Articles by Alex Boutilier

May 28 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — If you’re a Conservative voter who believes in balancing the budget above all else, you might want to avert your eyes for the next few years. Leadership front-runners Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole both released their ideas for Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery this week. And while both candidates stressed the need to stabilize federal finances, […]

May 25 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Liberals upcoming gun control legislation will allow municipalities to effectively ban handguns within their boundaries while setting national standards on how the weapons can be stored and used. While stopping short of a national handgun ban, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told the Star that new rules will allow municipalities to rule that handguns […]

May 20 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Canada’s domestic intelligence agency is changing how it talks about extremist threats, adopting a broader vocabulary to include violence inspired by “incels,” ethno-nationalists and other fringe groups. The move comes just a day after authorities laid Canada’s first incel-related terrorism charge against a 17-year old accused of fatally stabbing a woman at a North York […]

May 16 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Peter MacKay’s campaign claims to have signed up the most new members eligible to vote in the Conservatives’ upcoming leadership contest in the party’s history. But strategists and party insiders say it’s not how many members a campaign signs up, it’s where those members live in the Conservatives’ riding-weighted leadership contest. If MacKay’s boast is […]

May 14 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Canadian health researchers and organizations working on the national response to COVID-19 are facing a heightened risk of state-sponsored hacking and espionage, the country’s intelligence agencies tell the Star. In a rare joint statement, Canada’s two main intelligence agencies — the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Communications Security Establishment — said state-sponsored actors have […]

May 7 2020 — Alex Boutilier — The Record — As Canada’s closest allies call for a probe into China’s early handling of the coronavirus outbreak, Ottawa is steering clear of the issue — and for good reasons, experts say. The federal government is calling for a comprehensive “postcrisis review” into the COVID-19 pandemic, including the virus’s origins and how countries and the World Health […]

Apr 29 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Conservative Party is eyeing Aug. 21 as a possible date to select their next leader, the Star has learned. The party’s Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) suspended the race to replace Andrew Scheer indefinitely on March 26. At the time, the committee said the vote, originally scheduled for June 27, was made impossible by […]

Apr 29 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Ontario’s Conservative MPs are demanding an apology from leadership candidate Derek Sloan after he questioned the loyalty of Canada’s chief public health officer. The party’s 36-member Ontario caucus held an emergency meeting Tuesday evening to discuss Sloan’s comments, and voted overwhelmingly to demand the rookie MP apologize to Dr. Theresa Tam, according to three sources […]

Apr 28 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Prominent Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner has been working remotely from Oklahoma in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rempel Garner said she traveled to Oklahoma — where her husband and stepchildren live — on an “unexpected and urgent private personal matter” before Canada and the U.S. imposed travel restrictions at the border. In a […]

Apr 25 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Get on with it. That’s the message some Conservative MPs and activists are sending the party brass, anxious to resolve the party’s now-suspended leadership contest by the end of summer. The restlessness among some in the Conservative caucus grew this week, after a widely criticized performance from outgoing leader Andrew Scheer.

Mar 29 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Peter MacKay is self-isolating. The presumptive front-runner in the Conservative leadership campaign had sought to avoid this, keeping himself separate from his family after they returned from a holiday in Mexico and they then entered into isolation per Canada’s rules to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus. According to his camp, Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay and […]

Mar 27 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — –The federal Conservative Party’s suspension of its leadership contest amid the COVID-19 crisis was met Friday with stiff criticism from some party members. After weeks of mounting pressure, the party committee in charge of the race agreed to suspend the contest late Thursday night, reversing a decision from a week earlier to soldier on with […]

Mar 18 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Minutes after Justin Trudeau hung up the phone with Donald Trump on Wednesday morning, the U.S. president took to Twitter to share the news: The Canada-U.S. border would close to most travellers. After years of brutal negotiating to keep the border as open as possible, Trudeau’s call to Trump sealed a mutual agreement to shut […]

Mar 2 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Liberal government is being asked to impose a sweeping moratorium on police and private businesses’ use of Clearview AI until Parliament and privacy regulators can investigate the controversial facial recognition company. The RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, and more than a dozen private businesses and law enforcement agencies across the country have confirmed to […]

Feb 28 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — From Mounties and small-town cops to a Rexall employee hoping to bust shoplifters — a facial recognition tool at the centre of international controversy has been used far more widely in Canada than had been previously known.