Bloc tables bill that would make it impossible for judges to throw out delayed violent crime cases

The Bloc Québécois is proposing to use the notwithstanding clause to make it impossible for judges to throw out cases of violent and serious crimes like murder and sexual assault because of excessive delays in getting them to trial.

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💸 Nearly half a billion spent on visa-exampt asylum claims

Canada has spent nearly half a billion dollars over the last five years processing asylum claims from people who arrived in the country without a visa, a new report from the parliamentary budget officer has found.

The PBO estimates the federal government is spending $455 million processing these claims. The average cost is $16,500, but it ranged between $9,055 and $40,814.

#immigration
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💸 Federal government posts $50.9 billion deficit for 2023-24 fiscal year

The federal government ended the 2023-24 fiscal year with a deficit of $50.9 billion.

The result for the April-to-March period compared with a deficit of $41.3 billion reported for the same stretch of its 2022-23 fiscal year.

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🇨🇦🇺🇸 Canada's 'super pigs' are most likely to invade the US

Researchers say Canadian super pigs, a cross of between domestic pigs and wild boars, could invade the US. They can withstand more cold than wild hogs, which already cause billions in damage in the South.

A study found that northeastern Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and western parts of Minnesota are the areas in the US most vulnerable to super pig occupation.

Not exactly the power we wanted, but OK.

#US
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🏳️‍🌈🚫Blockade briefly stops Pride Parade in downtown Winnipeg

Winnipeg Pride Parade was briefly blocked by other members of LGBT community.

A group of protesters says they are demanding that Pride Winnipeg end its “complicity with genocide, divest from corporate pinkwashing, remove police from Pride, and centre QTBIPOC leadership.”

The protesters are calling on the organization to return to the political roots of Pride, adding that there’s been previous calls for accountability by Black and Indigenous peoples.

Friendly fire. Let them fight.

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B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton dies following prison attack

Convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton has died in hospital.

Following an attack on May 19 by another inmate in Québec’s maximum security Port-Cartier Institution, CityNews has confirmed that Pickton has died from his injuries. He was 74 years old.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of the murders of six women. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder in Canada.

#BritishColumbia #Quebec
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📉 Poll finds declining Canadian support for LGBTQ2 rights and visibility

A new poll has found declining support for LGBTQ2 in Canada.

While 49 per cent of respondents agreed with people being open about their sexual orientation or gender identity, it is a decline of 12 points from 2021.

The poll found support for LGBTQ2 people showing affection in public (kissing or holding hands) at 40 per cent, down eight points from 2021.

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Canada landed 121,620 new permanent residents in first quarter

In the first quarter of 2024, Canada welcomed 121,620 new permanent residents, of whom 52,720 came to Ontario and only 17,745 to British Columbia.

#Ontario #BritishColumbia
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❗️Some parliamentarians collaborated with China and India to further their own interests, report says

Canadian intelligence services have gathered information indicating some federal politicians are collaborating with foreign governments to advance their own interests, a new report says.

Unfortunately, the committee has also seen troubling intelligence that some Parliamentarians are, in the words of the intelligence services, ‘semi-witting or witting’ participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) said in a report. It did not indicate whether these people are MPs or senators or both.

The body declined to name the politicians.

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🏠 Trudeau ridiculed over “housing design catalogue” aimed at helping home shortage

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was mocked for his announcement of a “housing design catalogue” when asked what his government was doing to fix Canada’s housing crisis.

While exchanging barbs with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre about broken promises regarding housing, Trudeau responded that among the things his government was doing to fix the shortage was launching a housing design catalogue.

#Trudeau #Poilievre #housing
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🌪A tornado was spotted in central Alberta Monday

#Alberta
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Top Canadian scientist alleges in leaked emails he was barred from studying mystery brain illness

A leading federal scientist in Canada has alleged he was barred from investigating a mystery brain illness in the province of New Brunswick and said he fears more than 200 people affected by the condition are experiencing unexplained neurological decline.

The allegations, made in leaked emails to a colleague seen by the Guardian, have emerged two years after the eastern province closed its investigation into a possible “cluster” of cases.

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💰Foreign streamers must pay into fund to boost Canadian content

Online streaming services operating in Canada will be required to contribute five per cent of their Canadian revenues to support the domestic broadcasting system, the country's telecoms regulator said on Tuesday.

The money will be used to boost funding for local and Indigenous broadcasting, officials from CRTC said in a briefing.

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❌Government won't commit to releasing names of MPs who allegedly conspired with foreign actors

Senior cabinet ministers wouldn't say Tuesday if the government is prepared to release the names of parliamentarians who are alleged to have conspired with foreign governments and to have consciously shared sensitive information with their agents — conduct that one expert says could amount to treason.

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📉🇨🇦🇺🇸Canadian economy underperforms US, largest gap on record

Canadian per-capita real GDP falling significantly short of the U.S. since 2019, with a gap growing 10% by Q1. The gap is now the widest on record, going back to at least 1965, the earliest data readily available.

Economic performance has generally been in sync between the two countries in the past because of their close relationship, along with inflation trends. But more recently, the Canadian economy has started to severely and persistently underperform.

#US
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🌱❌Ottawa declines to release secret internal analysis of economic effects of carbon pricing

The Liberal government is declining to release its internal analysis of the economic impacts of carbon pricing and refusing to say why it is keeping the data secret, even as it criticizes the federal budget watchdog for an error in its analysis of the policy.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux disclosed to a House of Commons committee on Monday that the government has internal analysis of the economic impacts of its consumer and industrial carbon pricing programs that it is keeping under wraps.

He said the federal government’s findings are largely in line with those of his office: that there is overall a net negative impact from the pricing regimes.

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🏦 Bank of Canada cuts key interest rate to 4.75%

The Bank of Canada has lowered its key interest rate to 4.75 per cent, marking the bank's first rate cut since March 2020.

Economists were largely expecting the move. The inflation rate has moved closer to the bank's two per cent goal in recent months, coming in at 2.7 per cent in April, with the bank's preferred core measures of inflation also easing throughout the spring.

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🚙 Insurance claims for Toronto auto thefts up 561 per cent since 2018 as claims in Ontario surpass $1 billion

Insurance claims due to auto theft have skyrocketed in the Greater Toronto Area and across Ontario over the past few years, new data shows.

Auto theft claims in Toronto jumped from a little over $56 million in 2018 to nearly $372 million in 2023, an increase of 561 per cent.

That closely matches the increase across the province, with auto theft claims topping $1 billion in Ontario last year for the first time, a 524 per cent increase compared to five years ago.

#Ontario
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🚫Liberals blocking access to 1,000-plus documents, says intel-oversight panel reviewing foreign interference

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) said that it is still fighting the Liberal government to obtain all the documents it requires to fulfill its mandate as an intelligence agency watchdog.

The committee noted that despite being granted access to four documents covered by cabinet confidence last year as part of its review of foreign interference in Canada, it was blocked from accessing hundreds of others.

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🇨🇦Chrystia Freeland dismisses a new report showing Canadians are paying more because of the Liberals' carbon tax, saying it's "been a great week for Canada" because the Edmonton Oilers are in the Stanley Cup finals
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🏠 70 per cent of new housing demand in Ontario last year came from newcomers

Some 70 per cent of the demand for housing in Ontario over the last year came from newcomers to Canada, an analysis of data from expert Mike Moffatt shows, raising questions about how governments are preparing to accommodate surging population growth as the country grapples with an affordability crisis largely driven by rising home prices.

#Ontario
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