though no names were given. It surveyed 95 unnamed journalists, 41% from public broadcasters.

Prior Statistics Canada data ranked reporters below politicians and lawyers in perceived reliability.

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

During a press conference on Monday, Premier Danielle Smith acknowledged voters cannot make an informed decision on independence without a cost estimate.

“I came up with $400 billion in transitional costs that we’d have to assume,” she said, ranging from Alberta’s portion of the federal debt, national defence, social programs, regulatory agencies and more.

Though she opposes independence, Smith says the cost for Alberta leaving Canada could be released this summer as part of her pledge to let Albertans vote on the issue.

“When can Albertans expect that potential document?” a reporter asked Monday during an unrelated press conference. “I hope it will be by August,” Smith replied.

On May 21, Premier Danielle Smith said a court ruling that struck down a citizen-led separation petition left her with “no other option” but to put the question to voters.

She vowed to respect the outcome and considers anything above 50 per cent a majority, despite her party’s official policy favouring greater autonomy within Confederation.

With the referendum question set for Oct. 19, both sides have less than 150 days to make their case for staying in Canada or pursuing separation.

At a Calgary debate hosted by the Aristotle Foundation, former premier Jason Kenney said Alberta separatists “can’t be taken seriously” and lack a coherent plan for the economic fallout of separation.

Keith Wilson, a constitutional lawyer and member of the Alberta Transition Council, said federalists offer no plan to address Alberta’s grievances, relying instead on “fear” and calls to maintain the status quo despite decades of frustration.

“Albertans who are concerned and support independence understand… that this is a rare moment in time of convergence of opportunity and convergence of threat,” the separatist said.

Wilson said that reality underscores why his movement must continue working to win more Albertans to its cause.

On May 22, the Alberta Transition Council said it aims to develop a professional roadmap for how an independent Alberta could function. “Not slogans,” he wrote on X, but a “blueprint.”

“We’re doing the serious, professional work behind one practical question: how an independent Alberta would actually function — lawfully, responsibly, and without disruption,” the Council’s website reads. “We think that question deserves real planning.”

So far, the governing United Conservatives have not detailed how an independent Alberta would function or its financial implications, despite calls from party members at their latest AGM.

This follows years of Access to Information requests from a former senior Treasury Board staffer, who notes the economic stakes are high and that Alberta’s have a right to know what it will cost them.

“Alberta Treasury Board and Finance nor Executive Council… have done a concrete analysis of what Alberta independence would mean for the economy,” writes Lennie Kaplan, a former senior manager with the Treasury Board and Minister of Finance.

“The most recent request to [the] Executive Council, filed on May 4 of this year, revealed that no work has been prepared.”

Last year, the Alberta Prosperity Project’s (APP) new draft fiscal plan projected Alberta’s economy could double within 20 years of separation.

Dennis Kalma, author of “The Value of Freedom” and member of the Council, estimated a surplus in the billions within the first year of independence from Canada.

The APP’s research, citing sources including Statistics Canada and the Government of Alberta, projects annual surpluses of $23.6 to $45.5 billion and claims Alberta would save $44 to $47 billion by no longer paying equalization.

The plan also promises first-year tax cuts of 33 to 55 per cent, deregulation, and expanded oil and gas production reaching 9.5 million barrels per day by 2045. It also claims the province would hypothetically receive $167 billion in 2026 from leaving the Canada Pension Plan.

However, experts say the fiscal plan lacks clarity and may overestimate revenues despite claims of conservative projections.

Kaplan says a fully costed plan from the province would “help clear any misconceptions” and “independently test the APP’s assumption” ahead of the Oct.19 vote.

He notes a government analysis would likely assess debt division, Canada Pension Plan participation, equalization, trade access, federal transfers, and currency options, adding that an independent Alberta would face major costs from duplicating federal institutions and services.

On Monday, the premier told reporters that an independent Alberta could inherit about $170 billion in debt, costing roughly $10 billion a year in interest, plus billions more for defence, social programs. That excludes building new institutions such as a pension plan, EI, border services, trade offices, a postal system, and regulatory agencies.

Premier Danielle Smith claims there are “probably hundreds of billions of dollars” in start-up costs to build a fully functional national government from scratch.

“I think it’s responsible for us to be very forthright about the cost associated with what is being proposed here so people can make an informed decision, and I hope that decision is to remain,” she said.

In a 2025 Calgary Herald column, Kaplan acknowledged that Albertans have been a consistently large net fiscal contributor to the Canadian federation.

According to Statistics Canada data, Albertans made $267.4 billion in net fiscal contributions to Ottawa between 2007 and 2023, with projections suggesting another $250 billion-plus could be transferred over the next 15 years.

However, he expressed concern over investor uncertainty, estimating Alberta separation could cost the province $130.2 billion in lost economic activity over the coming decade, underscoring the need for rigorous independent analysis before any referendum.

“It shouldn’t come down to a choice between the unreasonable costs of Alberta separation, political posturing toward separatists, sitting on the sidelines or maintaining the status quo,” Kaplan writes.

With the current equalization program set to expire in 2029 and renewal talks expected soon, Kaplan argues the provinces should push for a comprehensive, independent review of federal-provincial fiscal relations—including equalization and major transfer programs—to improve fairness, transparency, accountability, and economic growth.

Alberta has not received payments since the mid-1960s, forgoing at least $67 billion between 1957 and 2021.

Kaplan also pressed for further changes to the Fiscal Stabilization Program, a federal initiative designed to provide financial assistance to provinces facing significant year-over-year declines in their revenues due to extraordinary economic downturns.

The province received just $248 million in 2015-16 despite an $8.8 billion revenue loss, highlighting the limited federal support available under the program.

On the Canada Pension Plan, Alberta workers contributed $12.3 billion—15.5 per cent of CPP premiums collected nationwide—but received $7.7 billion, or 13 per cent of CPP benefits paid out due to its younger population.

Premier Smith said the issue “could be put to a citizen’s initiative,” but acknowledged the government still lacks clear federal answers on Alberta’s potential share.

In 2023, Premier Smith released an analysis claiming Alberta would be entitled to 53% of CPP assets—about $412 billion of the $777.5 billion fund—on withdrawal, a figure disputed in a 2024 federal Chief Actuary paper, though no alternative estimate was provided.

Cabinet has repeatedly rejected Alberta’s claim to 53 per cent of CPP assets. The Canada Pension Plan Act allows provinces to opt out if certain conditions are met, without federal approval.

The UCP says it would only replace CPP with an Alberta Pension Plan if it provides equal or better benefits at lower cost, and only proceed with a referendum under the Alberta Pension Protection Act.

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Author: Cosmin Dzsurdzsa

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pushed back against criticism from fellow Western leaders, arguing that premiers should focus on economic collaboration rather than “lecturing” Alberta about its internal political debates.

Speaking on her radio program Your Province, Your Premier, Smith delved into questions about last week’s Western Premiers Conference, where tensions flared with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and British Columbia Premier David Eby over Alberta’s sovereignty debate.

“I would say rather than lecturing Albertans about what they should and should not do — and should believe and shouldn’t — I would like to see other premiers give, as I am, reasons to feel confident in the western partnership and reasons to feel confidence in Canada,” Smith said.

Her remarks come after a highly charged meeting in Calgary, where Kinew and Eby publicly challenged Alberta’s direction on separatist sentiment and a planned referendum question.

Smith said the path forward lies in cooperation on major resource projects rather than constitutional confrontation.

“I think that the best thing those partners could do is work with us on getting pipelines built,” she said, framing energy infrastructure as the key to strengthening both the western economy and national cohesion.

She pointed specifically to Manitoba’s interest in expanding export routes, referencing Kinew’s remarks about reviving a Churchill-area pipeline concept and increasing Alberta oil shipments eastward.

“I know that Premier Kinew has said he wants to get a Churchill pipeline built — he’s said ‘move a few Alberta barrels’,” Smith noted. “I think that’s a really good message.”

Smith also argued that energy exports, including liquefied natural gas development, could create shared benefits across provinces by boosting revenues and reducing reliance on federal equalization transfers.

“He wants to talk about LNG export which would also benefit us — and it would also benefit him, because if he had new sources of revenue, it would reduce Manitoba’s reliance on equalization — they get about $5 billion a year in equalization payments,” she said.

Her comments come amid renewed national debate over Alberta separatism, sparked by a citizen-led petition effort and the province’s decision to put referendum-related questions to voters in October. Smith has maintained that Albertans should be allowed to democratically express their views on the province’s future, while emphasizing her preference remains within Canada.

“Albertans in good faith went out — 700,000 people signed onto petitions saying they wanted to have this discussion,” she said. “So let’s have it.”

The exchange at the Western Premiers Conference underscored growing regional tensions, with Eby warning that separation would leave Canada “poorer” and likening the movement to Brexit, while Kinew relayed a message he attributed to an Alberta service worker who opposed separation.

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Walking down Drottninggatan, Stockholm’s sprawling pedestrian shopping street, I kept expecting to smell cigarettes.

You know the smell. Every Western city has it lingering outside office towers and train stations. Toronto smells like it. Ottawa smells like it. Calgary definitely smells like it after midnight outside the bars.

After spending a week in Stockholm, I literally did not see a single cigarette. Not in someone’s mouth. Not even one on the ground.

The realization hits slowly at first. You notice what isn’t there before you notice what is. No clusters of smokers outside restaurants. No overflowing ash trays beside benches. No cloud of stale smoke at bus stops.

Then you start noticing the nicotine.

A Swede in jogging shorts out enjoying the spring heat slips a tiny white pouch into her lip. Two young men outside a café across the street do the same thing between sips of coffee. Construction workers, airport staff, university students. Nobody hides it.

Then I saw the stores.

On a prime corner lot near Olof Palmes Gata sat a sleek storefront with giant glass windows and a glowing sign reading VAPE & SNUS. Inside looked less like a smoke shop and more like an Apple Store. Bright white lighting. Minimalist shelves. Rows of colourful nicotine pouches, vapes, and snus tins displayed openly to pedestrians walking by.

One woman, in a mustard yellow blouse, was even pushing a stroller through a store dedicated entirely to smoke-free nicotine products.

In Canada, that storefront would trigger a large-scale moral panic.

Canadian vape stores cannot legally display products in windows. Nicotine pouches are hidden behind pharmacy counters, often requiring an awkward conversation with a pharmacist to access them. Meanwhile, any 18-year-old working his first shift at a gas station can legally sell cigarettes all day long without anyone blinking.

Progressive Swedes would be disgusted with our prehistoric approach to nicotine harm reduction.

A Canadian teenager can buy a pack of darts more easily than a tin of Zyn.

You might be able to guess which country has nearly eliminated smoking.

In fact, Sweden stands apart from almost every country in Europe. It has one of the continent’s lowest smoking rates and some of the lowest rates of smoking-related disease.

Today, on World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization launched a campaign warning about nicotine pouches and other smoke-free products. WHO Director-General (and former Tigray Communist from Ethiopia) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and his organization continue to frame nicotine itself as the central public-health threat, even as countries like Sweden demonstrate what happens when smokers are given alternatives that do not involve inhaling burning tobacco.

The disconnect is remarkable.

While WHO officials issue warnings about nicotine pouches allegedly appealing to youth, Sweden has spent decades quietly replacing cigarettes with snus and other smoke-free products. The result has been fewer smokers, fewer smoking-related illnesses, and one of the strongest tobacco harm-reduction records in the developed world.

The Swedes did something international public-health institutions still seem deeply uncomfortable admitting might work.

They separated nicotine from smoke.

That distinction matters more than almost anything else in this debate.

The overwhelming damage from cigarettes comes from combustion. Burn tobacco, inhale smoke for decades, and the human body breaks down exactly the way you would expect it to. Lung cancer. Throat cancer. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cardiovascular disease.

Sweden did not eliminate nicotine.

Sweden displaced smoke.

And the results become visible almost immediately walking through Stockholm.

At Philip Morris’ Technovation conference this week, executives, scientists, and harm-reduction advocates kept returning to the same basic argument: public health became obsessed with achieving nicotine purity instead of reducing actual harm.

To many North Americans, especially after COVID, the broader philosophical pattern feels familiar.

Sweden became internationally infamous during the pandemic for resisting lockdown orthodoxy while much of the Western world embraced sweeping social restrictions. Public-health elites treated the country almost like a rogue state. Newspapers predicted mass death. Commentators accused Sweden of recklessness.

Now the same country is once again standing outside the global consensus, this time on smoking.

And once again, Sweden’s outcomes are deeply inconvenient to international institutions.

One speaker at the conference made an offhand comment that explained the entire country better than any policy paper could.

“Sweden tends to trust adults.”

That mindset appears everywhere here.

The Swedish approach to nicotine is pragmatic rather than moralistic. The goal is straightforward: get people off cigarettes by giving them alternatives they will actually use.

In Canada, the governing philosophy often feels reversed. Regulators treat smoke-free nicotine products with suspicion while combustible cigarettes remain readily available through decades of regulatory inertia.

The result is bizarre.

A brightly lit nicotine pouch display in Stockholm feels modern, clean, and ordinary. In Canada, the exact same display would likely provoke outrage from public-health activists demanding investigations, fines, and restrictions.

Meanwhile, cigarette packs remain available at nearly every gas station in the country.

The Swedes look at this logic the same way most people would look at banning seatbelts while protecting car crashes.

Even Philip Morris International, the tobacco giant hosting the conference, now openly talks about putting cigarettes “in a museum.” Ten years ago, that sentence would have sounded absurd coming from one of the largest cigarette companies on earth. Today, the company says more than 40 percent of its revenue comes from smoke-free products.

You do not need to trust multinational tobacco companies blindly to recognize the contradiction staring public-health authorities in the face.

If Sweden dramatically reduced smoking-related disease through the widespread adoption of smoke-free nicotine products, why does the World Health Organization sound more alarmed by nicotine pouches than by the cigarettes they are replacing?

That question becomes harder to ignore the longer you spend in Stockholm.

Because the city does not feel like a public-health disaster.

It feels like the future.

Editor’s Note: Rothmans, Benson & Hedges invited the author to Sweden and covered travel expenses associated with the trip. During the visit, the author toured a retail nicotine-pouch and Snus store, visited a nicotine quality-control laboratory, and attended Philip Morris International’s annual Technovation conference in Stockholm.

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Author: Cosmin Dzsurdzsa

A new Statistics Canada report is shedding light on a growing public safety crisis in rural Canada, revealing that residents outside major cities are facing significantly higher crime rates than their urban counterparts — and the gap is continuing to widen.

According to the report released Thursday, rural areas accounted for 19 per cent of all Criminal Code offences in Canada’s provinces in 2024 despite representing only 14 per cent of the population. When adjusted for population, the rural crime rate stood at 7,421 incidents per 100,000 people, 42 per cent higher than the urban rate of 5,235 incidents.

The disparity has grown considerably over the past decade. In 2014, rural crime rates were 29 per cent higher than in urban areas. Today, that gap has widened to more than 40 per cent as rural crime continues to climb while urban crime trends stabilize or decline.

Statistics Canada reported that 2024 marked the fourth consecutive annual increase in rural crime rates. Urban crime rates, by contrast, declined from the previous year.

The Crime Severity Index, a measure that weighs both the volume and seriousness of offences, also painted a stark picture. Rural Canada recorded a CSI score of 100.6 compared to 72.7 in urban centres, making rural crime 38 per cent more severe overall.

Violent crime in particular has surged in rural communities. The report found rural areas accounted for 22 per cent of violent offences despite making up a much smaller share of the population. The rural violent CSI reached 134.8 in 2024, 46 per cent higher than the urban violent CSI of 92.5.

Homicide rates were also substantially higher outside urban centres. Police reported 173 homicides in rural areas in 2024, translating to 2.92 homicides per 100,000 people. Urban areas recorded 605 homicides, but with a lower rate of 1.72 per 100,000.

The report also highlighted alarming trends involving women in rural Canada. The homicide rate for rural women increased 68 per cent over the past decade, reaching its highest level since comparable data began being collected in 2009. Women accounted for 57 homicide victims in rural areas in 2024 alone.

Intimate partner violence was another area where rural communities experienced significantly worse outcomes. The rate of police-reported intimate partner violence in rural areas was nearly double the urban rate, while intimate partner homicides were also almost twice as common.

The Prairie provinces recorded some of the highest rural crime rates in the country. Saskatchewan led with 18,896 incidents per 100,000 population, followed by Manitoba at 14,164 and Alberta at 10,830.

Crime was especially acute in Canada’s rural North, where the crime rate exceeded 17,700 incidents per 100,000 population or more than three times higher than rural southern regions.

Statistics Canada noted that several factors may contribute to elevated rural crime levels, including geographic isolation, limited access to services and employment, drug addiction, firearm prevalence and reduced police resources.

While urban centres continue to experience the highest total number of crimes because of population size, the report suggests that Canadians living in rural communities are increasingly more likely to become victims of serious and violent offences.

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Author: Cosmin Dzsurdzsa

The University of Lethbridge is openly restricting applicants for a prestigious federally backed genomics research position exclusively to what it calls “racialized individuals,” according to a newly posted job advertisement.

The posting, seeking candidates for a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in “Genomics in Precision Health,” states that “only applicants who self-identify as a racialized individual will be considered for this CRC opportunity.”

The university justified the race-based hiring restriction by citing “underrepresentation of racialized scholars” and referencing Section 10.1 of the Alberta Human Rights Act.

The position itself focuses on advanced biomedical research topics including cancer therapeutics, pharmacogenomics, neurodegenerative diseases, genomics, personalized medicine and aging-related illnesses.

Applicants are also required to submit a statement outlining their experience advancing “equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization” as part of the hiring process.

The Canada Research Chairs program, funded by the federal government, has increasingly adopted equity-based hiring targets in recent years under Ottawa’s diversity mandates.

The posting remains open until filled, with the first review of applications scheduled to begin in August 2026.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

Health Canada released its third legislative review of tobacco and vaping regulations last week. A Canadian tobacco company is criticizing the report, saying it fails to adequately recognize the growing contraband market fuelled by organized crime.

The federal review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act acknowledges enforcement gaps, rising online sales and challenges in identifying “non-compliant” actors online. However, critics say it should have gone further in addressing the extent to which contraband tobacco dominates online sales and the role of organized crime in the illicit market.

Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, one of the largest tobacco companies in Canada, has relentlessly attacked the illicit tobacco trade, which includes unlicensed individuals purchasing contraband tobacco from Indigenous reserves for wholesale.

In a Monday press release, the company noted Health Canada’s review as “exposing weaknesses” in the enforcement of tobacco regulations, amid a growing black market and said the review “overlooks key realities” of the expanding illicit nicotine market.

“Effective law and regulatory enforcement are not optional; they are the foundation of our legal system and of any credible regulatory system. Right now, that foundation is under significant strain, given Canada’s massive illicit market.” Milena Trentadue, the managing director of Rothmans, Benson and Hedges said in the release. “Addressing these gaps, along with federal leadership on Canada’s contraband problem, must be an immediate priority.”

The Health Canada report acknowledges that online sales of vaping products have grown since 2018 and “are projected to continue to grow,” adding that enforcing the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act requires “robust oversight” and an “innovative compliance promotion and enforcement strategy.”

“It fails to address--or acknowledge--that contraband sales exceed those of any individual regulated industry actor and that these illicit products disregard government health regulations, taxes, criminal law, and Health Canada’s own tobacco cost-recovery charges,” the companies press release reads stating that the recovery charges fund “important cessation programming, research, education campaigns, TVPA enforcement activities, and support for First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation.”

A recent independent study commissioned by Philip Morris International, the company’s parent company, found that Canada lost more than $2.1 billion in tax revenue from illicit tobacco sales in 2025.

The KPMG study found that 38.3 per cent of an estimated 17.9 billion cigarettes consumed that year came from the black market.

“The legislative review identifies a need for stronger enforcement tools,” the release reads. “But it stops short of calling for what is truly needed: federal leadership and action using existing regulatory, legal, and enforcement powers to tackle the massive illicit market that ignores the TVPA and threatens public health.”

The Health Canada review also identified resource and enforcement capacity shortfalls and called for greater collaboration between Health Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canada Revenue Agency and law enforcement agencies. It said that “stronger information sharing between federal, provincial, territorial, local and Indigenous and international partners could improve compliance and enforcement outcomes.”

Danny Fournier, a 25-year RCMP veteran who now serves as senior manager of illicit trade prevention for Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, told Juno News last month that he believes Canada could benefit from a central hub to help provinces and law enforcement better collaborate to tackle the illicit market.

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Author: Clayton DeMaine

Bloc Québécois MPs are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to drop the Clarity Act, arguing it complicates secession referendums by adding conditions beyond a simple majority vote. Carney, however, said the Clarity Act does not apply to the current Alberta independence question and defended the Act’s requirements.

During Question Period in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Carney said the 50 per cent “plus one” threshold, a standard measure of majority support, does not automatically apply to questions of provincial independence, as set out in the Clarity Act.

The Act, passed in response to a 1998 Supreme Court ruling on Quebec secession, states that even if a majority votes to leave the federation, Parliament must determine whether the result reflects a “clear majority,” taking into account factors such as voter turnout and the size of the margin.

Bloc MP Christine Normandin pressured Carney in the House of Commons on Tuesday after he declared that he would use the Clarity Act to interfere in an Alberta referendum to separate from Canada.

“Any province or Quebec has the right to ask its citizens the question of its choice in a referendum. Citizens have the right to answer freely, and the majority wins with 50% of the votes plus one,” Normandin said in French. “ This concerns only two groups, the government that asked the question and the citizens who answered it. That is democracy. It’s that simple.”

Carney stated that the current question before the Alberta government is a “question on the question” and the Clarity Act wouldn’t apply, but that a “clear majority” on a secession question would need to be recognized by parliament for a province to leave confederation.

Normandin further stated that the Clarity Act is anti-democratic.

“The Prime Minister knows this: all his laws are passed with 50% plus one. His majority depends on 50% plus one. Even his parliamentary secretary for justice said the rule is 50% plus one,” she said. “ That is democracy, except for referenda, because of the Clarity Act. Will the Prime Minister repeal this authoritarian overreach?”

Carney said the Clarity Act is legislation passed through democratic means, arguing that applying it amounts to “respecting democracy.”

“The House of Commons must consider the following factors to establish this determination of a clear vote: the scope of the majority that are valid, expressed in favour of the successionist option, and the percentage of eligible electors who took part in the referendum is not 50 per cent plus one.”

After Question Period, Carney was asked by a reporter about the Clarity Act. He again noted that 50 per cent of voters “plus one” is not a clear majority as defined by the Act.

“It is absolutely not. And I would just recommend that you read the Clarity Act. It’s very clear, not surprisingly, the Clarity Act is very clear on a determination, and there’s a series of conditions, which I responded in the House for the record,” Carney said.

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A new conservative women’s group launched this month, with founder Alicia Vianga hoping it will encourage more women to get involved in politics and support Conservatives at the ballot box.

After seeing the low number of women who voted Conservative in the last election, Vianga said she wanted to inspire and educate women who align with conservative values ahead of the next federal campaign.

“The idea is basically to get more women involved in politics, and to ensure that the conservative form of government in the next election,” Vianga, the founder of Canada Conservative Women’s Association, told Juno News. “It’s grassroots. We do a lot of events, we educate women about politics with grassroots workshops and host events in a community.”

In the last federal election, Vianga was also the candidate of record for the Conservative Party of Canada in the federal riding of Pickering—Brooklin and the founder of the cancer support group “After Breast Cancer.”

She said that at the beginning of May, the Canadian Conservative Women’s Association hosted 17 “unstoppable” events on the same night across Canada, bringing Canadian women together, regardless of their political leanings, for community events.

“I’ve seen in the last election approximately 33 per cent of women voted Conservative, and if we’re going to form a conservative government, we need to get more women involved,” she said. “A lot of times, women want to get involved, they just don’t know how.”

Vianga said a common experience when knocking on doors during the last election was having women defer the politics of the house to their husbands.

“You’ll hear women say, ‘Well, you have to talk to my husband about it. I don’t know what I should do. I don’t know too much about what the policies are,’ and so on, so we just want to make it easy for women to feel that they have a place where they could actually belong.”

She said the “unstoppable” events varied across the country with different speakers, including female speakers from both provincial and federal Conservative politics. Events ranged from charity events, tea parties and the event in Toronto, for example, which had Caroline Mulroney, the recently resigned president of Ontario’s treasury board.

“It is about allowing women to feel like they could have their voices heard, feel comfortable educating them softly, because we are able to make decisions for our everyday lives,” she said. “What goes on in our family, what goes on in our community, what goes on in our children’s lives as well, too. And in Canada, we have those opinions as well. We are just making it easy for them to come together and have a really awesome conversation.”

She said the Canadian Conservative Women’s Association will be “doing many grassroots events, with the next events scheduled for July.

“There’ll be lots of events to bring women together to do small and large events in the community, on a grassroots level, and hopefully in the next three years or so, we will have a big part to play in the Conservative party forming government and seeing the women’s movement growing and growing and growing.

She aspires to have the percentage of Canadian women voting Conservative move from 33 per cent to “maybe 43 per cent of women voting Conservative.”

“I think at the end of the day, the direction that Canada is going, we all feel like something gotta change, and the Conservative Party is in a position where I think our policy, who we are, with Pierre Poilievre as our leader, is the right movement, and the right person to form government right now.”

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Author: Quinn Patrick

Tim Hortons says it will scale back its use of the Temporary Foreign Worker program and hire 10,000 Canadians instead, as scrutiny grows over foreign worker hiring in the restaurant sector.

The campaign coincided with an announcement on Monday that the coffee chain plans to open 80 new restaurants by the end of this year.

“Tims restaurant owners don’t discriminate in their local hiring – anyone entitled to work in Canada is welcome to work at their restaurants,” wrote the company in a press release.

“This includes Canadian students, international students, people with disabilities, mature workers, Indigenous people, new Canadians and members of the local community of all ages – always with the aim to hire locally every time they can in order to serve guests with excellence at every Tims, every time.”

While the company had previously lobbied Ottawa for increased access to the TFWP, it now says that “with high youth unemployment nationally, lobbying for expanded access is no longer necessary.”

However, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said that claim is false and that Tim Hortons continues to seek access to the program.

“I read the articles and the statement that that chain made, and they’re still asking for temporary foreign workers,” Rempel Garner told reporters on Monday. “We know that there is a youth job crisis. We know that there are a lot of Canadians who are out of work. What we’ve been pushing the government for is better labour mobility strategies, skills training to make it easy to facilitate Canadians to move to where the jobs are.”

She added that the Conservatives are calling for the “abolition of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program” to be replaced with a “standalone program for seasonal agricultural labour that’s legitimately hard to fill.”

The change in hiring strategy from Tim Hortons also follows an announcement from Dunkin’ Donuts, a former U.S. competitor, announcing plans to return to Canada earlier this month.

Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Peter Mammas said he can open between “600 to 700” locations in Canada, including nearly 200 in Quebec, between this year and the end of 2027.

Meanwhile, Tim Hortons already has 4,000 locations across Canada and remains the largest franchise in the country, with more restaurants per capita than any other brand worldwide.

“Of the approximately 110,000 team members across the Tim Hortons system, we estimate roughly 4,000 team members hold positions under the Temporary Foreign Worker program – representing approximately 3.6 per cent of all restaurant roles,” reads the company statement.

“These are positions in communities where restaurant owners faced documented labour shortages and went through the full government approval process before hiring. Restaurant owners understand the need for continued rigour and scrutiny for any new temporary foreign worker applications.”

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Author: Alex Dhaliwal

Foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes may be able to postpone deportation hearings while appealing their convictions under new guidelines from the head of Canada’s immigration tribunal.

Effective June 1, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) guidelines expand when convicted foreign nationals can delay admissibility hearings that precede deportation, drawing pushback from federal Conservatives.

Immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner is calling for tougher deportation rules and limits on judges considering immigration status or deportation impacts at sentencing.

She said allowing criminals to avoid deportation is “a massive problem that could now become worse,” arguing the Liberals should enforce “one law for all” and deport non-citizens when required rather than enabling delays.

Rempel Garner said Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab should direct the IRB to enforce existing laws and “deport non-citizens convicted of serious crimes in Canada.”

Under Canadian law, foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes, including offences punishable by at least 10 years in prison, are subject to deportation, including cases involving organized crime.

Last fall, Conservatives proposed amending Section 718.202 of the Criminal Code to bar judges from considering a non-citizen’s immigration status in sentencing, but the effort was unsuccessful, with the party arguing it would end “two-tier justice.”

They cite a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that allows immigration consequences to be considered in sentencing and point to recent cases where offenders received lighter penalties they say were influenced by immigration status.

On Friday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre told ethnic media that even first-time offenders should receive mandatory prison sentences.

“I don’t care,” he said about a first offence. “They should get mandatory 10-year prison sentences… and I bet a lot of them [foreigners] will be too frightened to actually commit [crimes] in the first place.”

In 2025, only 934 foreign nationals were deported from Canada for criminal inadmissibility, with 260 more in the first quarter of this year, according to Canada Border Services Agency data. Another 132 were deported for transborder criminality last year (21 more in early 2026), and 98 for organized crime (18 so far this year).

Before the CBSA can deport a foreign national convicted of a serious crime, an Immigration Division hearing must first determine admissibility, with the Public Safety Minister represented.

Current Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) guidance allows hearings to be rescheduled only in “exceptional circumstances,” while new guidelines require decision-makers to weigh several factors when considering requests to delay admissibility hearings during a criminal appeal.

These include whether an appeal has been filed and is expected to conclude soon, whether it could make the hearing unnecessary, potential prejudice to either party, and whether a delay would be unreasonable.

Poilievre, rejecting the new guidance, said criminals with temporary status in Canada “should immediately and automatically be deported without exception and without delay,” urging the federal government to direct the IRB accordingly.

“If the IRB won’t do it, then the members of the IRB should be fired and replaced with people who will enforce our laws and kick the criminals out,” he said.

In a statement to the Globe and Mail, the IRB said the revised guideline clarifies how members handle rescheduling requests, supporting “fairness, efficiency, transparency, and consistency” by outlining the factors considered in decisions.

“This provision has been added in the new Chairperson’s guideline to promote consistent consideration of such applications, in line with current Federal Court jurisprudence, which Board members are required to follow,” it added.

The statement clarified that CBSA can arrest and detain applicants deemed a public danger. CBSA and IRCC declined to comment.

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A new Fraser Institute study is calling for mandatory by-elections if an MP decides to cross the floor as a means to restore democratic legitimacy as well as Canadians’ faith in the electoral system.

“Politicians mistakenly credit their merit alone for their electoral victories, but that’s a self-serving myth. Most voters choose the party, leader, or broader issues, rather than the personal qualities of the individual candidate on the ballot,” said study author and former NDP member Nathan Cullen.

The Fraser Institute study comes on the heels of a number of MPs who defected to the Carney government from both the Conservatives and the NDP. The study noted that “by changing parties without voter consent, MPs break the implicit agreement with voters.”

Cullen served as an NDP member at both the federal and provincial levels of government, and his study found that only six per cent of voters are motivated to get out to the ballot box by an individual candidate.

That’s a small cohort compared to the 39 per cent who are motivated by the party leader, 24 per cent by the party, and 15 per cent by policies.

There are also a portion of voters (13 per cent) who would sooner strategically vote than decide based on an individual candidate.

“When MPs cross the floor by leaving the party they were elected under, it stems from an inflated belief in their own importance rather than genuine voter representation. This self-delusion is not only poor judgment but erodes public trust,” reads the study. “By changing parties without voter consent, members of Parliament (MPs) break the implicit contract with voters.”

The economic think tank is suggesting that parliamentarians who leave their party either sit as independents until the next election or trigger a by-election in order to “restore both voter authority and democratic legitimacy.”

“Elected officials must remember that their duty is to serve the communities which elected them, not their own personal ambition,” said Cullen. “Anything else is self-delusion and not only poor judgement but erodes public trust. Reaffirming mandates when changing parties would help restore trust in an era of deepening political cynicism.”

Recent polling has shown that Canadians also held strong support for restricting or penalizing floor crossing such as New Zealand’s political system, known as “waka (canoe) jumping” rules.

“Elected officials must remember that their duty is to serve the communities that elected them, not their own personal ambition. Reaffirming mandates when changing parties would help restore trust in an era of deepening political cynicism,” reads the study.

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