Morning Rush: 2026 census will ask about sexual orientation
Ottawa Watch
Bill Carroll from The Morning Rush shares his thoughts on a new question in the census asking respondents about their sexual orientation.
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Canada News.Net
44 minutes ago
- Canada News.Net
India, Canada working on reinstatement of High Commissioners: MEA
New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday stated that India and Canada are working to reinstate the High Commissioners to each other's capitals. The move follows efforts to normalise relations that had deteriorated sharply last year. At a press briefing, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney had reaffirmed the importance of India-Canada ties during a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada. He added that both sides agreed to take constructive steps to 'restore stability' in the relationship. 'We had issued a press release when we had the last meeting of PM Modi with Prime Minister Carney, on the sidelines of G7 in Kananaskis in Alberta. Both leaders then reaffirmed the importance of India-Canada ties based on shared democratic values, respect for the rule of law, and commitment to upholding the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Both sides agreed to take calibrated and constructive steps to restore stability in the relationship, beginning with the early return of high commissioners to each other's capitals,' Randhir Jaiswal said. 'That was what was agreed between the prime ministers. Both countries are now working on this particular matter,' he added. Diplomatic tensions between the two nations flared up last year after then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that his government had 'credible allegations' of India's involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in 2023. India had strongly denied the charges, calling them 'absurd' and 'motivated.' In response, India recalled six diplomats, including its High Commissioner to Canada, after they were labelled 'persons of interest' by Canadian authorities investigating the killing. India also expelled six Canadian diplomats, including Canada's High Commissioner to India. Nijjar was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023. With Mark Carney now serving as the Canadian Prime Minister after Trudeau's resignation, both countries appear to be taking steps to improve ties. According to MEA, PM Modi and PM Carney had a 'key meeting' at the G7 Summit where they discussed ways to restore and strengthen the bilateral relationship. India and Canada also agreed to resume senior and working-level mechanisms and discussions in various areas, including: trade, people-to-people contact, connectivity and collaboration in key areas like, cooperating on clean energy and technology initiatives, collaborating on digital infrastructure projects, exploring opportunities for cooperation in artificial intelligence and discussing potential collaboration on food security and critical minerals. (ANI)
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Senate could vote on controversial major projects bill today
Prime Minister Mark Carney is joined by members of his cabinet and caucus as he speaks at a news conference in the Foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa after Bill C-5 passed in the House. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang OTTAWA — The Senate could vote today on Prime Minister Mark Carney's controversial major projects bill, legislation that would give the federal government the power to fast-track projects it hopes will bolster the economy. The bill, which moved swiftly through the House of Commons, is subject to a programming motion in the Senate — meaning it has to be voted on by tomorrow. Bill C-5 has faced heavy opposition over the speed of its passage through Parliament and the sweeping new powers it would give the government. Carney has said the bill is needed to fast-track 'nation-building projects' in the face of an economic crisis triggered by the trade war with the United States. The government has defended its decision to ram the bill through, pointing to its federal election win as evidence that Canadians support its agenda. But critics calling for a deeper review of the bill have argued there's no need to rush it through because proposed fast-track projects won't start work before Parliament returns from its summer break. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2025
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Hate toward South Asians ‘skyrocketing' in Canada, report says
FILE - This combination of photos shows logos of X, formerly known as Twitter, top left; Snapchat, top right; Facebook, bottom left; and TikTok, bottom right. A federal judge extended a block on enforcement Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, of an Ohio law that would require children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps as a legal challenge proceeds. (AP Photo, File) There's been a sharp rise in online hate targeting the South Asian community in Canada, spurred in part by a domestic extremist group and the spread of anti-immigration messaging, according to a new report published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). 'We did see on X specifically that South Asians were really disproportionately targeted compared to some other ethnic and religious minorities' said Steven Rai, a domestic extremism analyst with ISD, in an interview with CTV News. The report — which found anti-South Asian the has 'been skyrocketing' both online and offline — is an analysis of high-level quantitative data specifically seeking posts with slurs targeting South Asian communities and filtering for those either coming from or referencing Canada. 'Our analysis found that posts containing anti-South Asian slurs increased by more than 1,350 percent from 2023 to 2024 on X (formerly Twitter), with police-reported hate crimes against South Asians in Canada increasing by more than 227 percent between 2019 and 2023 ,' the report states. Rai called the findings 'absolutely staggering.' He said the research also looked at other groups, for example Muslims, and the found hateful posts targeting those communities were stable in terms of quantity. 'That's not to say other forms of hate aren't incredibly important and concerning, but what really caught my eye here was just how much anti-South Asian hate specifically is rising,' Rai said. The report comes amid separate analysis by the ISD digging into online domestic extremism in Canada. The institute defines targeted hate as any activity that 'seeks to dehumanize, demonize, harass, threaten, or incite violence against an individual or community based on religion, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, or migrant status.' Rai said he decided to do quantitative data analysis of posts targeting South Asians after he personally noticed an increase in hateful posts, and wanted to see whether the numbers supported his theory. 'And then I started to notice that the narratives painting Indians and other South Asian groups as invaders, as dirty, as criminals, really started to take off on social media,' he said. 'Unsurprisingly but unfortunately, we did see a really clear rise in the data beginning in late 2023 and over the course of 2024,' he added. According to the report, the posts also target South Asian politicians in Canada, with a spike in posts during the April federal election, in particular aimed at former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Rai said there are seemingly several factors affecting the issue, one of them being Canadians seemingly conflating concerns around the housing crisis, a lack of job opportunities and other economic anxieties as being the fault of immigration policy. 'And they're sort of linking what they perceive as a weakness in the Canadian economy to an influx in immigration,' Rai explained. 'So that's the first piece for a lot of Canadians.' 'And then they're looking at who are the most visible ethnic minorities in Canada, and we see a huge South Asian population there — in places like Brampton (Ont.) or Surrey (B.C.) — so South Asians have become visible targets for a lot of people who are looking for a scapegoat and for someone to blame for these economic problems,' he added. Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a cap on immigration numbers, in part to ease pressure on the housing sector. The ISD report also included a case analysis of the white supremacist group Diagalon, which became prominent during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Canada, and the leaders of which Rai said 'are really heavily promoting this hate against Indian people, specifically.' According to the report, the dataset also found that Indian people specifically were targeted using language invoking the Great Replacement, an online conspiracy theory that elites are trying to deliberately change demographics by increasing non-white migration. Extending the data search to include not just posts within Canada, but also those mentioning the country, Rai said, allowed him to also see that Canada is also being held up as an example of what might happen when a country is supposedly 'overtaken' by 'non-white invaders.'
