Quebec will drop permanent immigration targets to as low as 25,000 people per year
Quebec's immigration minister says the government will drop its permanent immigration targets to as low as 25,000 people per year.
Jean-François Roberge says the government will study three scenarios of 25,000, 35,000 and 45,000 immigrants per year.
Currently, Quebec is projected to accept about 64,000 permanent immigrants in 2025.
But Roberge says that needs to go down due to rising unemployment, increasing strain on housing and the challenges of protecting the French language.
Roberge says Quebec also wants Ottawa to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in the province under federally managed programs to 200,000 from more than 400,000.
The minister said the government will hold consultations on the changes before announcing its final 2026 to 2029 targets.
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CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
'Indigenous Survivors Day': a day of reflection before Canada Day
Social Sharing Today, the city of Thunder Bay is proclaiming June 30th as "Indigenous Survivors Day" and hosting community events. Sixties Scoop survivor Troy Abromaitis said he created Indigenous Survivors Day to honour children who were taken from their families and lands. He said Thunder Bay is the first city to make it a full-day event, and hopes other communities will follow. Abromaitis said Canada Day represents celebrating a country that, for many Indigenous peoples, facilitated loss and separation from their families. "By placing Indigenous Survivors Day on June 30th, we invite Canadians to reflect before they celebrate Canada Day and to remember the children who are taken and why this matters," said Abromaitis, who is a member of the Nlaka'pamux Nation from Lytton First Nation in British Columbia. Thunder Bay is a city with painful truths to confront, he said. Choosing to lead the way in recognizing Indigenous Survivors Day is a sign of courage and growth, said Abromaitis. Other places have followed, including the provinces of British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and municipalities including Victoria, Edmonton, Ottawa and Niagara Falls. "They give me hope that one day this will be a national day and a national movement," he said. While the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 honours the victims and survivors of residential schools, Abromaitis said there was a need to recognize survivors of other campaigns that separated Indigenous children from their families. Indigenous Survivors Day is meant to fill that gap, he said. "This is not just about history. It's about healing what is still happening with regards to Sixties Scoop survivors, Millennium Scoop survivors, birth alerts and the over representation of children in the child welfare system who carry invisible pain," said Abromaitis. 10 years after apology, '60s Scoop survivors call for more support 11 days ago Duration 2:01 Ten years ago, Manitoba's premier issued an apology to the survivors of the Sixties Scoop. On Wednesday, survivors, advocates and community members gathered at St. John's Park in Winnipeg to heal, and call attention to injustices they say are continuing. The Sixties Scoop refers to the period between the 1950s and early 1990s during which thousands of Indigenous children in Canada were apprehended by child welfare agencies and placed with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents. Many children were subject to physical, emotional or sexual abuse while most lost connection to their cultures and languages. The systematic removal of First Nations children from their families from 1991 on is referred to as the Millennium Scoop. The practice resulted in more Indigenous children ending up in foster care than were sent to residential schools at their peak. The practice of birth alerts – where child welfare organizations notify hospitals when they believe a pregnant patient may be 'high risk' – led to newborns being taken from their parents for days, months or even years. The province ordered an end to birth alerts in 2022 after finding it disproportionately affected Indigenous and racialized families. Indigenous children made up 53.8 per cent of all children in foster care across the country, according to Statistics Canada data from the 2021 census. Thunder Bay Indigenous Survivors Day open to all David Wilkinson-Simard, a traditional knowledge keeper and member of the City of Thunder Bay's Indigenous Advisory Council, will be leading a sacred fire and closing reflections at a community gathering at Hillcrest Park. "This is a very new event, you know, even to Native people. And we're understanding where our place is too," he said. Wilkinson-Simard said the organizers have put out calls to drum groups and hand drummers to come celebrate. They plan to share traditional music and the stories behind some ceremonies at the gathering. Wilkinson-Simard, who is also a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, said Indigenous Survivors Day is a time to share stories about the ongoing challenges Indigenous people have gone through and to celebrate their survival. "It's an opportunity to help Canadians to understand why a lot of the things are the way they are and how First Nations are pulling themselves out of all of this," said Wilkinson-Simard. While events like the Sixties Scoop and residential schools are often thought of as long-passed historical events, he said they are ongoing issues because the impacts are still felt by survivors and subsequent intergenerational trauma. The event is open to all. Wilkinson-Simard said non-Indigenous participants are encouraged to attend. "I think that's very important that as a non-Indigenous person you take the opportunity and you also take the risk of going into and learning about something that might be uncomfortable for you at first. It also is an opportunity for you to understand the challenges that many First Nations have overcome and how you can champion them," he said.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
As this tiny frog disappears from Canada, conservationist warn fast-tracking bills put more species at risk
The Blanchard's Cricket Frog is so tiny it can fit on your thumb, and the distinctive call for which it is named would make it easy to hear — if it hadn't recently been declared locally extinct in its wetland habitat of southwestern Ontario. Thomas Hossie, assistant professor of biology who studies amphibians at the province's Trent University, described the sound as "shaking a bag of marbles." But the frog hasn't been seen (or heard) in decades. The last confirmed sighting in Canada was in 1977 on Lake Erie's Pelee Island. There have been some unconfirmed sightings since then, but the trail ran cold in 1990, when the Blanchard's Cricket Frog was first listed as an endangered species under federal laws. In 2024, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, an independent panel of scientists that assesses federal species at risk and advises the federal environment minister, said the frog was extirpated — meaning it's no longer present in Canada, though it can be found in other places. WATCH | Hear the distinctive call that gives the Blanchard's Cricket Frog its name: It's the first land species to disappear from the country after being listed as endangered by the federal government, which is holding consultations until July 7 on formally listing the species as extirpated. All this comes under the shadow of new legislation that allows governments to expedite certain projects by speeding the approval of things like environmental assessments. Environmental advocates say what's happened to the Blanchard's Cricket Frog should be a wake-up call for governments about the impacts of removing crucial protections for at-risk species. New laws could remove protections, advocate says Last Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney's signature "nation-building" projects bill passed the Senate unamended, despite concerns raised by environmental advocates and Indigenous groups. Bill C-5 gives the federal government extraordinary new powers to fast-track certain initiatives that have the potential to boost the Canadian economy amid the U.S. trade war. This can mean expediting environmental approvals for things like mines, roads and pipelines. The Ontario government passed its own fast-tracking law last month. Ontario Premier Doug Ford's Bill 5 completely overhauls provincial laws protecting endangered species and gives the province the power to expedite certain projects. Both levels of government should take the frog's extirpation as "a wake-up call," according to Shane Moffatt, an advocacy manager with the environmental organization Ontario Nature. "These measures have the potential to remove crucial protections for species at risk, and that's the last thing we need right now," Moffatt said. "In order to build a more sustainable and healthy society and to build strong economies, we need to be conserving biodiversity around us." He also wants the federal government to be explicit about the primary reasons for the frog's disappearance, which include the loss of its wetland habitat and pollution from fertilizers and pesticides, according to previous federal and provincial assessments. In a recent report from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the department also attributed the frog's extirpation to climate change, but Moffatt says that runs the risk of letting governments off the hook for failing to protect habitats and prevent pollution. "Those are fundamentally different reasons with fundamentally different policy solutions," he said. ECCC did not respond to CBC's requests for comment in time for publication. A unique habitat The Blanchard's Cricket Frog is found in several U.S. states, including Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. It can't climb very well, according to Hossie, so it lives in open wetlands or marshes with sandy, muddy slopes that allow it to get in and out of the water. Because Pelee Island is the most southern part of Canada, Hossie says it has a very distinct climate, different even, than nearby mainland Ontario. "Partly because of that, we pick up a variety of species that we have nowhere else in Canada." That includes two types of endangered salamanders Hossie studies — the small-mouthed salamander and the Unisexual Ambystoma. He says these and other species in the unique region face the same threats as the frog. Historically, Hossie says, about half the 10,000-acre island was covered in wetlands. Today, the sensitive wetlands are confined to only six per cent of the island, mostly in provincial reserves, while the rest have been converted into farmland, some of which are vineyards for growing grapes. Jeff Hathaway, founder of Scales Nature Park, a non-profit focused on Canadian reptiles and amphibians, says now that the Blanchard's Cricket Frog is considered extirpated, the government should consider whether it can be reintroduced into the region.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Terror propagandist 'Dark Foreigner' should get 14 years for 'vile' crimes, Crown argues
Social Sharing WARNING: This story contains descriptions and images of racist online content targeting Jews. Everyone agrees, even the defence. For inciting hate, fear and division by calling for violence against Jews with his terrorist propaganda videos and images, Patrick Gordon MacDonald is going to prison for a substantial period of time. At a sentencing hearing in Ottawa's Superior Court last week, federal Crown prosecutors based out of Montreal implored the judge to hand down 14 years for MacDonald's "vile" crimes under the alias Dark Foreigner, while his defence argued for six to eight years and about 10 months of credit for time already served in custody and on bail under strict conditions. In April, Justice Robert Smith convicted MacDonald of all three charges he faced: participating in terrorist activity, facilitating terrorist activity, and inciting hate against Jews for one or more terrorist entities, including the now defunct Atomwaffen Division and the neo-Nazi James Mason. Smith is scheduled to announce his sentencing decision in early September. Until then, MacDonald, 28, remains on bail living with his parents under electronic monitoring and other conditions. The Crown twice applied to have him brought back into custody (upon his conviction and at the sentencing hearing last week), but the judge sided with the defence. MacDonald has not breached his conditions. In 2018 and 2019 — when he was 20 and 21 — MacDonald helped create and share three racist, hate-fuelled terror recruitment videos in Ottawa, Belleville, Ont., and Saint-Ferdinand, Que., among other places. One video shows people wearing skull masks moving through a wooded area and shooting firearms. Near the end, the flags of the U.S., Israel and European Union are shown on the ground, being drenched in an accelerant and set on fire, interspersed with shots of armed people storming a building in tactical formation. The video includes a slur against Jews. "Stay tuned shooters," is the last text to appear. 'An almost indescribable negative impact' Court heard a victim impact statement from B'nai Brith Canada written by one of the Jewish human rights organization's regional directors, Henry Topas. MacDonald, hunched forward with his elbows on his knees, watched from the courtroom gallery, his parents sitting several rows behind him as they have throughout his trial. "The videos he helped produce were designed to encourage a revolution to destroy the 'Jewish system' and to encourage viewers to 'purge the weak,'" Topas told the judge, appearing via video. "To Mr. MacDonald and the Attomwaffen Division, we are a disease in need of eradication to enable the establishment of a white ethno-state. Such dehumanization has an almost indescribable negative impact on our community. "Canadian Jewry did not survive the Holocaust, pogroms, and other unimaginable atrocities and hardships to face threats of annihilation from neo-Nazi terrorists in our adopted homeland," he continued. "Our forefathers did not commit themselves to contributing to the betterment of Canadian society for their progeny to face calls for our eradication." More witnesses called The Crown produced two new witnesses for the two-day sentencing hearing: an "analyst" working in the national security sphere whose identity is shielded by a publication ban, and expert witness Matthew Kriner, executive director of the Acceleration Research Consortium and Institute for Countering Digital Extremism. Prosecutors Carly Norris and Catherine Legault said the calls for murder in the propaganda are particularly aggravating, and that the court needs to send a strong message that people can't publish content like MacDonald's online, then throw up their hands and say they're no longer responsible for it. "Because there are people our there who will consume this, and consume it and consume it ... young people who can easily be manipulated," Norris told court. Defence lawyer Douglas Baum said that in Canada, MacDonald's "obviously repulsive" beliefs and propaganda never amounted to anything more "than an evil fantasy," with no links to actual violent action. He also pushed back against the Crown's argument that MacDonald's propaganda will live online forever, radicalizing some and instilling fear in others. Baum told the judge MacDonald can't be held responsible for the internet age and the public domain where his content circulates — "otherwise he can never overcome this. Otherwise there is no redemption." 'My remorse is sincere' MacDonald, a first-time offender, read a statement saying he takes "full responsibility" for his actions and is "sorry for the awful things I said and drew. I wish to never do anything like this again." He apologized to the "broader Canadian community with all of its diversity: Jewish, Muslim, Black, Indigenous, Asian, and anyone else I missed. "My remorse is sincere, and I hope you can accept it." He also thanked the organizations he has volunteered with for the past two years, creating logos and posters. The organizations include a daycare, Ottawa's Scottish society, a Scottish pipe band, a Catholic church's refugee outreach committee, the Canterbury Community Association, an Indian festival, the Knights of Columbus, and the intervention program itself. 'Did not take full responsibility' A pre-sentence report written by MacDonald's probation officer, dated June 20, said MacDonald "disputes some of the details of his offences" and "did not take full responsibility for his actions," but added that MacDonald didn't deny that he was involved in white supremacist, neo-Nazi subcultures. He took part in an intervention program for people with hateful, biased or extremist ideologies from August 2023 to June 2025, and met weekly with his caseworker. The Crown pointed out that a letter from the intervention program about MacDonald's participation contained no review of his progress, nothing about whether he renounced his ideologies, and no mention of whether he's likely to reoffend. Defence lawyer Doug Baum countered that he didn't ask for opinions like those because it would amount to "speculation" about what's going on in his client's mind. MacDonald and his family told the probation officer that he has renounced white supremacist, neo-Nazi ideologies. The report notes that because of MacDonald's current legal jeopardy, it's "difficult, if not impossible" to assess whether that's true, "however all the information available to the writer indicates the subject has made positive changes in this regard." Lacked direction, didn't fit in His parents were "adamant" that racist or white supremacist views were not taught at home, the report states. MacDonald told the probation officer that he lacked direction in his late teens and early 20s and got caught up in the white supremacist, neo-Nazi subculture, which supported him when he started creating his terror propaganda. But he said he wasn't pleased with his life at that time, and that the subculture was a "scapegoat" for his personal problems. Around the time he learned that police and intelligence officers were looking into him in 2021-2022, "he started to rethink his beliefs and to focus more on himself instead of broader political issues," the report states. Attention from law enforcement has negatively impacted his life, his family told the officer. MacDonald said his relationship with a long-distance girlfriend ended in 2022 after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service contacted her, and his mother believes he wasn't getting work because potential employers were contacted by police.
