Marie Woolf

Bill Curry, Marie Woolf

Carney government to introduce major economic bill as Parliament returns Monday

The federal government plans to kick off Monday’s return of parliamentary sittings with the introduction of major legislation aimed at accelerating project approvals and updating Canada’s labour laws. Three federal ministers are scheduled to speak at a news conference Monday afternoon: Government House Leader and Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon; Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy...

Marie Woolf

Beekeepers appeal for emergency federal help, as U.S. tariffs on honey threaten survival of hives

Beekeepers are appealing to the federal government for emergency financial help to support apiaries hit hard by U.S. tariffs on Canadian honey. They have asked the minister responsible for managing emergencies and prairie economic development to step in to help bee colonies before the winter, warning that the closure of hives could harm not just honey producers but Canadian agriculture...

Marie Woolf

Ottawa lawful-access bill could be obstacle to EU-Canada digital trade agreement, European privacy groups say

A coalition of civil society organizations and digital experts has written to the European Commission warning that Ottawa’s lawful-access bill poses privacy concerns for Europeans and should feature in negotiations on a Canada-EU digital trade agreement. On the eve of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Europe this week, organizations focused on digital rights have written to Ursula von der...

Marie Woolf

Collapse of trade talks could bring U.S. streamers back to table, film and TV sector says

Groups representing Canada’s cultural sector say the collapse of trade talks with the United States creates an opportunity to restart conversations with American streamers, including on their funding of Canadian content. On Friday, Ottawa’s negotiators rejected an 11th-hour demand from the Trump administration to ditch requirements that U.S. streaming platforms such as Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video promote...

Marie Woolf

Ottawa rejected last-minute U.S. demand to drop Cancon rules for streamers

Ottawa’s negotiators rejected an 11th-hour demand from the Trump administration to ditch requirements that U.S. streaming platforms, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, promote Canadian film, TV and music to their users in Canada. On Friday evening, the U.S. negotiating team introduced an unexpected demand that Canada provide exemptions to its laws requiring big U.S. streamers to boost the discoverability...

Marie Woolf

RCMP bill for chartering Black Hawk helicopters to patrol border set to top $50-million

The RCMP’s bill for chartering Black Hawk helicopters to patrol the U.S.-Canada border is set to top $50-million, although one of the three aircraft has been grounded since June because it lacks a special regulatory certificate. Figures provided by the RCMP to The Globe and Mail show that from January, 2025, to the end of May, 2026, the Mounties paid...

Marie Woolf

Border agency chartered luxury private jets to deport foreign nationals

The Canada Border Services Agency spent almost $1-million over two years chartering private aircraft – including luxury long-haul jets – to deport foreign nationals to their home countries, or transfer them to detention within Canada, documents obtained under access to information laws show. Internal CBSA documents show the federal agency chartered a Dassault Falcon 900EX, a French-built private jet favoured...

Marie Woolf

Arrested NATO intern has history of fraud, was ordered to take ethics course

A Canadian NATO intern arrested in Belgium on suspicion of spying for China was ordered by a federal watchdog to take a course in ethics after being found to have committed fraud in applying twice under two slightly different identities for a public service job. Claire (Biwei) Zhang, a Canadian of Chinese origin, worked in public service roles, including at...

Marie Woolf

Immigration department refused more than 20,000 visas from World Cup fans

The immigration department refused more than 20,000 visa applications from foreign nationals who applied to come to Canada for the FIFA World Cup, official figures show. Canada played host to 13 games in Toronto and Vancouver in June and July, issuing 26,000 visas to visitors, including people invited by FIFA to work at the tournament.

Marie Woolf

Indian students arranged marriages of convenience for spouse work permits to Canada, warned New Delhi migration official

The number of Indian undergraduate students applying to come to Canada has dropped over the past few years, in part because Ottawa ended a program granting the spouses of international students work permits, an internal government communication shows. The communication discloses how marriages of convenience by some Indian students had enabled their spouses to accompany them to this country to...

Marie Woolf

World Cup leads to 175 asylum claims from visitors who arrived in Canada for matches

Visitors to Canada who applied for visas to attend the FIFA World Cup have so far lodged 175 asylum claims, including from Senegal, Ghana and Egypt. Canada played host to 13 games in Toronto and Vancouver in June and July, issuing 26,000 visas to visitors. Spain won the international tournament on Sunday by defeating the previous reigning champion, Argentina. Immigration...

Marie Woolf

Heated Rivalry producer won’t send fleece to Carney until Online Streaming Act’s future is clarified

The head of the production company behind the hit hockey-romance series Heated Rivalry says he is holding off sending Prime Minister Mark Carney his own Team Canada-style fleece jacket, worn by one of the show’s lead characters, until the future of Ottawa’s online streaming law is clear and enacted “for real.”

Marie Woolf

Ottawa to direct CRTC to scrap demands for streamers to fund local news, niche broadcasters

Ottawa will direct the broadcasting regulator to scrap its requirements for foreign streaming platforms to fund local news and niche broadcasters in Canada, according to two senior government sources. The federal government is planning a series of steps that would require the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, to roll back key decisions it has made implementing the controversial...

Marie Woolf

Conservative senators furious over failure to deliver 200,000 postcards protesting anti-hate bill

When Conservative MPs opposed to the federal government’s anti-hate bill in the Commons, they brandished Bibles to accentuate their argument that the proposed law could stymie religious freedom. Now, as Bill-C9 nears the end of its parliamentary journey in the Senate, Conservatives are raising the alarm that hundreds of thousands of postcards protesting the bill, have not been delivered by...

Marie Woolf

Signal warns it would pull out of Canada if made to comply with lawful access bill

Secure messaging service Signal, which uses end-to-end encryption, is warning it would withdraw from Canada if asked to compromise its users’ privacy under Bill C-22, Ottawa’s proposed lawful access legislation. In an interview, Udbhav Tiwari, Signal vice-president of strategy and global affairs, said the company has deep concerns about measures in the bill, including its potential to introduce security vulnerabilities...

Marie Woolf

Immigration Minister faces criticism from lawyers after interview with influencer

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is under fire from immigration lawyers for conducting an interview where she discussed forthcoming policy with a social-media influencer who also runs platforms for foreign nationals hoping to settle or study in Canada. Ms. Metlege Diab earlier this month conducted a 30-minute interview with Max Medyk about immigration policy, including about a soon-to be announced...

Marie Woolf

Liberals move to end Conservative filibuster over religious exemption to hate speech laws

The Liberals are taking steps to halt debate on their flagship anti-hate bill in committee to end a prolonged Conservative filibuster on removing a religious exemption to some hate speech laws. Conservatives have said they have been inundated with expressions of concern from religious leaders who fear Bill C-9 would limit religious freedom if it becomes law. But the Liberals...

Marie Woolf

Ottawa in talks with Meta about restoring news to Facebook

Government officials are in talks with tech giant Meta about restoring news to Facebook, as the Online News Act – which prompted the tech giant to end access to journalism on its platforms – is put on the table as part of trade negotiations with the United States. Meta Platforms blocked all news from Facebook and Instagram in 2023, in...

Marie Woolf

Federal officials draft plans to ban social media for children under 14

Federal officials have drawn up plans to include a ban on social media for children under the age of 14 in the government’s coming online harms bill, part of a suite of possible measures aimed at protecting young people in the digital space, three sources told The Globe and Mail.

Marie Woolf

Immigration department halts skilled refugee jobs program, leaving employers in limbo

The federal Immigration Department halted a pilot program that matched skilled refugees with job vacancies and granted them permanent residency, leaving Canadian businesses and fresh hires in limbo days before Christmas. The unexpected decision to pause the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, communicated last week in a letter to groups involved in the program, has dismayed and surprised non-profit recruiters matching...

Marie Woolf

More TV, radio stations could shutter if Online Streaming Act is scrapped, industry leaders warn

An increasing number of Canadian TV and radio stations could close if the federal Online Streaming Act becomes a casualty of the trade war with the United States, industry leaders are warning. The act, which became law in 2023 after a bitter parliamentary battle, compels foreign platforms such as Netflix to financially support Canada’s TV, film and music sectors. Kevin...

Marie Woolf

Hospital birth data suggests increase in birth tourism, says immigration expert

Births in Canada to foreign visitors and other non-residents have risen in the past year, an expert in immigration statistics has found after analyzing hospital data. The research, published in a report on Wednesday, shows a small increase in births at Canadian hospitals to temporary residents, such as international students and people here on work permits. The proportion of births...

Marie Woolf

NDP rejects Yves Engler as leadership candidate

The NDP has rejected Yves Engler, an author and left-wing activist, from standing for the leadership for the party alleging he had harassed, intimidated and confronted elected officials. It also expressed concern he had echoed Russian state propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Engler was told at the end of last month that his application to join the leadership...

Bill Curry, Marie Woolf

Federal Budget 2025: Liberals appear poised for possible omnibus bills for 75 legislative changes

The federal government plans to make 75 legislative changes through the budget process, adopting a practice that has been criticized as a way of curtailing debate by burying contentious measures in omnibus bills.

Marie Woolf

Former immigration minister rejected officials’ advice to shelve Sudan humanitarian program

Immigration officials advised shelving a special humanitarian program, designed to help Sudanese Canadians bring family members here to escape civil war in the African country, over concerns that plans to reduce immigration could be undermined, sources say. The officials argued that bringing in Sudanese could affect the government’s immigration levels plan: annual targets that the government sets for the number...

Marie Woolf

Nigel Farage hails Preston Manning as his ‘inspiration,’ as Reform UK surges in polls

Right-wing populist leader Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party is surging in the polls in Britain, says he is modelling his strategy on that of Preston Manning, who led Canada’s Reform Party to eclipse the federal Progressive Conservatives in the 1990s. Mr. Manning received a standing ovation after speaking to Reform UK’s annual conference on Friday, where Mr. Farage paid...

Marie Woolf

Jimmy Lai’s lawyers launch urgent appeal to UN, saying his life is at immediate risk in prison

Lawyers acting for jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai have launched an urgent appeal to experts at the United Nations, warning that his life is at serious and immediate risk in detention. Mr. Lai’s international legal team has presented research to UN rapporteurs showing that some other elderly patients with diabetes have died in custody in Hong Kong, after receiving...

Marie Woolf

Carney urged by coalition of experts, public figures to bolster digital sovereignty, scrap strong borders bill

Almost 70 public figures, academics and expert groups have written to Prime Minister Mark Carney urging him to defend Canada’s digital sovereignty against foreign tech giants and to scrap the strong borders bill that they say threatens Canadians’ privacy. The signatories, who include author Margaret Atwood, former head of the federal public service Alex Himelfarb and former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson...

Marie Woolf

Ottawa pressed to factor in 500,000 undocumented residents as it consults on immigration targets

Economists are urging the government to factor in the estimated 500,000 undocumented residents in Canada as it consults on its forthcoming immigration levels plan. Immigration Minister Lena Diab is consulting on targets for the number of temporary and permanent residents Canada plans to allow in the next three years, in what some consider a litmus test of Prime Minister Mark...

Marie Woolf, Claire McFarlane

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside Joly’s home, raising security concerns

A pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the home of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has sparked calls for the government to consider security measures to protect politicians from protests at their residences. A group of up to 60 protesters chanted slogans, rang bells, banged pots and projected messages onto Ms. Joly’s house in Montreal on Wednesday evening, in an escalation of protest activity...

Marie Woolf

Canadians among journalists threatened by Iranian authorities, Britain-based outlet says

Two Canadian reporters for Iran International, a popular Persian-language news outlet, have been threatened by Iranian authorities in a bid to stop them reporting on Tehran’s regime, the organization’s legal team says. In the past six weeks, 45 journalists and 315 of their family members worldwide have been menaced by the Iranian authorities, including with death, unless they stop working...

Marie Woolf

Public Safety Minister in potential conflict of interest over planned ‘bubble zone’ protests bill

The Public Safety Minister will likely have to recuse himself from engaging on another government bill being planned to protect the public because of a potential conflict of interest with a prominent civil liberties group where his wife is a director. The government is planning a bill restricting protests near places of worship, schools and community centres and making it...

Marie Woolf

Ottawa’s hotel bill for asylum seekers reaches $1.1-billion

The federal government says it has spent $1.1-billion to house asylum seekers in hotels since 2017, on top of $1.5-billion it has given provinces and cities to help pay for refugee claimants’ upkeep. Ottawa began housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2017 as a temporary stop gap as shelters were overwhelmed by increasing numbers. It started block-booking rooms to help...

Marie Woolf

Thousands of foreigners’ criminal convictions forgiven by Ottawa over 11-year span, raising transparency concerns

More than 17,500 foreigners have had their criminal convictions forgiven by the Immigration Department over the past 11 years, removing a bar to coming to Canada, federal government figures show. The disclosure has raised transparency concerns about the type of offences they committed.

Marie Woolf

Government told Liberal MP to shelve motion on honorary citizenship for Jimmy Lai

The government’s leader in the House of Commons told the Liberal MP spearheading a drive to grant jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai honorary citizenship to shelve a motion supporting its award, just before she was about to present it on Wednesday. Judy Sgro, a veteran Liberal MP, had gained the support of MPs from all parties for a unanimous...

Marie Woolf

How a political rookie wore out two pairs of shoes to unseat Pierre Poilievre

Bruce Fanjoy, the soft-spoken political neophyte who stripped Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of his seat in a stunning election upset, was greeted like a triumphant Roman emperor when he returned to his home village of Manotick on Thursday. “It‘s impressive. You’ve done well,” effused a man with a beard who stopped the new Liberal MP on the steps to a...

Marie Woolf

Discovery of secret list of alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada raises questions about government secrecy

U.S. researchers have found what they say is a late draft of a secret list of more than 700 suspected Nazi war criminals believed to have settled in Canada after the Second World War, prompting fresh calls for the federal government to finally unseal and release the full list. A research team led by UCLA historian Jared McBride, an expert...

Marie Woolf

Liberal plan to shore up CBC on ice with halt of Parliament, as Tories renew threat to defund it

Ottawa’s plans to sustain funding for the CBC, and update its mandate, have been derailed by the prorogation of Parliament, with the future of the public broadcaster unlikely to be resolved until after the coming election. The federal Conservatives have pledged to strip CBC of public funding, while preserving French services, if they form the next government. Legislation on the...

Marie Woolf

Watchdog to tighten rules on lobbying of ministers and MPs by corporations

Ottawa’s lobbying watchdog is planning to tighten the rules to force corporations to be more transparent about the people they are trying to influence in the federal government. In an interview at the start of her second term in office, Nancy Bélanger said one of her priorities will be to make corporations more fully register their lobbying of ministers, MPs...

Marie Woolf

Canada preparing for influx of U.S. migrants facing deportation after Trump’s victory

RCMP in Quebec say they have prepared contingency plans in case of an influx of migrants from the United States after Donald Trump’s victory, as Quebec Premier François Legault and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet raised fears about asylum claimants streaming into the province. Mr. Legault warned about “turbulence” at the border, saying Wednesday that he expects a stream of...

Marie Woolf

UN Palestinian rapporteur faces backlash after press conference on Parliament Hill

A United Nations special rapporteur accused Israel of aiming “to erase the Palestinians” in a Parliament Hill press conference on Tuesday that drew a backlash, including from the Israeli ambassador. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, alleged that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza as a deliberate strategy.

Marie Woolf

How Canadian Liberals had cameo roles helping Keir Starmer clinch victory in Britain

Keir Starmer’s landslide victory in the British general election was aided in part by Canadians working behind the scenes of his campaign, including the Liberal Party’s chief digital strategist Tom Pitfield who helped design tools Labour used to target key ridings. Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada who is considered a...

Marie Woolf

Ottawa considering buying hotels to house growing number of asylum seekers

Ottawa is considering buying hotels to house the growing number of asylum seekers and to cut the cost of block-booking hotel rooms to accommodate them, Immigration Minister Marc Miller says. The federal government has in the last few years taken out long leases on hotels to help provinces house thousands of refugee claimants. This year, Ottawa has been footing the...

Marieke Walsh, Sean Silcoff, Marie Woolf

‘The leader is the leader,’ Minister François-Philippe Champagne hedges when asked if he supports Trudeau

Pressure continues to mount on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reconsider his future as leader, as he is receiving a marked lack of support from three senior Liberals in the wake of this week’s shocking loss in a Toronto by-election. On Thursday, The Globe and Mail spoke with a current federal minister, a recently ousted cabinet colleague and a former...

Marie Woolf

Jewish advocates question minister’s vetting of new head of human rights commission

Jewish advocates have raised concerns with the Justice Minister about whether he fully vetted the new head of Canada’s human rights commission after it emerged that Birju Dattani posted links on social media to articles comparing Israelis to Nazis, and Palestinians to Jews incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Marie Woolf

Foreign music streamers appeal to heritage minister to intervene over Bill C-11 payments

Music streamers, including Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music, have appealed to Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge to intervene after being told by the broadcasting regulator to contribute 5 per cent of their annual Canadian revenues to support the country’s creative industries, warning the costs could be passed onto consumers.

Marie Woolf

Canada worst in G7 for targeted killings of Muslims, MPs told

MPs on a committee investigating Islamophobia and antisemitism heard Thursday that more Muslims have been killed in targeted attacks in Canada in the past seven years than in any other G7 country, and that Islamophobia has increased exponentially since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war last October.

Marie Woolf

Justin Trudeau resists MPs’ calls to recognize Palestinian state after announcement from Norway, Spain and Ireland

Justin Trudeau’s government is resisting calls from within the Liberal caucus and from the NDP to follow the lead of Norway, Ireland and Spain and immediately recognize a Palestinian state. In the House of Commons, challenged by NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson to “take a stand”, Mr. Trudeau said Canada is “prepared to recognize the state of Palestine at...

Marie Woolf, Matt Lundy

Ottawa under fire over not compelling companies to ask unions before hiring temporary foreign workers

Canadian jobs are being lost to temporary foreign workers because of a decision years ago by the federal government to drop the need for companies to consult unions before they can bring in people from abroad to fill vacancies, Ottawa is being warned. Union leaders in the construction industry, a significantly unionized sector, say the change has meant that Canadians...

Marie Woolf

Human Rights Tribunal member who would hear cases if online harms bill passes once filed a hate speech complaint

A lawyer who once made a high-profile hate speech complaint against Maclean’s magazine is a member of the tribunal that would rule on hate speech cases under a reinstated power in the government’s online harms bill. Immigration lawyer Naseem Mithoowani was appointed a part-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal by the government, serving for five years, in 2021...

Marie Woolf

Former NDP chief says Jewish members are feeling uncomfortable in the party

The former national director of the federal NDP says Jews are no longer feeling completely comfortable in the party, warning that this is a national problem for the New Democrats. Nathan Rotman, who was also chief of staff to former Alberta premier Rachel Notley, made his remarks after former B.C. minister of postsecondary education Selina Robinson resigned from the province’s...

Marie Woolf

Conservatives call for Trudeau to resign over invitation to Waffen-SS veteran to Zelensky reception

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced Conservative accusations Tuesday that he misled the House of Commons when he said in September that he had no knowledge of Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian Waffen-SS veteran who was invited to attend a speech in Parliament by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr. Hunka was given two ovations in the House of Commons after former speaker...

Marie Woolf

Prime Minister invited Waffen-SS veteran Hunka to his official reception for Zelensky

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited Yaroslav Hunka, the Ukrainian Waffen-SS veteran who received ovations in the House of Commons during a visit by Volodymyr Zelensky, to a reception he hosted in the Ukrainian President’s honour the same day. Mr. Hunka, who was 98 at the time, did not attend the Toronto reception, but the invitation by the Prime Minister to...

Marie Woolf

Hiring foreign workers at battery plant will cost Canadian contractors $300-million in lost wages, fees: union leader

The hiring of 900 temporary foreign workers to install equipment at the flagship EV factory in Windsor, Ont., will cost Canadian skilled construction workers around $300-million in lost wages and contractor fees, the leader of Canada’s Building Trades Unions says.

Marie Woolf

Industry Minister wants to ‘maximize’ number of Canadians working at EV battery plant

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne says he plans to hold face-to-face talks with the company setting up an electric-vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Ont., to ensure Canadians will not be sidelined in favour of foreign workers brought in to fit out the factory. Mr. Champagne said he wants to ask NextStar Energy about “the minimum amount of foreign workers we need”...

Marie Woolf

Trudeau’s antisemitism envoy faces criticism for silence on rising attacks on Jews since Israel-Hamas war

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s newly appointed envoy on combating antisemitism is facing criticism for failing to speak out publicly about rising attacks and intimidation of Jews in Canada since the Hamas attacks on Israel. Many Canadians, concerned about the upsurge in antisemitism, say they are baffled about why Deborah Lyons has so far not taken...