UN refugee chief says reducing refugee targets is wise if it prevents backlash

The head of the United Nations refugee agency says it is wise of Canada to scale back the number of new refugees it plans to resettle if that helps stabilize the housing market and prevents backlash against newcomers.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, met with the prime minister in Ottawa on Monday.

His visit comes a little more than a week after the federal government announced plans to cut overall immigration levels by 20 per cent for 2025 — a cut that includes refugees and protected persons.

'Not going to play their games': Singh won't help Tories, Bloc topple the Liberals

New Democrats will not cave to demands from the Bloc Québécois and Conservative leaders to help them bring down the Liberal government, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday. 

His party is now all that stands between Justin Trudeau's Liberals and an early election, with the other two opposition parties pledging to try to topple the minority government at the next opportunity. 

On Tuesday, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he will make good on his threat to work with the other opposition parties to bring the Liberals down with a non-confidence vote.

Canadian consensus on immigration under threat, but not gone: immigration minister

Canada's long-held consensus on immigration is under threat but has not disappeared, the immigration minister said in an interview after announcing a major cut to the number of newcomers to Canada. 

On Thursday, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to slash Canada's immigration targets by 20 per cent next year and admitted the Liberal government did not get the balance right after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Unspecified number of Liberal MPs set to confront Trudeau, ask him to step down

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face down his own caucus members in a hotly anticipated meeting this morning, as several of them plan to try to convince him to step aside.

Rumours have circulated for weeks about an undisclosed number of Liberal MPs who have signed on to the effort to oust the prime minister in the hopes of improving the party's chances in the next election. 

That promises to make the regular weekly caucus meeting on Parliament Hill extra tense, as Trudeau has showed no signs of stepping down from the top job.

Former public safety minister didn't know about delayed spy warrant, he tells inquiry

Former public safety minister Bill Blair told a federal inquiry Friday he had no knowledge about delays in approving a spy service warrant in 2021 that may have included references to people in his own government.

A commission of inquiry into foreign interference has heard that it took 54 days for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warrant application to be approved by Blair.

The average turnaround time for such applications is four to 10 days.

Who will end the debate? Political gridlock continues in the House of Commons

Federal political parties appear to be locked in a game of chicken in an increasingly precarious Parliament over a debate that has stalled almost all business in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives have vowed the debate will continue until the Liberals hand over unredacted documents to the RCMP about a green-tech foundation that was found to have misspent government money.

The debate has now stretched into its second week.

'The House will be seized,' government business on pause over docs debate

Government business has been put on indefinite pause in the House of Commons and the Conservatives say it will stay that way until the Liberals hand over documents related to misspent government dollars.

Last week, Speaker Greg Fergus ruled that the government "clearly did not fully comply" with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.

Poilievre makes case for taking down the government to restore 'promise of Canada'

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a campaign-style speech in the House of Commons as he asked other members of Parliament to support a motion that could trigger an early election. 

Poilievre outlined his plans to increase revenue and reduce interest rates and debt, cut development taxes and restore what he calls "the promise of Canada."

The non-confidence motion Poilievre has put forward is the first test for the minority government since the NDP ended its supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals earlier this month.

House Speaker Greg Fergus asks MPs to behave better in question period after incident

House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus gave MPs a stern warning on Monday about improving their behaviour as they prepare for a fractious debate about whether the Liberals should continue to govern.

The Conservatives Tuesday will formally introduce a promised motion asking the House of Commons to declare it has no confidence in the Liberal government or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

Health Minister Mark Holland appeals to Senate not to amend pharmacare bill

Health Minister Mark Holland urged a committee of senators Wednesday not to tweak the pharmacare bill he carefully negotiated with the NDP earlier this year.

The bill would underpin a potential national, single-payer pharmacare program and allow the health minister to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover some diabetes and contraceptive medications.

It was the result of weeks of political negotiations with the New Democrats, who early this year threatened to pull out of their supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals unless they could agree on the wording.