CBC’s The Fifth Estate recently broke the news that the Canada Revenue Agency had discovered that hackers had managed to obtain confidential data on taxpayers used by private tax firm H&R Block. Fraudsters then used the confidential information, including H&R Block’s confidential credentials to log into the personal CRA accounts of thousands of individuals. What does this mean for most ...

From the early days before Confederation, Canada’s earliest settler leaders treated Indigenous peoples as others. They created systems that were designed to assimilate Indigenous peoples and strip them of their identity and their culture. One of the most widely recognized parts of this systemic discrimination was the development of residential schools. Supported by Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, ...

Last week, Loblaw Cos. Ltd., as well as its parent company, George Weston Ltd., agreed to pay $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit for their part in a 14-year industry-wide bread price-fixing scheme. It’s alleged that Loblaws, along with other large grocery chains such as Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, and Giant Tiger, were all involved in a conspiracy to ...

Last month, the Finance Minister began a 30-day consultation period to examine Beijing’s trade practices in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, with the goal of determining whether Canada should follow suit with the U.S. and the EU in applying trade tariffs on Chinese imported EVs. This comes as the U.S. has recently applied a 100 percent tariff, and the European ...

For a decade, we’ve been hearing, with almost comical absurdity, problems with the Government of Canada’s beleaguered payroll system, Phoenix. It’s been responsible for thousands of people being underpaid, overpaid, or worse, not paid at all. Just as problematic, it’s been responsible for massive cost overruns that have ballooned over the years to fix catastrophic problems with its design. According ...

When the federal budget was presented in April, many people with disabilities and organizations who assist them were looking forward to announcements surrounding the Canada Disability Benefit. The legislation that set the framework for the Canada Disability Benefit, C-22, passed with unanimous support in the House of Commons a year and a half ago, and received Royal Assent a year ...

La plupart des Canadiens font face à des contraintes financières ces jours-ci. L’inflation, même si elle a définitivement connu une baisse par rapport aux sommets de 2022, atteignait tout de même 3,9 % en moyenne en 2023, selon Statistique Canada, ce qui est presque le double de l’objectif de référence de 2 % d’une année à l’autre établi par la ...

Most Canadians are obviously feeling the financial pinch these days. Inflation, while definitely coming down from the massive highs of 2022, still averaged 3.9 percent in 2023, according to Statistics Canada, which is still nearly double the Bank of Canada’s benchmark goal of 2 percent year-over-year. One area where they are really feeling the pinch is the price of oil ...

“It has been an exceptional honour representing the people of Algoma-ManitoulinKapuskasing for the past 16 years,” said Hughes. “I got into politics to try and make a positive difference in people’s lives. I’ve always attempted to take a pragmatic approach to this job and reach across party lines to get things done, but I and my NDP colleagues never wavered ...

Last year, some may remember some major breaking stories in The Globe and Mail and the Manitoulin Expositor about contract negotiation and other serious issues surrounding the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program (FNIPP). Essentially, three First Nations police services, the UCCM Anishnaabe Police Service, Treaty Three Police Service and the Anishinabek Police Service, had stopped receiving funding because of ...

The Finance Minister has signaled that the next Federal budget will be released on April 16th. She has indicated that the topline focus of the budget will primarily be on affordability issues, which should come as little surprise to anyone, but as always, the devil will be in the details. Amid the current affordability crisis, it is clear that far ...

Earlier this week, Auditor General Karen Hogan released her long-awaited report on the costs associated with the development of the much-derided ArriveCan app. The report is a scathing indictment of the government’s procurement process during the early Covid-19 pandemic, and their reliance on expensive consultants that don’t give Canadians value for the money spent. The purpose of the ArriveCan app, ...

Last week, Manulife, Canada’s largest insurance company, made headlines across the country by telling customers that coverage for 260 specialty prescription drugs would only be filled at Loblaw-owned pharmacies, chiefly Shoppers Drug Mart. It was a move that was roundly and swiftly condemned by independent pharmacies, health care groups, unions, and consumers across Canada. That condemnation forced Manulife to quickly ...

If there’s one thing in politics that is sacrosanct, it’s the right to vote. Voting is the most fundamental expression of what a person wants out of their local representative, as well as the direction they want the country to move towards. However, for some, the limited number of ways we can express our opinions through our vote can lead ...

This time last year, one of the big news stories coming out of the back end of the holiday season was the severe travel delays across Canadian airports. Thankfully, air travel was markedly more consistent this holiday season, and most travellers managed to evade any serious delays. However, the other major federally regulated travel industry, rail, remains plagued with poor ...