Canada

A motion from the Bloc will increase benefits for affluent retirees, to be paid for by younger (and poorer) Canadians. The advocacy group for Canadian seniors has proposed a much fairer alternative;

[Canadian Association of Retired Persons's proposal] would strengthen OAS, help younger Canadians, reduce the deficit and save Parliament. This would enable MPs to make the most significant improvement to generational fairness in the federal budget in my professional lifetime – rather than play political games by proroguing Parliament or launching an early election.

...

In my previous column, I costed out some options. The government could start to claw back OAS at an individual income threshold of $70,000 or a household income of $90,000. These alternatives would free up $12-billion and $48-billion, respectively, over the next five years.

Original link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/young-money/article-a-plan-to-strengthen-oas-help-younger-canadians-and-reduce-the-deficit/

A British Columbia First Nation says at least 55 children died or disappeared while attending a residential school near Williams Lake, more than triple the number recorded for the institution in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation memorial register.

The higher figure is contained in an interim report into the St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School by the Williams Lake First Nation.

The report says the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation memorial register lists 16 children by name as having died while under the school's care.

It says the additional 39 deaths or disappearances were verified "through archival documentation."

Historically, models of isolation and violence inflict deep harm on already targeted peoples: Indigenous, Black, racialized, disabled, criminalized people and drug users. Studies show that forcibly institutionalizing people creates worse outcomes than other forms of support. People already struggle to access voluntary treatment, counselling and bed-based services. This type of incarceration often reduces tolerance to substances, increasing the risk of fatal overdoses upon release, particularly when community-based supports are lacking.

The Office of the Provincial Veterinarian Animal Welfare informed the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) about the videos and images in August 2024.

Police note the content was posted on the dark web, and approximately 10 cats were believed to be involved. Some of the animals were acquired through social media selling platforms.

A 55-year-old woman and 40-year-old man have been charged with killing or injuring animals; causing unnecessary suffering to an animal; failing to provide adequate medical attention to an animal when it was ill or wounded; and inflicting upon an animal acute suffering, serious injury or harm, or extreme anxiety or distress that significantly impairs its health or well-being.

Cindy Ali, the Toronto mother who was acquitted in the 2011 death of her 16-year-old daughter Cynara after serving more than four years in prison, is suing Toronto police and the city for more than $10 million.

“Officers took little care to secure the scene in the hours following the event, and the forensic team neglected to take fingerprint or DNA samples from several surfaces that Cindy said the home invaders touched,” (Cindy's) claim reads.

The claim stats that despite the investigation’s failure to produce “any incriminating evidence,” Ali was arrested on March 8, 2012 and charged with manslaughter. The charge was later upgraded to first-degree murder on Oct. 17, 2012.

The suit is seeking damages in the amount of $8 million from the Toronto Police Services Board and Frank Skubic, $2 million from the City of Toronto and Bujokas, and an additional $500,000 from all defendants.

Taking away people's family doctors: How to make sure you lose the next election.

The two young men arrested by Montreal police Friday in connection with a deadly building fire in Old Montreal last week have been charged with second-degree murder and arson.

Justin Fortier-Trahan, 20, is suspected by Montreal police of using an incendiary device to set fire to the building on 400 Notre-Dame Street around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 4. Juventino Hernandez Pelaez, 18, allegedly drove the getaway car, Montreal police told reporters Friday.

Both men have been jointly charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Léonar Geraudie, 43, and her seven-year-old daughter Vérane Reynaud-Geraudie.

As questions swirl over how soon Canadians could be going to the polls, the Liberal Party announced on Sunday the two people who will oversee its campaign for the next federal election.

In a news release, the Liberals said that Andrew Bevan will serve as campaign director and Marjorie Michel will serve as deputy campaign director.

Bevan previously worked as chief of staff for former federal Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, the release said. He also served as chief of staff to former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne.

Income inequality in Canada has hit the highest level ever recorded as wealth becomes increasingly concentrated in fewer hands, says Canada's statistics agency.

The gap in the share of disposable income between the richest two-fifths of Canadians and the bottom two-fifths grew to 47 percentage points in the second quarter of 2024, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

That's the widest gap recorded since 1999, when Statistics Canada first started collecting such data.

The gap was driven by the top 20 per cent of income earners, who saw the largest increase in their share of disposable income, the report said. That increase was driven largely by investment gains, which the statistics agency attributed to high interest rates.

Pressure is building on the prime minister and his office as a growing number of anxious Liberal MPs are co-ordinating efforts to force Justin Trudeau to step down as Liberal Party leader, multiple sources have told CBC News.

Disgruntled Liberal MPs held a series of meetings to discuss a path forward for the party since the surprising Toronto-St. Paul's byelection loss in June.

Those talks accelerated with Parliament's return and the Montreal byelection loss. They escalated further this week with the prime minister and his chief of staff, Katie Telford, out of the country for a summit in Asia.

Some MPs are being asked to sign their names to what amounts to a pledge to stand together in calling for Trudeau to resign, multiple sources said.

For three years, Riley Johnson says he has struggled with homelessness and complex mental health challenges — calling every resource he could find to try to access support.

But after years of searching for help in his hometown of Victoria, B.C., Johnson, 31, feels no closer to stability than he did after first finding himself homeless in the wake of a job loss and breakup in 2021.

"It seems like once you don't have housing, then there's just nothing that anybody can do for you," said Johnson, who has been met with long wait lists and few answers when seeking help from government and charitable resources across the city.

B.C. Housing's list of people in B.C. waiting for subsidized housing has more than 34,000 applicants, according to the most recent data from June. Supportive housing, which provides additional support for people struggling with mental health and addictions, has more than 8,000 applicants waiting.

The system for testing truck drivers in Ontario has been compromised by bribes, forged documents and rigged testing, says a memo leaked to CBC's Marketplace by an industry insider.

Ontario's DriveTest centres are managed by a company called Serco, which oversees operations and logistics for a variety of organizations, ranging from air traffic control for the Canadian Armed Forces to employment services for the federal government.

The leaked internal memo, which was shared with Marketplace following an investigation into driving schools, was addressed to all driving examiners in Ontario. It reveals "a number of employees have either resigned or been terminated this past year due to investigations that we have completed involving allegations of inappropriate and illegal behaviour."

This behaviour ranges from examiners "accepting bribes for issuing road test passes, to manipulation of automatic versus manual transmission certificates, to false driver experience being added to driver records," according to the memo.

But as the community prospered, trouble grew. According to B.C. Emergency Health Services, overdose calls in the community exploded almost five-fold, from 48 in 2016 to 234 in 2023. Since 2021, 44 people in the region have died from an overdose.

The biggest killer, by far, is fentanyl. Seventy-nine per cent of the northern health region’s drug overdoses were caused by the synthetic opioid in 2023.

In 2021, a man was found dead on a rural road, south of Dawson Creek. His car had been set on fire. In January 2023, there was the double killing in Mile Zero Trailer Park. In April 2023, a body was found under a historic trestle bridge west of Dawson Creek.

Then, following in quick succession, several more killings and mysterious disappearances, including cousins Renee Didier and Daralyn Supernant and a young man passing through town.

Eleven missing or killed in total. All of them unsolved to this day.