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 Ashley Burke.
Sources say PM is considering a smaller group of core ministers. Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet is expected to be larger than his first, but could include a tiered structure with a secondary ring of ministers. Rideau Hall announced Friday that Carney and his cabinet will be sworn in Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in Ottawa by Gov. Gen. Mary...
Deputy leader Melissa Lantsman held an undisclosed number of shares in 2024, documents show
Move comes after RCMP announced probe into comments made about Conservative candidate Joe Tay. Embattled Toronto-area Liberal candidate Paul Chiang is dropping out of the race just hours after the RCMP told CBC News it's looking into whether he broke the law by suggesting people turn a Conservative candidate running in a nearby riding into the Chinese consulate to collect...
Carney downsized cabinet to focus on trade war and economy.Canada's new prime minister is facing growing criticism from advocacy groups upset that ministers solely dedicated to their issues are no longer around the cabinet table. Mark Carney announced his slate of 23 ministers on Friday, which he described as a much smaller cabinet focused on protecting workers during a trade...
Surgeon general says 'any and all conditions are on the table.' As the Canadian Armed Forces continue to try and dig out of a deep recruitment hole, they're starting to give new recruits with medical conditions a shot at joining the military rather than automatically turning them away. Maj.-Gen. Scott Malcolm, the military's surgeon general, says the forces will now...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance that punishing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum will hurt his home state Ohio, a senior Canadian official said. The two leaders met on the sidelines of an international summit in Paris, as the Trump administration moves forward with its threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will try to strengthen Canada's trade and security ties over the next five days with European allies also facing threats from U.S. President Donald Trump over their economy and sovereignty. Trudeau is heading to Paris and Brussels starting Saturday — just days after Trump agreed to pause tariffs on Canada until March 4.
Trudeau government's deadline to meet target is 2032, but defence minister's goal is ASAP. Liberal leadership contender Mark Carney is expected to announce on Wednesday that if he becomes prime minister he's committed to reaching NATO's military investment benchmark of two per cent of gross domestic product by the end of 2030, CBC News has learned. Carney's commitment to defence...
Canada's first accessibility commissioner has resigned during a legal battle with the federal government involving an external investigation into allegations he mistreated staff. The lawyer representing Michael Gottheil said the commissioner submitted his notice last week that he wished to leave his job effective Tuesday.
Blair says accelerated timeline for defence spending 'absolutely achievable.' Facing U.S. President Donald Trump's ongoing criticism about military spending, Defence Minister Bill Blair says it's "absolutely achievable" within two years for Canada to meet NATO's military investment benchmark of two per cent of gross domestic product. That timeline is about six years earlier than what the prime minister announced and...
Liberal MPs, especially those who for months had called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's resignation both publicly and behind closed doors, have started backing two of his potential successors. Twenty-two members of caucus have weighed in, endorsing either former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney or former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, the presumed front-runners in the...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he had a "brief exchange" with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a summit in Laos a year after he accused India's government of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist in B.C. It's the second time Trudeau's come face-to-face with Modi since relations went cold in September 2023 after Trudeau rose in...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has an opening during this week's summit with regional leaders in Laos to step up Canada's efforts to help Southeast Asian countries facing escalating threats from China, experts say. Southeast Asian countries want to stop China from using its navy, Coast Guard and merchant vessels to bully them during territorial disputes, and they need stronger protection...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to Laos this week to advance trade and political ties in the region as violence in the Middle East dominates public opinion in Southeast Asia. Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said Canada and other western nations have taken a "reputational hit" in Muslim-majority countries — including...
After facing an external investigation into claims he mistreated staff, Canada's first accessibility commissioner is suing the federal government and unnamed employees for more than $2.3 million in damages. According to his statement of claim, filed last week, Michael Gottheil was ordered by the justice minister to undergo "certain training and take courses" in response to an 18-month workplace investigation...
First elected in 2004, Poilievre is set to receive more than $200K annually when he turns 65, experts say. For weeks, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been accusing NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh of supporting the government until February so he can become eligible for his MP pension. But experts estimate the size of Poilievre's own pension at more than three...
Multiple Liberal MPs told CBC News that more needs to be done to salvage the party’s electoral hopes. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with his ministers in Halifax on Sunday for the annual cabinet retreat, a gathering that comes after a year of dire polling for the government and disquiet among some Liberal MPs. Some of those MPs are...
Canada's military was "highly confident" for days in June 2023 that bangs heard underwater while searching for the missing Titan submersible were man made — by an object striking the hull of a vessel — near the famous Titanic wreck site, CBC News has learned. Those noises helped keep hope going that the five wealthy explorers on board the missing...
Justice Minister Arif Virani has asked the country's first accessibility commissioner to address the recommendations coming out of an external investigation into claims that he mistreated staff at the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The third-party investigation into Michael Gottheil, which cost taxpayers more than $230,000, is complete and the final report has been issued to Virani, says the Department of Justice.
The federal government is listing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization under Canada's Criminal Code after years of mounting pressure. Federal ministers delivered the news Wednesday afternoon, hours after CBC News first reported the government was preparing to make the announcement. "This action sends a strong message that Canada will use all of the tools at...
Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, says his country is in urgent need of weapons and wishes the air defence system Canada promised more than a year ago was already in Ukraine. Canada announced plans in January 2023 to donate a $406-million surface-to-air missile defence system, but there's still no delivery date. "Of course, we wish the system was...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to Switzerland today for a peace summit as Ukraine's president works to shore up his country's defence by securing more international support. The Ukraine Peace Summit is unfolding at a time of extreme peril for Ukrainian troops on the battlefield. Russian gains have led to intense fighting northeast of Kharkiv. Russian drone and missile strikes...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi have met for the first time since Trudeau publicly accused Modi's government of involvement in the assassination of a Canadian Sikh activist. Modi posted a photo on X, formerly Twitter, of the two leaders shaking hands on Friday on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.
Five per cent of women attending Canadian military colleges surveyed in 2023 said they were sexually attacked during the previous 12 months by being threatened, held down or hurt and forced into unwanted sexual acts, according to survey results obtained by CBC News. And nine per cent of female military college students told the same survey that they had been...
Conservative leader headlines fundraisers at private homes and exclusive clubs, CBC News analysis finds. As Pierre Poilievre presents himself as both a prime minister in waiting and a champion of "the working-class people," he's headlined roughly 50 fundraisers at private venues since becoming Conservative leader in 2022 — some of them in Canada's wealthiest neighbourhoods and most exclusive clubs. A...
Canada's electronic intelligence agency says the same hacking group that the U.K. and the U.S. have accused of a widespread cyberespionage campaign tied to Beijing has also targeted Canada. U.S. and British officials on Monday imposed sanctions, filed charges and accused China's government of involvement in the cyber attacks that hit millions of people including lawmakers, journalists, academics and defence...
The military has dropped its aptitude test from the application process for dozens of jobs and plans to start accepting recruits with pre-existing medical conditions — trial efforts meant to boost the Canadian Armed Forces' dismal recruitment numbers. Brig.-Gen. Krista Brodie, the commander overseeing military recruitment, said the new trials are meant to test out possible solutions as CAF continues...
A parliamentary committee voted Monday to look into why convicted first-degree murderer Luka Magnotta was quietly transferred from a maximum to a medium-security prison. The standing committee on public safety and national security passed an amended motion during an emergency debate to hold one meeting about Magnotta's transfer. The committee is now calling for four witnesses to appear before it...
Then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino's chief of staff was briefed by the head of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) about Paul Bernardo's upcoming prison transfer almost two weeks before it happened — but the minister wasn't told about it until after Bernardo had been moved, says an internal government email. The Privy Council Office (PCO) email, obtained by CBC...
The Canadian Armed Forces has received more than 21,000 applications from permanent residents eager to join the chronically understaffed military full time — but CBC News has learned that less than 100 of them have made it into the regular force in the year since they were allowed to sign up. In 2022, the federal government lifted a ban on...
Defence Minister Bill Blair says the government has no plans to ban alcohol in the military, but he will speak to senior military leaders in the coming weeks about how to improve the culture at social establishments on military bases that serve alcohol. A recent Statistics Canada survey found 33 per cent of military members who were sexually assaulted in...
Minister of Sport Carla Qualtrough is expected to announce Monday the process the government will use to review systemic abuse and human rights violations in sports. Qualtrough told a forum in Geneva last week that she would reveal the details of a "formal, independent mechanism" that would be "trauma-informed." "[Qualtrough] ... will announce new safe sport measures to continue to...
Minister of Sport Carla Qualtrough said early next week she's announcing a "formal, independent mechanism" to review systemic abuse and human rights violations in Canadian sports. Qualtrough made the comment in Switzerland at a UN forum amid ongoing calls inside Canada from athletes, coaches and MPs to launch a public inquiry into abuse in sports.
Canada's prison investigator, the federal victims' ombudsperson and friends of one of Paul Bernardo's victims are all calling on the federal government to do more to ensure crime victims have the same rights as offenders in the wake of the serial killer and rapist's controversial prison transfer. Three childhood friends of Kristen French, who was murdered by Bernardo, told the...
The federal government will award a multibillion-dollar, sole-sourced contract to Boeing to replace its aging military surveillance planes, Radio-Canada has learned. Two sources confirm a decision has been made amid public campaigns to launch an open and fair competition.
Senior military officials insist their investigators and prosecutors did nothing wrong and they won't be making any changes in response to two military sexual assault cases that were stayed in civilian courts. A civilian judge last month terminated the trial of now-retired Lt.-Gen. Trevor Cadieu and his co-accused after concluding there were unreasonable delays.
The Liberal Party is beta-testing new videos attacking Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, one of which compares him to former U.S president Donald Trump. The party confirms that a video it posted online earlier this week was its first to splice together footage of both Poilievre and Trump.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and key cabinet ministers received hundreds of emails from Canadians back in the spring expressing how "horrified," "shocked" and "utterly disgusted" they felt when they learned that serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo had been transferred to a medium-security prison. Some of those who wrote messages of protest said their own lives were forever changed by...
Families of serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo's victims are trying to convince the Supreme Court of Canada to give them access to his records in advance of future parole hearings. For years, the families have been denied copies of documents used during Bernardo's parole hearings due to privacy law. Those documents includes psychological assessments, treatment records, case management reports...