National Newswatch

‘We will exercise fiscal restraint’: Freeland outlines priorities ahead of 2023 federal budget

Mar 20 2023 — Rachel Aiello — The coming 2023 federal budget will “exercise fiscal restraint” while also making “significant” investments in health and building Canada’s clean economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday. In a speech detailing the Liberal government’s priorities ahead of next week’s budget release, Freeland said the budget will include “targeted inflation relief” to […]

PM Trudeau says 2023 budget will include affordability measures ‘that will directly help Canadians’

Mar 15 2023 — Rachel Aiello — The 2023 federal budget will include new affordability measures aimed at helping Canadians’ navigate the ongoing cost-of-living crunch, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “In our budget, we’re going to be putting forward measures that will directly help Canadians, measures around affordability,” Trudeau told reporters during a media availability in Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday. […]

Popular e-petition calling for Canada to allow trans people to claim asylum, but that right is ‘already established’

Mar 13 2023 — Rachel Aiello — More than 130,000 people have signed an e-petition calling on Canada to give transgender and non-binary people fleeing harmful laws in their home countries the right to claim asylum, but that’s already possible in this country. The online petition asking the federal government to take action launched in January has been recently gaining traction on […]

Conservative MP called out for ‘shameful’ comment to Joly during foreign interference hearing

Mar 9 2023 — Rachel Aiello — Liberal and NDP MPs are calling out Conservative MP Michael Cooper over what they described as a “shameful” and “completely unacceptable” comment he made to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly during a hearing on foreign interference. “You’ve talked tough. You’ve talked tough with your Beijing counterpart, so you say. You even stared into his eyes, […]

RCMP investigating violations of security law in connection to leaks of foreign interference allegations

Mar 6 2023 — Rachel Aiello — The RCMP says it has launched an investigation into violations of national security information law in connection to media leaks of Chinese foreign interference allegations. “The RCMP has initiated an investigation into violations of the Security of Information Act (SOIA) associated with recent media reports,” said a spokesperson for the federal police force in a […]

Opposition MPs vote for public inquiry into foreign election interference

Mar 2 2023 — Rachel Aiello — Opposition MPs passed a motion Thursday calling for the federal government to launch a national public inquiry into allegations of foreign interference, after hearing hours testimony from top intelligence officials who sought to assure that the integrity of Canada’s last two elections was upheld despite meddling attempts by China. After debate spanning two meetings of […]

As foreign interference allegations stack up, top intelligence officials tell MPs elections were ‘legitimate’

Mar 1 2023 — Rachel Aiello — As reports of alleged Chinese interference in the last two federal elections stack up, a panel of Canada’s highest-ranking intelligence officials told MPs that while they understand Canadians’ concerns about foreign meddling, they should be assured that “the last two federal elections were fair and legitimate.” That’s how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s National Security and […]

Trudeau knocks Poilievre’s ‘simplistic’ call to close Roxham Road

Feb 22 2023 — Rachel Aiello — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is knocking Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s call for the federal government to close the Roxham Road irregular border crossing in Quebec as a “simplistic solution,” saying the best approach is to renegotiate the Canada-U.S. migrant pact known as the Safe Third Country Agreement. “Could somebody put up barricades and a big […]

A Conservative government would uphold federal-provincial health-care funding deals: Poilievre

Feb 8 2023 — Rachel Aiello — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says that if he becomes prime minister he would uphold the 10-year deals Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is looking to ink with provinces and territories that would inject $46.2 billion in new funding into Canada’s strained health-care systems. “Yesterday he announced sums that are not adequate—according to the premiers— to fix […]