Jeffrey Vermeire, right, rides a Toronto streetcar with his family in September 2025. Vermeire says his proof-of-citizenship application was referred to IRCC’s Program Support unit and has remained unresolved for more than a year. Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Vermeire.Jeffrey Vermeire, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter For more than a year, Jeffrey Vermeire has waited for Immigration, […]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Jim Mustian reported and co-wrote an Associated Press story that revealed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration permitted hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to be distributed in New Mexico as part of an effort to build bigger federal prosecutions. Mustian, along with AP journalist Joshua Goodman, reviewed hundreds of internal DEA […]

Muslim groups and Culture Minister Marc Miller are decrying an alleged attack on an imam of a mosque in Victoria on Thursday night. Miller said in a tweet that the reported assault is “appalling and vile” and that such violence and Islamophobia have no place in Canada. The BC Muslim Association said in a statement […]

Information commissioner Caroline Maynard says a federal proposal to narrow the scope of the Access to Information Act is a move in the wrong direction that could exclude “entire swaths of government-held records” from public scrutiny. Maynard makes the blunt warning in a newly published submission to the Treasury Board Secretariat’s latest review of the […]

A bill winding its way through Sacramento right now would make some of the biggest changes in decades to the California Public Records Act — the 58-year-old state law that guarantees everyone has access to government documents and data. Proponents argue AB 1821 is necessary to help local governments weather a deluge of burdensome requests […]

The lawyer for former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek is arguing police have no reason to hold onto her phone any longer as they investigate her and others for municipal corruption. “An admission that there is no timeline, that there’s no capability, there’s not specific step plan for this phone within the year is the opposite […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) — Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday accused the Justice Department of launching a politically motivated investigation into him and his wife, saying the Trump administration was targeting him as he weighs a presidential bid. Newsom, a longtime political rival of the Republican president, said in a video posted on X […]

The amendment updates the wording in the city’s Records Management and Retention Bylaw after the Government of Alberta repealed the former Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, commonly known as FOIP, and replaced it with the Protection of Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act. Kristy Isert, the City of Cold Lake’s […]

Some people who received proof of Canadian citizenship under the “Lost Canadians” legislation that passed last year are now being told to surrender their certificates of citizenship. Immigration lawyer Amandeep Hayer said one of his clients received a message from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on Saturday saying they need to turn over their citizenship […]

Plans are underway to explore potential providers for summer day camp programming following direction from Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council. With only two known day camp options within the municipality, including one in Plattsville that is run by the local church and another near Wolverton that is run by a rural group, staff are now looking […]

Transparency is a major topic for all tiers of government and the public is ever the more curious about how officials uphold openness to scrutiny in their civil service. With the provincial government’s recent changes to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), local officials are also keeping the subject open to […]

The vast majority of crime guns traced by the RCMP to identifiable sources in 2023 and 2024 came from within Canada and were not smuggled from abroad, say internal reports prepared by the national police force. The analyses found almost all of the long guns traced — and a substantial number of the handguns — […]