PM Mark Carney's Canada

[hw621]

https://archive.is/20260202200012/https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/toronto-mp-bill-blair-to-resign-and-become-high-commissioner-to-u-k/article_f9f6cd85-a7ec-4a18-98dd-aee7bd5f1abf.html

Toronto MP Bill Blair to resign and become high commissioner to U.K.​

Two sources confirmed the MP for Scarborough Southwest was set to formally resign his seat on Monday.

Former Liberal cabinet minister and Toronto police chief Bill Blair is resigning from Parliament to become Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the Star has learned.
Two sources confirmed the MP for Scarborough Southwest was set to formally resign his seat on Monday, while Blair did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment.

At the same time, the Prime Minister’s Office was set to announce that Nathalie Drouin — the National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the prime minister, first appointed under Justin Trudeau — will leave the role to take up Canada’s ambassadorship to France and Monaco.

The appointments are expected to take effect at some point this spring.
Blair is the second Trudeau-era cabinet minister from Toronto to leave in recent weeks, setting up the need for two federal byelections in the city. Chrystia Freeland, who was Trudeau’s deputy prime minister and finance minister before losing to Mark Carney in last year’s race for the Liberal leadership, stepped down from her seat in University—Rosedale in January and took a job advising the Ukrainian government amidst the country’s war with Russia.

The Liberals announced over the weekend that Danielle Martin, a doctor and chair of the University of Toronto’s family medicine program, will be their candidate in University—Rosedale.
The Star has not confirmed who will run in the coming byelection for other major parties.

There is also interest in Blair’s riding from Liberal circles in Toronto. The Star reported last year that John Tory Jr., son of the former mayor, is interested in running for the Liberals somewhere in the city, and possibly in Scarborough Southwest.

The byelections will be closely watched since the Carney Liberals are just shy of a majority in the House of Commons, with 169 of 343 seats.
Both vacant ridings have a history of electing Liberals. Scarborough Southwest, which has changed boundaries over the past decades, has been held by a Liberal for all but four years since 1997. University—Rosedale has elected Liberals since it was created out of existing ridings in 2015.


The parliamentary balance of power is also at play after two Conservative MPs — Nova Scotia’s Chris d’Entremont and Markham—Unionville’s Michael Ma — defected to the Liberal benches and bolstered the government’s numbers in the Commons.
Elected for the first time with the Liberal majority under Justin Trudeau in 2015, Blair held several cabinet portfolios over the next decade, including as minister for border security, public safety and — most recently — national defence.
Blair lost that portfolio in May when Prime Minister Mark Carney shuffled his cabinet after the Liberals returned to power with a minority government in last year’s federal election.

Will those by-elections be mini confidence votes by the public?

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Will those by-elections be mini confidence votes by the public?

I mean the results could deny the government a majority, but it won't bring the government down. University Rosedale is safe Liberal, Scarborough probably stays Liberal with the current polling numbers, and Edmonton Riverbend will be close.

 

[afransen]

There are rumblings that there may be a spring election, so you might be spared a by-election by having a full fat election.

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

There are rumblings that there may be a spring election, so you might be spared by-elections by having a full fat election.

I don't think it would be a good idea for the PM to call an election this soon he risks people viewing it as cynical and opportunitistic like Ford a year ago or Trudeau in 2021. While there's a lot of noise about an early election, I think the fact they're speeding up these byelections is actually a sign that there won't be.

 

[lenaitch]

https://archive.is/20260202200012/https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/toronto-mp-bill-blair-to-resign-and-become-high-commissioner-to-u-k/article_f9f6cd85-a7ec-4a18-98dd-aee7bd5f1abf.html

Toronto MP Bill Blair to resign and become high commissioner to U.K.​

Two sources confirmed the MP for Scarborough Southwest was set to formally resign his seat on Monday.

Former Liberal cabinet minister and Toronto police chief Bill Blair is resigning from Parliament to become Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the Star has learned.
Two sources confirmed the MP for Scarborough Southwest was set to formally resign his seat on Monday, while Blair did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment.

At the same time, the Prime Minister’s Office was set to announce that Nathalie Drouin — the National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the prime minister, first appointed under Justin Trudeau — will leave the role to take up Canada’s ambassadorship to France and Monaco.

The appointments are expected to take effect at some point this spring.
Blair is the second Trudeau-era cabinet minister from Toronto to leave in recent weeks, setting up the need for two federal byelections in the city. Chrystia Freeland, who was Trudeau’s deputy prime minister and finance minister before losing to Mark Carney in last year’s race for the Liberal leadership, stepped down from her seat in University—Rosedale in January and took a job advising the Ukrainian government amidst the country’s war with Russia.

The Liberals announced over the weekend that Danielle Martin, a doctor and chair of the University of Toronto’s family medicine program, will be their candidate in University—Rosedale.
The Star has not confirmed who will run in the coming byelection for other major parties.

There is also interest in Blair’s riding from Liberal circles in Toronto. The Star reported last year that John Tory Jr., son of the former mayor, is interested in running for the Liberals somewhere in the city, and possibly in Scarborough Southwest.

The byelections will be closely watched since the Carney Liberals are just shy of a majority in the House of Commons, with 169 of 343 seats.
Both vacant ridings have a history of electing Liberals. Scarborough Southwest, which has changed boundaries over the past decades, has been held by a Liberal for all but four years since 1997. University—Rosedale has elected Liberals since it was created out of existing ridings in 2015.


The parliamentary balance of power is also at play after two Conservative MPs — Nova Scotia’s Chris d’Entremont and Markham—Unionville’s Michael Ma — defected to the Liberal benches and bolstered the government’s numbers in the Commons.
Elected for the first time with the Liberal majority under Justin Trudeau in 2015, Blair held several cabinet portfolios over the next decade, including as minister for border security, public safety and — most recently — national defence.
Blair lost that portfolio in May when Prime Minister Mark Carney shuffled his cabinet after the Liberals returned to power with a minority government in last year’s federal election.

Another of the Trudeau-era guard getting the feeling - or being told - that they are out-of-sync with the new direction?

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Another of the Trudeau-era guard getting the feeling - or being told - that they are out-of-sync with the new direction?

Freeland and Blair have been eyeing the exits for awhile, ever since Trudeau left. Blair obviously is now being appointed the High Ambassador to the UK and was just waiting for that role to be available. But yes you do get the sense that some Trudeau era people are getting tossed by PMMC, rightly so.

 

[jje1000]

Remember when I posted about the issue of Indian gangs doing drive-by shoot-ups of Indian movie theatres in Brampton?

Sounds like symptoms of yet another metastasized problem that Carney has to clean up from Trudeau- and now honest South Asian communities are being terrorized by this criminality.

South Asian gangs are out of control in Canada​

1 February 2026

South Asian communities across Canada are being terrorised by gangs – and city officials in Surrey, BC are calling on the federal government to declare a national state of emergency.

The crimes follow a distinctive pattern. South Asian gangs demand money from members of their own communities. Intimidation, threats and even shootings follow. Gang members drive to someone’s home or business, and video themselves shooting at buildings and vehicles. They then post the recording online or send it to the target, with threats of worse to come if payment is not made.

The city of Surrey has seen a drastic uptick in these crimes, with police reporting 35 extortion attempts since the beginning of January. But the problem is perhaps even more severe in Brampton, Ontario with regional police reporting nearly 500 extortion cases each year since 2023. Edmonton, and more recently Calgary, have had their share as well.

Dharmjit Mand in Ontario says he was contacted in the autumn of 2025 via WhatsApp and told he had been chosen to ‘donate’ $2 million to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, a transnational criminal organisation that is based in India but has reportedly put down deep roots in Canada. Mand blocked the number and told the police. But in late November, he got a call from another number with a threat: ‘We’re going to show you what we can do.’

The next night, a car drove by Mand’s farmhouse and seven shots were fired out the window. A video of the shooting was posted online with threats against Mand, accusing him of being a drug dealer. Police told Mand to move, so he went to live with his brother – only to have his brother’s house shot at a couple of weeks later. Mand said he now intends to move his family to the US.

Police say the extortions attempts are chiefly made on behalf of criminal organisations based outside of Canada. Notable among these is the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, famously run from behind bars in a high-security Indian jail, where its eponymous mastermind has been incarcerated since 2015. The Bishnoi gang was designated a terrorist organisation by the Canadian government last September. Sikh groups have long accused Indian government agents of using the Bishnoi network to target pro-Khalistani activists in Canada, notably with the killing of Hardeep Singh on Canadian soil in 2023.

Other gangs, along with Bishnoi copycats, are involved in the extortion racket. A man linked to the ‘Brothers Keeper’ gang planned a series of extortions, shootings and arsons in the Edmonton area in 2023, targeting South Asians involved in the building industry. Newly built homes were burned down before occupancy permits could be issued, in revenge for the builder’s failure to pay protection money. All involved but the ringleader were eventually caught.

Caught, but then what? Both in Brampton and in Surrey, people fear that extortionists are getting off too lightly. Critics of current bail legislation point out that police are effectively forced to carry out a catch and release programme, arresting violent offenders only to see them back on the streets 24 hours later, pending an often distant court date. And when that day comes, the Canadian judiciary’s focus on reintegration into the community, combined with ‘identity-based justice,’ mean that sentences are often light and parole easily earned.

Gangs are also expert at exploiting the weaknesses in Canadian immigration policy. Many of their members are present in Canada illegally, often on expired student visas. Some were already known criminals in their home countries, who somehow escaped proper vetting on entry.

Last December, at least 14 suspects avoided deportation by claiming refugee status, buying themselves years of time in Canada, along with subsidised health care and social programmes, according to Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland. They now cannot be deported until the Refugee Protection Division rules on the merit of their claims – with a multi-year backlog of refugee cases to be processed ahead of them.

Back in Surrey, authorities worry that people aren’t reporting incidents of extortion out of fear. Some are perhaps even paying the money demanded. Locals say there is a strong sense that police are unable to protect the public effectively. Some are calling for stronger ‘castle’ laws in Canada so they can arm themselves in self-defence.

Police have called for Surrey residents to abide by the law, concerned that the situation may descend into vigilantism. One extortion victim was reportedly investigated after allegedly responding to a drive-by shooting by firing back.

People are on edge – and who can blame them? The Liberals under Trudeau created an untenable situation under which transnational organised crime has prospered. Now that Mayor Locke has turned the spotlight where it belongs – on the federal government – we’ll have an opportunity to see if the Liberals under Carney are any different.

South Asian gangs are out of control in Canada

South Asian communities across Canada are being terrorised by gangs – and city officials in Surrey, BC are calling on the federal government to declare a national state of emergency. The crimes follow a distinctive pattern. South Asian gangs demand money from members of their own communities...

spectator.com

 

[Admiral Beez]

Remember when I posted about the issue of Indian gangs doing drive-by shoot-ups of Indian movie theatres in Brampton? Sounds like symptoms of yet another metastasized problem that Carney has to clean up from Trudeau- and now honest South Asian communities are being terrorized by this criminality.

To me this seems like people coming to Canada and bringing their baggage and troubles from the old country. I'm an immigrant from the UK, and unless I somehow missed the Canadian branch of Peaky Blinders, my people just arrived and got down to making a life for themselves, never looking back to the UK.

 

[PL1]

To me this seems like people coming to Canada and bringing their baggage and troubles from the old country. I'm an immigrant from the UK, and unless I somehow missed the Canadian branch of Peaky Blinders, my people just arrived and got down to making a life for themselves, never looking back to the UK.

Just pointing out that there is an Orange Order parade every year in downtown... People should leave their crap behind, but they don't

 

[Admiral Beez]

Just pointing out that there is an Orange Order parade every year in downtown... People should leave their crap behind, but they don't

That's a stretch comparison to apply to my English roots. It's more apt to the Irish issue, where the Orange Order is driven by Ulster Protestants, and yes, their diaspora in Canada should have left their issues at home, same as our south Asian Canadians. As for the English like me, I'll let you know when some gangster from the old country demands money or he'll whack some distant relative back in England.... to which I'd laugh and tell him to piss off. We're one of the DGAF peoples.

 

[jje1000]

Just pointing out that there is an Orange Order parade every year in downtown... People should leave their crap behind, but they don't

Upper Canada was effectively created as a militant Loyalist refounding of British North America, but with stronger cultural connections to the UK* and conservative monarchist values against the American project- so the Orange Order emerged less as an immigrant import, but as a Protestant anti-Catholic social order against the rising Irish immigration of the 1815s.

* There was no 'New' in most early Upper Canada settlements for a reason, and if you look at a map of early Upper Canada counties, it is the British east coast laid out sideways.

 

[PL1]

That's a stretch comparison to apply to my English roots. It's more apt to the Irish issue, where the Orange Order is driven by Ulster Protestants, and yes, their diaspora in Canada should have left their issues at home, same as our south Asian Canadians. As for the English like me, I'll let you know when some gangster from the old country demands money or he'll whack some distant relative back in England.... to which I'd laugh and tell him to piss off. We're one of the DGAF peoples.

I know that's an Irish group; just pointing out that crap from the old country does make it here. I wasn't intending to target you (or your heritage) specifically

 

[Admiral Beez]

I know that's an Irish group; just pointing out that crap from the old country does make it here. I wasn't intending to target you (or your heritage) specifically

My fault, I wrote UK instead of England, which includes Northern Ireland. I remember taking my wife to visit family in the UK and he asked what's the difference between British (or UK) and English, and she got an earful. One's a passport, one's an ethnicity.

 

[lenaitch]

The Orange Order and its parades are a shell of what they used to be. Fraternal, cultural. religious, etc. orders, societies ans their ilk are a far cry from criminal activity. People are entirely free the gather and express collective identity for 'over 'ome' - however they define that, fealty to a deity of their choosing or any other peaceful and legitimate reason. Criminal acts cross the line.

 

[Mihairokov]

Will those by-elections be mini confidence votes by the public?

Every by-election is a confidence vote in the government, whether directly or indirectly.

For University-Rosedale particularly, the Trudeau Liberals tried at many times to get Danielle Martin to run. Says a lot that she's willing to throw her hat in now under Carney.
Scarborough Southwest will stay Liberal but Edmonton Riverbend will be a fascinating one. Real chance for Carney to flip a reliably blue seat and go for a majority.

There are rumblings that there may be a spring election, so you might be spared a by-election by having a full fat election.

I don't think I buy this. We'll see how the by-elections shake out but I don't think the Liberals should have any concerns with how things are currently going under Carney. He'd be opening the door for the Americans to directly influence our elections more than they already do at a time when it's unncessary.