The Federal Court of Appeal has confirmed: the use of the Emergencies Act to crush the Freedom Convoy was unconstitutional. 🇨🇦 A massive congratulations to Christine Van Geyn and the Canadian Constitution Foundation (@CDNConstFound). You have rendered an immense service to the people of Canada by leading this legal fight! ⚖️ Our analysis of the original Federal Court ruling: c2cjournal.ca/2023/04/the-la…

Germany’s most popular national party started out with a very different cause from the one that made it a political force. Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now by far the country’s most popular national party. Last month it won two of three state elections in Germany’s formerly communist East. Some observers say Germany could be on the cusp of major change. The turning point came on New Year’s Eve 2015, when women in several major German cities were surrounded and raped by gangs of Arab and North African men. Some 1,200 sexual assaults were reported from that night alone. In the aftermath, AfD reoriented around mass migration, beginning its rapid rise. When the party was founded in 2013, its main cause was fiscal responsibility. Today, its central cause is reducing immigration. For Canadians, AfD’s rise shows how quickly a party can grow when voters believe mainstream leaders are failing to respond to migrant crime or protect women and children. Could a single event shift Canada’s immigration debate the way that New Year’s Eve shifted Germany’s? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

Two of Europe’s largest countries have taken very different approaches to migration, with very different results. Last year in Germany, the chancellor finally admitted that the behaviour of migrants had greatly damaged the country’s “Stadtbild” — the overall state and feel of its public places. Polls show 75 percent of Germans feel the same way, yet critics say the chancellor has failed to act to reverse the destructive trend. Italy, by contrast, elected parties favouring secure borders. Since 2022, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has overseen a historic reduction in illegal migration, stepped up the deportation of lawbreakers and increased legal immigration tailored to Italy’s economic needs. So far, Italy has escaped the kind of unrest seen elsewhere in Europe. The country's current focus on tying legal immigration to economic needs appears similar in spirit to the points-based system that once served Canada well. Should Canada follow Italy’s example by tying its immigration levels more closely to labour-market needs? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

Migrants seeking a better life in the West can receive help from several sources. Well-organized human-smuggling rings assist them in reaching affluent Western countries. Once they arrive, generous local social benefits can be used to fund remittances to family members abroad and extortion payments to those same smugglers. Many of these migrants apply for asylum once they arrive, though some argue most do not actually qualify. Yet lengthy processing of their claims can give them an often unshakeable foothold in the country where they apply. Many governments and much of the global elite have also backed a long-running push to proclaim migration a human right. Critics point to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, along with charities, the Red Cross and other well-funded NGOs, and argue they work in tandem with smugglers to break down border controls. Some contend that Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants asylum-seekers automatic admission and leaves the country open to the same pressures. How much influence should international organizations have over Canada’s border policy? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

Alberta voters will soon decide on measures that some believe could help Canada avoid the path Europe and the UK have taken. On October 19, 2026, Albertans will cast ballots on a slate of referendum questions, five of which concern immigration. A majority "yes" vote on those five questions would mean favouring immigrants who can make a genuine contribution to the economy and tightening conditions for non-permanent residents, including removing their eligibility for welfare and charging them health-care user fees. Supporters of tighter rules say there is still time to “flatten the curve” of rising migrant crime before Canada faces the kind of socio-political upheaval now under way in Europe. Several European countries, including Germany and France, along with the UK have been experiencing a continual increase in gang-related crime and terrorist attacks. Supporters see the Alberta vote as the first real step in that direction, and polling suggests all the proposed measures have strong public support. The results could show how Albertans want non-permanent residents treated and may influence how other provinces approach the issue. Do you think that Canada's non-permanent residents should pay user fees for health care, or should they receive health benefits on par with Canadian citizens? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

Protests against migrant arrivals in the UK have moved to a new location over the past year. Ordinary citizens are now showing up at English ports almost daily to block migrants from disembarking. They range from a grandmother in a kayak to quickly organized crowds of locals, and they often defy or bypass hundreds of police and Border Force officers assigned to protect the migrants. Critics say the British government has failed to clamp down on boats illegally crossing the English Channel and has instead focused on policing the speech of law-abiding citizens who raise legitimate concerns over growing migrant crime. Just two months ago, British men who protested outside an Essex asylum hotel were reported to have received much harsher sentences than the migrant whose sexual assaults on a 14-year-old girl and a woman had triggered the demonstrations. As one writer for Britain’s Spectator magazine put it: “Last year, people organised protests in response to migrant hotels opening. Today, people are starting to intervene before a landing even takes place.” Some warn that Canada is heading down the same path, with high immigration levels and lenient treatment of migrant offenders. But the country is not yet as far along, so there is still time to change course. What should governments do when citizens feel compelled to take border enforcement into their own hands? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

A British inquiry, paid for by public donations, reached a conclusion that a government-commissioned report had rejected just six years earlier. Since the early 2000s, numerous reports have surfaced in northern England of young, mostly white girls being groomed and raped by organized gangs of men, most often in cities with a high proportion of Pakistani immigrants. In early 2025, Rupert Lowe, an MP with the new party Restore Britain, launched the independent Rape Gang Inquiry, crowd-funding the required Cdn$1.1 million and holding hearings for the victims to tell their stories. The inquiry’s 219-page final report, released in June 2026, states that perpetrators from “Pakistani Muslim and other Muslim backgrounds” treated non-Muslim girls “as property available for sexual use.” It estimates that “at the very least, 250,000 young white girls have been subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture [and] pregnancy" across 149 cities, towns and local districts, with assaults dating back to at least 1955. The report says 87 percent of known perpetrators had Muslim names and that victims were as young as 11. While critics call the 250,000 figure a gross exaggeration, the scandal is ongoing, having pressured the current Labour government to initiate its own independent inquiry into the grooming gang phenomenon. The results of this official inquiry are yet to be reported. Some observers argue that British institutions have consistently failed to protect women and children partly out of fear of being called racist or losing votes — a cautionary tale for Canadian institutions handling similar data. Should Canadian governments publish crime statistics that include immigration status? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

Two of Britain’s rising political parties are making a promise that would take the country out of a major European human rights treaty. Migrant-packed inflatable boats continue to cross the English Channel, and critics say Britain’s Labour government has doubled down on its approach instead of reversing course. Reform UK, an opposition party led by Nigel Farage, is now leading in the polls on a promise to remove the rich incentives that attract migrants in the first place. If elected, Reform promises to have the Royal Navy turn back migrant boats. Restore Britain, another right-wing party with even stronger views on immigration, is promising to carry out millions of deportations. Both parties have pledged to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects asylum-claiming migrants against deportation. Critics argue that, with some caveats, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives asylum seekers protections similar to those provided by the European Convention. Britain’s debate could therefore foreshadow a similar one here. Should Canada review how the Charter applies to asylum claims? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

One night of violence in German city centres marked a turning point in the country’s politics. Its effects are still playing out a decade later. On New Year’s Eve 2015, celebrations in pedestrian zones across several major German cities, most notoriously Cologne, were overrun by roving gangs of men who surrounded and preyed on women. The attackers were described as Arab and North African men, and 1,200 sexual assaults were reported from that night alone. In the wake of that night, Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party founded in 2013 with a key focus on fiscal responsibility, reoriented around mass migration. Last year, Germany’s chancellor admitted that the behaviour of migrants had damaged the country’s “Stadtbild”, the overall state and feel of its public places. Current polls show 75 percent of Germans feel the same way. Today the AfD is by far Germany’s most popular party nationwide, and last month it won two of three state elections in the country’s former East Germany. Recent events in Germany illustrate how quickly concern over migrant crime can reshape a country’s politics when voters feel their government is failing to take appropriate action and defend its citizens. Are Canadian political parties paying enough attention to their voters' views on crime and immigration? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

In Africa’s conflict zones, rape is far from a random act of war, one human rights researcher argues. Children and young women face a very high risk of sexual assault in war-torn parts of Africa and other regions where rape is used as a weapon of humiliation, domination and destruction. Writing for the Global Campus of Human Rights, the researcher says that across these conflict zones, the bodies of women and girls “are not only collateral in war, they are its battleground.” Human rights organizations tend to treat this violence as largely circumstantial, a product of war and strife. Others argue, however, that it is rooted in misogynistic and tribalistic cultures that use rape and sexual assault as a way to assert control and displace opposing communities. As the researcher puts it: “Rape in these contexts is not incidental. It is strategic, systemic and deliberate.” Critics of Western immigration policy align with this second view when explaining the pattern of sexual assaults committed by some migrant men from Africa, Asia and the Middle East across Western countries. Critics warn that if this violence is rooted in culture and not just war, Canada needs to vet newcomers more carefully. How should Canada balance protecting refugees who flee violence with screening out those who took part in it? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

A newspaper column from October 1990 recorded the argument Canada's federal cabinet minister made in favour of increasing the country's immigration levels. According to The Globe and Mail column, Barbara McDougall, minister of employment and immigration in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, won a cabinet debate over how many newcomers Canada should admit. The plan raised the annual target to 250,000 people, up from the then-current target of 175,000, and even more from a low of 84,000 in 1984. The minister’s reported case for the increase came down to the ballot box: “They will vote for us.” Critics argue that keeping the voter base growing has since become an unspoken policy for various political parties across the world. Yet conservatives have often failed to benefit from this approach, as newcomers tend to favour parties on the left. Under Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, total intake, including students and temporary foreign workers, topped 1 million in a single year. Critics further argue that such government-imposed decisions have strained social services and fiscal budgets. Should the reasoning behind Canada’s annual immigration targets be made public? Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

The level of sexual violence around the world is shocking. A 2024 report from UNICEF found 79 million girls and young women were sexually assaulted in sub-Saharan Africa alone, 22 percent of the region's total population. Executive Director Catherine Russell said, “We are witnessing horrific sexual violence in conflict zones.” In many western countries, mass migration of young, military-age men has facilitated an explosion in sexual assaults and violence. Some migrants treat western society with extreme contempt. According to Lebanese-born academic Gad Saad, an immigrant once told him “The West…is a woman to be mounted,” Pakistani writer Kunwar Khuldune Shahid warns the West against importing a “gory mix…of Islamic supremacism, primitive tribalism and violent misogyny” via mass migration from his homeland. Shahid notes that such beliefs have led to “a rape culture that in recent decades has seen young British girls being mercilessly violated.” The UK's 2025 Rape Gang Inquiry Final Report calculated “250,000 young white girls have been subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture” since 1955. Eighty-seven percent of known perpetrators in these cases had Muslim names; some of the victims were as young as 11-years old. In Germany, 1,200 sexual assaults were reported on New Year's Eve 2016 across multiple cities, including Cologne. The perpetrators were described as gangs of Arab and North African men. Public concern about the behaviour of recent migrants has been a boon to the political fortunes of anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Canada’s lax immigration policy has encouraged many of the same problems associated with mass migration in Europe, although on a somewhat smaller scale. Only recently has Ottawa curtailed the flow of migrants. On October 19, Alberta voters will vote on a series of referendum proposals regarding tighter conditions for non-permanent residents Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/from-r…

While Prime Minister Mark Carney talks up his efforts to get major resource projects off the ground, his government continues to advance a “green taxonomy” that will have a devastating impact on the entire resource sector. A green taxonomy ranks potential investments based on their perceived impact on the environment. It is meant to dissuade investors from backing major oil and natural gas projects. The first state-wide green taxonomy was the China Green Bond Endorsed Project Catalogue developed by the People’s Bank of China in 2015. Despite recent complaints from environmentalists that “New Carney” is ignoring climate change, this is not the case. Throughout his entire career as a Wall Street, executive, central banker, pundit and politician, he has consistently promoted the use of global financial networks to impose a net-zero future on the world. The current green taxonomy is part of that plan. Carney has recently supported greater ties between Canada and the EU. Europe is a pioneer of aggressive net-zero policies and the use of a green taxonomy to redirect investment away from the traditional energy sector. The result has been cripplingly high energy costs and “accelerating deindustrialization”. Following through on Canada’s net-zero commitments, including a green taxonomy, would replicate Europe’s economic decline here. If Canada want to have a prosperous future, the prime minister must abandon his net-zero plans and immediately scrap the green taxonomy. Carney should focus on partnerships with nations that prioritize economic growth, not those that seek to stifle it. Read the full story: c2cjournal.ca/2026/10/new-ma…

A British village of 600 residents may soon be asked to house twice that number of asylum-seekers. Thousands of asylum-seekers have crossed the English Channel by small boat in recent years, mostly from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Somalia. Unlike the roughly 1.2 million Ukrainians Britain took in, who arrived mainly as families, a disproportionate number of Channel arrivals are single men of military age. Critics say the Labour government has made no effort to prevent or discourage the crossings. Asylum-seekers now housed in hotels will soon be spread across cities, towns and villages; there is even a plan to place 1,200 single men in a village of 600. Should local UK residents have a say in where asylum-seekers are housed and how many of them are being brought into their communities? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

Europe’s debate over certain urban districts often stalls on a single question of vocabulary. Immigrants from Africa, including Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, make up 48 percent of France's immigrant population. Many have settled in its troubled suburbs, known as banlieues, which grew out of public and low-income housing built after the Second World War and have seen repeated riots. Critics say gangs hold sway in hundreds of districts, emergency workers are routinely attacked, and police can often enter only in large, heavily armed teams. Yet the media and academics still dispute whether "no-go zones" is an accurate term, with some calling it a provocation by the far right. What should governments do when public services cannot operate safely in a district? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

German police data for 2023 show one nationality was suspected of serious sexual offences at more than 10 times the rate of German citizens. That group was Afghan citizens, with 89.6 suspects per 100,000 residents being suspected of rape, sexual coercion and serious sexual assault, compared with 8.6 among German citizens and 28.8 among foreign nationals overall. The figures count suspects rather than convictions, and some of the difference comes down to demographics, since recent arrivals are disproportionately young men. Critics of German migration policy say foreign-born residents make up about 20 percent of Germany's population but 40 percent or more of its criminal suspects across all offences, and that foreign-born suspects in sexual offence cases have more than doubled since 2000. Should governments publish crime statistics adjusted for age and sex so comparisons are fair? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

Sweden accepted Europe’s highest rate of asylum-seekers in 2015 and later had to confront some uncomfortable crime statistics. A 2018 report by Swedish national television found that about 58 percent of men convicted of rape and attempted rape over five years were born abroad. In cases where the victim did not know the attacker, the share of foreign-born offenders exceeded 80 percent. Critics also tie the asylum surge to a rise in gang violence once unheard of in Sweden, with gangs recruiting children as young as 10 and hundreds of bombings recorded. Officials now list 165 "vulnerable areas" that many residents avoid. Should governments publish crime data by place of birth so the public can debate immigration with the facts? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

A wave of migration to Britain became known as the "Boriswave", named after the prime minister who presided over it. In 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union, ending free movement for EU citizens. But after new immigration rules took effect in 2021, net migration climbed to a peak near 950,000 in 2023, roughly triple its level a decade earlier, with many being low-skilled immigrants coming from India and Pakistan. Critics argue the vote was meant to restore control of Britain's borders, yet political leaders instead allowed a surge of largely low-skilled immigration. Net migration only fell sharply after visa rules were tightened in 2024. Should net migration targets be set in law? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

The number of foreign-born residents in the European Union rose from 40 million in 2010 to 64 million in 2025, and one decision in 2015 sits at the centre of the story. In 2015, a three-year-old Syrian boy drowned as his family tried to cross from Turkey to Greece, and his death became a symbol of Europe's migrant crisis. The family was fleeing the war between Kurdish forces and ISIS in Syria, and only the father survived. Later that year, the German chancellor announced that Germany would accept hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. Critics call the decision reckless and say it drew even greater waves of migrants, primarily illegal, across the continent. They add that many were from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa and that a high proportion were unattached men of military age. Should one national government be able to make admissions decisions that affect an entire continent? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

A Canadian lobby group has set a population target for the year 2100 that is more than double today’s figure. The group was founded in 2009 by two prominent business figures, one of whom then led a global consulting firm. It urged Canada to grow to 100 million people by 2100. In 2017, a federal advisory panel on economic growth headed by the same co-founder recommended increasing immigration, though numbers had already risen steeply by then. The prime minister at the time welcomed those “fleeing persecution, terror and war,” telling Canadians that “diversity is our strength.” Critics say the resulting surge was disruptive, and it was eventually capped by the Covid-19 pandemic and a public backlash over housing shortages, youth unemployment and urban crime. Should Canadians get a direct say in how fast their country grows? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…

A gang recruiter's offer to an 11-year-old in Sweden is being held up as a warning for Canada. According to a police investigation reported by the children's rights organization Humanium, a 19-year-old gang member offered an 11-year-old boy 150,000 kronor, about €13,600, to carry out a murder. Sweden accepted Europe's highest rate of asylum-seekers in 2015, and gangs there now recruit children as young as 10 to commit crimes and run drugs. Many people have died. The country keeps a list of 165 "vulnerable areas" where most ordinary Swedes are afraid to go, including Malmö. A Canadian writer says Canadians should look at developments in Europe to understand where uncontrolled mass immigration can lead. She points to Germany, where foreign-born residents make up about 20 percent of the population and 40 percent or more of criminal suspects, and where Syrians and Afghans are reported to commit crimes at 15 times the national average. She argues that Canada's trend is moving in the wrong direction. Canada's annual immigration intake is just over 750,000 before outflows, asylum claims totalled 114,515 in 2025, and Statistics Canada recently raised its population estimates by over 700,000 people, largely because it had underestimated the number of non-permanent residents. In Europe, sexual assault and rape are on the rise and have totalled over 2.5 million in 2014-2024. The figures do not include the UK, and also omit European women who have been otherwise abused or outright murdered by migrants, some of whom operate as rape gangs. Do you think Canada can learn anything from Europe's experience with immigration? Read more at: c2cjournal.ca/2026/09/monste…