OTTAWA — NDP leadership candidate Heather McPherson isn’t backing down from her claim that supporters of the party shouldn’t have to pass an ideological “purity test,” after a fellow NDP MP said she was “appalled” by her use of the term.

“Listen, the idea of opening up our table, and making us a party that welcomes more people in, is the exact point of that,” McPherson told National Post in an interview on Wednesday.

McPherson said at

her Edmonton campaign launch

on Sunday that the NDP needed to get back to its founding ideal of helping all Canadians to move forward.

“We need to stop shrinking into some sort of purity test, we need to stop pushing people away and we need to invite people in,” said McPherson.

But Winnipeg NDP MP Leah Gazan said that McPherson’s use of the term “purity test” was a not too subtle cue for party activists from equity seeking groups to quiet down.

“When I hear a leadership candidate suggest that you have to pass a ‘purity test’ to fit into the NDP, I am appalled and deeply disappointed. That framing is frequently used to dismiss calls for justice from marginalized communities — especially Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQ+, disabled, and immigrant workers — who now make up a major part of the labour movement and the working class,” wrote Gazan, in

a lengthy social media post

on Monday evening.

Gazan, who is of mixed Lakota, Chinese and Jewish ancestry, called McPherson’s rhetoric a tacit “

justification for white supremacy” that “centres the comfort” of “white, male, and able-bodied workers” over social justice. 

“Rejecting so-called ‘purity tests’ isn’t about broadening the movement — it’s about narrowing it back to those who have always held power within it,” wrote Gazan.

McPherson, an Edmonton MP, said she doesn’t see any contradiction between growing the party’s appeal and fighting for marginalized groups.

“I honestly believe the vast majority of Canadians share (our) values of making sure everyone in our community, particularly those who are most vulnerable, are protected and taken care of,” said McPherson.

She added that the party needed to do a better job of balancing heart and head, and be more strategic in engaging potential supporters.

“I love being a New Democrat, and I love that New Democrats want to fix all things, but we need to be disciplined in our messaging. We need to talk to Canadians where they are,” said McPherson.

“And for the vast majority of Canadians right now, they’re deeply worried about (keeping) their job.”

McPherson didn’t give a specific example of a “purity test” she felt was holding the NDP back. She also didn’t say whether she’d spoken to Gazan about the social media post criticizing her use of the term.

McPherson did say that her record on human rights spoke for itself.

“I’ve been fighting for human rights my entire life … and I will never stop doing that work,” said McPherson.

McPherson was the sponsor of a

successful March 2024 motion

calling on the federal government to demand an immediate ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, cease the further transfer of arms to Israel and work toward the eventual recognition of a Palestinian state.

She’s one of three NDP leadership candidates who’ve been approved so far, alongside

filmmaker Avi Lewis and labour union leader Rob Ashton.

Gazan has yet to say whether she’ll be entering the fray.

McPherson and Gazan were two of just seven NDP MPs to hold on to their seats after a disastrous showing in the recent federal election.

The NDP next leader will be named in Winnipeg as part of the party’s national convention on March 29, 2026.

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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The Canada Post strike is wreaking havoc on municipal elections across the country. Officials in Quebec, Calgary, St. John’s and Yukon are scrambling to keep voters informed and ensure the integrity of their respective elections.

The most pressing issue in all affected parts of the country centres on voter notices. In Quebec, there are two, the first informing voters if they are registered to vote and the second telling them where their polling station is. Both are sent out, one after the other, in early October.

“We understand there is a strike,”

Municipal Affairs Minister Geneviève

Guilbault told the

Montreal Gazette

. “But voter participation in an election  —  no matter at which level of government  —  should be a … priority.”

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers declared a nationwide strike on Sept. 25. The move came after the federal government announced changes to mail delivery in the country, including ending door-to-door delivery for most households. It is CUPW’s second strike in less than a year.

Guillaume Tremblay, president of the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ), shares Guilbault’s concerns. Delivery of the registration notices is crucial, says Tremblay, also highlighting a concern for seniors living in long-term care homes who need the information telling them when and where they can vote.

He suggests that it should be considered an essential service. Canada Post is already ensuring that social-assistance cheques continue to be delivered, he notes.

In Calgary, the municipal election is less than a month away. The delivery of voter information cards from

Elections Calgary

had just begun when the strike was called. Elections Calgary said it’s working with Canada Post to assess which addresses didn’t receive a card.

What about using couriers to distribute election documents?

When asked whether using a

courier service

would be an option, the UMQ’s Tremblay responded it would be “excessively expensive.”

Elections Calgary has decided it will send mail-in packages via courier to anyone who requests one before Oct. 3. However, voters will have to pay for a courier to return their votes. Mail-in ballots can also be submitted in-person to Elections Calgary.

In Yukon, chief electoral officer Maxwell Harvey says hundreds of special ballots will probably be sent via courier to voters outside the territory. A return courier envelope, paid for by Elections Yukon, will be included.

Elections Yukon is considering its options for distribution of voter information cards. Couriers only ship mail to major centres, says Harvey, and that creates a challenge for sending documents to small communities throughout the territory. Harvey said his office is in talks with the territorial government about using its internal mailing system to reach people outside Whitehorse. Meanwhile, his agency is aiming to drop off information at places such as community centres and schools, as well as provide it to candidates to distribute while on the campaign trail.

While voters can be reached online,

Acadia University political science professor Alex Marland

told CBC that online communication should not be seen as a replacement for physical campaign materials such as election signs and flyers. They can serve as a reminder to cast a vote but are also more likely to guarantee that voters see election information.

Will the strike affect mail-in voting?

The strike will complicate

mail-in voting

, say Calgary election officials.

Calgary voters have been able to request mail-in ballot packages since late August.
Elections Calgary will send mail-in packages via courier to anyone who requests one before Oct. 3. However, voters need to pay for return couriers.

Any requests after this Friday must be picked up in person. Mail-in ballots can be submitted in-person at the Elections Calgary office.

Calgary intends to launch a system to track the status of ballots that were mailed out. Voters can verify if they have received a ballot by phone or email. If they haven’t, the alternatives will be to request a replacement ballot or vote in person.

In

St. John’s

a small group of postal workers spent part of Monday working to retrieve mail-in kits that are stuck in the postal system. Mike McDonald, CUPW Local 126 president, said workers wanted to respect the right to vote and the responsibility they have to help exercising it.

Meanwhile, the city says around 16,000 ballots have been returned by mail or secure drop boxes so far, about half of what was returned in the previous general election.

What about changing the date of an election?

St. John’s is trying to cope with the postal strike challenge by moving its municipal election to Oct. 8. The election was originally set for this week. (The strike is also affecting a provincial election set for Oct. 14.)

“This disruption has required us to act quickly and carefully to ensure … every resident … exercises (their) right to vote,” Theresa Walsh, the city’s clerk and chief returning officer, told the CBC earlier this week.

• Postal workers on strike after federal government announces end to door-to-door delivery
• Canada Post is on strike (again). Here’s what it means for your mail

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OTTAWA — The lawyer representing Ibrahim El-Hakim,

the former RBC employee who allegedly accessed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s banking profile

, said he is still awaiting some of the Crown’s evidence against his client and will be back in court on Nov. 5.

Criminal lawyer Ron Guertin appeared in the Ottawa courthouse on Wednesday to request that the matter related to his client be deferred for a few weeks, as he is still expecting some more “disclosure” to arrive. Disclosure refers to the package containing the prosecution’s evidence, and can include video footage, witness statements and more.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Guertin declined to go into detail about the evidence presented against his client but suggested that the entire case was being overblown.

“There’s nothing much that I can say about it, to tell you the truth. I know that all the sensationalism is about Mr. Carney,” he said. “He isn’t even one of the charges.”

Last week, the RCMP revealed that El-Hakim, a 23-year-old man, was arrested on July 10, 2025, and released on a promise to appear with conditions. He was charged with fraud over $5,000, unauthorized use of his work computer, identity theft and trafficking in identity information.

According to a police affidavit obtained by Postmedia, El-Hakim admitted to a supervisor at RBC that he was lured by an individual on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service known to be used by criminals. The individual’s alias on Telegram was “AI WORLD” and is believed to be part of a group linked to organized crime, according to the document.

El-Hakim received certain orders to either grant lines of credit or accept credit card applications to fraudulent identities, and received $500 each time, for a total of $5,000. He was then paid by electronic bank transfers to his accounts at CIBC and TD Bank.

He was also asked to access specific banking profiles to consult confidential information.

In checking El-Hakim’s browsing history, RBC found that their employee had accessed Carney’s personal banking profile — though it is unclear if he was asked to do it by the individual who contacted him on Telegram or if he did on his own volition.

Court documents show that El-Hakim also consulted the banking profile of a “Justin Trudeau” but it is not believed to be the former prime minister’s account.

Cheryl Brean, director of communications of personal and commercial banking at RBC, said the bank “took immediate action to engage authorities” when they found out about El-Hakim’s illicit activities and confirmed that he is no longer an employee at RBC.

El-Hakim was not in court on Wednesday. Guertin however said his client is “doing well.”

Guertin would not speculate on the next steps as long as he does not have all the evidence in hand. “I’m going to get what I can get from the Crown, which I expect, hopefully today, and then we all move forward, and then make a plan as to how to move forward,” he said.

Guertin blamed the slow process on the RCMP — adding that if this were a local police case, he would have had everything he needed “a long time ago.”

“It’s a national police force, so I don’t have everything yet, and I can’t even comment on what I have, because I don’t know what I have,” he said.

The RCMP declined to directly respond to the lawyer’s claims that the process is moving too slowly.

“As the investigation is ongoing, further charges may be laid against Mr. El-Hakim. We are unable to provide any further details at the moment,” said Caporal Erique Gasse.

El-Hakim is not expected to appear in court on Nov. 5 either, his lawyer said.

“No, it’ll be me. Just one pretty face,” said Guertin.

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

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OTTAWA — Ottawa needs to give Canada’s competition watchdog greater powers so that it can lead the battle to break down protectionist inter-provincial trade barriers, a leading authority on the subject said Wednesday at a competition policy event.

Ryan Manucha, a research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute think tank and the author of an award-winning book on inter-provincial free trade, said Canada’s Competition Bureau should be given new “soft power” to lead efforts to get provinces and territories to a “mutual recognition” of a host of rules and regulations.

Canada needs an institutionalized watchdog for internal trade and the Competition Bureau is the natural choice because it has experience at policing anti-competitive practices, Manucha said. The result would be fewer costly barriers to domestic trade and the recognition of professional qualifications, he added, which would lead to greater economic growth and greater mobility within Canada.

Speaking on a panel at the 2025 Competition Summit in Ottawa, Manucha said a country as large and as diverse as Canada needs provincial rules for some trade matters, but that it’s gone too far in this country. “We have a lot to do.”

Matthew Boswell, Canada’s Commissioner of Competition, said he agrees the country needs to take a more co-ordinated, more robust approach to competition. Boswell has in recent months been calling for a “whole-of-government” approach to boosting domestic trade, while addressing regulations, standards, licensing and other provincial and municipal rules that limit competition and make the Canadian economy more prosperous.

Boswell said during an interview at the Ottawa event that competition intensity in Canada has been declining, making efforts to boost inter-provincial trade even more urgent.

“We’ve been getting worse over time.”

Both Manucha and Boswell cited the example of Australia’s federal Productivity Commission and its National Competition Policy, a set of reforms between 1995 and 2005 that extended competition law to all professions and sectors, including utilities and others dominated by public sector organizations. All levels of government also agreed to review their laws and regulations to remove unjustified barriers to competition.

Unlike Canada’s efforts at reducing domestic trade barriers that have always relied on voluntary support from provincial and municipal governments, the Australian plan included binding commitments and a National Competition Council that represented independent authority. Boswell said Australia’s efforts to increase competition raised gross domestic product (GDP) by 2.5 per cent.

Canada’s federal government has made improved domestic trade a priority, particularly since U.S. tariffs imposed this year have curtailed key Canadian exports such as steel and aluminum. Earlier this year, Ottawa removed all federal exceptions to domestic free trade, but the many provincial, territorial and municipal barriers are still subject only to political pressure, not actual enforcement.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told the Ottawa Summit that the Liberal government will be “hawkish” on competition, part of a broader effort to bring costs down. “Competition is another way we are lowering prices,” she said. “It keeps prices fair, it drives innovation.”

Joly was unavailable for an interview, but she also told the gathering that the government has already made changes in telecommunications and housing that will improve competition to the benefit of consumers.

Boswell later told the gathering of competition lawyers, advocates, bureau officials and others that competition is one of the most effective tools for fighting rising prices, not to mention boosting services and innovation. He cited a recent bureau study that found that airfares drop by an average of 9 per cent when a single new competitor begins flying between two cities.

With vigorous competition, businesses must provide the products consumers want,” Boswell said, “and offer them at prices they are willing to pay. This means that, in a competitive market, the consumer holds the power.

“When there is limited competition, incumbent businesses make the rules.”

The challenge of domestic trade barriers in Canada can be traced back to pre-Confederation. The 1995 Agreement on Internal Trade was the first significant effort to reduce those barriers, but it had minimal effect because it included too many exemptions and not enough enforcement. That agreement was updated in 2017 with the Canada Free Trade Agreement. But that deal was also plagued by exemptions on everything from alcohol to trucking to legal professions and still lacked enforcement.

National Post

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A New Brunswick doctor and farmer who tried to deduct more than a million dollars in farm losses from her substantial income as a physician has lost her case at the Federal Court of Appeal.

Dr. Dianne L. Stackhouse declared her net professional income from her medical practice was $851,621 in 2014 and $697,050 the following year. Her beef farm in Cambridge Narrows, N.B., launched in 1994, had losses of $530,363 in 2014 and $595,904 in 2015.

“The appellant, Dianne Stackhouse, is a physician. She is also a farmer. However, the appellant has consistently incurred losses in her farming business and deducted them against the income from her medical practice,” Justice K.A. Siobhan Monaghan wrote in a recent decision from the three-judge panel.

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But the minister of national revenue determined she could only deduct $17,500 of her farming losses in 2014 and 2015, due to changes in the farming loss restriction rule made in 2013, which limit the deductible portion of a taxpayer’s farming loss unless their chief source of income is farming, or a combination of farming and some other source.

Stackhouse, whose grass-fed beef farm is dubbed Angus Arabian Devon East, appealed that decision to the Tax Court of Canada. She lost when it concluded that farming was her “subordinate source of income.”

She just lost again on appeal.

“The appellant suggests that in determining which of the two sources is subordinate, priority should be given to time, attention (energy) and capital invested, and not actual or potential profitability. She says this approach is much more consistent with the farming loss restriction rule applying only to taxpayers who are not fully dedicated to farming. I cannot agree,” Monaghan said in the decision, dated Sept. 26.

The appeal court saw “nothing in the text, context or purpose (of the rule) that supports such an approach,” Monaghan said.

Depending on the context, some of the factors Stackhouse “prioritizes may favour farming while one or more of the other favours the other source, or are neutral,” said the decision.

“For example, farming tends to be a capital-intensive activity, so one would invariably expect capital invested to favour farming,” Monaghan said. “This could lead to capital invested being determinative. I see no basis for that.”

For more than 70 years, the Income Tax Act has restricted the deduction of farming losses, Monaghan said.

“Although the details have changed from time to time, one feature has not changed—a taxpayer with a farming loss may deduct it against income from other sources without restriction only where farming, either alone or in combination with another source of income, is the taxpayer’s chief source of income.”

Stackhouse’s farm reported revenues of $176,433 in 2014 and $31,128 the following year. She attempted to offset the taxes she paid on her physician’s income with a total of $1,126,267 in farm losses from those two years.

Stackhouse argued the Tax Court made a mistake when it applied a reasonable expectation of profit test to her farm.

“Again, I disagree,” Monaghan said.

The Tax Court didn’t impose that requirement on the doctor, said the judge.

But at the same time, the Tax Court said a farm’s income-producing history and the potential of the business can’t be ignored, according to Monaghan’s decision.

“While the Tax Court accepted that the appellant expected higher revenues from farming in the future, ‘the objective facts’ indicated that ‘substantial expenditures’ were ‘needed to bring any such expectations to fruition.’ The appellant provided ‘no objective evidence that as of 2015 the farm would become a self-sustaining business in the foreseeable future notwithstanding (her) best efforts.”

Stackhouse argued the Tax Court “made a palpable and overriding error in concluding that farming was subordinate to her medical practice.”

But the appeal court judges weren’t buying it; they dismissed her case.

The Tax Court considered the evidence, including Stackhouse’s “ordinary mode of living, farming history, and expectations,” said Monaghan.

“Having done so, it concluded that farming was subordinate to the appellant’s medical practice. I see no grounds for interfering with that conclusion of mixed fact and law.”

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Armed U.S. border patrol agents in tactical gear briefly chased a cyclist who’d been repeatedly taunting them about his lack of U.S. citizenship as they patrolled downtown Chicago on Sunday in the latest immigration enforcement operation in a major city.

In an extended clip of the tense exchange filmed by independent journalist Christopher Sweat and shared by ABC7 in Chicago, the camera follows a group of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents as they march through a downtown area.

In the background, a voice can be heard repeatedly telling them, “I’m not a U.S. citizen.”

As the officers come to a stop, the camera moves around and a man on an e-bike with what appears to be a cooler bag attached to the front is seen heckling the agents.

“Hey! I’m not a U.S. citizen. Come on,” he says, gesturing towards the group before riding away and appearing to drop something from his jacket pocket.

One of the agents, most of whom are laughing at his gibes, points out that “he dropped his phone,” at which point the cyclist, still taunting the agents, circles around to grab it. As he briefly hops off his bike to do so, agents sprint for him as one of them shouts, “Get him.”

Despite the best efforts of multiple agents, the man is able to run across the street and hop on his bike to pedal away before he can be caught.

A group of United States Border Patrol agents in Chicago chased after a cyclist on Sunday, after he taunted them and repeatedly told them that he was “not a U.S. citizen.” https://t.co/bgpj3VofSf pic.twitter.com/IwnhYvFBXt

— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) September 29, 2025

Sweat, in

his post featuring a shorter video clip

, said there’d been “no physical or threatening contact” before the brief chase ensued.

“It just felt like we were in an actual movie,” witness Patrick Gilmore told the

Chicago Tribune

about the brief incident.

The border agents were in Illinois’ largest and most populated city on Sunday as part of U.S. President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) crackdown on illegal immigration. It included CBP boats deployed to the Chicago River.

Dubbed

Operation Midway Blitz

when launched in September, DHS said the initiative targets “criminal illegal aliens” who have moved to the city and state of Illinois due to “sanctuary policies” created by Governor JB Pritzker, which offer them protection to “roam free on American streets.”

About two weeks into the operation, the Associated Press said DHS reported 550 people had been detained.

As reported by

FOX32

, Senator Dick Durbin said fewer than 30 per cent of those have a criminal background, meaning the others had none whatsoever.

“The president can rant about rapists and murderers and terrorists and criminally insane people coming in as immigrants, but those who are being arrested don’t have any indication of that behaviour,” he said.

Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, meanwhile, have both said having armed and masked agents on the streets is not making the city safer.

“It’s a show of intimidation, instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses,” the

governor wrote on X.

Johnson called it

“another brazen provocation from the Trump administration.”

Trump has also previously threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, as he has for several other cities in recent months, but has yet to follow through.

National Post has contacted DHS and CBP for an update on the operation, the number of detainees and a comment on the Sunday cyclist incident.

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