Latest News

CBC News: Prison watchdog role left vacant for months, even after outgoing investigator warned of 'serious legal void'

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government left the position of Canada's prison watchdog vacant for several months, despite written warnings from the outgoing correctional investigator that doing so would seriously compromise the office's powers to do its job protecting inmates.

Records obtained by CBC News under Canada's Access to Information Act reveal that former correctional investigator Ivan Zinger advised Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree that the failure to fill his position before he left "would create a serious legal void."

After around four months of sitting vacant, the role was filled by an interim investigator — a move that has itself raised concerns because of the role's temporary nature.

The Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) acts as an independent watchdog for prisoners across Canada, dealing with an average 4,000-5,000 complaints a year.

In previous years its work has helped trigger significant inquiries, such as the commission of inquiry into Kingston's Prison for Women in the mid-1990s that uncovered infringement of prisoners' legal rights and "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment of women there.

During his time as correctional investigator, Zinger flagged several problems in Canada's prisons including lack of access to adequate mental health treatment and the over-representation of Indigenous inmates.

Last year he announced he would be stepping down early from his five-year mandate.

Zinger told CBC News that he gave the government seven months' notice so it could find a new correctional investigator before he left in February.

New Democrat public safety critic Jenny Kwan said there are several issues in Canada's prison system that have to be dealt with, including the over-incarceration of Indigenous people, inadequate mental health support and barriers to rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

"I think that this is not a priority for the government," said Kwan.

Kwan said Zinger should not have had to warn Anandasangaree about the need to fill the position.

"To date, we still don't have a permanent appointment, and there is no clear process of how the government will proceed with respect to that," she said. "That should be alarming for everyone, for Canadians, for the minister who is in charge of Canada's public safety."

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/correctional-investigator-prison-watchdog-ivan-zinger-9.7300344

Georgia Straight: A Palestinian artist’s Vancouver show is in limbo, again

A Palestinian artist has been waiting nearly a year for permission to enter Canada to tell his own story on a Vancouver stage. Now, that wait could silence The Horse of Jenin for a second time.

The Cultch says the acclaimed solo production, co-presented with Rumble Theatre and scheduled to open October 8, could once again be cancelled because performer Alaa Mohammed Said Shehada’s Temporary Resident Visa remains stuck in security screening.

Shehada grew up in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and The Horse of Jenin draws from his childhood and experiences as a Palestinian. He now lives in Amsterdam, holds long-term residency in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as a British work permit, and has travelled internationally throughout his career.

Getting to Canada has proven considerably more difficult.

Shehada applied for his Canadian visa on August 17, 2025 and completed biometrics in The Hague on September 5. According to The Cultch, he has passed both criminality and eligibility assessments. The remaining security verification has been underway since September, with no timeline provided for its completion.

That delay has already kept the Palestinian artist from a Vancouver stage once.

The Horse of Jenin was originally scheduled to be presented at The Cultch in March, but the production was postponed when Shehada’s visa wasn’t processed in time. The October run was supposed to give Vancouver audiences another opportunity to see the work. With less than two months to go, its fate is once again uncertain.

The Cultch has had to rearrange programming, communicate with ticket holders, process exchanges and refunds and absorb additional operational costs as a result of the uncertainty.

But there is another loss that is harder to quantify. The Horse of Jenin gives a Palestinian artist the opportunity to tell a story about Palestinian life in his own words, on his own terms. As Palestinian stories, art and cultural expression face intense scrutiny internationally, the continued delay means Vancouver audiences may once again lose the opportunity to hear that story directly from the person telling it.

Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan has been pushing the federal government for answers. According to The Cultch, her office has made numerous inquiries with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Ministerial Centre for Members of Parliament and Senators since January. The response has remained essentially the same: Shehada’s application is still undergoing security screening.

“Our request is straightforward,” Kwan said in a statement. “Mr. Shehada and The Cultch cannot keep rescheduling this performance indefinitely.”

Kwan also noted that her office has assisted with urgent Temporary Resident Visa applications for other performing artists and that, in most cases, particularly once biometrics were completed, applications were processed in time for their scheduled performances.

The reason Shehada’s application has remained in security screening for so long has not been made public. Without an explanation from IRCC, it would be speculative to attribute the delay to his Palestinian identity, but the impact is clear: a Palestinian artist has already been prevented from presenting his work in Vancouver once and, nearly a year after applying to enter Canada, he still doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to do so the second time around.

*Click image or link to read the story - https://www.straight.com/arts/a-palestinian-artists-vancouver-show-is-in-limbo-again#

OPEN LETTER: URGENT Ban RSS from Canada

MEDIA RELEASE: New Democrats Renew Calls on Canada to Ban the RSS and Deny Entry to its Chief

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 7, 2026

New Democrats Renew Calls on Canada to Ban the RSS and Deny Entry to its Chief

OTTAWA —New Democrats are calling on the federal government to deny entry to the head of the fascist paramilitary organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Network (RSS) and are renewing past NDP calls on Canada to ban the RSS entirely.

NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson and NDP Immigration and Public Safety Critic Jenny Kwan today wrote to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Public Safety, and Immigration to urge action in advance of Mohan Bhagwat’s planned visit to Canada at the end of August.

“The RSS is an extremist group that advocates hate and violence towards religious minorities and marginalized in India and also engages in targeted intimidation of those who speak out against the organization in Canada,” said Heather McPherson, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic. “Multiple minority communities fear his presence in Canada could amplify hate and violence towards them and risk the safety of vulnerable individuals.”

In recent weeks, United Nations Human Rights experts have called on Canada to ensure members of the Sikh community are protected from violent threats by Hindutva extremist groups including the RSS.

“Canada must send a clear message that there is no place in this country for individuals who promote or enable hatred, violence, or intimidation against vulnerable communities or who are connected to activities that threaten Canada's security and democratic institutions.  Pertinent sections of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act must be applied to protect Canadians and declare the IRSS and its members inadmissible,” said Jenny Kwan, NDP Critic for Public Safety and for Immigration.

New Democrats have long called on Canada to ban the RSS from Canada, place the RSS on the terrorist entities list, and impose sanctions on connected networks. Despite strong evidence of foreign interference and incitement to violence against Canadians, the Liberals have refused to take action on the RSS. Instead, in recent months the Carney government has grown closer to the Modi regime, causing members of several minority groups in Canada to say their safety no longer matters to the Liberal government.

On August 6, over 200 Canadian civil society organizations released a joint letter calling for Mohan Bhagwat to be denied entry to Canada.

 

OPEN LETTER: Urgent call to renew and sustain federal funding for MMIWG2S+

Hill Times: Post-election MP office renos top $1.3-million

A total of 106 MPs reported office renovation expenses after the 2025 election, including 62 first-time MPs and 46 incumbents.

The Hill Times combed through expense reports for all current MPs, and tallied up a total of $1,377,107 in office renovation expenses dated to after the April 28, 2025, federal election, and reported over four quarters ending on March 30 of this year.

Of the 108 MPs who reported such expenses, 55 are Conservatives, 49 are Liberals, three are Bloc Québécois, and one is a New Democrat.

As per the Members’ Allowances and Services manual, MPs are required to contact the House of Commons’ financial management operations team “for guidance on the eligibility” of any renovation expenses not paid by the landlord, which must be “completed no later than three years following a general election.”

In seventh place on the list is incumbent NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), who reported a total of $55,912 in office renovation expenses. Kwan was the only MP contacted for comment to make themself available for an interview.

Speaking by phone on July 28, Kwan explained that her hunt for a new constituency office began back in 2023 after a House accessibility review flagged issues with her previous, Hastings Street office, which had two steps leading to its front door.

The Accessibility Canada Act passed in 2019 introduced new accessibility standards and requirements which apply to parliamentary entities, among others, including MP offices. The House subsequently adopted its first-ever accessibility plan in 2022, which set out certain requirements and was followed by a review of MP constituency office arrangements.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan says she began looking for a new riding office after accessibility issues were flagged with her previous space in 2023. 

Kwan said her office looked into the possibility of installing a ramp, but that was ultimately deemed unfeasible within the space available, beginning her search for a new location. Around the same time, she noted, her eight-year lease also ran out, putting her on a month-to-month lease, and her landlord indicated plans to sell.

Kwan said her team eventually found a ground-floor space on 10th Avenue close to transit, in a “very busy corridor in Vancouver East,” near her old office as a British Columbia MLA, and with good street visibility. Lease negotiations came to a halt with the call of the 2025 election, but post-writ, she said she secured one comparable in “cost on a per square footage basis” to her former riding office.

The space, however, was previously a pharmacy. As a result, Kwan said it had to be fit up, and the total costs incurred include for professional architectural drawings, city permits, construction, and materials. “It didn’t even have a proper floor, so we had to turn obviously this space into a functional constituency office,” adding vinyl flooring, a small kitchen area, a reception area, a conference room and other office space, and removing partial existing walls that featured medicine cabinets. 

Kwan confirmed the House has since reviewed the accessibility of her new office—along with a security review—and given it the OK.

*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/2026/08/05/post-election-mp-office-renos-top-1-3-million/513510/

Storm Media: Red Dragnet｜'Nothing Is Beyond Reach': A Canadian MP on Beijing's Long Arm

Canada is home to roughly 1.7 million people of Chinese origin, about 4.7 per cent of the population, and has been a favored destination for exiles from mainland China and Hong Kong. It is also, unsurprisingly, one of the countries where Beijing's reach abroad is most active.

The federal government's own public advisories describe the mechanics plainly: relatives still in China are used to pressure people in Canada into abandoning activities Beijing considers hostile, or into returning; and agents operating overseas are used to watch, monitor and report on people living in Canada. Public Safety Canada maintains a substantial public-facing section on the tactics involved — physical intimidation and violence, digital harassment and malicious cyber activity, social isolation, and coerced return.

Kwan, the New Democratic Party MP for Vancouver East and her party's public safety and national security critic, describes a campaign that has outgrown the categories built for it.

"The Chinese government's campaign of transnational repression has become increasingly sophisticated and brazen," she said in a written reply to Storm Media in late July. "It extends far beyond China's borders, targeting journalists, human rights defenders, democracy advocates, and refugees through intimidation, surveillance, coercion, and, in some cases, forced returns."

Her framing of what is at stake is deliberately not confined to the individuals affected. "This is not only an attack on individual freedoms but also on the sovereignty of democratic countries and the international refugee protection system," she said. "Democracies must work together to hold those responsible accountable."

*Click image or link to read the Taiwan media news - https://world.storm.mg/articles/1152999

 

National Post: Poilievre calls for changes to public alert system after missing Calgary boy found dead

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for faster public alerts when children with special needs go missing, after an 11-year-old Calgary boy with autism was found dead following a two-week search.

Poilievre and Conservative MP Mike Lake said in a letter to federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski that the search for Parker Wells may have had a happier ending if the public had been notified about his disappearance sooner.

NDP public safety critic Jenny Kwan said she supported the idea of an Indigo Alert system.

“When a vulnerable child goes missing, every minute matters. An Indigo Alert would help ensure that autistic, non-verbal, and other medically or developmentally vulnerable children receive the urgent public response they need, giving families and communities another tool to bring children home safely,” wrote Kwan in an email.

Kwan said that the Ottawa should work with the provinces, territories, law enforcement and disability advocates to develop a coordinated Indigo Alert system.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/poilievre-calls-for-changes-to-public-alert-system-after-missing-calgary-boy-found-dead

 

Global News: BC COVID vaccine victim still waiting for compensation

An East Vancouver man who is one of the rare people to suffer from severe adverse effects from the COVID vaccine continues to fight a bureaucratic nightmare to collect the compensation he qualifies for.

While his medical and support costs were officially approved back in February, federal delays left him waiting for months without reimbursement—facing financial distress, lack of home care, and the threat of eviction. 

I raised his case directly in Parliament to hold the government accountable and demand immediate action for urgent Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) cases. 

Following our advocacy, he has finally received his payment. However, individuals in our community facing rare, life-altering medical reactions should never have to fight through months of red tape just to receive the support promised to them. I will continue advocating for a system that acts with urgency, fairness, and compassion.

*Click image or link to watch the news story - https://globalnews.ca/video/11988722/bc-covid-vaccine-victim-still-waiting-for-compensation/

 

Globe & Mail: Acadians treated unfairly by immigration department in citizenship U-turn, historians say

The federal immigration department is being criticized by Acadian history specialists for unfair treatment of members of the French-speaking diaspora community, after it said they may not be entitled to Canadian citizenship because the sources of their family records are not acceptable.

Acadians living outside Canada who obtained citizenship after the November passing of a new law extending citizenship by descent are among those whom the department recently informed may have been granted the right to a Canadian passport in error.

Peggy Sun, the registrar of Canadian Citizenship, wrote in June to about 100 “Lost Canadians” saying she had reasonable grounds to believe that their citizenship status is not valid and informing them it is now under review.

Most of those sent such letters have now had their citizenship certificates and passports restored. But others have been told, in a subsequent letter, that they may have been granted a citizenship certificate in error.

In the case of Acadians, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has taken issue with some baptismal records, birth records and other documents sourced from France and the U.S.

Acadians, emigrants from France, established distinct communities in what is now Atlantic Canada in the 17th century. But sovereignty over much of their land passed to Britain after the signing of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht when much French territory in North America was ceded to Britain.

British colonial authorities suspected Acadians were helping the French, including by trading with their forces. And they found that some fought alongside the French against them. The British forcibly expelled about 11,500 of the 14,000 Acadians between 1755 and 1764 from their territory in the Maritimes.

Some were deported to England, where they were imprisoned and later released. Some hid and others fled to regions under French control including in what is now Quebec and Prince Edward Island, or across the border into what is now the United States. Others were displaced to France, with many eventually finding refuge in Louisiana in what was then a Spanish colony.

Academics specializing in Acadian history say it is unjust for IRCC to penalize Acadians whose forebears were forced out by the British in the 18th century. Many records, including those held by churches and individual families were destroyed in the upheaval.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said it was deeply concerning that Acadians were “being denied recognition of legitimate historical records from France and the United States, even though these jurisdictions hold many of the primary archival documents.”

*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-acadians-immigration-citizenship-unfair-treatment-historians-say/