Norman Wapachee was born around a decade after his sister Hattie, but he never got to meet her. Instead, he grew up hearing their mom tell stories about her brief time on Earth.  In 1955, Wapachee’s parents took their seven-month old daughter to a hospital in Roberval, QC to treat her pneumonia. Soon after, the […]

CBC/Radio-Canada won’t disclose how much participating in the Eurovision song contest could cost. A government document, obtained through access to information law, says information about other countries is limited but total costs ranged from about $400,000 for Portugal to $1.5 million for Israel in 2025. The Canadian Heritage document also says that because the Broadcasting […]

A second Peel municipality has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to the same Ontario-based on-demand transit provider with a limited operating history, just days before The Pointer entered an adjudication process with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner to obtain the City of Brampton’s agreement with the company. On June 25, Argo Transit announced a 15-month micro-transit […]

Razan Abu-Ghoush filed her Canadian citizenship application on July 2, 2024. Two years later, she’s still waiting. That shouldn’t be happening. IRCC’s own published processing-time data shows citizenship grants — the standard path for permanent residents applying to naturalize — have been improving this year, even as the separate citizenship-by-descent queue has ballooned. Application decisions […]

Naheed Nenshi, leader of the Opposition of Alberta, is asking the premier to come clean about the total cost of holding the referendum will be. Though Access to Information requests by Alberta NDP found an additional $2 million in costs towards the referendum to the already staggering $132-180 million. Some of these costs include a […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing an internal misinterpretation of a change in policy, the U.S. Navy is backing away from statements that it would begin to restrict press and public access to sailors’ service histories — information that has been freely offered for decades. “The Navy continues to fulfill service record requests under our longstanding, standard […]

Lynn Gehl was in her thirties when she finally started to learn the story of her great-grandfather Joseph Gagnon from Golden Lake Reserve (now known as Pikwakanagan First Nation) in Ontario. In Joseph Gagnon: An Algonquin World War 1 Veteran, Gehl outlines the way her great-grandfather suffered from discrimination when it came to Canada’s implementation […]

For residents who have spent years demanding action on the abandoned former General Motors property in St. Catharines, the latest chapter will sound all too familiar. Just weeks after the City’s Property Standards Appeal Committee upheld sweeping compliance orders requiring the owners to repair or demolish dozens of deteriorating structures, the controversial numbered company that […]

Alberta’s Opposition says the cost of just getting the word out on the province’s looming separation referendum is setting taxpayers back at least $365,000 dollars. The new numbers come from a freedom of information request, NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Thursday. He said contracts show about $365,000 in fees for a televised address and promotional […]

Ramara residents are almost equally divided on the fate of two aged municipal buildings on Highway 12 in Brechin. About half of residents want to see the buildings renovated, while the other half think they should be demolished. Financially impacting the decision, the Ministry of Transportation requires them to be set back from the highway. […]

Canada has become the first country to gain observer status in a future fighter jet program run by the U.K., Japan and Italy, even as a decision on Ottawa’s current order of F-35s remains up in the air. As an observer nation, Ottawa will gain insider access to information about the Global Combat Air Program […]

A suggested policy change erupted in an argument about how Ramara conducts business. A staff report suggesting a change in fees related to information requests recommended same day ratification. “Although it is proposing an amendment to the fee structure, what we’re really trying to do is get records into the hands of the requesting party […]