Housing-related spending accounts for more than 20 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product, contributing about $330 billion to the Canadian economy in 2010 — up 7.1 per cent from $308 billion in 2009. This and other key findings are in the ninth annual Canadian Housing Observer, released today by Canada Mortgage and...

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) released its annual list of the top 10 most frequently stolen vehicles in Canada today, many of which are showing up in the local market and not necessarily being exported out of Canada. In these cases, the vehicles are often re-sold to unsuspecting consumers. This year there is a new […]

Passport Canada will start issuing higher-security electronic passports, or ePassports, to Canadians next year. With the ePassport, Canadians will have the option of getting a new, security-enhanced passport that is valid for five years, starting next year, or a 10-year passport, starting in early 2013. Today, in accordance with the User Fees Act, Passport Canada […]

The NDP leadership race suddenly seems like a very long, drawn out affair. Initially, there was much outrage – especially from Thomas Mulcair – at the suggestion that the party go along with what Jack Layton seemed to want: an earlier leadership convention in January. But now many in the party, lead by Winnipeg MP Pat Martin...

Canada’s key interest rate will end 2011 unchanged.   The Bank of Canada (BoC) left its policy rate at 1.00 percent this week, as anticipated.   In a statement, the Bank said European economic performance will be worse than expected, Canadian and United States growth are “slightly” better than expected, and inflation will “ease.” It […]

The Defenders of the Land (DotL), a network of Indigenous Communities, today condemned reports that in 2007, the Harper government established a national and international police surveillance network to spy on Indigenous Peoples and their supporters for defending Indigenous Peoples' self-determination and land rights. The...

You will no doubt recall the controversy surrounding the efforts of Quebec billionaire Pierre Peladeau to get a prized licence for his Sun News TV network. If he had succeeded, the cable companies would have been obliged to carry his extremist right wing news channel, dubbed by many as “Fox News North.” In the end, the CRTC...

Alex Atamanenko, MP (BC Southern Interior), introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons today that would give conscientious objectors an official sanction to spend their taxes on nonviolent alternatives to war. Bill C-363, would allow Canadians, who object to paying taxes for military purposes on conscientious or religious grounds, to divert an […]

The battle to protect the Gulf of St. Lawrence from oil and gas development received a major boost this week when American actor, writer and director Ethan Hawke benevolently lent his support to the cause. Hawke, a landowner along the Gulf in Nova Scotia, was approached by coastal landowners, fishermen, Mi’kmaq leaders and concerned citizens […]

The amazingly resilient Occupy phenomenon is running up against the same ugly reality that so many social movements have encountered over the past 20 years: There is a world of difference between influence and power.  Governments and the corporations they serve have power — that is, the power of money (and the law) to make ...