• British Columbians overwhelmingly favour the provincial foreign buyer tax and the federal two-year ban on foreign real estate purchases, a new poll shows. But developers, experiencing a bitter downturn, are pushing the government to ditch policies that curb foreign investment. They say they desperately need investors to return to the market.

• According to a recent paper, in the 1980s, the government opened its doors to wealthy migrants with the Business Immigration Program that allowed about 200,000 people, mostly from East Asia, into Canada, until it was shelved in 2012. Instead of spurring entrepreneurial activity, the wealthy migrants invested heavily in property. Meanwhile, they continued to earn most of their income offshore, paying an average annual income tax in Canada of only $1,400

• After much reluctance, the B.C. Liberal government finally responded with a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax in 2016. It was too little, too late for the party, and the next year the NDP took over the government and increased the tax to 20 per cent. They also introduced other demand-side measures, including the speculation and vacancy tax, which requires citizens to declare if they are paying Canadian income tax and if the home is a principal residence.

• There are signs that in the current market downturn, the development community would like to reopen those doors to outside money. Condo marketer Bob Rennie said racism is driving the pushback against foreign investor buying.

• Bob Rennie recently spoke on a real estate industry panel hosted by Postmedia and said he’d been talking to Mark Carney about opening rental housing development to foreign investment. Rennie also said he was opposed to the foreign buyers’ tax from the start, and believed it was a racist policy.

The Good Law Project has been working to help a young man who has been denied justice after he was sexually assaulted by a star journalist at the Daily Mail.

The young man, who we shall call X, was groped by the journalist, whom we are naming only as J. The Daily Mail has previously received a complaint of sexual assault by J from another man. These are not the only victims of J to whom Good Law Project has spoken.

Homeowners in the Rosemont neighborhood of Montreal successfully killed an affordable housing project that was supposed to add 50 condos on an empty lot. This is happening despite the housing crisis that the city is facing.

The proposal looked like this.

But the local homeowners opposed it.

They feared losing a sunny view and precious parking spots for their cars.

"Our entire neighborhood is only 3-storey buildings or smaller" says Hugo Didier, the leader of the local anti-housing movement. "We do not want tall buildings here. It is just too inconvenient" he said.

Local city council members in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie initially supported the project. « We are facing a major housing crisis, we need to do more » said mayor Francois Limoges. What they didn't expect was the opposition.

158 individuals signed a petition against the new project, demanding a neighborhood referendum. At least 200 people showed up at a public hearing. Under pressure, the council shut down the entire project.

Real estate developer Félix Péladeau-Langevin was behind the proposal. He planned to build 50 new condos. « The location is good. It's close to public transit and to a bike lane. I didn't plan to add any parking spot » he told us.

Péladeau said he was disappointed by the opposition from local homeowners. "They went door to door. They convinced everyone to put their name and signature against the proposal, demanding a referendum"

Protest leader Hugo Didier says he reached out to the developer and offered a compromise. Just build a small building.

« I look at the cost of the land and the cost of construction. If they don't want a multi-storey building, it's just not worth it » Péladeau said.

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2025-04-10/rosemont/50-logements-bloques-malgre-les-nouveaux-pouvoirs.php

Bar organizations are warning Ottawa that a new penalty regime to be applied to legal professionals — featuring penalties of up to $1.5 million for immigration and refugee lawyers determined by federal officials to have participated in clients’ misrepresentations — will be constitutionally challenged if lawyers are not exempted from the proposed regulations, which are expected to come into force later this year.

The proposed regulations prohibit a legal professional, who represents or advises someone for payment, from misrepresenting or withholding information, advising them to misrepresent or withhold information, or communicating misleading information.

The new administrative penalties regime would apply to the country’s approximately 12,000 immigration consultants and to all immigration lawyers.

The Canadian Bar Association, the law societies of Ontario, B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association (CILA), and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) wrote to Immigration Canada objecting to applying the proposed penalty regime to legal professionals.

The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association says “the proposed regulations would be unconstitutional and illegal in their application to lawyers.”.

The baseline penalties for the two types of violations are significant: $15,000 for misrepresentation and $5,000 for representation or advice without authorization.

Consequences for those found to have violated the regulations would include Immigration Canada publishing on its website their names and business information, as well as the nature of the violation(s) and the penalties imposed

https://www.law360.ca/ca/articles/2322169/constitutional-clash-brewing-as-ottawa-targets-immigration-bar-with-up-to-1-5-million-in-admin-penalties

A vial of insulin costs far more in the U.S. than it does in Canada.

Drug prices are set by Canada’s Patented Medicine Prices Review Board which sets price caps by comparing drug prices across a group of 11 countries. The US used to be included in the formula, but was removed from the group in 2022 — because US drug prices are an insane global outlier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patented_Medicine_Prices_Review_Board

A group of Pharma companies including Pfizer and Merck have asked the Trump administration to put pressure on Canada. They are accusing the country of unfair trade practices.

Meet London businessman Matt Clifford.

Keir Starmer wants AI at the heart of government. This week, the Prime Minister unveiled plans to digitize the UK civil service using AI, claiming it could save up to £45 billion.

Oh, and the man in charge? His name is Matt Clifford.

https://sifted.eu/articles/matt-clifford-to-oversee-ai-revolution-news

But while the government boasts about its ambitions, it has been less forthcoming about the business interests of the architect behind its flagship AI policy.

Entrepreneur First, the investment firm Clifford co-founded and co-owns, holds stakes in 449 tech companies. He also has dozens more holdings in his own name. Despite his central role in shaping AI policy, these financial ties were not publicly disclosed.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information reveal Matt Clifford has stakes in at least 8 companies involved in the Startup Coalition—an influential industry group funded by big tech.

The Startup Coalition has lobbied in favour of the UK government’s controversial plan to exempt AI firms from copyright law. This proposal is opposed by artists and the media

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/25/why-are-creatives-fighting-uk-government-ai-proposals-on-copyright

https://pressgazette.co.uk/media_business/copyright-ai-ft-right-wrong-opt-out-exemption/

Labour ministers have met with the group to discuss AI regulation and copyright issues once a month, on average, records show. The Startup Coalition also receives funding from Google, which stands to benefit from AI copyright exemptions.

Professor Gina Neff, director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at Cambridge University, told Democracy for Sale that government should talk to a wider circle of experts.

“There are many in civil society who are frustrated at the lack of access to tech policymaking in government. The UK has incredible expertise in AI, and we want to see that diversity reflected in decision-making.”

Matt Clifford helped establish the UK’s AI Safety Institute—recently rebranded the AI Security Institute, reportedly to align with the Trump White House’s AI approach. He is widely regarded as a respected expert in the field. Starmer accepted all 50 recommendations from his AI plan, published in January.

However, some in the tech and media sectors are uneasy about his influence.

“Of course, you want entrepreneurs involved” one industry source told Democracy for Sale. “But you don’t give one man—who runs the firm with the most AI investments in Europe—the job of writing the policy, then accept all his recommendations the same day he publishes his plan.”

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Matt Clifford have yet to respond to requests for comment.