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Mendicino calls out CSIS as Trudeau refuses to clear up confusion over Chong case
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Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino had strong words for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Friday when he claimed the agency failed to brief the prime minister on a Chinese government plan to target Conservative MP Michael Chong’s family.
His comments come at the end of a week that saw the government hounded over how it handled intelligence reports detailing a Chinese government plot to target MPs, reported by the Globe and Mail.
“What I would say is that it’s a serious problem that in July 2021 that neither the prime minister or the public safety minister at the time were briefed directly by CSIS,” Mendicino said Friday afternoon from the Liberal policy convention in Ottawa.
“But we’re rectifying that.”
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked repeatedly to explain why he told Canadians that information about the Chinese government plot to target MPs was never shared outside of CSIS — despite a report to the contrary.
But the prime minister refused to answer questions about the source of the communication disconnect in his government.
“I get briefings regularly from various sources. I’m not going to go into details on that,” he said. “I shared the best information I had at the time both to [Conservative MP Michael] Chong and to Canadians.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he shared ‘best information’ he had with Canadians on Wednesday, when he said a report about China’s intelligence service seeking to target MPs never left CSIS.
On Monday, the Globe and Mail published a story citing a top-secret 2021 CSIS document saying that China’s intelligence agency was seeking information about an unnamed Canadian MP’s relatives “who may be located in the PRC [People’s Republic of China], for further potential sanctions.”
A national security source reportedly told the Globe that the MP targeted was Chong and that Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat in Canada, was working on this matter.
On Wednesday, Trudeau said the matter wasn’t shared outside of CSIS.
“We asked what happened to that information, was it ever briefed up out of CSIS? It was not,” he said at the time.
“CSIS made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern.”
On Thursday, Chong told the House of Commons that the intelligence report on the matter was shared with relevant departments — including the prime minister’s national security and intelligence adviser in the Privy Council Office. The Wellington-Halton Hills MP said the current national security adviser, Jody Thomas, told him so.
“This report contained information that I and other MPs were being targeted by the [People’s Republic of China],” he said.
Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, who was the minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in July of 2021, speaks with reporters about his knowledge of a Chinese government plot to target MPs. ‘It would have been useful to have that information at the time,’ he says.
On Friday, Trudeau insisted again that the CSIS information wasn’t shared with the political level.
“They proceeded to go through their processes in the way that they felt was the right thing to do,” he said.
“It’s also clear that information never made it up to the political level in my office, to me, or even to the minister of Public Safety at the time.”
That person, Bill Blair, said he was aware of concerns about potential interference but wasn’t briefed on specific names.
“My hindsight is as clear as everybody else’s. It would have been useful to have that information at the time but it was never shared with me,” said Blair, who is now now Emergency Preparedness minister.
“They didn’t tell me who they were briefing or when they were briefing or what it was about.”
Conservative MP Michael Chong is demanding an explanation and action after reports that he and his family were targeted by China and one of its diplomats living in Toronto. Plus, how are the Liberals planning to re-energize the party?
Blair said questions about why he wasn’t briefed should be directed at CSIS and the relevant department heads.
Trudeau said he directed the spy agency to share more information with the federal government about threats to members of Parliament in light of the Chong case.
A spokesperson for CSIS said Friday the agency is limited in what it can say, but added that intelligence assessments are shared with the government.
“Raw intelligence and intelligence assessments products are shared with the government of Canada to advise on threats to national security. CSIS will continue to lawfully inform the government of Canada, and Canadians, of potential threats,” said Eric Balsam.
“CSIS has a culture of continual learning and improvement and this includes how intelligence is shared and used to inform decision-making.”
Chong has said that prior to this week, CSIS had only given him a “defensive briefing” — a term the agency uses for an educational briefing — but it was general in nature and didn’t contain information about Zhao.
Balsam said earlier this week that CSIS met with Chong “to discuss potential foreign interference threats posed to the MP and his family.”
Ian Brodie, who served as chief of staff to former prime minister Stephen Harper from 2006 to 2008, told CBC’s Power & Politics that Trudeau’s comments about CSIS not sharing information didn’t make sense.
“It’s natural for CSIS to share its reporting of this sort broadly across other security services and the cabinet office,” he said.
“In my experience, anything that deals with an MP or anyone at the political level would be automatically shared with the Prime Minister’s Office and brought to the prime minister’s attention as quickly as possible.”
Sen. Ian Shugart, who served as clerk of the Privy Council from April 2019 to March 2021, agreed that an assessment about an MP would have been raised politically.
“I think it’s important that we understand that every case is different and there may be specifics about a case that justify it being dealt with in a different way,” he told host David Cochrane.
“But as a general idea, particularly where a member of Parliament or a parliamentarian is involved, I would have thought that there would be a more rapid transfer of information.”
When the CSIS report — dated July 20, 2021, according to the Globe — was being assembled, the national security and intelligence adviser’s office was in flux.
Vincent Rigby retired and left the position at the end of June.
According to a PCO spokesperson, Dave Morrison, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, acted as the adviser until Thomas was appointed in early 2022. But during the window of July 16 to Aug. 3, 2021, Mike MacDonald was filling in.
“Mr. MacDonald does not recall having seen any material regarding threats to MPs during this time. As a result, no material describing any such threats was briefed to PMO,” the PCO spokesperson said in an email.
Brodie, now a professor at the University of Calgary’s department of political science, said any changeover at the top would not be expected to affect the work of the dozens of people who staff the office of the national security adviser.
“These are not issues where there’s one person who has a bad day or is off at a doctor’s appointment and the system falls apart,” he said.
“I guess the question is then why was the government sending the message to its security agencies that it did not take the challenge of Chinese political interference in the Canadian political process seriously?”
Calls for Canada to expel diplomat
Chong has called for the government to expel Zhao and accused the government of sending the wrong signal to foreign adversaries by not acting more swiftly and decisively on foreign interference.
“We are basically putting up a giant billboard for all authoritarian states around the world that says we are open for foreign interference threat activities on Canadian soil targeting Canadian citizens, and you can conduct these activities with zero consequences,” Chong said during a heated committee meeting Thursday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with reporters about whether the government will expel a Chinese diplomat accused of interference.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said the government has summoned China’s ambassador and is considering the ramifications of expelling a diplomat.
Shugart said expelling a diplomat is easier said than done. One factor the government must consider, he said, is what happens if Canadian diplomats are expelled in retaliation and Canada is left without eyes and ears on the ground.
“Those are the kinds of things that will go into that decision and they’re made with a combination of the policy objectives and what is the the right thing to do in terms of, for example, the stand that this government has taken against hostage diplomacy As well as the real life implications for this country and its citizens of taking certain actions,” he said.
Trudeau said Friday a decision will be made in “due course.”
The federal government is looking at making Islamic home financing increasingly accessible to help more Canadians break into the housing market.
As part of the 2024 federal budget that was released last week, Ottawa said it is “exploring new measures to expand access to alternative financing products, like halal mortgages.”
Last month, the federal government started consulting financial services providers and communities to understand how policies can better support the needs of all Canadians seeking home ownership, according to the budget.
“Canada is home to a vibrant and growing market of alternative financing products, including halal mortgages, that enable Muslim Canadians, and other diverse communities, to further participate in the housing market,” the budget states.
Currently, none of Canada’s big six banks offer halal mortgages, which are an interest-free payment structure that follows Islamic principles.
However, some lenders in Canada have been offering halal mortgages for several years now.
“Halal mortgages are already offered to all Canadians by financial institutions,” Caroline Thériault, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance, said in an emailed statement to Global News Tuesday.
Thériault said halal mortgages are not government of Canada products.
“The government is simply looking at ways to help more Canadians become homeowners, while ensuring adequate consumer protections are in place.”
What is a halal mortgage?
A halal mortgage is a real estate financing method that complies with Islamic principles and teachings.
Under Sharia law, it is forbidden for Muslims to receive and pay interest, so a halal mortgage essentially takes interest out of the equation.
Instead, the mortgage is based on the principle of profit, said Mohamad Sawwaf, founder and CEO of Manzil, a Canadian financial institution that offers Sharia-compliant services.
Manzil has been offering halal mortgages that are both partnership- and profit-based since 2020.
“We look at this product as an innovation within the Canadian mortgage marketplace to allow for a segment of the population and the broader ethical community that may want to participate,” Sawwaf said in an interview with Global News Monday.
The end result of homeownership is the same, but the process and documentation are different compared with a regular mortgage, he said.
“Within the Islamic finance principles, you’re acquiring a real asset, it’s commodity-based, and then you are reselling it or partnering in that asset long-term, so that is the key difference here.”
Victor Tran, a mortgage and real estate expert at Ratesdot.ca and broker with True North Mortgage, said a halal mortgage is almost like a traditional mortgage where the lender and the homeowner have shared ownership of the property, but there are extra steps involved.
He said the difference is that “instead of charging interest to the homeowner, the contract is structured in a way where there’s a fee charged.”
Even though halal mortgages are interest-free, it doesn’t mean the lending happens at a zero per cent charge, Sawwaf said.
“It just means that you’re not part of a transaction where money is being lent and you have to pay more money back,” Sawwaf said.
“That is the principle of usury within Islam and other Abrahamic faiths that we’re trying to avoid.”
Usury, which is the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates, is also prohibited in Judaism and Christianity.
Types of halal mortgages
Halal mortgages in Canada fall under three different types of agreements, called Ijara, Murabaha and Musharaka, according to Rates.ca.
Ijara is like a rent-to-own agreement in which the inhabitant of the home starts as a renter and becomes the owner upon final loan payment, Tran said.
Under this type of financing, the home is purchased by a trust, which then leases it to the customer.
The Murabaha is a cost-plus financing structure in which an Islamic financial company becomes the owner of a home and sells it to their client for a price that includes a profit rate, which is benchmarked against the Bank of Canada’s overnight lending rate, Tran explained.
The client enters into a purchase agreement that specifies fixed monthly payments for the duration of the contract, which is usually up to 15 years.
Under the Musharaka arrangement, an Islamic financial company and its client become co-owners of a home, Tran said.
Throughout the mortgage term, which will follow the traditional mortgage term of up to 25 to 30 years, the financial company’s equity position decreases and the customer’s equity position increases proportionately as they pay out the owned balance.
At the end of the contract, the client will have 100 per cent home ownership and the company will have zero per cent, Sawwaf said.
Financial pros and cons of halal mortgages
From the financial standpoint, one of the main benefits of halal mortgages is that it introduces a long-term fixed mortgage rate, Sawwaf said.
For instance, under the Murabaha agreement, which follows the buy-and-sell structure, the mortgage can run up to 10 to 25 years.
Sawwaf said because the lender is sharing in the long-term risk, halal mortgages are “much more ethical and valuable at the end of the day” as opposed to having a debt-based system that is “not really good for society and its long-term social impact.”
However, the downside is that the costs of halal mortgages are higher because the lenders are not able to access low-cost capital, Sawwaf said.
“We’re hoping that the government signalling that they’re in support of halal mortgages with respect to potential legislation or policy changes, this could allow us to tap into institutional capital at the banks or other institutions,” he said.
Tran said because the costs and fees are a little bit higher for a halal mortgage than a traditional mortgage, it may not be a financially feasible option for many.
Among the measures that Ottawa is exploring are changes in the tax treatment of halal mortgages or a new regulatory sandbox for financial service providers.
Who can apply for a halal mortgage?
Anyone in Canada, Muslim or non-Muslim, can apply for a halal mortgage, which is currently offered by a few financial institutions.
“Everyone is allowed to have a halal mortgage no different than you can go to any restaurant and eat a shawarma with halal chicken in it,” Sawwaf said.
“We don’t care what your background is, your religion, your creed, even if you’re non-religious or an atheist.”
As for the down payment, most lenders in Canada require clients of halal financing to pay a minimum of 20 per cent of the market value, or purchase price, of the house.
Customers should also have a good credit history and sufficient income to meet the monthly payment obligation, the Canadian Halal Financial Corporation says.
More on Money
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Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change – CTV News
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada’s highest earners.
In respective press conferences on Tuesday, both Trudeau and his finance minister defended their proposal to rake in $19.3 billion over the next five years by increasing the capital gains inclusion rate — the portion of capital gains on which tax is paid – for individuals with more than $250,000 in capital gains in a year.
This new revenue stream comes as the federal government plans to spend billions of dollars to increase Canada’s housing supply and enhance social programs, with the Liberals framing the new revenue as helping to offset those investments in a way that’s fair and doesn’t offload a larger deficit on younger generations.
“At a time when young people have started to give up on the dream of eventually ever being able to own a home, it was really important to rebalance the situation,” Trudeau said, speaking to reporters in Saskatchewan.
“I understand for some people this may cost more if they sell a cottage or a secondary residence. But, young people can’t buy their primary residences yet.”
What is the capital gains tax change?
As revealed in last week’s federal budget, the capital gains inclusion rate will increase from 50 per cent to 67 per cent, and will also apply to all capital gains realized by corporations and trusts.
That means that as of June 25, people with more than $250,000 in profit made on the sale of assets in a year will have to pay taxes on a larger portion of that money.
This incoming amendment to the Income Tax Act is expected to affect the wealthiest 0.13 per cent, and approximately 12 per cent of Canada’s corporations and Canadians with an average income of $1.42 million.
The inclusion rate for capital gains realized annually up to $250,000 is not changing, the existing capital gains exemption on primary residences will remain, and the lifetime exemption limit for small business shares, as well as farming and fishing properties is increasing.
What is the criticism?
While not the direct wealth tax or excess profit taxes some had anticipated – given Freeland’s dodging of questions about whether those were revenue routes the government was considering – since the budget was tabled, many Canadian business owners and entrepreneurs have raised concerns that the move could stunt innovation.
“At a time when our country is facing critically low productivity and business investment our political leaders are failing our country’s entrepreneurs,” wrote Shopify president Harley Finkelstein in a post on “X” last week.
On Tuesday, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) also came out against the move, asking the Liberals to reconsider as the change will impact doctors’ retirement savings as most incorporate and operate their practice as a small business.
“It is completely unfair, late in the game taxation for those physicians who did follow the rules of the day and save for their retirement inside of our professional corporations,” CMA president Dr. Kathleen Ross said Tuesday.
PBO cautions ‘collateral damage’
It’s this kind of potential for “collateral damage” that Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux voiced caution about in an interview on CTV News Channel’s Power Play on Friday, with host Mike Le Couteur.
Citing the sale of secondary residences such as cottages, or rental properties in the current housing market as examples of how Canadians could feel the impact of this tax change, Giroux said it’s not unusual for capital gains to be realized “well in excess of $250,000.”
“The moment you have a capital gain that’s higher than a quarter million, then you’re captured by that higher capital gains inclusion rate,” he said.
The PBO also cautioned that it’s difficult to determine based on the government’s current numbers, whether they will actually be able to generate the amount of revenue expected, but his office plans to assess that over the next couple of weeks.
What is the Liberals’ rationale?
In defending the capital gains reforms, both Trudeau and Freeland said the way the tax system currently works means a nurse, student, or carpenter could be paying income tax at a higher marginal rate than a multimillionaire who can use accountants to pay a lower tax rate.
“That’s not fair,” Freeland said, speaking in Toronto on Tuesday. “It is fair to ask those who are doing really well to contribute a little bit more.”
In the budget, the Liberals made a point of noting that this change will not impact 99.87 per cent of Canadians. Further, the 416-page document notes that in 2021, only around five per cent of Canadians under 30 had any capital gains at all.
And, next year, 28.5 million Canadians are not expected to have any capital gains income, while three million are expected to earn capital gains below the $250,000 annual threshold.
In an interview on CTV’s Question Period with Vassy Kapelos that aired Sunday, Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman would not say whether her party would reverse the increase in the capital gains inclusion rate.
With files from CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk
U.K. tabloids and Loch Ness monster believers are abuzz after an expat Canadian couple photographed what some say could be the legendary water creature.
Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman aren’t fully convinced themselves, but say they are coming around to the idea — particularly if it keeps their kids happy.
The family, which currently lives in the English city of Wimbledon, spent Easter vacation sightseeing in Scotland. To prepare for the trip, they loaded up on books about the Loch Ness monster.
While staying in a nearby cabin on a cold, blustery day in early April, the couple decided to visit a body of water where the sea creature is rumoured to live.
And that’s when they saw something moving through the waves.
“Its head was craning up above the water and it was slowly but gradually moving toward us,” Malm, who is originally from Coquitlam, B.C., said, quipping that it was “bigger than a Sasquatch but smaller than Ogopogo.”
A Canadian expat couple took a photo of something in the water of Loch Ness while on vacation in Scotland recently. They thought it might be a seal or an otter but their kids believed it could be the Loch Ness Monster, a claim that was picked up by U.K. tabloids. Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman speak about the attention they’re receiving.
“So we obviously play it up. We have two little kids who are almost three and almost five,” he continued.
Wiseman, originally from Calgary, asked her sons, “Do you think it’s Nessie?” while taking a picture of the blurry object.
Little did they know that the image, and their names, would soon be plastered in U.K. tabloids as the first sighting of the Loch Ness monster of 2024.
Hundreds of years of history, but no official proof
Sightings of some sort of unexplained creature in Loch Ness date back to around 500 A.D., though modern sightings re generally traced to 1933, when a local newspaper reported a couple’s claims of seeing “an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface.”
Some have argued it’s a freshwater plesiosaur, though studies have found the creature went extinct before Loch Ness was formed. A DNA study of hundreds of water samples from Loch Ness found that if anything, sightings of the creature were most likely a giant eel.
Even a massive hunt in 2023 using state-of-the-art technology failed to turn up anything definitive.
Hundreds of ‘monster hunters’ are headed to the Scottish Highlands to take part in the biggest Loch Ness monster search in half a century. Andrew Chang explores why the event is a win for Scotland’s tourism industry in a post-pandemic world.
But the allure remains, with hundreds of tourists visiting the water every year in the hopes of seeing the creature — or at least coming away with a story to tell.
Among the believers is Gary Campbell and his daughter Page Daley, who have maintained a website since 1996 titled “The Official Loch Ness Monsters Sightings Register,” which aims to document all potential sightings of the creature, filtering out photos they are able to identify as waves, logs or other animals — as detailed on their page, “What’s not a sighting.”
Malm submitted their photo “just for a bit of a laugh” and, the next day, he says he got a reply telling him he had taken “the first confirmed sighting this year.”
The photo was posted to the website and picked up by U.K. tabloids including the Scottish Sun, Irish Star and the Daily Mirror.
‘We’re not tinfoil-hat-wearing people’
The couple is enjoying the attention and say their boys are fully on board with the notion they saw the Loch Ness monster, even if the adults aren’t quite convinced.
“My instinct says it might have been a seal but I am told that seals do not go in that lake,” Wiseman said.
“I mean, we’re not tinfoil-hat-wearing people,” Malm added. “There’s probably a perfectly logical explanation for what it was. Maybe species X lost its way home or something like that.”
But he says he’s not completely closed to the idea.
“There’s every possibility that there’s some sort of unexplained species that, from time to time, makes an appearance.”
For Wiseman, the fun comes in sharing an extraordinary memory with her kids.
“I want their childhood to be filled with the magic of the unbelievable,” she said. “And this is just one of those things: It is unbelievable, and they believe it so I believe it — and I am all in on that.”
Malm agrees: “What it sort of reaffirmed for me is there’s still things in the world that can surprise and delight you,” he said.
What is a halal mortgage? How interest-free home financing works in Canada – Global News
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change – CTV News
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