Canada

The Liberal government has promised to “solve” the country’s housing woes. But critics say it continues to offer major incentives to for-profit developers, including tax breaks and cheap financing, while steering clear of regulating the housing market.

Ricardo Tranjan, a political economist and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said it “isn’t surprising” to see developers gain this level of access.

“It’s power politics, and the industry has more influence,” Tranjan said. “While the minister has never bothered to sit down with and listen to the many tenants on rent strikes, he is winning and dining with corporate landlords.”

In fact, a new bill introduced by the Liberal government will end the public disclosure of such events before they happen, and afterward will only name their city and province and not their venue name and postal code—thus ending media exposés of such “cash for access” fundraisers.

I am not actively following Canadian politics, but recently Reddit swarms me with media/videos about Canada, with the kind of rhetoric I know from right winged people in Germany (AfD, CDU).

They are blaming Trudeau and immigration for everything that happens in Canada currently. Calling immigrants terrorists etc.

I always had to imagine in my head, that Canadians are friendly, open-minded people, but the media suggest otherwise.

So dear people, enlighten me with your opinion please!

Facebook (sorry) post is public so you should be able to close the popup to view.

Post makes me feel really emotional.

There’s another shoe that needs to drop before the United Conservative Party’s embarrassing skybox scandal goes quiet and Alberta can go back to sleep as Premier Danielle Smith and her political advisors doubtless profoundly wish we would.

To wit: Did UCP ministers or political staffers avail themselves of corporate flights to NHL playoff games in Vancouver and perhaps in Sunrise, Florida? And if so, who paid?

Thanks to the reporting of the Globe and Mail’s Carrie Tait, we already know who bought skybox tickets — at least some of them — for well-connected members and employees of Smith’s government.

Tait’s July 18 report confirmed some of the rumours heard on social media and in political circles about cabinet members and senior staffers accepting corporate skybox tickets during the playoffs.

But if the Calgary Stampede rumour mill, at least, had it right, the skies over B.C.’s Lower Mainland and perhaps around Miami International Airport too were a free-flight zone during the Stanley Cup finals.

So inquiring minds want to know: Who was on those corporate jets? What did they pay, if anything? And if passengers didn’t pay, who did?

Smith, it would seem, is just as determined that it’s none of our business. Which, naturally, raises suspicions that some well-connected folk didn’t take WestJet and pay for their flight themselves, as Smith told reporters she did.

"I can't be a racist sack of shit and spew hate speech in Canada so I'm not coming!" - a fetid sack of gangrenous anal sphincters.

China’s chief diplomat told Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly Friday that Beijing wants to “inject momentum into the restoration of normal relations,” but said the Asian power will brook no criticism of human-rights abuses or its menacing threats to the island democracy of Taiwan.

During the company's second quarter earnings call on Thursday morning, Loblaw executives fielded questions from analysts about the grocery giant's soft food retail sales — and whether a boycott organized online had impacted the company's profits at all.

Some Canadians have been boycotting Loblaw since May, after the moderators of an online Reddit group called r/loblawsisoutofcontrol began encouraging its then-45,000 members to stop shopping at the store and its subsidiary brands.

During the company call, neither CEO Per Bank nor chief financial officer Richard Dufresne used the word boycott. But they didn't deny that it was a factor in food retail sales that "came in a little soft" compared to the same time last year.

The company's earnings results note that food retail same-stores sales increased by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of this year, compared to a 6.1 per cent increase during the same quarter last year.

Archive: [ https://archive.is/n5388 ]

The Township of Langley will investigate how an extreme-right group was able to book a community hall jointly managed by the township and a local Lions Club.

“We’ll have to be reviewing that in the future, especially with this particular hall,” Langley Mayor Eric Woodward told The Tyee. “And seeing if there’s any assistance the township can provide and any policy updates to help these groups ensure that they don’t mistakenly book something like this in the future.”

Diagolon is led by several livestreamers who spend hours online spouting racism against Jewish and South Asian people and other minorities, dwelling on violent fantasies of fighting against invading immigrants.

The RCMP has described Diagolon as a “militia-like network with supporters who subscribe to accelerationist ideologies — the idea that a civil war or collapse of western governments is inevitable and ought to be sped up.”

This June, the group started advertising for an in-person “Terror Tour” across Canada during the summer, promising stops in major Canadian cities from Halifax to Vancouver.

In reality, the meetings have been held in small venues in smaller communities. The Ottawa gathering happened in an agricultural hall in the village of Carp.

For the Kamloops stop, the group apparently met at a skating rink owned by the Falkland and District Community Association. The small community is about 70 kilometres east of Kamloops.

When Diagolon members showed up at the community centre venue they had rented in Sudbury, they found the doors locked.

In Kelowna, Diagolon held an informal gathering in a park rather than booking an event venue. A warning about the event was posted on a Kelowna Reddit group.

Years after two Ontario police officers got into a violent altercation in broad daylight that ended in one shooting the other 10 times, both have walked away with no convictions.

On Nov. 29, 2018, Donovan and Parker were investigating a car crash at a rural intersection near Niagara Falls, Ont.

Parker was directing traffic, but left to use the bathroom. When he returned to his post, Donovan confronted him and a fight ensued.

Donovan later testified that Parker pushed and hit him and pulled his baton. When Parker reached for his gun, Donovan drew his own and began firing in self-defence.

Parker was shot in the cheek, nose, shoulder, thigh, calf, hip, abdomen and foot but survived.

A wildfire that roared into the community of Jasper, Alta., late Wednesday has left vast stretches of the townsite incinerated.

Video shared to social media on Thursday shows blocks upon blocks of buildings have been levelled by fire.

The video, taken from inside a truck, shows a view of a community forever changed.

Where buildings once stood, charred rubble remains. Many homes in the historic townsite have been destroyed, leaving only the foundations.

"We are seeing potentially 30 to 50 per cent structural damage," (Premier Danielle) Smith said.