When asked which is causing them more hardship, 84% said inflation, compared to 16% who said it was interest rates ..read more

Thousands in Halifax were either killed or wounded on this date in 1917 after a munitions ship exploded in the city’s harbour. Until the detonation of the atomic bomb more than 25 years-later, the Halifax incident was the world’s most powerful man-made explosion. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on December 6, 2017, marked the centennial of that dark day in a statement released by the PMO. “On the morning of December 6, 1917, in the midst of the First World War, the munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc and the freighter SS Imo collided in the narrows of Halifax Harbour,” Trudeau said ..read more

VANCOUVER — Toxic workplace claims against Canada's spy agency point to a "perfect storm" of conditions that allow harassment to occur and rooting them out could require more than removing one "bad apple," says an expert on employment discrimination.  Beth Hirsh, a University of British Columbia sociology professor who studies workplace discrimination and the effect of legal claims on organizations, said lawsuits against the Canadian Security Intelligence Service contain "egregious" allegations.  CSIS announced last week it had launched a workplace climate assessment in its British C ..read more

VANCOUVER — Toxic workplace claims against Canada's spy agency point to a "perfect storm" of conditions that allow harassment to occur and rooting them out could require more than removing one "bad apple," says an expert on employment discrimination.  Beth Hirsh, a University of British Columbia sociology professor who studies workplace discrimination and the effect of legal claims on organizations, said lawsuits against the Canadian Security Intelligence Service contain "egregious" allegations.  CSIS announced last week it had launched a workplace climate assessment in its British C ..read more

A recruitment video for the physical surveillance unit of Canada's spy agency shows people using trains, cars and a bicycle to surreptitiously trail a target through Montreal. A "surveillant" identified in the video as "Andrea" says the unit's officers should be prepared for "long idle moments" and "bursts of adrenalin" and that they be able to "blend into the background." The physical surveillance unit of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is tasked with collecting intelligence by covertly observing targets. It's at the centre of allegations that its B.C. office was a toxic workplace ..read more

A new report from Statistics Canada says child care was more affordable across the country in 2023, but parents are having a harder time finding it. The average amount parents paid for their main full-time child-care arrangement was $544 per month in 2023, down from $649 in 2022, said the report released Tuesday.  Expenses for children specifically attending child-care centres full time averaged $508 per month in 2023, down from $663 per month in 2022. "This decrease occurred at the same time as many provinces and territories began implementing reductions in child-care fees," the report s ..read more

NEW YORK (AP) — A Donald Trump ally who worked in his Justice Department said Tuesday that if the former president is elected again, his administration will retaliate against people in the media “criminally or civilly.” Kash Patel, who was also chief of staff in the Defense Department and held a role on the National Security Council, made the comment on Steve Bannon's podcast. He said that, in a second Trump administration, “We will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media,” over the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his allies ha ..read more

Former President Donald Trump's civil business fraud trial turned Tuesday to one of the topics that has vexed him most — the value of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Testifying for Trump's defense, a Florida real estate attorney said the property could be sold as a home, notwithstanding decades-old legal documents in which Trump said he intended to forswear its use as anything but a club. Then a Palm Beach luxury real estate broker testified that he'd value the historic estate at over $1 billion as of 2021. “It’s something breathtaking. It’s something amazing to see," broker Lawren ..read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The number of candidates on stage is shrinking, but the fundamentals of Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate may be familiar to anyone who has watched the previous three meetings. No one has yet emerged as the clear Republican alternative to former President Donald Trump, whose lead is so big that he has skipped all the debates. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appear to be leading the fight for a distant second place, yet conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are still factors ..read more

OTTAWA — Any attempt to intimidate a senator while in the process of fulfilling their duties is a breach of their privilege, even if the effort is ultimately unsuccessful, the Speaker of the Senate ruled Tuesday. Raymonde Gagné's finding came nearly a month after the Senate erupted into what she called "exceptional chaos" during debate on a carbon pricing bill that would eliminate the levy from most natural gas and propane used on farms. The bill got little attention in the House of Commons, where it passed without the support of the governing Liberals. It has been under closer scrutiny in the ..read more