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 Elizabeth Thompson.
Archives swamped with requests for records, application backlog now tops 120,000. Applications from people around the world seeking Canadian citizenship certificates have been rising rapidly in recent months, fuelled by thousands of applications from the United States, CBC News has learned. The number of people who have already received certificates as a result of Parliament’s adoption of “Lost Canadian” legislation...
Prime Minister Mark Carney's government left the position of Canada's prison watchdog vacant for several months, despite written warnings from the outgoing correctional investigator that doing so would seriously compromise the office's powers to do its job protecting inmates.
Canada's new foreign influence office won't prevent foreign interference in Canada, but it will provide more transparency for Canadians who want to know who is trying to influence their politicians and government officials on behalf of foreign governments, says Canada's first foreign influence transparency commissioner. In an interview with CBC News, Anton Boegman said there is a difference between foreign...
Obamas, Clintons, Trump's children among those who received taxpayer-funded security. Canadian taxpayers spent more to protect Prince Harry over five years during his visits to Canada than any other internationally protected person over the same period, CBC News has learned. According to a document obtained by CBC News under Canada's access to information law, the RCMP spent at least $539,57...
Thousands granted citizenship certificates after change late last year. The federal government has suddenly suspended a number of Canadian citizenship certificates issued to people around the world who became eligible for citizenship late last year. In a notice emailed Saturday to an unknown number of people who successfully applied for and obtained citizenship certificates based on having a Canadian ancestor...
Sharp increase in applications after court required Ottawa to change rules. Thousands of people around the world have received Canadian citizenship certificates as a result of a change late last year to federal law. Half of them Americans, CBC News has learned. In the first three months since the change, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued proof of citizenship...
A small change to Canada’s lobbying rules has led to a big drop in free trips for members of Parliament, a CBC News analysis found — however many MPs continue to head to destinations like Taiwan, China and India courtesy of foreign governments and groups not registered to lobby. Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, praised the change but said...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and other Canadian prime ministers should be required to divest their investment portfolios when they assume office, not just put them in a blind trust, the House of Commons ethics committee recommends in a new report.
Was it Prime Minister Mark Carney or was it AI? That’s a question thousands of Canadians who receive a letter back from Canada’s prime minister may be asking in the not-too-distant future as the government contemplates a plan to replace some of the people who handle his correspondence with new technology like artificial intelligence. In its most recent departmental planning...
Finance minister's partner is a VP of company running government-funded project. The Conservative Party is calling on the House of Commons ethics watchdog to launch an investigation into whether Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne breached ethics rules regarding his partner's involvement in a federal government-funded high speed rail project. In a letter to Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von...
Members of Parliament last year went on the fewest sponsored international trips in the last 15 years, excluding the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the ethics commissioner's annual report on sponsored travel tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday, only 15 MPs accepted international travel paid for by an organization or interest group in 2025, totalling $78,721...
Recently revised directive adds flash drives, smart watches to searchable devices. United States customs officers conducted a record number of searches of electronic devices last year of people travelling to the U.S., and a recent update to its directives adds new devices such as smart watches, SIM cards and flash drives to the list of things subject to search. Officers...
Canada's new foreign influence watchdog says his mandate will include attempts by foreign agents to interfere at the provincial and municipal level across Canada, including any attempt on behalf of a foreign government to influence a referendum on Alberta separation.
As Canada opens up to China, it should do more to ensure that the country doesn't use the opportunity to increase transnational repression against members of the Chinese diaspora living here, warns a veteran national security expert.
CPP announces record $780B in assets — 47% in the U.S. For all the fear over the U.S. trade war and President Donald Trump's threats to Canadian sovereignty, this country's biggest pension funds remain heavily invested in the U.S. The Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the largest pension fund in the country, announced this week that it has grown to a...
Bad actors will likely use artificial intelligence to try to disrupt Canada's next federal election, warn two of the country's top election watchdogs.
Some recent appointments have bypassed Trudeau's reforms. It's a landmark appointment that could shed new light on the inner workings of Prime Minister Mark Carney's government. If all goes as planned, Anton Boegman will soon become Canada's first-ever foreign influence transparency commissioner, charged with protecting the country from foreign interference. However, the process that led to his appointment appears to...
Canada is set to name its first foreign interference commissioner. Speaking to CBC News on his way out of question period, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said he sent a letter to opposition parties on Monday to advise them of the government's choice for commissioner. "As of an hour ago, we have written to the opposition party leaders with a...
Longtime NDP MP takes 'shit disturber' ethos across the country — and to YouTube. Sitting in Ottawa's Rainbow Bistro, preparing for his band to play a gig, former MP Charlie Angus was reflecting on the past year. His plan to quietly retire and write a book turned into creating viral videos viewed around the world and a cross-Canada tour to...
Study found Canadians were more likely to be swayed than Americans. Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study. The study, which included 1,530 Canadians, also found that the chatbots had more success convincing Canadians to switch their votes than it did...
Democrats point to Trump's policies hurting American businesses. The drop in Canadian tourism to the United States in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's actions is hurting American businesses in several states, a new report by a congressional committee has found. The report, prepared by the Democrat minority of the U.S. Congress's joint economic committee, warns that states along the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney's last-minute trip to October's Gaza peace summit in Egypt cost Canadian taxpayers more than $736,466 — more than three times higher than it would have been if the Royal Canadian Air Force had been able to supply a plane. While the government chartered a Bombardier Global 5000 jet from the Chartright Air Group, in an answer...
Trudeau-era environment minister left Carney cabinet last week. Canada will not be able to achieve the climate change targets it has set given recent decisions by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government, warns former Liberal minister Steven Guilbeault. Speaking on Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle, Guilbeault said recent decisions by Carney’s government, such as last week’s memorandum of understanding with...
Tool could help spot fraudsters, interference but should be examined critically: expert. Canadian researchers who track online misinformation and foreign interference are welcoming a new feature that reveals the location of an X account but warn that it still has glitches and its results should be taken with a grain of salt.
Government says documents once considered public are now secret. Opposition MPs are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to make public the documents that govern three special agencies it has created to manage billions of dollars for major projects, defence procurement and the construction of affordable homes.
PM turns to an old model to create agencies for housing, defence and major projects. It’s an old model getting a new lease on life. They started in 1989 under Brian Mulroney’s government — an experiment by a government facing economic pressures to innovate and deliver results more efficiently. Over the next few years, the federal government created more than...
'The bottom line is, the ad was getting attention.'An Ontario government ad that attracted the wrath of U.S. President Donald Trump was successful — even if it didn’t produce the outcome provincial officials might have anticipated, say experts in political communication. And, they expect, it will not face any serious legal challenges in the U.S., which allows a lot of...
The Canadian government is warning citizens who list "X" as their gender on their passports could have problems entering the U.S. In a change made earlier this week, the Department of Global Affairs added an advisory to its United States travel advice page for 2SLGBTQ+ Canadian passport holders.
The federal government has launched a new strategy to reduce the number of animals used in regulatory laboratory testing across Canada — a strategy that some experts estimate could result in thousands fewer animals each year being subjected to painful or toxic tests. The strategy, published online in mid-July, calls for the government to identify and promote the use of...
Canada's first foreign interference watchdog will be named next month and a new foreign agent registry will be launched later this fall, said Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree. In an interview with CBC News, Anandasangaree said fighting transnational repression and foreign interference in Canada "is an utmost priority of the prime minister." He said Prime Minister Mark Carney has tasked...
It's a small change that risks cultivating a big debate. On one side is the principle of farmer's privilege — the traditional right of Canadian farmers to save seeds at the end of a growing season and reuse them the next year. On the other is the principle of plant breeders' rights — the right of those who develop new...
Tax that could hit Canadians comes with risk to U.S. revenue, investments. A controversial tax being proposed by President Donald Trump's administration that could cost Canadians and Canadian businesses billions is also likely to cost the U.S. government, according to an assessment by a non-partisan U.S. congressional office. It is also likely to cost American companies by prompting investors from...
Canadian residents will be asked about their sexual orientation in next year's national census, CBC News has learned. While Statistics Canada has asked about sexual orientation in past surveys, next year will mark the first time the question will appear on the long-form census questionnaire that will go out to 25 per cent of Canadian residents in May 2026.
Canada Pension Plan managers face the prospect of hearings by the House of Commons finance committee after MPs learned that only a small fraction of the public pension plan's billions of dollars of assets are invested in Canada. Liberal MP Karina Gould, the newly elected chair of the committee, said it is important for the CPP to be managed effectively...
As a former top Finance Department official, Susan Peterson played a key role years ago in creating the stable Canada Pension Plan that we see today. But even she was surprised by the numbers. A few weeks ago, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) revealed that 12 per cent of the CPP's assets are invested in Canada — its...
Section of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill could hit Canadian investors with new tax. A small, obscure section buried in U.S. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act could cost Canadians and Canadian companies billions of dollars, CBC News has learned. Moreover, it could hand Prime Minister Mark Carney's government yet another political hot potato from south of the...
Critics call for Carney government to implement foreign agents registry, commissioner. Opposition parties are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney's government to quickly implement key provisions of the law adopted last year to counter foreign interference following new revelations that attacks on Chinese dissidents living in Canada and around the world are on the rise. Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael...
CBC/ICIJ investigations reveal increasing transnational repression here and around the world. For Yao Zhang, the news came as a shock. Sexually explicit, deepfake images of her were circulating widely online — an attack that Ottawa blamed on the Chinese government. It wasn't the first time Zhang had been targeted by China. Shortly after the Quebec-based accountant-turned-influencer travelled to Taiwan in...
In an election campaign plagued by misinformation, exaggerated claims and even lies, how can voters tell what's true? CBC's Election Fact Check Unit has looked into dozens of statements made by the leaders of the four largest federal parties. It found that each of the leaders — some more than others — has at times made statements or cited facts...
In the cut and thrust of an election debate, it's not uncommon for a political party leader to get a number or a fact wrong. But sometimes they repeat those erroneous statements — both on the campaign trail and the debate stage. The CBC News fact-checking team looked into some of the inaccurate claims that leaders have made more than...
It's an election centred on U.S. President Donald Trump's threats, Canada's sovereignty and the cost of living. From the start, however, Liberal Leader Mark Carney's past work in the private sector and the rules that govern the assets of political leaders have also been in the spotlight.
In one of its last acts in office, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government decided to give Canadians a break at the bank. According to an order-in-council dated March 12, two days before Trudeau resigned, banks won't be allowed to charge more than $10 if someone doesn't have enough money in their personal accounts to cover a cheque or a...
88 appointments take effect after former prime minister stepped down. Prime Minister Mark Carney should review a series of future appointments made by his predecessor's government and shouldn't automatically accept them, Green Party Co-Leader Elizabeth May said Friday. In an interview with CBC News, May said appointments have to be filled but it was "a huge mistake" to make so...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has stacked agencies and Crown corporations with dozens of "future appointments" and early appointment renewals, many of which would only go into effect weeks and months after the next election. A CBC News analysis of order-in-council appointments made since Jan. 6, when Trudeau announced he would step down as prime minister, found 88 future appointments...
Swearing-in date unclear, but work done now will speed up the timeline. Far from the political spotlight and prying eyes, the process has already begun. When the next Liberal leader is announced on March 9, it will mark the end of the leadership campaign triggered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to resign.
Ambassador Kirsten Hillman leading campaign to persuade Trump, U.S. lawmakers. Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds has said some unkind things about Canada. But when the Trump ally welcomed Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman into his Capitol Hill office, it started out all smiles. "I hear that you have just announced that you're running for governor," Hillman enthused. "Congratulations!"
An online petition calling on the Canadian government to revoke Elon Musk's citizenship is on track to become one of the most popular in the history of the House of Commons. There's just one problem — Canada can't revoke Musk's citizenship.
Report says antisemitic commentary is used to gain both support and new members. Ideologically motivated violent extremist groups are using antisemitism in a bid to recruit followers and inspire violence, according to a report from Canada's spy agency. The report dated May 2024, released under the access to information law by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said the extremist...
The call to Angela Rasmussen came out of the blue and posed a troubling question. Had she heard the rumour that key data sets would be removed from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website the next day? It's something Rasmussen had thought could never happen. "It had never really been thought of before that CDC would actually...
It could get more complicated — and potentially more expensive — for Canadians to cross the border or send packages to the United States, if President Donald Trump's executive order on tariffs goes into effect. Businesses that export products to the U.S. have warned that Trump's plan for 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian goods could lead to losses...
Federal political parties should work together to quickly adopt recommendations made by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue's inquiry into foreign interference before the next election, says Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. In her report made public Tuesday, Hogue made 51 recommendations — 24 of which she said should be adopted before the next federal election.
MP says Musk has the power to 'easily impact our electoral integrity.' New Democrat MP Charlie Angus is calling on Elections Canada to launch an investigation into Elon Musk and his social media platform X, saying he is concerned about potential interference by the tech billionaire in the next federal election. In a two-page letter to Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane...
Canadian refugee advocates, federal government departments and immigration lawyers are bracing for a potential influx of asylum claimants following U.S. President Donald Trump's executive orders this week.
Speaking to journalists in Toronto on Friday, Chrystia Freeland didn't want to talk about the whispers around Parliament Hill that tensions between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were running high. "I'm proud and grateful to be able to serve in the cabinet of the prime minister," Freeland said. "I really don't spend a lot of time focusing on Ottawa...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's meeting with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump last week likely violated a 225-year-old U.S. law, but experts say it's highly unlikely that Trump will face any consequences. On Friday, Trudeau surprised Canadians by making an unannounced trip to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida. Over dinner, Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc and the prime...
Parliament's Natural Resources committee voted unanimously Monday to call on Paper Excellence owner Jackson Wijaya to testify, following news that he is assuming sole control of controversial pulp and paper giant Asia Pulp and Paper from his father. New Democrat MP Charlie Angus said he wants the committee to hear from Wijaya as well as Canadian government officials who said...
The Canadian government will monitor Canada's largest pulp and paper company to ensure it respects the promises it made the federal government as the company's owner takes over his family's controversial Indonesian-Chinese pulp and paper conglomerate, Natural Resource Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told a parliamentary committee Wednesday.
New Democrat MP Charlie Angus decided he had enough. "I have tried three times to get off X because it is a dismal, toxic, hole of disinformation," said Angus, who used to regularly post to his 47,200 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. "After seeing what went down with the Trump election, the belligerent role of Elon Musk in...
Opposition MPs are expressing concern that after buying up two major Canadian companies, the foreign owner of one of Canada's biggest forestry businesses is now also formally taking over an Indonesian-Chinese pulp and paper conglomerate from his family — a company he has long denied operating in tandem with. A half-page notice quietly published by the European Union on Monday...
Internal document says Mounties will use fake online profiles to pursue extremist activity. The RCMP is planning to conduct undercover surveillance online using fake personas to investigate ideological extremists in Canada, says an internal strategy document. Experts in ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE) in Canada say the strategy is overdue at a time when online extremism threatens to spill over...