All Senate vacancies now filled as Trudeau makes 5 new appointments

2025/03/10 Leave a comment

Of note. My analysis of the diversity of appointments below across three prime ministers:

With just days to go until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves federal politics, his office says five new appointments have now filled all the vacancies in the 105-seat Senate.

The Prime Minister’s Office says in a news release that the Governor General has appointed former Moncton mayor Dawn Arnold for New Brunswick and former MLA Tony Ince for Nova Scotia.

Non-profit executive Katherine Hay, charity CEO Farah Mohamed and former provincial politician Sandra Pupatello have been appointed for Ontario.

There were 22 vacancies in the Senate when Trudeau became prime minister in 2015 and launched what his government called a “new, non-partisan, merit-based process” to advise on appointments.

There have been 100 independent appointments to the Senate made on the advice of Trudeau, with a dozen in 2024 and 10 this year.

Source: All Senate vacancies now filled as Trudeau makes 5 new appointments

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Snyder: Antisemitism in the Oval Office

2025/03/08 Leave a comment

Interesting and credible take:

..And so I can’t escape that first reflexive response to that scene in the Oval Office: here is a person of Jewish origin being treated in a very particular and familiar way by non-Jews. I get the dissidents’ comparison to an interrogation or trial, and can imagine the cell or the courtroom. But what struck me was the circle of bullying gentiles — as in Europe in the 1930s, and in other places and times, at the particular moment when the mob felt that power was shifting.

But is it? In writing about antisemitism here I am obviously making a moral point. I am asking us, Americans, to think seriously about what we are doing, about Russia’s criminal war against Ukraine, in which we are now becoming complicit. That Russia’s war is antisemitic is one of its many evils; taking Russia’s side in that war is wrong for many reasons, including that one. At a time when antisemitism is a growing problem around the world, I would like for us to be able to see the obvious examples, especially when we Americans are so closely involved in them. There is a certain mobbish mindlessness in the growing circle of American voices calling for Zelens’kyi to leave office, and I think it has a name and a history. I would like for us to recall that history and remember that the name can apply to us.

In writing about antisemitism I am also making a political claim. The antisemite really believes that the Jew must defer, that the Jew cannot fight, that a state led by a Jew must duly crumble. This was one of Putin’s mistakes, two years ago. And now, I suspect, it is also Trump’s, and Musk’s. America does have the power, of course, to hurt Ukraine. Just as Russia does. The combination of American and Russian policy is killing Ukrainians right now. The costs of the emerging Russian-American axis will be terrible for Ukraine. But Ukraine will not immediately collapse, nor will the Ukrainian population turn against Zelens’kyi. What he will personally do I couldn’t say and won’t try to predict: and that, of course, is my point.

In the world of the antisemite, all is known in advance: the Jew is just a deceiver, concerned only with money, subject to exclusion, intimidated by force. As soon as he is humiliated and eliminated, everything else will fall into its proper place. Consider the smirks in the Oval Office last Friday: the antisemite thinks that he has understood everything. But in the actual world in which we actually live, Jews are humans, perilous and beautiful like the rest of us. The United States has never elected a Jewish president, and perhaps never will. But Ukraine has; and that president represents his people, facing challenges that those who mock him will never understand. Those Americans have chosen to add their own to the evil he must confront. But that does not mean that they will control what happens next…

Source: Antisemitism in the Oval Office

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McWhorter: An Unkind Policy for a Nonexistent Problem [English as official language]

2025/03/07 Leave a comment

More good commentary by McWhorter:

“You come here, you speak our language!”

That is the elevator-pitch version of one of President Trump’s latest executive orders.

In form, it undoes the requirement, instituted under the Clinton administration, that government agencies and organizations offer services and documents in various languages.

In spirit, it does much more — and much worse.

The “English only” idea goes way back. Benjamin Franklin worried about there being too much German spoken in our country. Theodore Roosevelt was on board as well, proclaiming in 1919, “We have room for but one language in this country, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.” The organization U.S. English, founded by Senator S.I. Hayakawa and the anti-immigration activist John Tanton in the 1980s, has been especially persistent. The group argues that elevating English to official status gives us a common means of communication, encourages immigrants to assimilate and “defines a much-needed common-sense language policy.”

This is nonsense, because we already have a common means of communication: English.

Other languages are spoken in America as well, some even passed down through generations. But Americans use English as their lingua franca regardless of whatever else they speak.

In 19th-century Italy, it was a different story. Piedmontese to the north and Sicilian to the south had so little in common with Tuscan in the middle that they qualified as different languages altogether. What Italians had was what the Strother Martin character in the film “Cool Hand Luke” famously called a failure to communicate. So when the regions were unified into a single nation, elevating one dialect — Tuscan — above the others was necessary.

Not here. For one thing, it is unclear just where in this country Trump thinks people are being raised without the ability to communicate in English. All I can think of is Haredi Jewish communities, where life is conducted in Yiddish and some children do not really learn to speak English. But something tells me they are not the ones on Trump’s mind.

Then there’s the claim that this order will compel immigrants to learn English, and the implication that people who fail to do so are shirking a basic American duty. This attitude is based on ignorance about how people acquire language.

In our midteens — after the end of what linguists call the critical period — our ability to master a new language starts to atrophy. I once lived next door to a couple that had just arrived from Israel. Their 2-year-old knew no English at all and used to squeak “khatul!” whenever he saw the cute black cat I had back then. A few years later he sounded like Macaulay Culkin. That’s how it is for little kids. Those who start living in English at, say, 16 will learn to speak fluently but probably retain a slight accent, and when tired might flub the occasional idiom. Adults starting from zero encounter almost inevitable limits. A brilliant Slav I know came to North America at about 50. His English was great, but with a strong accent and a tendency now and then to render things the way his native language would, such as designating me “an early-waking-up person.” This was normal.

Learning a new language, after all, isn’t just a matter of dutifully memorizing the words for things; you also have to learn how to put them together. Example: A native Spanish speaker is learning English. She’s at an American club and wants to say, “The guy who brought me can’t dance!” (Quick, show music geeks, what’s that from?) First she has to know that the past tense of “bring” is not “bringed” but the hopelessly random “brought,” and that in English we put the direct object (“me”) after rather than before the verb. Or, the woman is a native English speaker at a club in Beijing, new to Mandarin but trying to say the same thing. In Mandarin she’d have to say, “The take-me-come-in-guy can’t dance.”

That’s all part of why immigrants in late middle age or beyond, if they live in communities where almost everyone speaks their native language, may never really find their footing in English. In my neighborhood, where I am frequently assumed to be Dominican, barbers address me in Spanish and older Latinos, especially women, approach me asking me to point them in the right dirección. According to the English-only idea, those older ladies are a problem in some way. How?

Imagine a native Mandarin speaker who is new or newish to English. Let’s say she can get by just fine while navigating a menu or engaging in brief exchanges. Grand. But if she were being admitted to a hospital, taking a citizenship test, voting or doing anything else involving detail or urgency, she would want to be able to use, hear or read her native language. To deny her that is pointless and unfeeling.

But that is precisely what Trump’s executive order will do. In all those settings where ordinary people interact with government functions, nonnative speakers will be forced to muddle through in English alone, regardless of whether that produces any clarity for them — or for the government branch in question.

The only silver lining to all this is that to a considerable extent, modern technology will render the new rule powerless. Google Translate and other apps can now translate straight from the page, as well as interpret between you and another speaker in real time. The executive order “Designating English as the Official Language of the United States” will largely kneel to the power of the iPhone.

But what matters is the spirit of the thing. The English language is under not the slightest threat in America, and providing services in other languages for adults past the critical period is kindness, not disloyalty. A punitive yawp that English be “official” in this country is jingoistic trash talk in the guise of statesmanship.

By the way (alerting the Oxford English Dictionary as well as the upcoming Oxford Dictionary of African-American English!), we now have an even earlier example of the use of “woke” than the one my colleague Emily Berch unearthed two weeks ago. On Sept. 12, 1925, the Black journalist C.F. Richardson wrote, “Until we wake up, ‘stay woke’ (meaning to stay on the job at all times) and exert our full strength and power for our best interests, we shall forever be regarded, and treated as human slaves by the governing class and those in official positions.” Thanks to Fred Shapiro for this discovery (and check out his New Yale Book of Quotations).

Oh — and as for the origin of “The guy who brought me can’t dance!” the answer is the 1941 musical “Best Foot Forward,” with songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and book by John Cecil Holm.

Source: An Unkind Policy for a Nonexistent Problem

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Municipalities, rights groups voice concerns about Quebec bill on integrating immigrants 

2025/03/04 2 Comments

As expected, as the practicalities of what would be required are raised:

Quebec municipalities and human rights groups are voicing concerns about proposed legislation that would require newcomers to abide by a set of common values.

They say the new bill on cultural integration could foster anti-immigrant sentiment and impose a heavy administrative burden on communities.

The bill, tabled in January by Quebec’s right-leaning Coalition Avenir Quebec government, would have immigrants adhere to shared values including gender equality, secularism and protection of the French language. The legislation is the latest in a series of bills that aim to reinforce Quebec identity, following the province’s secularism law and its overhaul of the language law.

It’s intended as Quebec’s answer to the Canadian model of multiculturalism that promotes cultural diversity, which the government believes is harmful to social cohesion in Quebec. Immigration Minister Jean-Francois Roberge has said he wants to avoid cultural “ghettos.”

It would also allow the government to make public funding contingent on adherence to a forthcoming integration policy. Roberge has suggested, for example, that festivals could have their funding cut if they don’t promote Quebec’s common culture. That part of the bill has prompted concerns from organizations representing Quebec municipalities, which say it encroaches on municipal autonomy. The Union des municipalites du Quebec is calling on the government to scrap that part of the legislation outright.

Meanwhile, the Federation quebecoise des municipalites wants the funding requirement to be limited to cultural programs and those related to integrating immigrants. They say it would be difficult to review every funding application for adherence to the policy. Pierre Chateauvert, policy director with the federation, told a legislative committee last week that municipalities are already struggling under the weight of laws and policies they have to apply.

“The burden causes you to become paralyzed. You paralyze the system,” he said. “This is what we are currently experiencing.”

The federation says it supports the objectives of the cultural integration bill. But it also wants the government to increase spending on French-language classes for immigrants, many of which were cancelled last fall due to lack of funding. Critics have said those cuts run counter to Quebec’s goals of integration.

Source: Municipalities, rights groups voice concerns about Quebec bill on integrating immigrants

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Wells: Ira Wells on book banning

2025/02/27 Leave a comment

Peel Region never fails to disappoint in its excesses:

In one, [Ira] Wells was invited to take part in a “library audit” at his child’s Toronto school, led by a principle who said that if it were up to her, they’d get rid of “all the old books.” In another, all books published before 2008 were removed by the armful from Peel Region school libraries west of Toronto, on the general understanding that justice was invented in 2008 and that before that year, we were mostly just pummeling one another with rocks and other tools of oppression. I paraphrase.

Here’s a paragraph from the manual Peel Region school librarians used to guide them in this work of moral uplift. For my money, the word “therefore” is being asked to carry more than its fair comic weight:

Source: Ira Wells on book banning

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Le modèle caquiste d’intégration est interculturaliste, dit Gérard Bouchard

2025/02/26 Leave a comment

More on Bill 84 and the caution regarding its assimilationist tendencies rather than integration, particularly regarding “common culture, and that integration is a joint responsibility of the host society and newcomers:

Pour le sociologue Gérard Bouchard, un des pères de l’interculturalisme au Québec, il était « grand temps » que le gouvernement consacre son modèle d’intégration des immigrants dans une loi.

Dans un mémoire d’une quinzaine de pages qu’il déposera mardi en lever de rideau de l’étude du projet de loi 84 « sur l’intégration nationale », l’historien et sociologue donne sa bénédiction — non pas sans nuances — à l’avenue empruntée par le ministre de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration, Jean-François Roberge, pour écrire un nouveau « contrat social » avec les personnes immigrantes. S’il le « félicit[e] » pour sa proposition législative soumise il y a un mois à l’Assemblée nationale, il l’incite du même souffle à éviter les dérives « assimilationnistes ».

« Je suis heureux de constater que des notions essentielles de l’interculturalisme ont trouvé place dans l’énoncé du projet de loi 84 », souligne M. Bouchard, qui avait fameusement codirigé les travaux de la commission Bouchard-Taylor en 2007 et 2008.

“Il est grand temps que le Québec se dote d’un modèle de gestion de la diversité qui s’écarte à la fois du multiculturalisme canadien et de tous les modèles assimilationnistes ou à tendance assimilationniste », écrit-il.

Dans son mémoire, Gérard Bouchard, qui avait écrit en 2014 un essai intitulé L’interculturalisme. Un point de vue québécois, se réjouit que le ministre Roberge se soit rattaché dans son projet de loi à une série de principes phares de l’interculturalisme à la sauce Québec — la « culture commune », la « réciprocité », la « promotion du français » et la « nécessité de l’intégration ». Il ne se prive pas, toutefois, d’effectuer une mise en garde. « Il manque [au projet de loi] quelques composantes et celles qui sont mentionnées devront être complétées, sinon reformulées », soutient-il.

Selon lui, il faudra par exemple éviter de définir la « culture commune » du Québec, un concept qui apparaît dans la première phrase du projet de loi, « comme la fusion de toutes les cultures ». « [Cela] relèverait de l’assimilation », peut-on lire.

L’État québécois aura en outre à « prévenir la discrimination et le racisme » et à « financer des cours de francisation et d’initiation à la culture et à la société québécoise » s’il veut bel et bien respecter le principe de réciprocité prévu au projet de loi.

« L’intégration assigne des responsabilités aux immigrants et aux minorités, mais aussi d’importants devoirs à l’État et à la société d’accueil », écrit M. Bouchard, qui recommande d’ailleurs que les entreprises et les organismes privés soient incités à appliquer les pratiques interculturelles dans leur quotidien, comme devront le faire les institutions publiques si le projet de loi est sanctionné comme tel.

« Vision étroite »

À la mi-février, dans une lettre ouverte publiée dans Le Devoir, une trentaine de personnalités publiques, dont les anciennes ministres Louise Beaudoin (Parti québécois), Louise Harel (Parti québécois) et Kathleen Weil (Parti libéral du Québec), avaient dit du projet de loi 84 qu’il était « loin de s’inscrire dans [la] continuité » de l’interculturalisme.

« Avec son approche aux accents assimilationnistes, il s’agit d’une nette rupture par rapport au modèle hérité de la Révolution tranquille. Affirmer les spécificités de l’approche québécoise est essentiel pour offrir une option de remplacement à la fois crédible et juste au multiculturalisme canadien. L’initiative caquiste ne va pas dans ce sens », pouvait-on y lire.

À la veille de son passage en commission parlementaire pour commenter le projet de loi, la Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI) tenait le même discours, lundi.

« Il est manifeste que le PL-84 rompt avec l’approche interculturelle de l’intégration, au profit d’une approche assimilationniste », affirme l’organisme dans un document transmis au Devoir et contenant ses « commentaires préliminaires » sur le texte de loi caquiste.

Selon la TCRI, qui fédère plus de 150 organismes œuvrant auprès des personnes immigrantes, la définition de la « culture commune » dans le projet de loi « occulte la diversité qui façonne le Québec d’aujourd’hui ».

« Elle passe sous silence la richesse des nations, cultures et langues présentes sur le territoire, notamment celles des Premières Nations et des Inuits ou de la minorité historique anglophone, qui ne sont mentionnées que dans le préambule du projet de loi. En parlant d’une “culture commune” qui ne reconnaît pas ces contributions, le gouvernement semble vouloir imposer une vision étroite de la culture québécoise », peut-on lire.

En ne s’attachant qu’à la dimension culturelle du processus d’intégration, le projet de loi 84 passe par ailleurs sous silence « d’autres dimensions de l’intégration, comme l’intégration socioéconomique », soulève la TCRI.

Les consultations particulières entourant le projet de loi sur l’intégration nationale s’amorcent mardi à l’Assemblée nationale. En plus de Gérard Bouchard et de la TCRI, plusieurs groupes, comme la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, le Mouvement laïque québécois et la Ligue des droits et libertés, seront entendus d’ici le 18 mars.

Source: Le modèle caquiste d’intégration est interculturaliste, dit Gérard Bouchard

For sociologist Gérard Bouchard, one of the fathers of interculturalism in Quebec, it was “it was high time” for the government to enshrine its model of integrating immigrants into a law.

In a brief of about fifteen pages that he will deposit on Tuesday in the lifting of the curtain of the study of Bill 84 “on national integration”, the historian and sociologist gives his blessing – not without nuances – to the avenue taken by the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, Jean-François Roberge, to write a new “social contract” with immigrants. If he “congratulated” him on his legislative proposal submitted a month ago to the National Assembly, he encouraged him in the same breath to avoid “assimilationist” excesses.

“I am pleased to see that essential notions of interculturalism have found a place in the statement of Bill 84,” emphasizes Mr. Bouchard, who had famously co-directed the work of the Bouchard-Taylor commission in 2007 and 2008.

“It is high time that Quebec has a diversity management model that departs from both Canadian multiculturalism and all assimilationist or assimilationist models,” he writes.

In his memoir, Gérard Bouchard, who had written an essay in 2014 entitled L’interculturalisme. A Quebec point of view, is pleased that Minister Roberge has attached himself in his bill to a series of key principles of interculturalism with Quebec sauce – the “common culture”, “reciprocity”, the “promotion of French” and the “need for integration”. He does not hesitate, however, to give a warning. “There are [a few components missing from the bill] and those mentioned will have to be completed, if not reformulated,” he says.

According to him, it will be necessary, for example, to avoid defining the “common culture” of Quebec, a concept that appears in the first sentence of the bill, “as the fusion of all cultures”. “[This] would be a matter of assimilation,” we can read.

The Quebec State will also have to “prevent discrimination and racism” and “finance francization and initiation courses into Quebec culture and society” if it does want to respect the principle of reciprocity provided for in the bill.

“Integration assigns responsibilities to immigrants and minorities, but also important duties to the State and the host society,” writes Mr. Bouchard, who also recommends that companies and private organizations be encouraged to apply intercultural practices in their daily lives, as public institutions will have to do if the bill is sanctioned as such.

“Close vision”

In mid-February, in an open letter published in Le Devoir, about 30 public figures, including former ministers Louise Beaudoin (Parti québécois), Louise Harel (Parti québécois) and Kathleen Weil (Parti libéral du Québec), had said of Bill 84 that it was “far from being part of [the] continuity” of interculturalism.

“With its approach with assimilationist accents, it is a clear break with the model inherited from the Quiet Revolution. Affirming the specifics of the Quebec approach is essential to offer a replacement option that is both credible and fair to Canadian multiculturalism. The Caquist initiative does not go in this direction, “we could read.

On the eve of its passage in the parliamentary committee to comment on the bill, the Table of Concertation of Organizations Serving Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI) gave the same speech on Monday.

“It is clear that the PL-84 breaks with the intercultural approach to integration, in favor of an assimilationist approach,” says the organization in a document sent to Le Devoir and containing its “preliminary comments” on the Caquiste law.

According to the TCRI, which brings together more than 150 organizations working with immigrants, the definition of “common culture” in the bill “hides the diversity that shapes today’s Quebec”.

“It ignores the richness of the nations, cultures and languages present on the territory, especially those of the First Nations and the Inuit or the historical English-speaking minority, which are only mentioned in the preamble of the bill. Speaking of a “common culture” that does not recognize these contributions, the government seems to want to impose a narrow vision of Quebec culture,” we can read.

By focusing only on the cultural dimension of the integration process, Bill 84 also ignores “other dimensions of integration, such as socio-economic integration,” raises the TCRI.

Special consultations on the draft law on national integration begin on Tuesday in the National Assembly. In addition to Gérard Bouchard and the TCRI, several groups, such as the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, the Mouvement laïque québécois and the Ligue des droits et libertés, will be heard by March 18.

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Anger, questions after Canadian terror group leader tweets from Hezbollah funeral

2025/02/26 Leave a comment

Valid reaction:

As Israeli jets roared defiantly over Sunday’s Beirut funeral for a Hezbollah leader, a leader of a Canadian-based terror organization was among those paying tribute to the dead terrorist.

Charlotte Kates, a leader for the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network — considered a terrorist group by the Canadian government — posted tweets from the Beirut sports stadium used for the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah. Killed in an Israeli air strike, he was a founding member of the Lebanese terror group, Hezbollah.

“It is such an honour to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine,” Kates posted to X on Sunday morning.

Included in the posted images was a picture of Kates holding a Palestinian flag emblazoned with the Samidoun logo and the antisemitic phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in Arabic — in front of a crowd waving yellow Hezbollah flags.

It isn’t clear how Kates found herself in Beirut for the funeral.

Reports published Monday in The Jerusalem Post detailed how scores of anti-Israel influencers were invited to attend to funeral as part of a “Global Awakening and Palestine” conference — a Tehran-backed propaganda effort.

The Toronto Sun’s questions to Samidoun regarding their association with the conference were not returned.

As well, inquires to the office of Public Safety Minister David McGuinty went unacknowledged.

Other Canada-linked attendees included former Green Party of Canada leadership contender Dimitri Lascaris, who tweeted video of the Israeli flyover.

A notorious presence in North America’s anti-Israel scene, the American-born Kates was arrested — but not charged — in Vancouver last year after praising the Oct. 7 Hamas Israel terror attacks, calling them “heroic and brave.”

While little is known about Kates’ citizenship status in Canada, she met her husband Khaled Barakat — a Palestinian-Canadian — over a decade ago, and both make their home in Vancouver….

Source: Anger, questions after Canadian terror group leader tweets from Hezbollah funeral

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This Black woman’s bone density scan results list her ethnicity as ‘white.’ Why that’s a problem

2025/02/26 Leave a comment

It would have been helpful if CBC had reached out to experts who could explain if there are variances among different ethnic and racial groups for bone density data. Likely there are as is the case for many other health issues and conditions but negligent not to do include in the reporting:

…The Black Physicians Association advised the London Health Sciences Centre on how to do culturally-appropriate community screening. The hospital declined an interview request for this story. 

As for Brown, she’s looking forward to speaking to her doctor about her bone density results and seeing if she needs to do another scan. “I’m not ticked off about this; I just think we have to fix it. Like, come on,” she said. “If the ethnicity piece doesn’t matter, then eliminate it from the results page. Because right now, it tells me my T-scores and then says what normal is based on a normal Caucasian woman. I want to know, what’s normal for me?” 

CBC News has reached out to Well Health Diagnostic Centres, which owns the clinic where the scan was done, and will update this story if they reply. GE HealthCare says patient safety is its top priority. “As a global healthcare company, our goal is to develop products aimed at improving outcomes for all patients,” a spokesperson said. 

Source: This Black woman’s bone density scan results list her ethnicity as ‘white.’ Why that’s a problem

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Qaidari: As a new immigrant to Canada, I know it will survive Trump’s threats

2025/02/24 Leave a comment

A note of optimism, perhaps overly so, but hopefully not:

…Apologies are strength, not a weakness 

Canada’s identity bridges thousands of years of Indigenous history with the contributions of immigrants from around the world. Few nations possess Canada’s capacity for introspection and growth. Our willingness to apologize for past wrongs and our commitment to reconciliation have enabled progress and unity despite past mistakes. 

Yes, Canada faces economic challenges such as inflation and unemployment. However, no nation sells its identity for short-term economic relief. 

History teaches us that resilience, unity and cultural strength are the true pillars of survival. Canadians – regardless of race, religion, gender or political affiliation – have shown unwavering resolve against Trump’s neo-imperialist rhetoric. 

Canada will emerge stronger from this critical juncture in its history. The unity of our people and the richness of our cultural and social fabric will ensure its continued success. As the saying goes: “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” 

Shoulder to shoulder, Canadians will preserve our identity and sovereignty, proving to the world the unquantifiable strength of a united nation. 

This shared resilience has left me deeply moved, particularly as I’ve observed Canadians from all walks of life voicing their opposition to Trump’s threats. History will once again remind politicians that the essence of nationhood cannot be quantified or undermined. Canada will endure and thrive, as it always has. 

Abbas Qaidari is an international security analyst and former senior fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies in Tehran. His analyses have appeared in Al-Monitor, the Atlantic Council and many U.S.-based media. 

Source: As a new immigrant to Canada, I know it will survive Trump’s threats

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In appeal to Muslims, Freeland pledges to scrap controversial CRA division

2025/02/22 Leave a comment

Hard to justify given the recent foreign interference enquiry. Disbanding the RAD could impede efforts to track other groups. Irresponsible to do so pending the results of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) investigation:

Should she win the current federal Liberal leadership contest, Chrystia Freeland is pledging to scrap a controversial division of the Canada Revenue Agency that Muslim charities and civil liberties advocates have long accused of discriminatory auditing practices, CBC News has learned.

Her campaign has yet to make an official announcement, but Thursday morning she signed and sent a letter about her plan to the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), one of Canada’s larger Muslim advocacy groups, about her plan to get rid of the Research and Analysis Division.

The RAD has been criticized by Muslim groups for unfairly targeting their work as it looks for sources of terrorism financing in the country. An intelligence review body, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), undertook a review of its activities in 2023, a probe that has yet to be completed.

In the letter, Freeland writes: “No charity serving Canadians in good faith should operate under a cloud of unwarranted suspicion. There is well-documented evidence from civil society organizations and independent experts suggesting that the Review and Analysis Division has a bias against racialized charities.”

“This is why, if I become Prime Minister, I will dismantle the Review and Analysis Division of the CRA,” she adds.

She is also pledging to establish an independent CRA oversight body “to ensure that audit and compliance processes are conducted fairly.”

And she said she would implement both these measures before the next federal election. …

Source: In appeal to Muslims, Freeland pledges to scrap controversial CRA division

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