Vue lecture

Ottawa defends Supreme Court submission proposing notwithstanding clause limits

People rally against Quebec’s Bill 21, which prohibits some public sector workers from wearing religious symbols at work in Chelsea, Que., in Decemeber, 2021. Quebec's government has used the notwithstanding clause to shield its legislation from court challenges.

Ottawa is defending its proposal at the Supreme Court of Canada to put limits on governments’ use of the notwithstanding clause, with the federal Liberals arguing they are standing up for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In the House of Commons on Thursday, Minister of Canadian Identity Steven Guilbeault said, “We have the responsibility to defend one of the pillars of our democracy, the Charter.”

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In Dufferin Grove, a big tent of compassion for homeless encampments begins to fray

When officials took steps to remove an encampment in a Toronto park this week, sympathizers rushed to the park to defend it. One of them wore a sign on the back of his jacket made from strips of adhesive tape: “Love Your Neighbour.”

To supporters of those who live in the cluster of tents near the southwest corner of Dufferin Grove Park, it is that simple. If we call ourselves a caring society, we must stick up for its most vulnerable members. Many of those who end up in encampments have mental or physical conditions that have landed them where they are. Unless we find a humane way of accommodating them, we should leave them be.

© Duane Cole

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Thousands of public servants seek exemptions to Ontario’s return-to-office mandate

Protestors at the All Out For Remote Work Rally on Sept. 18, 2025. Several hundred provincial civil servants took part in the rally in front of Whitney Block, the building across from Queen’s Park in Toronto.

Thousands of public servants have requested exemptions to the Ontario government’s upcoming order to return to the office full-time, as unions say they are set to meet with the province’s top bureaucrat later this month to plead their case for flexible work arrangements.

Dave Bulmer, president of Ontario’s professional employees union AMAPCEO – which has 17,000 members – said there have been about 4,500 requests for remote or hybrid work arrangements in the last three weeks.

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Canada Post sending new offers to union in bid to move talks forward

Canada Post is sending new offers to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in an effort to move negotiations forward, the postal service said Thursday.

The new terms will allow the two sides to return to the bargaining table next week, with work already under way to make that happen, the Crown corporation said.

© Adrian Wyld

A Canada Post vehicle with a frequent stops sticker is seen at a facility in Ottawa, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
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Holocaust survivor Fania Fainer’s memento became a symbol of resilience and friendship

Fania Fainer.

When Sandy Fainer was growing up in Toronto in the 1950s, she loved reading Nancy Drew mystery books and channelled her admiration for the girl detective by conducting her own investigations in the family’s suburban bungalow.

“I was snooping through my mother’s underwear and found it,” she recalled. It was what her mother, Fania Fainer, called in Yiddish “the little book,” a tiny heart-shaped autograph book covered in purple fabric, with a letter F stitched onto the cover.

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What survivors learned from Canada’s worst wildfires

When fires burned near towns or villages in the past, they were stamped out, and fast. “Redshirts,” as Canada’s wildland firefighters are still known – although they wear banana yellow now – reliably came to the rescue.

Those days are over.

© DARREN HULL

Residents watch the McDougall Creek wildfire in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, on August 17, 2023, from Kelowna. Evacuation orders were put in place for areas near Kelowna, as the fire threatened the city of around 150,000. Canada is experiencing a record-setting wildfire season, with official estimates of over 13.7 million hectares (33.9 million acres) already scorched. Four people have died so far. (Photo by Darren HULL / AFP) (Photo by DARREN HULL/AFP via Getty Images)
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RCMP recover $56-million from cryptocurrency platform called TradeOgre

The RCMP said their money-laundering team began an investigation last year after a tip from European authorities

The RCMP say they have taken down a cryptocurrency platform that was being used mainly for criminal transactions, in what the force claims is the largest crypto bust in Canadian history.

In a statement Thursday, the force’s federal policing wing in Quebec said it had recovered $56-million from a platform known as TradeOgre, “the first time that a cryptocurrency exchange platform has been dismantled by Canadian law enforcement.”

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Number of asylum seekers turned back by Canada grows despite U.S. deportation threat

Asylum seekers cross into Canada from the U.S. border near a checkpoint on Roxham Road near Hemmingford, Que., in 2022. Canada turned back 3,282 people under the Safe Third Country Agreement in the first eight months of 2025.

Canada’s government is sending more asylum-seekers hoping to file claims in Canada back to the U.S. under a bilateral pact, even as the U.S. says it may deport them to third countries.

Some of the people Canada is turning back should be eligible to file refugee claims in Canada, lawyers say, under exemptions to the Safe Third Country Agreement. The agreement broadly requires asylum-seekers at the Canada-U.S. border to be sent back to the first of the two countries they entered but allows some people - for example those with close family in Canada or stateless persons - to file claims.

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Premier Smith’s Alberta Next panel met with praise, pushed to act in Grande Prairie

The Alberta Next panel will host a final in-person town hall in Calgary at the end of the month.

Premier Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel, aimed at wrenching more political control from Ottawa, was spurred to take action in Grande Prairie Wednesday.

The panel is expected to eventually pick six ideas that could become potential referendum questions, and the naysayers were again outnumbered in a packed house of more than 500 attendees.

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Progressive groups plan protests to challenge parts of Carney agenda

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s support for new fossil fuel projects and expected public service cuts are among some of the concerns motivating Saturday’s protests.

Canada-wide protests are planned this weekend, a coalition of progressive civil society groups say, in what organizers call an emerging “common front” to elements of the new Liberal government’s agenda.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s support for new fossil-fuel projects, expected public service cuts, expanded military support and new border measures are some of the concerns motivating Saturday’s co-ordinated day of action, organizers of the Draw The Line protests say.

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