Canada

I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky

UK-based distributor Sphere Abacus is run by MD Jonathan Ford and sells shows including Leaving Neverland, Catch You Later, and Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet internationally. Bell Media will fold its programming into Sphere Abacus library in the wake of the deal, meaning that catalog swells to about 5,500 hours.

As well making a big move into international distribution with the Sphere Abacus deal, Bell Media’s Cohan tells Deadline about a project dubbed internally as ‘Northern Lights’. It will see the Canadian outfit forge a range of new international programming partnerships and seek to elevate Canadian talent and content on the global stage.

Three heli-skiers were killed Monday after an avalanche in southeastern B.C. swept them away, according to RCMP.

The RCMP said the avalanche occurred around the village of Kaslo, on the east side of Kootenay Lake, at about 1 p.m. PT.

Two groups of skiers had just finished skiing the bowl and were waiting in a staging area below the tree line of the Clute Creek watershed. A transport helicopter was nearing the group when the pilot observed an avalanche and sounded the siren," the RCMP said in a news release.

One group of skiers was able to get out of the way, but the other group of four was swept away into the tree line, RCMP said.

On Monday, Avalanche Canada rated the danger in the area around Kootenay Lake as high, from the alpine to below the treeline.

In perhaps his most disappointing policy announcement thus far, Carney has indicated he will scrap the Liberal's plan to increase the capital gains inclusion rate. This mildly progressive measure was directed squarely at the passive incomes of the wealthiest sliver of Canadians and would have served as a healthy revenue generator. Instead, it's destined for the scrapheap.

A Vancouver Island author’s picture book about a puppy at a Pride parade is among several works at the centre of a U.S. Supreme Court challenge over whether parents have the constitutional right to opt their children out of lessons involving books with LGBTQ characters.

Robin Stevenson’s Pride Puppy!, a rhyming alphabet book, features a dog that goes to a parade with its family and breaks loose. Colourful illustrations by Julie McLaughlin depict the puppy bounding through celebratory scenes that include rainbow and transgender pride flags and characters featuring a range of ages, races, abilities and gender identities.

According to a study by the Angus Reid Institute, the final approval rating of now former prime minister Justin Trudeau is 47%, 12 points higher than that of Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, whose favourability sits at 35%

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31586935

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“We have seen too many stories of citizens being pulled out of airport lines, and being fingerprinted and deported, as if they were criminals. Citizens being kidnapped to illegal detention by ICE…this is not the actions of a Democratic nation,” said Charlie Angus, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party.

While the exact number of travelers from Europe and Canada who have been detained or deported by U.S. immigration authorities remains unknown, several cases have made headlines. German tourist Lucas Sielaff was detained for 16 days after returning from a trip to Mexico. “Nobody is safe there anymore to come to America as a tourist,” said Sielaff, who was on a 90-day U.S. tourist permit and engaged to an American citizen.

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In the spirit of rapprochement with Europe and reorientation away from the United States, it's time to complete the Metrication process in Canada that was stopped prematurely by the Mulroney government.

Agents of India and their proxies allegedly meddled in the 2022 election of Pierre Poilievre as Conservative Party Leader as part of a larger effort to cozy up to politicians of all parties, according to a source with top-secret clearance.

The source said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service learned that Indian agents were involved in raising money and organizing within the South Asian community for Mr. Poilievre during the leadership race, which he won handily. But the CSIS assessment did not indicate that this effort was done in a sweeping and highly organized way, the source said. Mr. Poilievre won on the first ballot with 68 per cent of the vote.

CSIS also did not have evidence that Mr. Poilievre or members of his inner circle were aware of the alleged actions of India’s agents and their proxies, said the source, who has national security clearance to see top secret reports.

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to disclose classified information publicly.

CSIS did not share this information with Mr. Poilievre, the source said, because he does not have the necessary security clearance to access secret documents and receive classified briefings on foreign-interference activities in Canada. Mr. Poilievre is the only federal party leader who has declined an offer to obtain a security clearance.

Sam Lilly, a spokesman for the Conservative Leader, said Mr. Poilievre’s leadership race followed all relevant rules and laws.

The public inquiry into foreign interference, which held hearings in 2024 and was headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, cited China and India as the main foreign-interference actors in Canada, saying they use diplomats and proxies to meddle in Canadian domestic affairs. In regard to India, Justice Hogue said in her final report in January that proxy agents clandestinely provide “illicit financial support to various Canadian politicians in an attempt to secure the election of pro-India candidates or gain influence over candidates who take office.”

Justice Hogue added, however, that “the intelligence does not necessarily indicate that the elected officials or candidates involved were aware of the interference attempts, nor were the attempts necessarily successful.”

In a statement Monday, CSIS spokesperson Lindsay Sloane said that the agency testified during the Hogue inquiry that there was no reason to believe “impacted candidates would have been aware of the alleged support” from India during the 2022 Conservative leadership race.

Ms. Sloan said the spy service had provided a classified briefing to Ian Todd, chief of staff to Mr. Poilievre, “about foreign interference threat activities and tactics, including allegations of interference in the leadership race.”

She said CSIS takes any allegations of foreign interference seriously and actively investigates

In a report last June, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) alleged Beijing and New Delhi interfered in Conservative leadership races. NSICOP cited “India’s alleged interference in a Conservative Party of Canada leadership race,” but the report did not identify whether this meddling involved Mr. Poilievre or other candidates.

When he launched his campaign in the federal election that was called on Sunday, Mr. Poilievre told reporters that he doesn’t trust the Liberals with a security clearance and noted the obligations of a clearance would restrict his ability to discuss and hold the government to account.

“What I am not going to do is go into a politically directed process by the Liberals that they use to decide what I can see and say and comment on,” he said. He said CSIS is free to brief him directly if the agency feels it’s warranted.

In testimony before the Hogue inquiry in October, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed to the NSICOP report on the 2022 Conservative leadership contest, criticizing Mr. Poilievre for showing “no curiosity or openness in trying to figure out what happened or whether someone was compromised or whether a foreign country impacted those leadership races.”

Justice Hogue has urged all federal party leaders to obtain national-security clearances so they can view top-secret intelligence that may affect members of their parties. Security clearances involve a rigorous process that includes background checks on family members, credit and criminal checks, and intrusive personal questions such as whether they ever used drugs.

In a preinterview transcript tabled at the inquiry, Mr. Trudeau told commission counsel that his national security and intelligence adviser Nathalie Drouin showed him “explosive” intelligence about a political party. Although he did not name the party in the preinterview, Mr. Trudeau told the inquiry on Oct. 16 that he had received highly classified intelligence that Conservative Party politicians and members were involved in or were susceptible to foreign interference.

Mr. Trudeau later acknowledged, under questioning from the Conservative Party’s lawyer, that he had received secret intelligence about Liberals and members of other political parties who were also allegedly compromised by or engaged in foreign interference.

In her final report, Justice Hogue played down the NSICOP report’s allegations that some parliamentarians had either wittingly or unwittingly collaborated with foreign powers. “Although a few cases involving things like attempts to curry favour with parliamentarians have come to light, the phenomenon remains marginal and largely ineffective,” she said. “While the states’ attempts are troubling and there is some concerning conduct by parliamentarians, there is no cause for widespread alarm.”

On Monday, members of the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force, set up to monitor foreign interference during elections and leadership contests, promised weekly briefings on foreign meddling during the 37-day federal election campaign.

Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at CSIS and chair of the SITE Task Force, said security agencies are keeping a close eye on interference activities, particularly by China and India but also by Pakistan and Iran.

“We have also seen that the government of India has the intent and capability to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes, to assert its geopolitical influence,” she said. “Canadian and Canada-based proxies, as well as contacts in their networks, are increasingly relied on to conduct government of India foreign interference activities.”

Indo-Canadian relations went into a deep freeze in September, 2023, when Mr. Trudeau accused agents of India and their proxies of being behind the slaying of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

On Thanksgiving last fall, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme linked Indian government officials to homicides, extortions and coercion committed on Canadian soil. That day, Ottawa expelled six Indian diplomats including High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma. India staunchly denied the allegations and expelled six Canadian diplomats, sending bilateral relations into an even deeper freeze.

Canada’s largest newspaper chain, Postmedia, is owned by an American hedge fund headed up by a wealthy donor to Donald Trump.

Mark Carney has lamented Canada’s lost friendship with the United States as he visited the town that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks.

The Canadian prime minister’s visit to Gander, Newfoundland, on the second day of a national election campaign comes against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from Donald Trump.

“In this crisis caused by the US president and those who are enabling him, we lament a friendship lost,” Carney said on Monday. “In Gander Canadians did extraordinary things for Americans when they needed it. Now, we need to do extraordinary things for ourselves.”

Residents of Gander opened their arms to nearly 6,600 airline passengers diverted there when the US government shut down airspace during 9/11.

PM says he's available to talk if the president shows respect for Canada's sovereignty

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he still hasn't spoken U.S. President Donald Trump since taking office last week, implying the president is waiting for the results of the federal election — whoever that may be after April 28.

Carney, who was sworn in as prime minister 10 days ago, told reporters Monday he's willing to speak to Trump, if the president shows respect for Canada.

"I'm available for a call, but we're going to talk on our terms. As a sovereign country — not as what he pretends we are — and on a comprehensive deal," said Carney during a campaign stop in Gander, N.L., where he leaned heavily on Canadian patriotism.

In the latest sign of the deteriorating relationship between the two once close allies, Carney's team said Trump hasn't called Carney to congratulate him on becoming prime minister, and hasn't posted anything online either.

We have yet another example of the conservatives having only short term gain and quick profits on their mind. Turner and the liberals were right when they said that we have been building this country east to west for a century plus, and that we should have continued doing so. And now we are seeing Turner's predictions coming true, and a conservative sold us the fuck out and took the easy way Instead of nation building.

Source: https://www.mainstreetresearch.ca/dashboard/canada#voter-intention

This is grim:

Renters are twice as likely to spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing than homeowners, according to Statscan data released last year, and the agency has found single-person households broadly to be more likely than other household types to be living in unaffordable or unsuitable housing.

...

The report also found higher rates of “material deprivation” among renters and single-person households. Respondents were identified as materially deprived if they couldn’t afford at least two essentials from a list including unexpected expenses, spending money, small gifts, bills, maintaining a comfortable temperature in their home, transportation and more.

It’s something that’s on Joy Edwards’s mind. The 70-year-old has been living in the same Toronto apartment since the 1980s, when she got divorced. While her rent for a two-bedroom apartment is well below the Toronto average, it eats up 60 per cent of her monthly Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments.

Ms. Edwards said she was able to retire by minimizing her expenses and sometimes receiving some food from her church and a local community centre. But with developers expressing interest in her building, she said she worries “all the time” about being asked to leave.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/retirement/article-move-over-millennials-a-third-of-canadas-single-renters-are-seniors/