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"This decision now stands as binding precedent. It places real legal constraints on future governments and ensures that the Emergencies Act cannot be repurposed as a political convenience. It restores the act to what Parliament intended: a narrow, exceptional tool, not a blunt instrument against dissent.
The government spent millions defending the indefensible. It lost completely. And in doing so, it handed Canadians one of the most important civil liberties rulings in a generation.
That is worth celebrating.” @cvangeyn nationalpost.com/opinion/chr…
CBC’s Piya Chattopadhyay interview is nothing but book promo. Freeland gets a kid glove treatment as the principled heroine who stood up to Trump and quit over “gimmicks,” while the actual wreckage is airbrushed. No hard questions on the $470 billion in debt she piled on, the $61.9 billion deficit that smashed her own $40.1 billion cap, or the fact she walked out hours before the numbers that proved she failed her job
She defended massive spending and missed targets for years, then suddenly discovered prudence when Trudeau wanted more. Interest costs heading past $50 billion a year, a bloated public service, stagnant productivity — all ignored. The Zoom call and her hurt feelz get the airtime; the fiscal blowout does not
This is not journalism. It is state broadcaster rehab for a finance minister whose record was continuous deficits and broken rules. Canadians paid for it. The interview pretends it never happened. Now Canadians pay for the promos to help sell her book. The Unreliable Broadcaster @piya @brodiefenlon
Bloody freaking hell! CBC is giving Chrystia Freeland free promotion for her book Unreliable Boyfriend, with a soft interview that treats her like a wronged heroine instead of the finance minister who helped run one of the most reckless fiscal blowouts in modern Canadian history
The teaser segment dwells on her hurt feelings: the Zoom call where Trudeau removed her as finance minister was “the third-worst day of her life.” It covers cabinet crying, tissue boxes, and tone-policing. What it largely skips is the reason she used to quit
Hours before delivering the Fall Economic Statement, she resigned and accused Trudeau of “costly political gimmicks” and failing to keep “our fiscal powder dry.” That same statement showed a $61.9 billion deficit for 2023-24 — more than 50% above the $40.1 billion cap she had set herself
McGill’s Christopher Ragan: “If we describe her primary job as getting our fiscal house back in order after COVID, I’m not sure she did it.” The Fraser Institute noted roughly $470 billion in added federal debt under her watch, with interest costs climbing toward $50+ billion a year. She never really pulled back on spending once the emergency ended, and the government repeatedly blew its own fiscal rules
She spent years defending large deficits and high spending. When Trudeau piled on holiday GST breaks and $250 cheques, she somehow suddenly discovered prudence and walked away rather than own the numbers?
CBC’s audience is not as blind as this interview assumes. Canadians watched the deficit targets get missed in real time, watched public-sector headcount grow far, far faster than the population, and watched interest costs balloon
Meanwhile, the Carney government that followed has not reversed course. Its first budget projected a $78.3 billion deficit — larger than most non-pandemic Trudeau-era shortfalls — with further debt accumulation planned. Reports that the trajectory is “the same or worse” are not hard to find
A 45-minute conversation that appears to from the promotion to prioritize personal grievance over the $50 billion per year hole and broken fiscal targets on the backs of Canadian taxpayers is not journalism. It’s blatant book promotion @piya
cbcwatcher retweeted
DRIPA is arguably the most controversial file facing whichever party forms govt. @LDoerkson said @Conservative_BC will repeal it. @Dave_Eby has said nothing. Not-one-word.
Here's some other words missing from @bcndp campaign materials:
DRIPA: 0
UNDRIP: 0
Declaration Act: 0
Indigenous: 0
Aboriginal: 0
Title: 0
Private property: 0
Shared decision making: 0
Government to government: 0
First Nations: 10
Reconciliation: 2
Sources: Build BC Strong online plan, BC Strong Fiscal & Costing Plan, David Eby’s Plan for Surrey
cbcwatcher retweeted
Via former Canada PM Justin Trudeau in March 2021: "It is because of companies like Lion Electric that we are accelerating our transition to a resilient and competitive clean growth economy.”
RCMP raids Quebec-based bus maker Lion Electric ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/…
Yuan muscles through Freeland's memoir: "Finally, the dramatic denouement. Being sacked by Zoom, but not before being sent out to deliver a toxic fall economic statement (which she ultimately did not deliver herself), was an episode so humiliating that it made even her critics pity her. Freeland tries to take back control of that narrative by setting herself up not as the victim, but the heroine, who by her strategic resignation brought down Trudeau, doing the dirty work her colleagues were too chicken to do, and fulfilling the personal requests of Canadians to save the country from the “maple syrup MAGA prime minister” “Trump acolyte Pierre Poilievre” (another example of her lack of grace).
If that is the case, why did she ask if she could become foreign minister instead of staying at the Department of Finance? The truth is that, despite admitting that she had been a witness to Trudeau’s many character defects from the very beginning, she only resigned to save face after being rejected by the book’s other unreliable boyfriend."
My review, for @TheHubCanada, of the memoirs of Chrystia Freeland, whose attempt to cast herself as the saviour of Canada does not quite land. thehub.ca/2026/10/21/pity-po…
"And I think at some point when you've elected a politician on a specific platform, having courts interfere with things like that is an undermining of democratic accountability."
cbcwatcher retweeted
NEW: Vancouver voters agreed with Ken Sim and ABC on the open air hard drug use and involuntary care plebiscite. They just didn't want Ken Sim and ABC at city hall anymore. #bcpoli
Brian Kingston, President & CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, called today’s Carney-Ford announcement “extremely helpful” for the auto sector in the short term—especially the $2.5B in capital support and the decision to hold GHG emissions standards at 2026 levels through 2029 instead of tightening them sooner
Kingston stressed, however, that nothing offsets the damage if 50% U.S. auto tariffs take effect on January 1:
“Hard to offset a $7 billion tariff bill, but every little bit helps. And most importantly, we’ve seen this decision to delay increasing the stringency of emission standards. This is a notable change in stance… It doesn’t solve the trade issue, but it sure helps.”
“If we go to January 1st, there is no level of government support program that is going to keep us going. These tariffs are too costly and 50% is frankly catastrophic.”
Kingston remains optimistic a deal can still be reached before then, noting U.S. auto production, employment, and exports (especially to Canada) are also suffering. The new Canada-Ontario Automotive Task Force is welcome for coordination, he said, but only if it drives real action rather than more talk. And as we have seen this Carney government talks at speeds not seen before @bkingston
Great line about Eby! "All of a sudden, they are driving around dumping mystery money out the back of a truck, promising to do all the things he failed and refused to do."
cbcwatcher retweeted
The media “remain blissfully unaware that the Bank of Canada has written extensively about how (mass) immigration has negatively affected housing, rents, inflation, labour supply, wages, and productivity.”
Yeoman’s work here by Mr. Dias in compiling BoC links.
The Canadian government's mass immigration policies of the last 10 years were highly regressive. Having seemingly learned nothing, they are dead set on turning back on the taps rather than letting the country heal.
On cue, the media has begun parroting the government's narrative and gaslighting anyone who disagrees. This suggests that they remain blissfully unaware that the Bank of Canada has written extensively about how (mass) immigration has negatively affected housing, rents, inflation, labour supply, wages, and productivity. So I've compiled an inexhaustive list to help these folks.
🏘️- Monetary Policy Report, October 2023
🔗bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/u…
▶️"The strength in rent and other housing costs is partly due to strong housing demand, which is supported by rapid population growth, and a structural lack of housing supply"
🏘️- Staff Analytical Note, December 2023
🔗bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/u…
▶️"The rise in immigration is nonetheless contributing to pressures in inflation components linked to house prices, given that it is adding more to housing demand than to housing supply in the context of structural imbalances in the Canadian housing market."
🏘️ - Speech by Toni Gravelle, December 2023
🔗bankofcanada.ca/2023/12/econ…
▶️"When a country’s population is growing quickly, the supply of housing also needs to increase to avoid a worsening in affordability. Shortly after immigration began ramping up in 2015, Canada’s vacancy rate—a measure of how many apartments and houses there are available to rent or buy—started to fall."
🏘️ - Monetary Policy Report, January 2024
🔗bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/u…
▶️"A larger increase in newcomers than in the past is adding pressure to the structural supply constraint in housing. This has helped to push the overall housing vacancy rate to record lows, which has underpinned house prices and led to higher rents (Chart 3-A)."
🏘️ - Staff Analytical Note, April 2024
🔗 bankofcanada.ca/2024/04/staf…
▶️"Meanwhile, the composition of immigrants coming to Canada has changed considerably since 2015. Historically, growth of the immigrant population in Canada came mostly from permanent residents....While the wages of the earlier immigrants are closer to those of Canadian-born workers and have been increasing over time, those of non-permanent residents are much lower and have fallen over this period. Because real hourly wages are typically correlated with labour productivity, this piece of evidence is consistent with non-permanent residents working in less productive occupations."
🏘️ - Monetary Policy Report, July 2024
🔗bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/u…
▶️"The increase in housing demand from newcomers is being felt across all types of housing, but the largest initial impact tends to be in rental markets. This is because most newcomers start out as renters."
👨🌾 - Staff Analytical Note, May 2025
🔗bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/u…
▶️"if newcomers’ conditional wages reflect their labour productivity, the productive capacity of the Canadian economy grew less than it would have if recent newcomers had the same socio-economic characteristics as in the past."
▶️"However, this gain has been particularly acute for certain industries such as accommodation and food services, business, building and other support services, and retail trade. Labour productivity in these industries—which are comprised of a sizable share of lower-skilled occupations—is lower than the average in the business sector."
👨🌾 - Staff Analytical Note, May 2025
🔗bankofcanada.ca/2025/06/staf…
▶️"Youth—individuals 15–24 years of age—represent a significant portion of the overall increase in unemployment since the start of 2023. This is a larger share than during other periods of rising unemployment (Chart 5). This is partly due to the high number of immigrants, who are generally younger than the rest of the population."
👨🌾 - Speech by Nicolas Vincent, May 2026
🔗bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/u…
▶️“The labour market is particularly challenging for young people”: The 2022–24 influx of young newcomers “intensified competition in Canada for lower-skill and entry-level jobs”. Youth unemployment has risen above 14%, and he expects it may normalize now that immigration has been cut.
🏘️ - Staff Article, September 2026
🔗bankofcanada.ca/2026/09/spar…
▶️"Strong population growth drove asking rents higher in recent years"
cbcwatcher retweeted
"When the public sees rulings that seem fundamentally disconnected from shared expectations of right and wrong, it erodes trust in the system."
"Judicial nihilism" is a great word for this disillusionment. Lots of good ideas in here.
I’ve increasingly come to worry about the rise of “judicial nihilism” (for lack of a better term) in Canada.
We have a justice system that spends enormous energy considering the personal circumstances of offenders, their rights, identities, mental health, and prospects for rehabilitation. Yet it seems unconcerned with the victims whose lives have been destroyed, or the public that must live with the consequences when dangerous individuals repeatedly reoffend.
I think we need to take judicial reform more seriously, rather than dismissing concerns about overreach and malfeasance as conservative fearmongering.
The more I look at recent cases (many highlighted by @sarkonakj) the more concerned I become that our institutions are losing sight of some basic moral values in justice.
I’ve been thinking about the
principles that should guide us to a more liberal, rules-based approach to criminal justice (I’ll admit that this is hardly new thinking, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen them laid out):
1. Justice should begin with victims, whose suffering should never become secondary to the circumstances of offenders.
2. Protecting the public from dangerous individuals must be a central responsibility of sentencing, and we should lean towards caution.
3. Punishment must be a meaningful deterrent and reflect the gravity of crimes. Some crimes warrant permanent imprisonment (if not capital punishment). Some crimes are so heinous that the mere prospect of rehabilitation should not be considered.
4. Repeat offenders should face dramatically greater consequences, including long-term incarceration or asylum to protect society. Nobody with dozens of separate criminal convictions should be roaming freely.
5. Mental illness should determine treatment and facility type, not reduce punishment. The bar for criminal non-responsibility should also be much higher than it is today.
6. Sentencing must apply to those convicted equally, based on actions and responsibility, not race, religion, cultural identity, immigration status etc. The rule of law should be non-discriminatory, the right time to address the “root causes” of crime and pursue social justice is before crime is committed.
7. Parliament needs to figure out how to reclaim its authority, with courts exercising much greater restraint in constitutional interpretations.
8. Judicial “independence” must be balanced with meaningful accountability for serious failures and overreach. The judiciary is not supreme to legislature.
I worry that too many political leaders have become uncomfortable defending the very concepts of order, punishment and personal responsibility, as though doing so is somehow incompatible with liberal moral values.
They aren’t.
A liberal democracy has two fundamental obligations. To protect people from the arbitrary exercise of government power, and to protect them from the violence and predation of others.
We cannot fulfill one by neglecting the other. They are together the necessary preconditions for liberty.
When the public sees rulings that seem fundamentally disconnected from shared expectations of right and wrong, it erodes trust in the system.
Order and public safety are necessary conditions for freedom.
The freedom to walk down the street, take public transit, operate a business or simply live peacefully in your own home means little if the government cannot protect you from disorder, violence and criminality. It’s often those with the fewest resources who suffer most when that protection fails.
If we want Canadians to have faith in the rule of law, they need to believe that it applies equally, that serious wrongdoing carries serious consequences, that dangerous people will not repeatedly be allowed to victimize others, and that the system will not be careless with the lives and suffering of victims.
Carney’s conditions for recognizing a Palestinian state just got exposed as empty rhetoric
Last year he said recognition was predicated on PA commitments, including free and fair elections in 2026 with Hamas playing no role. Abbas postponed them (again) until 2027. Asked whether Canada has any plan to hold the PA to that commitment, Carney’s answer is pure deflection:
“We certainly are holding to account… We’re supporting efforts to have those elections… At the same time, we will continue to provide humanitarian aid… So there are many things that are not working within Palestine, and there are many who are responsible for that.”
No consequences. No review of recognition. No leverage. Just “deep regret” from foreign ministers and a pivot to Gaza aid. The PA has now broken the core condition Carney used to justify the move, and his response treats it as just another unfortunate fact of life rather than a failure of his own policy. And no mention about the $100M cheque he sent them on September 22
Conditions that carry no cost when they’re ignored aren’t conditions—they’re political cover.
You can almost hear him saying "Thank you. Thank you, Diana. I'm aware. Which is why we have an arms embargo" like last time. @MarkJCarney
cbcwatcher retweeted
See the @cvma_ca statement on the Auto Action Plan announced today by Premier @fordnation and Prime Minister @MarkJCarney.
To the Most Bilingual Dreamboat in the Dominion,
Our Heart’s Own Prime Minister, Mr. Mark Carney,
From the adoring desks of the Parliamentary Press Gallery,
October 21, 2026
Dearest Mark,
We are undone. Your French has improved and the entire Press Gallery is collectively light-headed. You didn’t chase some crude 50/50 quota. You simply decided competence was part of the job, hired a teacher, and started speaking. The restraint is somehow the sexiest part.
You claim you’re “far from perfect.” Mark. We have spent careers watching lesser men mangle a single “bonjour.” Your visible effort is the most romantic thing we’ve seen in a scrum in years.
Speak to us again soon. Preferably while looking slightly strained about it.
Helplessly yours,
The Press Gallery
cbcwatcher retweeted
BREAKING
The $300 MILLION PrescribeIT scandal keeps getting worse.
A court filing reveals that former CEO Michael Green received over $580,000 in performance bonuses over four years.
The Liberals gave Canada Health Infoway $300 MILLION for a program supposed to replace faxed prescriptions, yet fewer than 5% of prescriptions went through it.
Then it was shut down.
But the bonuses kept coming!
Infoway rated Mr. Green's performance as "Exceeding", "Thriving", and "Delivering," even after acknowledging his failures.
Delivering WHAT?
While Canadians got nothing for PrescribeIT, insiders got rich.
cbcwatcher retweeted
Moving at speeds not seen in generations...
"Nearly 6 months after announcing plans to create a sovereign wealth fund, the fed. gov. is still not sure when it will be launched, or how exactly it will work."
cbc.ca/news/politics/soverei…
CBC's programming schedule is back to the regularly scheduled climate propaganda programming
After the Alberta referendum, CBC sandwiched a segment on climate catastrophe theater between record food bank use and the usual US Republican scare story
The food bank piece is grounded. Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2026 reports 2.35 million monthly visits—up 8.7% year-over-year and 117% since 2019. Nearly one in five clients is employed; a third are children. Food prices are up ~30% since 2021, housing ~28%. Canadians are making “impossible trade-offs.” No mention of Carney's promises to fix it!
Then the pivot to CBC climatte activism: a new UNEP Emissions Gap Report declaring that staying under 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot is now “imminent and unavoidable.” Current policies point to ~2.8°C; full pledges ~2.6°C. Their “Plan B” is an overshoot to 1.7–1.8°C mid-century, then a return to 1.5°C by 2100 via 18% global emissions cuts by 2030, 45% by 2035, and 69% by 2040 (from 2025 levels), plus roughly 320 Gt of CO₂ removal whose scale and reliability remain speculative
This is the same pattern as previous years: the target recedes, the rhetoric intensifies, and the prescribed solution is still rapid, deep cuts that have never been politically or technologically delivered at the required pace. Emissions are roughly flat
The bulk of growth has long come from China, India, and other developing economies, not from Canadian households already facing the highest food-bank usage in modern records
The juxtaposition is the tell. Immediate, measurable hardship—driven by inflation, housing costs, and energy prices that climate policy itself has helped raise—is treated as the warm-up act. The main event remains an abstract global temperature trajectory whose near-term policy implications (higher energy costs, constrained supply, industrial flight) make the food-bank problem harder, not easier. CBC then cuts to Republican election material, completing the cycle of fear over domestic priorities
Taxpayer-funded CBC repeatedly frames Canadian energy and industrial policy through the lens of distant UN scenarios while downplaying the domestic costs already visible in the data. That is not reporting; it is distraction sequencing for the benefit of their Liberal government funders! @brodiefelon @BjornLomborg
cbcwatcher retweeted
“Canada has the second highest total of prosecutions for fraudulent or illegal voting of any country. In 2026, at least 11 Canadians have been charged or sentenced for illegal voting in general elections and primaries held from 2012 to 2024.”
cbcwatcher retweeted
@oliviachow gave away the naming rights for Dundas Station. TMU only had to pay for the renovation costs of renaming.
Naming rights have generated millions in annual revenue for US cities. The foregone revenue could have subsidized enhanced security on subway trains.
Toronto is poised to give away naming rights worth millions. The TTC will decide tomorrow whether Toronto Metropolitan University should get naming rights to the Dundas Street subway station, and call it "TMU Station."
In the US, naming rights for subway stations can range from $1 million to $4.5 million annually. padailypost.com/2019/04/02/c…
ALT Photo of inside of subway station with "Dundas" crossed out and "TMU?" added.