Government Accountability

HANSARD: Questioning the Immigration Minister on the US Safe Third Country Agreement

CTV News: Advocates call on Anand to raise transnational repression concerns with China’s top diplomat during Canadian visit

OTTAWA -- Human rights advocates plan to protest on Parliament Hill when China’s top diplomat Wang Yi arrives to meet his Canadian counterpart.

The demonstrators, many of whom are members of the Chinese diaspora, are urging Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand to bring their concerns about transnational repression to Wang and to tear up a police co-operation agreement between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security. (MPS)

This week, Conservative MP Frank Caputo, who sits on the Standing Committee on Public Safety, demanded government transparency and for the police co-operation agreement to be released without redactions.

“The prime minister called Beijing Canada’s greatest security threat. That was during the election. Despite this, within a year he signed a memorandum of understanding with Communist China as it relates to security. I’ve been asking for the (MOU) for over five months, but the prime minister has refused to disclose it,” Caputo said during question period.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan also called for the MOU’s release in a social media post.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/advocates-call-on-anand-to-raise-transnational-repression-concerns-with-chinas-top-diplomat-during-canadian-visit/

Canadian Press: Chinese foreign minister’s visit to Canada a ‘positive sign’: trade minister

OTTAWA — A planned visit by China’s foreign minister to Canada this week — the first such visit in 10 years — offers a positive sign about the state of the Canada-China relationship, International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu said Tuesday.

Wang Yi arrives in Canada on Thursday for a three-day visit that will include meetings with both Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Prime Minister Mark Carney. The last time a Chinese foreign minister visited Canada was in 2016.

Wang and Anand are expected to discuss the recently updated Canada-China Strategic Partnership, trade, investment and global security, says a statement released by Anand’s office last week.

“It shows that our relationship is growing in the right direction,” Sidhu told The Canadian Press.

Carney, who travelled to Beijing in January, told reporters Wednesday he looks forward to the minister’s visit and will meet with him personally.

He said the visit will offer a “valuable exchange of views.”

Opposition MPs have called on the Liberal government in recent weeks to disclose the full text of a memorandum of understanding between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security.

NDP public safety critic Jenny Kwan said in an open letter earlier this month that she wants to know if safeguards are in place to prevent Canadian information from being used against dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists or diaspora communities.

She said public statements indicate the memorandum concerns co-operation on transnational crime, cybercrime, narcotics and corruption, and the establishment of bilateral law enforcement working groups.

Carney said Wednesday the government doesn’t make a habit of releasing security agreements with other governments “for reasons of operational security.”

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2026/05/27/chinese-foreign-ministers-visit-to-canada-a-positive-sign-trade-minister/

CP24 News: Privacy czar, tech giants call for changes to contentious digital evidence access bill

OTTAWA – Canada’s privacy commissioner and key representatives from major tech companies are adding their voices to calls for significant amendments to the Liberals’ contentious bill, which proposes a revised “lawful access” regime that’s meant to make it easier for law enforcement to access digital evidence.

Testifying on Tuesday, representatives from two of Canadians’ most-used technology companies – Google and Apple – and other experts sounded alarms about implications for Canadians’ use of encryption services, overbroad new ministerial powers and the security risk of retaining metadata.

Bill C-22, titled the “Lawful Access Act, 2026,” seeks to force electronic service providers to update their systems to assist law enforcement and Canada’s national intelligence agency CSIS in accessing online evidence as part of investigations.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan has also submitted what she described as “a whole slew of amendments” she’s hoping are considered, although her party has no members on the committee.

“While there’s been some improvements to [the bill] they also brought in a new component on metadata… which is deeply concerning,” Kwan said Tuesday, also voicing hesitation about the implications for allowing governments access to encryption services, and what vulnerabilities that could open for malicious actors.

“I understand that we need to modernize the laws in terms of lawful access in this digital age… however, we also need to make sure that you strike the right balance,” she said.

Kwan said if the changes the NDP want to see aren’t made, the government won’t have found the right balance between empowering law enforcement and respecting civil liberties.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2026/05/26/mps-to-hear-from-privacy-czar-tech-giants-police-on-contentious-digital-evidence-access-bill/

CBC News: Man denied dental coverage under national plan says insurer 'playing games' with Canadians

After months of probing, Walter Bossé is still trying to get to the bottom of why he doesn’t qualify to get a crown covered under the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP).

The public insurance program subsidizes the cost of dental care for Canadian residents with a household income below $90,000, if they don't have access to a private insurance plan.

Insurance provider Sun Life administers the CDCP and processes claims.

While most claims don’t need pre-authorization, it’s required for more expensive procedures, like crowns or partial dentures.

In the last year, Bossé said he’s had multiple pre-authorization requests for crowns denied, even after his dentist submitted the proper documentation, X-rays and a detailed explanation to show why they're medically necessary.

“I was quite surprised because the dentist was convinced it was straightforward,” said Bossé, who lives in Kirkland, Que., a suburb of Montreal.

Bossé had a broken filling. Although his dentist repaired the base, the tooth needed a crown. A subsequent pre-approval request a few months later for a different tooth, which was cracked, was also denied.

Across the country in B.C, the NDP MP for Vancouver East has heard similar complaints from several of her constituents.

“They should not have to battle the insurance company to try and figure out what it is that they might be doing wrong,” said Jenny Kwan.

“For all we know, they might not be doing anything wrong.”

In one case, her office intervened after a resident’s pre-authorization request for dentures was rejected.

“He literally couldn’t eat,” said Kwan. “We had to fight tooth and nail to only get partial coverage.”

Other constituents in her riding were turned down for crowns. Kwan says neither her office nor the dentist clinics can “make heads or tails out of it.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/dental-work-national-plan-coverage-9.7212333

HANSARD: Can the Prime Minister tells Canadians what else oil and gas industry wants?

HANSARD: Speech in response to the Spring Economic Update

*Click [ Read more ] to read Jenny's full speech

HOUSE VIDEO: Speech in response to the Spring Economic Update

On Monday May 25 2026, NDP MP Jenny Kwan responded to Prime Minister Carney's Spring Economic Update & Bill C-30, the Spring Economic Update Implementation Act.

*Click image to watch the video

Global News: COVID-19 vaccine victim struggles to get compensation

A B.C. man who is one of the rare people suffering a debilitating reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine says he is now living in a bureaucratic nightmare trying to get compensation.

Jan Przeranski says that as a result of his vaccination, he suffers from severe lymphedema, a chronic, progressive condition that has caused swelling and infections in his arm.

He says he applied to the federal government’s vaccine injury compensation program, which was first administered by the private consulting firm Oxaro.

Following a raft of problems with Oxaro, the federal government took over the program in March.

*Click image or link to watch the news video - https://globalnews.ca/news/11859677/bc-man-suffering-reaction-covid-19-vaccine-still-trying-compensation/

The Varsity: Gazan students accepted to Canadian universities remain trapped in visa delays, advocates say

Advocates and members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) gathered on Parliament Hill on April 14 to escalate pressure on Ottawa over alleged discriminatory immigration delays. This comes more than a month after The Varsity reported on 12 Palestinian students admitted to U of T struggling to secure Canadian study permits.

At last month’s press conference, NDP leader Avi Lewis and Jenny Kwan, MP for Vancouver East and the party’s critic for immigration, refugees, and citizenship called on the federal government to implement new measures. They pushed to introduce flexible processing measures for Palestinian students from Gaza whose Canadian study permit applications have remained stalled for months or years.

The press conference featured speakers from Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk (PSSAR), academic leaders, and Oxfam Canada, a global organization that works to address the root causes of poverty and inequality with a focus on women’s rights.

For many speakers, the issue was no longer simply about bureaucratic delay; it was about whether Canada’s immigration system is willing to adapt during a humanitarian catastrophe.

Biometrics remain a central barrier

A major focus of the conference was Canada’s continued enforcement of biometric requirements — fingerprints and photographs — which can only be collected outside of Gaza, usually in the West Bank or Egypt. However, the route previously used to complete the process in Egypt has remained closed since May 2024.

“The Liberal government knows full well that there are no functioning processing centers in Gaza,” Lewis said.

*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://thevarsity.ca/2026/05/21/gazan-students-accepted-to-canadian-universities-remain-trapped-in-visa-delays-advocates-say/