While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Catharine Tunney.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told his caucus to brace for a "very, very" busy few weeks and months as Parliament reopens, promising to implement his vision for the country with "urgency and determination." In an address to caucus — which media cameras were invited in to shoot — Carney teased that his Liberal minority government will introduce several pieces of...
Liberal MPs will vote on whether they want the power to oust the new leader if he loses their trust. Liberal caucus members are meeting today ahead of the return of Parliament, this time under the direction of a leader known for his high expectations and ambitious agenda. Sunday's gathering will likely touch on the big-ticket items Prime Minister Mark...
The government's foreign interference law passed last June. When Parliament passed a sweeping national security bill last June, the Liberal government promised to establish a foreign influence transparency registry to convict proxies trying to meddle in Canadian politics. But nearly a year later, it remains unclear how soon the office will be up and running "I think it's a huge...
Ottawa expects 'full investigation,' prime minister says. Prime Minister Mark Carney says it's "totally unacceptable" that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday. The federal government confirmed Wednesday that four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the Israel...
AI appears in PM Mark Carney's campaign platform in many key areas. Canada has its first-ever minister of artificial intelligence in veteran broadcaster and newly elected Toronto Centre MP Evan Solomon. So what does that job exactly entail? When asked what Solomon's mandate and responsibilities will be, a spokesperson from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) pointed to the Liberal platform...
Canada Elections Act sets out when recounts happen and how they can proceed. A Conservative Party fundraising email alleges the Liberals are trying to "tip the scales" in riding recounts, language some political watchers say is concerning as some Canadians say they don't trust the results of last week's election. The email, sent to the Conservatives' mailing list on Wednesday...
MPs can't resign their seat until 30 days after election result is officially published. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has already taken a trip out to the Alberta riding he hopes to represent, after losing the Ottawa-area seat he held for more than two decades in last week's general election. On Friday, Battle River-Crowfoot MP Damien Kurek announced he'll step aside...
With 24 Sussex Drive sitting desolate and in need of millions of dollars in renovations, the government says Prime Minister Mark Carney will soon take up official residence at Rideau Cottage. The crumbling Ottawa home on Sussex Drive had long been the official residence for Canada's prime ministers, but has sat empty since 2015 as workers dealt with mould, asbestos...
1st results will trickle in from Newfoundland and Labrador just after 7 p.m. ET. Millions of Canadians are expected to cast their ballots today in a pivotal election that will decide who will lead the country through a trade battle with the United States. The 36-day campaign has been nothing short of remarkable for the leading contenders: Liberal Leader Mark...
Singh was at Lapu Lapu Day festival and left moments before driver rammed into crowd. The final day of the federal election campaign took on a sombre tone as the leaders reacted to the deaths of nine people at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver Saturday night. Vancouver police said a driver of a black SUV slammed into a crowd...
When it was time for former prime minister Justin Trudeau to vacate his office, he left at least one thing behind for his successor: blueprints to overhaul one of Canada's most iconic institutions: the RCMP. Calling the nearly 152-year-old agency "strained," Trudeau urged the winner of the next election to start the process of getting the Mounties out of boots-on-the-ground...
Reform founder wrote Carney will be 'the last prime minister of a united Canada' if Liberals wins. Liberal Leader Mark Carney says he governs for all of Canada and called prominent conservative Preston Manning's comments on Western independence "dramatic" during a campaign stop in Montreal on Friday. In a recent op-ed for the Globe and Mail, the Reform Party founder...
Former Reform leader wrote that a Liberal vote is 'a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.' Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promoted national unity and downplayed former Reform leader Preston Manning's argument that a vote for Mark Carney's Liberals is a vote for Western secession during a campaign stop Thursday.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney says Paul Chiang will remain a candidate under his banner, despite calls to ouster the Markham-Unionville incumbent for suggesting people turn in a Conservative candidate to the Chinese consulate and collect a bounty.
Liberal leader says he wants to build an 'all-in-Canada' manufacturing network. Homing in once again on the fractured Canada-U.S. relationship, Liberal Leader Mark Carney unveiled a $2-billion proposal to protect Canada's auto industry while in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday — one of the front lines of the tariff war. Calling it a "strategic response fund," Carney said the money would...
Conservative leader has long rejected calls to go through the process, claiming it would muzzle him. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's refusal to get his security clearance is back in the spotlight on the campaign trail following reports the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) learned that India helped organize support for his leadership bid. The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that...
TVO journalist Steve Paikin will host the English-language debate. The leaders of the main federal political parties will be invited to a face off in mid-April — if they meet certain criteria, announced the Leaders' Debates Commission Monday. The commission, a government agency created in 2018 to organize federal leaders' debates, said the French debate will take place April 1...
The table is set for a consequential and close federal election this spring, which is largely expected to focus on how the leaders will take on U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and his taunting of Canadian sovereignty. Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to ask Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament today, triggering a weeks-long election campaign.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he expects the government's ethics commissioner will recommend he set up a screen around his previous business dealings to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. The newly sworn-in leader has faced repeated questions, which have led to some testy exchanges, about whether his assets, now in a blind trust, open him up to controversy.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump. The former central banker will become Canada's 24th prime minister after Governor General Mary Simon swears him in at Rideau...
Prime minister-designate Carney aiming for leaner cabinet of 15 to 20 members. Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and former Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould will not be in Mark Carney's cabinet, sources tell CBC News. But a source with knowledge of the decision told CBC News that Carney has invited another former leadership rival, Chrystia Freeland, to become...
Outgoing leader pitching an RCMP solely focused on federal policing, like national security and terrorism. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is using some of his final hours in office to call for a drastic and controversial shakeup to one of the country's most emblematic institutions: the RCMP. In an exclusive interview, Trudeau laid out why he believes the Mounties should get...
Campaign largely a referendum on who is best to take on U.S. president. Tonight the Liberal Party will announce its next leader and the person who will soon become prime minister — a job they'll inherit amid economic turbulence and a deeply wounded relationship with the country's once closest ally. The party's choice — who would become prime minister only...
The prime minister's intelligence and security adviser says it's time for Canada to be less dependent on its partners, comments that come a day after the U.S. launched a trade war against its northern neighbour. "We need to be a little bit more selfish now," said Nathalie Drouin, while speaking on a panel Wednesday morning to a room of international...
As the Liberal leadership race heads into its final stretch, the four candidates jockeying to become the next prime minister continue to roll out campaign promises. The race was triggered when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in early January he'd be stepping down, after nine years in office.
A Liberal Party of Canada committee voted unanimously on Friday to disqualify former MP Ruby Dhalla from the race to be the next leader. Azam Ishmael, the party's national director, said in a statement that the Liberal leadership vote committee determined she made 10 violations, some involving the party's leadership and expense rules. "The decision followed an extensive process and...
In just under a month, Liberal Party members will choose their next leader, who will automatically become Canada's next prime minister. At least until the next election. Candidates vying to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 9 are starting to flesh out their visions for the country. This unusual leadership race has seen the main challengers pivot to confront...
Liberal leadership hopeful Chrystia Freeland outlined a suite of policies Tuesday aimed at improving the cost of living for Canadians, including an income tax cut for millions of people and policies she says will lower the price of groceries and reduce credit card debt. In a news release, the former finance minister outlined five policy planks directed at Canadians feeling...
Chrystia Freeland's Liberal leadership campaign has been targeted by "co-ordinated and malicious activity" traced back to a WeChat account accused of having ties to the Chinese government, according to the task force set up to monitor foreign election interference. According to the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE), which is made up of senior intelligence and security...
Former House leader Karina Gould says she raised the $125,000 required of Liberal leadership candidates before Friday's deadline, allowing her to stay in the running. In a post on X, Gould thanked her supporters. "I can officially report that, after another record-breaking day yesterday, we've reached today's fee deadline," she wrote.
Several candidates vying to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say they've submitted their paperwork and met the first financial hurdle to enter the race, although it could still take a few days to see who's made the cut. Candidates Karina Gould, Chrystia Freeland, Mark Carney, Jaime Battiste, Chandra Arya, Frank Baylis and Ruby Dhalla all said they've sent in their...
After reviewing hundreds of documents and listening to hours of testimony, the inquiry probing foreign interference in Canada's past two federal elections will release its final report on Jan. 28. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue's findings, and any potential recommendations, come as parliamentarians ready for an increasingly inevitable spring election.
Former central banker Mark Carney picked up a handful of endorsements on Tuesday, including from the government's most vocal climate champion, as the Liberal leadership race whizzes ahead on a tight timeline. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said he will back Carney during the March 9 vote. Carney has been a longtime supporter of carbon pricing to combat climate change, although...
Canada evaded steep tariffs on the first day of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, but senior Canadian government officials weren't celebrating as they gathered for a cabinet retreat. "We're very cautious," Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters on Monday after Trump's swearing-in. "This is important news and at the same time we'll be working on preventing tariffs and...
Launching her campaign, Gould says 'Canadians don't trust the Liberal Party of Canada.' Fresh out of the gate from launching her Liberal leadership bid, Karina Gould suggested her two main opponents' backgrounds would do little to gain the favour of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. "I'm not sure that journalists and central bankers are the kind of people that Donald Trump...
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani says he'll work to improve the "toxic" Canada-U.S. relationship when he travels to Washington to watch his friend J.D. Vance take the oath of office as U.S. vice-president on Monday. In a note to constituents obtained by CBC News, Jivani said Vance's inauguration "is a special moment for me personally."
Longtime Liberal organizer says Freeland also readying campaign. Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is expected to formally announce his bid to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau late next week, a source close to his campaign told CBC News. The source, who spoke on the condition they not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said...
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says she won't seek the Liberal leadership. Joly announced the decision on her way into a Canada-U.S. cabinet meeting on Friday. She pointed to Canada's fraught relationship with the U.S. as the main reason she's bowing out of the race.
Ottawa MP Chandra Arya — who announced on Thursday that he would be running to replace Justin Trudeau as the next Liberal leader and prime minister — says he doesn't speak French and doesn't believe it will matter to French-speaking Canadians. During an interview on CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Thursday, host David Cochrane asked Arya about his French ability.
A growing chorus of Liberal MPs are calling on their party's executive to guard the upcoming leadership race — whose winner will automatically become Canada's next prime minister — from foreign interference. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who said she's considering a leadership bid, said last year's foreign interference inquiry laid bare that Canadian political parties are vulnerable. "I think...
PM asked to prorogue Parliament until March 24. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he plans to step down once the Liberal Party has chosen a successor, bringing his time leading the country to a tumultuous end. Trudeau, who became Liberal leader in 2013 and prime minister in the fall of 2015, announced his long-awaited decision outside his official residence, Rideau...
Canadians as young as 12 being drawn to extremist views, Mountie warns. When RCMP Supt. Jean-Guy Isaya first started as a police officer 20 years ago, school outreach involved drug safety programs. Now the Mountie says there's a growing need to talk to kids about violent extremism. "We believe that young people and minors pose the same threat as adults,"...
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he's meeting U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's border czar after Christmas to present Canada's proposed $1.3 billion plan to secure the shared border. Earlier this week, the minister — who for now serves as both finance minister and public safety minister following Chrystia Freeland's bombshell resignation on Monday — introduced a suite of measures meant to...
Abousfian Abdelrazik is suing Ottawa for $27M, accusing it of contributing to his mistreatment abroad. Former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon says that while he received conflicting advice about whether to issue an emergency passport to a Canadian citizen living in exile in Sudan, he was swayed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's claim that Abousfian Abdelrazik was a national...
Bill C-26 is meant to protect vital infrastructure from cyberattacks, ban telecoms from partnering with Huawei. It could take a while yet for the federal government's cybersecurity bill to become law after the Senate caught an error that essentially would have nullified half of what the legislation sets out to do. The Senate voted Thursday to amend the bill to...
Former Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown said someone from the Indian consulate general made an "angry phone call" to his campaign co-chair — Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner — during his 2022 bid to lead the party. Testifying before the House of Commons public safety committee, Brown said the Indian consul general expressed concerned over Brown's use of the term...
Former Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown will testify later today before a parliamentary committee investigating claims that India has meddled in Canadian politics. His appearance comes just a few days after Radio-Canada reported, based on confidential sources, that agents of the Indian government attempted to derail Brown's 2022 Conservative Party leadership run.
The RCMP says it's considering deploying Mounties-in-training to help police the Canada-U.S. border as political anxiety over border control mounts in the face of tariff threats from the incoming Trump administration. RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said the RCMP is looking first at sending uniformed officers from its federal policing department to shore up border patrols. He also said the idea...
Bill C-26 meant to protect vital infrastructure from cyberattacks, ban telecoms from partnering with Huawei. The future of a Liberal government bill meant to protect vital infrastructure from cyberattacks and enable Ottawa to ban telecommunications providers from partnering with what it considers risky vendors — including Huawei — is in doubt after senators studying the bill found what one senator...
The Parole Board of Canada is being asked again to consider whether Paul Bernardo — the serial rapist and murderer behind some of the most shocking and grisly killings in modern Canadian history — should be released. Bernardo is serving a life sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering southern Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy with the help...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is questioning the Parole Board of Canada's rationale for preventing the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy — who were tortured and killed by Paul Bernardo — from addressing their daughters' murderer in person next week.
The RCMP is set to deliver an update today on its plan to get frontline officers wearing body cameras later this month. Officials are expected to report Thursday afternoon on the national rollout plan and how its data storage system will work.
In a testy exchange in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of sowing the "divisions" that led to the violent clash between Sikh separatists and Hindu worshippers outside a Hindu temple in Brampton on the weekend. The question period exchange kicked off with Trudeau calling Poilievre's silence on the violence in...
The House of Commons is being asked to consider whether Lauren Chen — a Canadian influencer accused of aiding a Russian propaganda campaign — should be found in contempt of Parliament after she refused to answer MPs' questions during a parliamentary committee hearing Tuesday. Chen was summoned to appear before the House of Commons public safety and national security committee...
Threat agents sponsored by China have "compromised" government networks over the past five years, collecting valuable information, according to a new report from Canada's cyber spy agency. The Communications Security Establishment, responsible for foreign signals intelligence, cyber operations and cyber security, released its updated national cyber threat assessment on Wednesday, which flags what the agency sees as the most pressing...
Mounties have alleged India involved widespread crimes in Canada, including murder and intimidation. A senior official in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is alleged to have authorized a campaign to intimidate or kill Canadians, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison told MPs Tuesday. Morrison joined other senior officials testifying before MPs on the public safety and national security...
The head of the RCMP says the Mounties have strong evidence showing the "highest levels" of the Indian government were involved in orchestrating a campaign of violence and intimidation on Canadian soil. "We do have strong evidence — not intelligence, but evidence — that this goes all the way up to the highest level," he told CBC's Power & Politics...
The Liberals' House leader is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of "hiding something from Canadians" by refusing to get the national security clearance he needs to review classified documents and learn the names of Conservative parliamentarians allegedly linked to foreign interference. Posting on social media Thursday afternoon, government House leader Karina Gould wrote that "the Conservative Leader is hiding something...
Canada's spy agency says that while it can brief more Canadians than ever before on sensitive information, it still can't share personal information — or name names — if the person receiving the briefing doesn't have the proper clearance. That clarification from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) comes in the middle of a tense debate in Canadian politics over...
The head of the RCMP is urging members of the Sikh community to speak out as police continue to investigate allegations linking the Indian government to a campaign of violence on Canadian soil. On Monday, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme publicly alleged that agents of the government of India have played a role in "widespread" acts of violence in Canada, including...