The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) is set to reduce a $790 fee meant to make airlines pay for air passenger complaints — after behind-the-scenes pressure from the airline industry and former transport minister Anita Anand, internal documents reveal.

Records obtained by Go Public under the Access to Information Act show airlines lobbied aggressively against the fee — and that Transport Canada and the then-transport minister echoed those concerns directly to the regulator, which is supposed to operate at arm's-length from government.

An air passenger advocate says the documents raise serious concerns about political interference and who the system is really designed to serve.

"The minister and Transport Canada have been promoting the airlines' private business interests — as opposed to the public interest," said Air Passenger Rights founder Gábor Lukács, who reviewed the documents. "That's reprehensible."

A longtime federal public servant says she’s become "collateral damage" as her department clears its backlog of Phoenix payroll issues so it can test replacement software — and in doing so introduced an error to her file, refused to fix it and is now clawing back hundreds of dollars per paycheque.

"I feel very disappointed in my employer," said Kristen Ouellette, a manager at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). "You really feel crushed."

Ouellette says the government is forcing her to pay for a Phoenix pay clerk’s error — all to ensure her department's clean migration to Dayforce, the replacement payroll system slated to begin testing this fall.

After launching in 2016, the error-plagued Phoenix pay system overpaid and underpaid thousands of public servants. A decade later, the backlog of pay claims remains at 216,000, and both current and former employees continue to suffer the effects.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday he still planned to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser co-hosted by a Liberal MP who cast doubt on reports of China’s human-rights abuses against Uyghurs.

Mr. Carney also defended Canada’s efforts to block imports of goods made with forced labour as this country prepares to allow Chinese-made electric vehicles back into the market.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to attend a Liberal Party fundraising event at Markham, Ont., golf club Monday evening.

It’s being co-hosted by Michael Ma, the Markham-Unionville MP who in January defected from the Conservative caucus to join the Liberals. The other fundraiser co-hosts are Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.

Mr. Ma sparked a backlash last Thursday after he challenged the existence of forced labour in China during a meeting of the Commons industry committee, which is examining Mr. Carney’s deal to allow 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles into Canada at a low tariff rate.

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Mr. Ma later said he was sorry for his remarks, which “inadvertently came across as dismissive of the serious issue of forced labour.”

The Prime Minister at a Toronto-area announcement Monday said he’ll “continue to work with” Mr. Ma, noting he has apologized.

Mr. Carney is the featured speaker at the Liberal fundraiser Monday. Tickets are listed at $1,775, or $925 for those aged 35 and under.

Asked if he believed there is forced labour in China, Mr. Carney said there is coerced labour in many places.

“There’s evidence, and there’s existence, I should say, of child labour and forced labour around the world,” he said.

He added however that Canada has to be vigilant because “there are parts of China that are higher risk” for forced labour.

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In recent years, Canada has intercepted only two shipments of imports on the grounds these were made with forced labour, despite committing in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to prohibit forced-labour shipments from entering this country. ...

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, had told the committee Thursday that electric vehicles are being made with Chinese aluminum products made by slave labourers in Xinjiang. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report also said major automakers including Tesla, BYD, GM, Toyota and Volkswagen are drawing aluminum from supply chains linked to Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang.

An Angus Reid survey says three-quarters of more than 4,000 respondents are in favour of a ban like the one in Australia, where youth under 16 are prevented from setting up accounts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads.

As the expiry date nears for two of Thomson Reuters’ contracts with the United States Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one B.C. union is sounding the alarm over human rights concerns.

Thomson Reuters is a Toronto-based technology company that owns Reuters News Agency and the legal research tool Westlaw. It has several contracts providing the U.S. agencies access to its investigative research tools.

One US$5.9-million contract, which gives the Department of Homeland Security access to Thomson Reuters’ criminal investigation database CLEAR, is set to expire this month.

A second, US$22.8-million contract, which gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, access to a “law enforcement investigative database,” is set to expire at the end of May.

With a market cap of US$39 billion, Thomson Reuters is majority-controlled by Woodbridge Co. Ltd.

The BC General Employees’ Union holds a small share of the company. The union has been raising concerns about the potential of Thomson Reuters’ investigative tools to surveil and track people.

Rocky Neufeld had settled into his seat on a WestJet flight from Edmonton to Fort McMurray, Alta., in February 2025 when a gate agent boarded the plane with unexpected news.

"The person said, 'This flight's cancelled,'" recalled the Winnipeg resident. "'We need the tail [aircraft] for another flight.'"

Neufeld and about 10 other passengers were told to get off the plane.

Then came the email.

WestJet told passengers the cancellation was due to "unplanned aircraft maintenance" required for safety.

That did not match what he had just been told on the plane. And it meant WestJet didn’t have to pay compensation.

Go DONATE plasma (or whole blood) at Canadian Blood Services. The tainted blood scandal of the early 80s had a couple of underlying causes, but at the core was that not enough Canadians were donating which led to two major problems.

1. We started buying blood - and who did we buy blood from? The Americans - who sent us blood that was collected from prison inmates as a way for them to earn credit at the commissary, among other high risk sources. This blood was deemed too risky for domestic use, but just fine to sell to Canada, the UK, etc.

2. For profit collection in general - this disproportionately preys on marginalized groups AND it incentivizes EVERYONE to lie. The first question on the donor questionnaire is 'Are you feeling well today'. If you are dependent on the $50 or whatever you will get from that donation, then you are way more likely to rationalize that the way you have been feeling lately is just allergies.

The recommendations of Tainted Blood Inquiry were:

1. blood is a public resource;
2. no one should be paid to donate blood or plasma;
3. Canada should collect enough blood and components to satisfy its own needs;
4. citizens should have free and universal access to blood components and products; and
5. safety of the blood supply is paramount.

Grifols (the paid plasma company) permits plasma collection at double the maximum frequency of Canadian Blood Services, they sell resulting blood products overseas without donor consent, and they seem to be getting repeatedly cited for failure to follow standards for collection. MAKE THESE TURDS UNNECESSARY BY DONATING.

If you are healthy, eligible, and can, go donate plasma (or whole blood). If you are in Calgary, and nervous, you are welcome to join me on my next donation (Thursday) to see what's involved.

The labour movement can be the base for a more just and humane Canadian immigration system

A Ukrainian refugee says Manitoba's rejection of her requests to help her remove her deadname from official documents leaves her exposed to transphobia and infringes on her right to express her gender.

Martha Hozha, 25, says she's been trying to change her legal name since she arrived in Canada about two years ago, but the provincial government will not accept the documents she has proving her identity.

"This misrepresentation creates a loop for harassment and transphobia," Hozha said.

"Using [the] right pronouns and right names, legally, is [a] pretty important thing.… It basically affects [the] majority of your life."

Some health-care workers who either directly provide medical assistance in dying or work in that field say they are strongly opposed to Bill 18 — which, if passed, would prevent doctors or nurse practitioners from administering MAID to patients if they are unlikely to die within the next 12 months.

In a letter published in the Edmonton Journal on Friday and shared with CBC News, 25 health-care workers signed their names to make their opposition known.

"The proposed mandates and sanctions place clinicians in ethically untenable positions, undermining professional judgment and eroding trust within the therapeutic relationship," the letter reads, in part.

Doctors and nurse practitioners would be barred from referring a patient out-of-province to be assessed for MAID eligibility. They would be prohibited from suggesting MAID to any patients as an option — the patient would have to request information on MAID first.

Paul Andrew considered himself a small cog in the wheel of the Dene Nation in the 1970s, when he was also chief of Tulı́t'a.

He didn’t work with other levels of government or even international organizations — just with communities. He did not think he would be one of the people spied on by the RCMP.

So, he was surprised that his name came up several times in the RCMP’s files. The files show police monitored him, from his stance on divisive issues to his comings and goings at workshops.

Now, he wants access to the unredacted documents.

"For me, an apology would not be enough," he said.

In his speech, Avi Lewis vowed “to bring our party back from the wilderness.” What map, then, will he follow to inspire a fractured party and attract new voters to its retooled agenda?

Lewis pledged to be laser focused on the affordability crisis. He called out the genocide in Gaza, declaring, “We are at a high-stakes moment in human history.”

Lewis’s policies include creating public grocery stores and banks, building public housing and expanding health-care access. He also wants a moratorium on building AI data centres. He has vowed to make proportional representation the NDP’s “one demand” if the party holds the balance of power in Parliament. And not surprisingly, Lewis has floated the idea of a wealth tax.

Lewis and other activists wrote the Leap Manifesto in 2015 — a radical response to climate change, income inequality and racism. He continues to propose an end to new oil production.

In the past, such ideas have not necessarily gone over well with voters. Lewis ran in federal elections in 2015 and 2021, losing both times.

Health-care partners in Sioux Lookout, Ont., are celebrating the arrival of the town’s first-ever magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

The town of about 5,800 people serves as a health-care hub for several surrounding communities. This includes 33 First Nations, 28 of which are only accessible by plane or winter road.

That means the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) supports about 30,000 patients in the region across 385,000 square kilometres.