Juno News - October 27, 2025


CBSA president can't find 32,000 illegal immigrants

Topics
illegal immigrants EV market failures and subsidies
Hosted by
Isaac Lamoureux
Mentioned
Waleed Thomas Lukasik Aaron McGruder Aaron O'Gorman Jeff Rath Frank Caputo Unifor Danielle Smith Christina Aguilera Gary Anandasangari Pierre Poilievre Mark Carney Doug Ford Stetler Bonnie Myrna
Alberta fast-tracks Back to School Act Trudeau gone, but free speech still under attack？

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

174.13

Word count

2,274

Sentence count

125


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The president of the Canada Border Services Agency revealed that the agency can't find at least 32,000 illegal immigrants who are otherwise set for deportation. The I Am Alberta rally at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton saw thousands of entities calling for an independent Alberta. Canada s subsidized auto industry is suffering more losses after General Motors dropped out of its pledge to produce electric vans.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The president of the Canada Border Services Agency revealed that the agency can't find at least 32,000 illegal immigrants who are otherwise set for deportation.
00:00:14.100 The I Am Alberta rally at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton saw thousands of entities calling for an independent Alberta.
00:00:21.340 Canada's subsidized auto industry is suffering more losses after General Motors dropped out of its pledge to produce electric vans.
00:00:28.700 Hello Canada, it's Monday, October 27th, and this is the True North Daily Brief.
00:00:33.180 I'm Isaac Lamoureux.
00:00:34.520 And I'm Willie Temtem.
00:00:35.720 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:38.080 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:46.160 The Canada Border Services Agency cannot account for at least 32,000 illegal immigrants who evaded the agency's attempt to arrest and deport them.
00:00:54.260 Aaron O'Gorman, the president of the CBSA, told conservatives during a House of Commons Public Safety Committee meeting on Thursday that the Border Security Agency is, quote,
00:01:03.540 actively engaging at least 30,000 individuals to deport, while it can't locate 32,000 who have active warrants.
00:01:11.660 Conservative justice critic Frank Caputo first grilled Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangri, asking about the 30,000 individuals that CBSA Vice President Aaron McCrory told MPs Wednesday were being pursued for deportation.
00:01:25.740 When asked how many, quote, foreign nationals are awaiting deportation in Canada, Anandasangri told Caputo he'd, quote, get back to him on that.
00:01:34.800 Caputo raised McCrory's comments, saying 30,000 individuals were, quote, shocking, but the fact that the Public Safety Minister was ignorant of the numbers was even more shocking.
00:01:44.940 Anandasangri claimed, quote,
00:01:46.360 There are 30,000 people who are going through the system, and they're going to be removed. They are in the queue. We know their addresses. We know where they reside. Many of them have reporting requirements.
00:01:56.140 They regularly report to our CBSA offices across Canada. There's sometimes telephone reporting, so there's ongoing monitoring for those who are being removed. I bet. Not in all cases, but for the vast majority.
00:02:06.200 But when O'Gorman was questioned, she revealed that the original 30,000 individuals were only those the agency was, quote, currently engaging, and that the CBSA actually lost, in a separate category, at least 32,000 individuals with active warrants for deportation.
00:02:20.660 Warrants?
00:02:21.980 People who are in our wanted inventory that we are actively looking for.
00:02:26.440 I'm sorry, you have...
00:02:28.140 And I'll point out, all of this is posted publicly. These aren't secret numbers. They're on the CBSA website.
00:02:35.820 So you know them, but the minister doesn't. Okay. So, I'm sorry. There are 32,000 people set for deportation that are on warrant, which means you don't know where they are. Am I clear?
00:02:50.760 Correct. We are looking for them. And I will point out, these, as I said, are points in time. And so, since we last met, we have removed more of those people on warrant.
00:03:03.720 And then, unfortunately, we have had people who have absconded. So, these are fluid.
00:03:09.660 I understand they're fluid.
00:03:10.500 And 500 CBSA officers doing excellent work all of the time to remove these individuals.
00:03:17.320 Ma'am, with all due respect, we have 30,000 deportation orders. This is half of Kamloops we're talking about.
00:03:27.040 So, Waleed, can we put these numbers into perspective? How many people have the CBSA deported and what targets have they set for how many they are aiming to deport in total this year?
00:03:37.080 The perspective I can offer you, Isaac, is very low.
00:03:40.340 So, VP for the CBSA, Aaron McGrory, said that there were an additional 200,000 to 300,000 people that have been given deportation orders, but are being delayed through the removal orders appeal system.
00:03:52.760 So, by these people allowing to have appeals, they're actually not being removed themselves, while the CBSA has a target of deporting, well, they've already deported 80,000 already, and they've allowed to deport 20,000 each year for the total of the next two years.
00:04:07.660 So, 20,000 next year and the next year after that.
00:04:09.960 So, that's obviously a very low target when you look at the 200,000 to 200,000 people that have actually been given deportation orders, while you have a number of, I think, close to 4 to 5 million temporary residents, which many of whom will see expired visas in the near future.
00:04:26.300 Given that situation, just the 200,000 to 300,000 we're talking about, that's less than 5% of the total amount of people that have deportation orders that will actually be deported by the CBSA.
00:04:37.540 So, it's an amazing situation where you have a low quantity of actual deportations, while you have a high quantity of real deportation orders and procedures that are being backlogged through the system, while you have an even greater number of possible future cases and future fraud.
00:04:51.780 And that's only the heads that we've actually been able to count so far, because as you know, you can also imagine from this article that the CBSA does not have a full scope of the situation that Canada has to deal with right now.
00:05:02.660 It's very unfortunate. And like I said, less than 5% of the total number of people that have given these deportation orders are actually being deported. 5%. It's not a passing grade for now.
00:05:13.900 The Alberta legislature was awash in blue as thousands of Albertans attended the quote, I am Alberta rally on Saturday afternoon to support the Alberta Sovereignty and Independence movement.
00:05:29.760 Initial estimates suggested around 5,000 attendees, although organizers were waiting on drone footage for further confirmation.
00:05:37.240 Geoffrey Rath, General Counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Project, estimated over 10,000 attended, noting only 15 to 20 counter-protesters were present.
00:05:46.140 Rath commended the Alberta sheriffs for their work.
00:05:49.520 Video posted by Rath shows thousands of independent supporters chanting, quote, I am Alberta.
00:05:54.640 Rath stated that Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's six months of attempting to work with the federal liberals had failed.
00:06:14.880 Now it was time to embrace Alberta independence and, quote, get on board the freedom train.
00:06:19.520 Albertans traveled from across the province, some on buses organized by the Alberta Prosperity Project, others independently.
00:06:25.400 One attendee, Myrna, who spoke with True North, said that she would have called Thomas Lukasik's pro-Canada petition, the, quote, forever screwed petition.
00:06:33.380 She said supporters were being convinced to sign this petition based on the Canada they remember that no longer exists.
00:06:38.700 Rath said Saturday that Lukasik was 50,000 signatures short with a Tuesday deadline.
00:06:44.060 He also stated that the Alberta Prosperity Project has over 300,000 pledges to sign the referendum petition.
00:06:50.260 So, Isaac, you're out there in Alberta.
00:06:51.940 What were some of the entities telling True North at the rally?
00:06:54.420 What were some of the key sentiments and reasons why they support Albertan independence?
00:06:58.260 Yeah, Waleed, so I was at the rally and while I went with a bunch of my friends and my family as an attendee, I was also, of course, able to do some on-the-ground journalism for True North.
00:07:06.680 During which time I spoke with various people on the ground, a lot of whom had gone out of their way to travel into downtown Edmonton from rural Alberta to have their voices heard.
00:07:16.180 Because, as you know from our previous reporting, Waleed, there were buses coming in from across the province.
00:07:20.960 And one attendee even told me that they had to bring in three buses from Leduc because of how many people wanted to come, which is now at around an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 total attendees.
00:07:30.380 I spoke with one man, Christian, who drove in from Drayton Valley and told me he wanted to get the federal government off of his shoulders.
00:07:38.300 He said that we live in a democracy and people should get educated and have their voices heard on Alberta separation.
00:07:44.500 He also said Thomas Lukaszak's pro-Canada petition was not doing very well.
00:07:48.960 He said, quote, I think he's grasping at straws and I think there's a wave of support for the Alberta Prosperity Project going across this country and Alberta right now.
00:07:57.380 I spoke to another woman who drove in from Stetler named Bonnie, and she said she thought people would be paying attention nationwide and that change was needed right now.
00:08:06.220 And I also spoke to Myrna, who you mentioned there briefly, Waleed.
00:08:09.200 She told me that the turnout showed this was more than a small minority.
00:08:13.840 As for Lukaszak's petition, she said she was astonished that anyone would be okay with the status quo.
00:08:19.740 And while you gave one of her quotes in part, I'll say it again in full because of how powerful it was.
00:08:23.980 She said, quote, I think they should have called it the forever screwed petition.
00:08:27.900 How can anyone be content with the deal that the West has had since the beginning?
00:08:31.940 It's hard to understand.
00:08:33.500 I think a lot of people signing it are in love with the Canada that existed 50 years ago and aren't aware of where we're at nowadays.
00:08:40.640 I also spoke with general counsel for the APP, Geoffrey Rath, after the event.
00:08:44.680 We had a lengthy conversation, but the one quote from him that I'll leave you with is when he told me, quote,
00:08:50.000 Today was a massive day for the Alberta Freedom Movement.
00:08:53.260 The biggest independence rally in Alberta's history was held at the steps of the legislature today.
00:08:57.860 Hopefully it sent a really strong message to both Danielle Smith and Mark Carney that we don't give up, expletive, about what they're doing anymore.
00:09:05.160 We're out. We're done.
00:09:06.280 In yet another blow to Canada's auto industry, General Motors announced on Tuesday that it will cease production on its electric van, resulting in 1,200 lost jobs in Ontario.
00:09:18.560 The auto manufacturer cited low demand for its bright drop delivery van as well as the end of U.S. tax credits for the electric vehicle.
00:09:25.540 Christian Aquilina, president and managing director of GM Canada, in a statement said, quote,
00:09:30.080 The decision to end production of the bright drop electric delivery van is driven by market demand and in no way reflects the commitment and skill of our workforce at CAMI.
00:09:39.000 This continues to be an uncertain time for our workforce at CAMI, and we are committed to working closely with our employees, Unifor, and the Canadian and Ontario governments as we evaluate next steps for the future of CAMI.
00:09:51.080 GM said that it, quote, appreciates that support from Canadian and Ontario governments, and it intends to engage with its partners to have meaningful discussions about opportunities for the plant.
00:10:01.440 Additionally, the company pledged to work with Unifor, the union which represents the auto workers, to, quote, follow the provisions of the collective agreement.
00:10:09.580 Meanwhile, GM's hourly employees will receive six months of salary and the potential for lump sum payments and other benefits.
00:10:15.540 So, Waleed, how much money has the federal government and provincial government sunk into the EV market, and what have critics said about these corporate handouts?
00:10:23.640 Well, Isaac, it's going to take some time to get some updated numbers for this last year, but on 2024, the Parliamentary Budget Officer found that the Liberal government subsidies in the electric vehicle sector actually exceeded private capital investments by 14%.
00:10:36.480 So the total subsidy amount back in 2024 was around $52.5 billion of the tax per dollars.
00:10:42.380 Now, here's the thing about this money, a lot of it going into projects that have failed.
00:10:47.160 In the case that we talked about in Quebec back in September, around $7 billion, actually more than $7 billion of tax per dollars were going belly up from a project by Northvolt EV, a battery plant located in Quebec.
00:11:03.500 That was a battery plant project in Quebec that ended up going belly up after the government in Quebec spent $2.9 billion on the project with Ottawa putting an additional $4.4 billion.
00:11:17.320 That's a total $7 billion.
00:11:18.620 Speaking of the figure $7 billion, another $7 billion was actually spent on a Volkswagen EV plant in Ontario.
00:11:24.880 Doug Ford was celebrating that back in August.
00:11:27.040 However, that plant and other plants of a similar nature aren't doing very well by the fact that EVs aren't selling as well as they are.
00:11:35.040 I know the government in Ottawa has mandated zero emission sales by 2035 entirely and by 20% by next year, which we know will not happen given the numbers that we're seeing these days.
00:11:47.780 But of course, that's also been another waste of money.
00:11:51.920 And just to cap it off, going back to Quebec, over $200 million taxpayer dollars were seen in subsidies for Lion Electric, another EV manufacturer that, again, went down to liquidation.
00:12:07.580 So, that's just a few examples for you, but that $52 billion figure, a lot of money is seen going to plants that are now closed, inoperable, inprofitable, or are failing or sinking down the drain.
00:12:20.660 So, frankly, the EV market in Canada cannot support this kind of production, nor does the EV market in the United States as well.
00:12:26.780 While the auto sector overall is struggling due to tariffs and a number of other domestic issues, it seems that the EV is exceptionally struggling while receiving big taxpayer-funded support.
00:12:37.940 So, this is probably why your leader, Peter Polyev and others, highlight the EV mandate and other EV-related policies, because it's a spin a string of failures and high costs with low rewards.
00:12:48.800 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify.
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