Canada

BACKGROUND

Joanna Berry is a Canadian immigration and refugee lawyer in Ontario, Canada. On October 2, two Niagara Police Officers, one of them a sergeant detective, paid her a visit to her home. They told her they were there on behalf of the Ottawa Police Department because of her "personal social media." They begin to tell her that "10 lawyers who are of the Jewish faith" have filed a complaint with the police about her social media. As you can tell from the video, Joanna Berry, is outraged by the visit and clearly distraught. I reached out to the Niagara Regional Police for comment but they did not respond to my inquiry. I spoke with Joanna Berry also and she gave OTL Media permission to publish the video. She told us that she wants Canadians to see it and for the video to be a warning.

"This is very Orwellian"

On The Line Media is run by Samira Mohyeddin, a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current.

Canada said in May it would bring in up to 5,000 Gazans - expanding on a pledge in December to take in 1,000 from the Palestinian enclave. Months later, just over 300 have arrived, with 698 applications approved out of over 4,200 submitted.

Reuters spoke with multiple applicants who said they have been waiting for months since submitting biometric information, dashing their hopes of a swift reunion with relatives in Canada.

Immigration lawyers say the wait for Gazans is longer than those faced by other groups fleeing conflict or disaster, and that the small numbers approved contrast with hundreds of thousands of visas granted to Ukrainians under a similar program offering temporary status.

In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.

https://films.nationalgeographic.com/sugarcane

The Canada Border Services Agency acted "deceitfully" when it fired a woman without a proper investigation — while shielding others from liability — after the border agency failed to collect roughly $26 million in duties, says the federal public service labour board.

"In all, the employer's egregious conduct in this matter consisted of bad faith," the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board said in a recent decision.

"The employer deceitfully disguised its failure to conduct a proper investigation, to give it the appearance of due process."

The case was brought forward by Anne Kline. She was fired by the CBSA in 2018 after the agency accused her of negligence resulting in the loss of about $26 million in import duties it could have imposed against a company.

Ford does understand the importance of bike lanes, or at least he used to: "You're nervous when there's not bike lanes, at least I was," he told TVO in 2017 after trying out cycling near Queen's Park. He also campaigned on promises to put money back in people's pockets, and biking is one of the cheapest ways to get around, requiring no fare or fuel.

So why is Ford doing this now? Maybe it's because bike lanes have become an ideological wedge that he hopes will win him another election. Maybe because real solutions to traffic are complicated and often unpopular

like congestion pricing, which is proven to work.

The evidence is clear: Canada's housing crisis is not a simple supply and demand problem. It is a problem of who owns our homes and why. By focusing almost exclusively on expanding supply through the private sector the NHS has given our housing system over to predaceous investors while deeply indebting everyday Canadians.

In August, leaders of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation and Fort Chipewyan Métis wrote a letter to the then-minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez.

"The Transport Canada dock in downtown Fort Chipewyan is the only alternative to the airport if the community is placed under an urgent evacuation alert," they wrote, particularly if evacuation by air is not possible.

"We went ahead and we said that we were going to go ahead with the contracting of the remediation of the dock to repair it, so we would be able to dredge the canal to the channel."

Once they found the contractor, Adam said, the company revealed to them that there were "heavy contaminants in the area," based on the 2017 report.

Adam said Transport Canada failed to notify the community about this issue.

'Tis the season ... A recent Ontario kids’ hockey game between seven and eight-year-olds was halted after parents and at least one coach started brawling in the stands. The violence broke out at the season-opening tournament for the Klevr League, which attracts some of Ontario’s best young players.

A 27-year-old man is facing several charges after police observed a vehicle traveling 134 km/h over the speed limit on Highway 174 in Ottawa's east end.

edit: vroom vroom

Const. Boris Borissov, a Toronto police officer found guilty of misusing police resources, falsifying police reports and stealing from dead people, will serve seven years in prison, an Ontario judge ruled Tuesday.

"Mr. Borissov's conduct in stealing from the very persons he was duty-bound to protect and exploiting the investigative powers with which he was entrusted must be met with a stern denunciatory and deterrent response," said Justice Mary Ellen Misener, who found Borissov guilty of all 15 charges for which he was tried in May.

"Otherwise, public confidence in the police and in the justice system will be eroded."

Premier Wab Kinew says he won't disclose how much the Province of Manitoba has agreed to pay to lease 265,000 square feet of space in a new medical tower slated to rise above Winnipeg's Portage Place.

True North Real Estate Development, the real-estate wing of the company that owns the Winnipeg Jets, exercised its options on Monday to purchase the beleaguered downtown mall. This paves the way for a $650-million redevelopment that includes a new medical tower over the east side of the property and a new residential tower over the west side.

The premier said Tuesday he will not reveal the financial terms of Manitoba's support for the project, which primarily comes in the form of Shared Health and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority leases for a primary-care clinic, mental health and addictions services, an expanded Pan Am Clinic and spaces for surgery, diagnostics and renal dialysis, among other medical services.

Government House leader Karina Gould says the Liberal government will today vote against a key Bloc Québécois motion that the opposition party has presented as a condition of its support in future confidence votes.

Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet put forward a motion Tuesday calling on the government to support Bill C-319, a Bloc private member's bill that would hike Old Age Security (OAS) payouts for seniors between the ages of 65 and 74 by 10 per cent.

For the Bloc's pension legislation to become law, the Liberal government would have to grant a "royal recommendation" because a private member's bill can't force Ottawa to spend more money without cabinet approval.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has said the Bloc's proposed OAS increase would cost $16 billion over the next five years — spending that would add to a national debt that is now over $1.2 trillion. The cost of financing all that debt comes to about $54 billion this year.

Three more women have come forward to allege historical sex offences against embattled billionaire Frank Stronach, CBC News has learned.

Stronach is facing four new charges, including rape and indecent assault. The charges stem from alleged incidents in Toronto in 1981 and 1983 and in the nearby hamlet of Gormley, Ont., in 1993, according to information shared by a clerk at a Brampton courthouse on Wednesday.

In all, 13 women have told police that Stronach, now 92, assaulted them. He faces a total of 17 criminal charges, including sexual assault and forcible confinement.

The earliest allegations against the Magna International founder date back to 1977, while the most recent assault is alleged to have occurred this past February.

Private equity firm Altor said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy a majority stake in Canada's iconic 125-year-old brand CCM Hockey, which specializes in manufacturing sports equipment and apparel.

Private equity firms are increasingly looking toward the booming sports sector, where companies partner with popular leagues that attract large crowds and foster a loyal customer base.

In August, NFL owners allowed some private equity firms to buy up to a 10 per cent stake in any team, joining other major leagues such as the NBA and MLB, among others, in allowing limited investment from funds.

A violent attack on a teenage girl that was caught on video by multiple people in Kelowna, B.C., has prompted her father to come forward, demanding answers and justice.

Kelowna RCMP say the attack happened on Friday evening, and that the video has been circulating "widely" online in the southern Interior community, around 270 kilometres east of Vancouver in B.C.'s Okanagan.

RCMP say the attack happened in the area of Boyce-Gyro Beach Park and was one of several incidents of youth committing criminal offences, including assault and mischief, in the area.

Two years before CBC News revealed that dozens of people had allegedly abused a B.C. Housing affordable homeownership program in Victoria, the agency's leaders were warned there was a "high risk" the situation could become public.

According to documents obtained through a freedom of information (FOI) request, B.C. Housing's executive committee was warned in April 2022 the public might take a "negative" view of the revelations as "a possible failing by B.C. Housing to prevent program abuse or, in the worst case, fraud."

The documents say the agency's communications team had a plan to demonstrate a "swift and fulsome approach" to dealing with purchasers accused of gaming a program that was designed to get middle-income British Columbians into the housing market — but kept quiet.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's office says her recent comments about chemtrails don't mean she believes the United States government is spraying them in the province.

"The premier was simply sharing what she has heard from some folks over the summer on this issue," Smith's spokesperson Savannah Johannsen said Tuesday in a statement.

Smith faced criticism after she spoke about chemtrails this past weekend at a United Conservative Party town hall in Edmonton.

During the town hall, in response to an audience member's concerns about chemtrail spraying over Edmonton, Smith said, "The best I have been able to do is talk to the woman who is responsible for controlling the airspace, and she says no one is allowed to go up and spray anything in the air."

When the crowd hooted and booed, Smith said, "That's what she's told me."

Archived version

[...]

Ruohui Yang is one of those students. He said he came to Canada in 2015 when he was 15 years old because his parents wanted him to study abroad.

In Canada, he said, he began learning things about his home country — such as details of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre — that challenged the Chinese government's version of events.

[...]

"I do already receive lots of threatening [messages], lots of swearing words, insults on my different social media accounts," he said.

[...]

In May, Amnesty International released a report on the experiences of Chinese dissidents abroad. The report said many Chinese international students attending foreign universities are living in a climate of fear.

"They feel compelled to self-censor and curtail their social and academic activities and relationships or else risk repercussions from the Chinese state," the report says.

[...]

An organization called the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) is active on university campuses across the country.

A 2019 report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) quotes the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) describing the CSSA as "an important support mechanism for international students studying abroad [that provides] a social and professional network for students."

But the NSICOP report also reported growing public alarm over the relationship between the CSSA and the Chinese government's embassies and consulates.

[...]

In 2020, Briant, writing for a non-governmental group called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, exposed details about the Canadian Armed Forces spending more than $1 million on training on how to modify public behaviour. That training was similar to that used by the parent firm of Cambridge Analytica, the company at the centre of a 2016 scandal in which personal data of Facebook users was provided to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s political campaign.

Other initiatives revealed by the Ottawa Citizen included military efforts to keep tabs on members of the public including those involved with the Black Lives Matter movement as well as a plan to use similar propaganda tactics to those employed against the Afghan population during the war in Afghanistan.

An internal investigation by the Canadian Forces determined that some of the efforts violated government rules but no military personnel were ever charged or disciplined.