Canadians are less proud of and less attached to their country than they ever have been, with levels plummeting in recent years. Poll results released by the Angus Reid Institute on Friday highlighted that the years following the pandemic have muddied the waters. In 1985, 78% of Canadians said they were “very proud” to be Canadian. This saw a slow but consistent fall between 1985 and 2003 to 68%. By 2016, the year after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office, the percentage had fallen to 52%. By 2024, this value fell off a cliff, reaching a mere 34%. https://tnc.news/2024/12/15/canadian-pride-national-attachment-erode/

Liberal MP allegedly THREATENED to ‘f*ck up’ caucus colleague! ‘On the way out of this chamber the member [Sukh Dhaliwal] threatened that I would be f—d up,’ MP Chandra Arya told Parliament on Friday. 🇨🇦#NoMoreLiberalsAndNDP🇨🇦 🇨🇦#SayingTheQuietPartOutLoud🇨🇦 🇨🇦#resigntrudeau🇨🇦 🇨🇦#JustSayNoMore🇨🇦 https://www.rebelnews.com/liberal_mp_allegedly_threatened_caucus_colleague

OTTAWA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Canada's unemployment rate rose more than expected to 6.8% in November, a near-eight-year high excluding the pandemic years, even as the economy added a net 50,500 jobs, data showed on Friday, boosting chances of a large interest rate cut next week. Currency markets increased the bets for a rate cut of 50 basis points next week to 68% from 55% before the employment report was released. A rate reduction of 25 basis points is fully priced in. https://www.kitco.com/news/off-the-wire/2024-12-06/canadas-jobless-rate-jumps-68-bets-50-bps-rate-cut-next-week

The joint lawsuit, filed on Friday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, follows similar suits brought against OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023 by the New York Times, which claimed copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The Canadian outlets - which include the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), are seeking what could amount to billions of dollars in damages, as they have demanded 20,000 Canadian dollars (US$14,700) for each article they claim was illegally scraped and used to train ChatGPT. "OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners," the group said in a Friday statement, adding that they're responsible for the "bulk of Canada’s journalistic content." https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-illegal-canadian-media-sues-openai-scraping-large-swaths-content-train-chatbot

OTTAWA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Canada's budget deficit for the first six months of the 2024-25 fiscal year jumped by more than a half to C$13.01 billion ($9.28 billion) as program expenses and debt payment costs rose faster than the gain in revenues, the finance ministry said on Friday. The deficit in the same period a year earlier had been C$8.17 billion, it said in a statement. Program expenses rose 11.2% on increases across all major categories of spending. Public debt charges jumped by 22.5% largely because of higher interest rates, the ministry said. On a monthly basis, Canada posted a deficit of C$3.17 billion in September, slightly narrower than C$3.88 billion deficit seen in September 2023. https://www.kitco.com/news/off-the-wire/2024-11-29/canadas-budget-deficit-first-six-months-202425-expands-c1301-bln

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Palm Beach, Fla., to attend a dinner Friday night with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. The visit comes amid Trump's threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian products entering the United States. Pennsylvania senator-elect Dave McCormick posted a photo to social media platform X late Friday showing Trudeau sitting beside Trump during dinner at the Florida estate. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-meets-trump-tariff-1.7397564

Anti-NATO and pro-Palestinian riots broke out in Montreal this week, and on Friday night, things got violent. Police report that the protesters were smashing windows out of buildings, setting cars on fire, setting off smoke bombs, and throwing metal barriers at cops who tried to intervene. They marched through the streets with Palestinian flags and burned an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The rioters chose Montreal because the city is currently hosting delegates for the annual NATO parliamentary assembly. You might be thinking that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on top of things immediately, working with local officials to calm the situation. Just kidding -- I know our readers are smarter than that. Trudeau was actually about as far away mentally as one can get; he was dancing the night away at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto. https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2024/11/24/trudeau-dances-while-montreal-burns-n4934590

Riots erupted overnight in parts of Montreal after pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO protesters clashed with police officers, smashed windows of businesses, and even set vehicles ablaze in the downtown area. Canadian English-language daily newspaper The Gazette, also known as the Montreal Gazette, reported that the protests coincided with the 70th Annual Session of NATO in Montreal, which kicked off on Friday and lasts through Monday. About 300 delegates from NATO member states and partner countries are expected to attend the weekend high-level event. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/justin-trudeau-watches-taylor-swift-while-riots-erupt-montreal

MONTREAL — Canada Post saw hundreds of millions of dollars drain out of its coffers last quarter, due largely to its dwindling share of the parcels market — while an ongoing strike continues to batter its bottom line. The Crown corporation said Friday it lost $315 million before tax in the third quarter, larger than its $290 million loss a year earlier. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2024/11/22/canada-post-reports-315m-q3-loss-before-tax-compared-with-290m-loss-a-year-earlier/

Pat King, a key figure in what became the Freedom Convoy protest that paralyzed downtown Ottawa in early 2022, has been found guilty of most charges against him for his role. Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland is delivering his decision at the Ottawa Courthouse Friday. King has been found guilty of five charges including mischief, counselling to commit mischief and disobeying a court order. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/pat-king-freedom-convoy-2022-charge-1.7389715