Former federal public servant pleads guilty to awarding 72 sole-source contracts to his own company

A former federal public servant has pleaded guilty to criminal breach of trust for directing 72 sole-source contracts worth $231,663 to a company that he fully owned.

Marc Primeau of Long Sault, Ont., had admitted to using his position at the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) to direct the contracts and six other purchase orders to Access Security Logistix (ASL), a company he created.

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Quebec man who imported 26,630 fake $2 coins made in China gets jail time

A Quebec man has been jailed after he admitted masterminding one of the largest ever series of shipments of Chinese-made counterfeit toonies in Canadian history.

Jean-Francois Généreux from Sorel, Que., about 70 kilometres from Montreal, was sentenced to nine months in jail before the Labour Day weekend after he pleaded guilty to two criminal charges, including importing and introducing counterfeit money into Canada.

Quebec Court Judge Marc-Nicolas Foucault ordered the confiscation of 26,630 dodgy toonies that Généreux imported from a Chinese manufacturer in Quanzhou, China, so federal authorities can oversee their destruction.

#Quebec #China
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👤Canada's unemployment rate rises to 6.6% in August amid challenging job market

Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate increased to 6.6 per cent in August – up from 6.4 per cent in July.

The agency’s labour force survey says the economy added a modest 22,000 jobs last month, lagging the pace of population growth.

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🇨🇦🇺🇦🪖Canada plans to send Ukraine over 80K unarmed small rockets

Canada plans to send 80,840 surplus small unarmed air-to-surface rockets to Ukraine as well as 1,300 warheads in the coming months, Defense Minister Bill Blair said in a statement on Friday.

Canada will also donate chassis assemblies from 29 M113 armored personnel carriers and 64 Coyote armored cars, which the Canadian armed forces are no longer using, Blair said.

#Ukraine
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🇨🇦🇨🇳Ottawa ties Wealth One founders to possible Chinese interference

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has alleged that three principal shareholders in Wealth One Bank of Canada were vulnerable to coercion by China’s ruling Communist Party and may have engaged in money laundering as part of Beijing’s foreign-interference operations in this country.

Lawyers for three of the bank’s founders went to court last year to seek a judicial review of Ms. Freeland’s April, 2023, decision to order them to divest their shares in Wealth One, a Schedule 1 bank established in 2016 that caters to Chinese-Canadian clients. A Schedule 1 bank in Canada is considered a domestic institution, not a subsidiary of a foreign bank, and is authorized to accept deposits and provide mortgages.

#China #Freeland
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🚶‍♂️Five chiefs of staff set to leave the Trudeau government

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is contending with an exodus of senior staff just as the minority Liberals are returning to a precarious position in the House of Commons, having lost the automatic support of the New Democratic Party.

Five of his 38 ministers are losing their chiefs of staff in quick succession with several already gone, including the top advisers at Global Affairs, Heritage, Environment, National Revenue, and Mental Health and Addictions, according to six Liberal sources who each confirmed some of the names of those leaving.

It's all crumbling down.

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🎓International student enrolment down 45 per cent, Universities Canada says

A group representing almost 100 of Canada’s universities is warning the impact from the federal government’s cap on international students will be “far greater” than what Ottawa aimed for.

Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada, said that when the schools officially finish counting how many students have arrived and enrolled, there will be at least a 45 per cent drop of international students. The final tally will be reported in October.

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Bloc Québécois looks to make deals with Liberals as NDP ends agreement

The Bloc Québécois says its ready to wheel and deal with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party for support during confidence votes now that the Liberal government’s confidence and supply agreement with the NDP has ended.

In an interview ahead of Monday’s party caucus retreat in the Outaouais region, Bloc House Leader Alain Therrien says his party is happy to regain its balance of power. He called the situation a “window of opportunity” now that the Liberals are truly a minority government.

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Conservatives call on government to disclose how latest ISIS suspect came to Canada

The Conservatives have called on the government to explain how a 20-year-old Pakistani arrested in Quebec over an alleged ISIS plot targeting U.S. Jews was able to get into Canada.

Federal officials declined to answer questions about the immigration status of Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, citing privacy laws, and said only they were reviewing how he came to Canada.

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🎓Tens of thousands of international students who spent years finding a pathway to permanent residency are out of options

Tens of thousands of temporary residents who came to Canada as international students might be forced to return to their home countries in the next year.

Policy experts estimate that between 70,000 and 130,000 international students holding postgraduation work permits (PGWP) will see their visas expiring in 2024 and 2025. Most, they predict, will not receive visa extensions or an invitation to apply for permanent residency.

A student visa is not an invitation to stay.

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📚Quebec premier pushes for plan to improve manners, discipline in schools

Premier François Legault says he agrees with his party's youth wing that there needs to be more respect, discipline and better manners in schools.

At the annual convention for the Commission de la relève de la Coalition avenir Québec (CRCAQ) in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., on Saturday, some 150 delegates adopted several motions aimed at creating what's being called a "culture of civility" in schools.

Among the adopted motions, one proposes that children, starting as early as kindergarten, address others with more formal language by using the French pronoun "vous" instead of "tu."

Other proposals include implementing uniforms in all high schools, imposing more serious penalties for bullies and violent students, as well as providing training for both those students and their parents to address that behaviour.

#Quebec
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Trudeau repeats again that he’s focused on delivering for Canadians.

Anyone got their delivery yet?

#Trudeau
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‘He just wants his pension’: Premier Ford accuses ‘greedy’ Singh of political posturing

Ontario Premier Doug Ford accused NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh of being a greedy politician who won’t risk an early federal election because it could thwart his plans on collecting a lucrative government pension.

Ford said he would “be floored” if there was an early federal election, stressing on Monday that Singh won’t let that happen because it would put his pension in jeopardy.

Singh would qualify for the pension in February 2025.

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What a change.

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🏠Canada saw the share of households struggling to make ends meet jump 50%

The share of households reporting difficulty handling necessary expenses was a massive 30.9% in 2022, up from 20.4% a year prior. In other words, the share grew 51.5%—while actively compensating for the breakneck population growth.

Nearly 2 in 5 (39.4%) renters struggled to make ends meet in 2022, compared to 28.8% in 2021. The share increased 36.8%.

#housing
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Eight Africa migrants arrested, driver charged with human smuggling near Manitoba-U.S. border

Mounties have charged a man with human smuggling and arrested eight African migrants near the Canada-U.S. border in Manitoba.

RCMP say officers and their U.S. counterparts became aware of a border incursion west of the port of entry at Gretna, Man., on Aug. 22.

They say the migrants were found walking north from the border, where they were picked up by a man driving a rental vehicle.

#US
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📊Nearly half of Canadians want federal election after NDP-Liberal agreement ends, poll suggests

🔹Following the announcement of the end of the NDP-Liberal confidence and supply agreement, a new national survey reveals that 47 per cent of Canadians would support calling a federal election, while only 34 per cent would prefer not to.

The Léger poll, conducted from Sept. 6 to 8, also shows the Conservative Party maintaining its lead with 45 per cent of the vote nationally, followed by the Liberal Party at 25 per cent and the New Democratic Party (NDP) at 15 per cent.

🔹More than half of Canadians, 54 per cent, said they believe that Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party will win the next federal election. In comparison, only 15 per cent think Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party will win.

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Poilievre says he will force confidence vote on Trudeau's government as soon as possible

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre issued a direct challenge on Wednesday to other opposition leaders to bring down the Liberal government at the first possible opportunity.

Poilievre held a press conference outside of the House of Commons announcing that he would introduce a vote of non-confidence as soon as possible when Parliament resumes.

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🎓Female international students targeted for prostitution by Brampton landlords: Councillor

A Brampton city councillor claims that rental ads are exploiting desperate international students, particularly girls, and prostituting them for rent.

We have this unreported population and after years of having many international students come to the city and live here, we’ve seen a proliferation of illegal basement apartments, with single-detached homes being converted into multi-unit dwellings where people rent to students.

Ads on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji and other classified sites have increasingly included “friends with benefits” as a so-called bonus for prospective tenants.

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Trudeau stages a photo op in Surrey, BC.

Ah, the things he's willing to do for votes.

#Trudeau #BritishColumbia
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