Politics

While the FIFA 2026 World Cup is being touted as an economic boon for the City of Vancouver, it may not work out that way for some businesses close to the marquee venue. That’s according to a clause in the Host City Agreement, recently obtained and published by independent journalist Bob Mackin of The Breaker News after a three-year battle.The contract requires the city to establish a “controlled area” located “directly adjacent to the outer stadium perimeter and in which certain commercial and other activities are prohibited on match days and the days prior to match days.”The contract requires signage in the controlled area to be removed or covered, and restricts the public sale of food and beverages along with souvenirs, in order to protect the rights of FIFA’s corporate partners.That’s ...

The Justice Department has fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan who worked on the cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday. There was no specific reason given for her firing, according to one of the people. They spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.Maurene Comey was a veteran lawyer in the Southern District of New York, long considered the most elite of the Justice Department’s prosecution offices. Her cases included the sex trafficking prosecution of Epstein, who died behind bars in 2019 as he was awaiting trial, and the recent case against Combs, which ended earlier this month with a mixed ver...

The British government said on Thursday it planned to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all UK elections in a major overhaul of the country’s democratic system. The government said the proposed changes were part of an effort to boost public trust in democracy and would align voting rights across Britain, where younger voters already participate in devolved elections in Scotland and Wales.“They’re old enough to go out to work, they’re old enough to pay taxes … and I think if you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on, which way the government should go,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told ITV News.Globally, most countries have a voting age of 18, however in last year’s European Parliament elections European Union members were given the opt...

By Alessia Passafiume The Canadian Press Posted July 17, 2025 7:07 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet today with First Nations leaders about his government’s controversial major projects legislation. The closed-door meeting was promised by Carney in June after chiefs said their rights were not respected by the rush to push the Building Canada Act through Parliament in June.The legislation allows cabinet to quickly grant federal approvals for big industrial projects like mines, ports and pipelines by sidestepping existing laws. ...

Carrie Sakamoto left her family’s beloved dogs outside in the freezing cold. She started fires in her kitchen, and she fell down the stairs of her Alberta home — several times.These incidents all occurred since 2021, when Sakamoto was injured and rushed to hospital after a rare adverse reaction from a COVID-19 vaccine.Sakamoto was hospitalized for 17 days. For a time, she could not walk, talk, chew or focus.The federal government announced a program in 2020 to help people like Sakamoto, pledging timely and fair support to the unfortunate like her who were seriously hurt after immunizations.The program was supposed to spare the injured and fragile the cost and stress associated with litigation.In Sakamoto’s case, the program, called the Vaccine Injury Support Program, or VISP, did neither.I...

The group of Ontario First Nations taking the federal and provincial governments to court over fast-track legislation, which will sidestep or suspend a range of legal protections, says the Crown is failing in its duties. A lawyer representing the coalition of nine First Nations filed a legal application against both the Ford and Carney governments on Monday evening. The action looks to have a court rule the entirety of Ontario’s Bill 5 unconstitutional, as well as large parts of the federal government’s Bill C-5.At Queen’s Park on Wednesday, four of the First Nations leaders involved spoke about their concerns with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s approach.“I would say they’re less informed,” Alderville First Nation Chief Taynar Simpson said. “I would say they nee...

Giant shovels, driverless trucks and a dog-like robot have all helped Canada’s oil sands companies including Imperial Oil and Suncor become some of North America’s lowest-cost oil producers, driving down overheads even as the worst inflation in a generation pushed U.S. shale costs up. As the global oil industry enters a downturn due to economic uncertainty related to U.S. tariffs policy and OPEC+ pumping more barrels, Canada’s oil sands industry finds itself in a position of strength.In the years following the oil price crash of 2014-15, international oil majors including BP, Chevron and Total sold their interests in Canadian oil sands.At the time, they classified the Canadian operations as among their more expensive, and therefore less profitable, projects worldwide.They directed their ca...

By Staff The Canadian Press Posted July 16, 2025 7:11 am Updated July 16, 2025 7:15 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to be in Hamilton today to make an announcement related to the steel industry. It has been more than a month since U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25 to 50 per cent, adding further economic insult to the two industries in Canada.Carney met with his cabinet virtually on Tu...

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says for the next couple of years “we need more people leaving than coming” into Canada. On Monday, Poilievre was asked by Global News to clarify his June comments calling for “severe limits on population growth.”“In order to fix the problem we’ve got to put very hard caps on immigration levels. We need more people leaving than coming for the next couple of years,” said Poilievre at a news conference in Ottawa. “So our country can actually catch up.” Poilievre said this move could help housing, health care and jobs “catch up,” but he did not elaborate on how he would ensure more people leave the country.“We’ve had population growth of roughly a million ...

By Craig Lord The Canadian Press Posted July 14, 2025 2:02 pm Updated July 14, 2025 2:07 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is looking for feedback from Canadians on national security and defence spending and fortifying the Canadian economy amid an ongoing trade war as he prepares to deliver a federal budget in the fall. Champagne launched consultations for that budget Monday that will run through the end of August.The go...