Federal Conservatives and New Democrats are forcing an emergency meeting of the House of Commons justice committee over allegations the Prime Minister's Office pressured the former attorney general to help a major Quebec company avoid criminal prosecution.

The accusations stem from a bombshell report from The Globe and Mail Thursday. The Globe quoted sources saying that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office leaned on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help SNC-Lavalin duck fraud and corruption prosecution with a remedial agreement. The Montreal-based engineering and construction giant is accused of paying bribes for government contracts in Libya.

Trudeau told reporters that the allegations are "false." He said Wilson-Raybould, who was shuffled to veterans affairs last month, was "never directed by me" or anyone in his office to "take a decision" on the matter. He closely stuck to that line when further asked if his office applied pressure or influence on the minister.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer raised the stakes Friday, calling the allegations "unprecedented."

"Having officials in Justin Trudeau's office exerting pressure, attempting to influence an independent criminal proceeding — that strikes to the very core of our independent system of justice, the rule of law, and a fundamental tenet of our democracy," he said.

The justice committee is dominated by Liberal MPs, including its chair, Anthony Housefather. If the Liberals flex their majority to vote down the Conservative-NDP request, Scheer said it would then be "quite clear that there is a cover up going on."

Sometimes silence can speak louder than words.Tory Leader Andrew Scheer

Scheer also said alternative legal options are being explored if the Liberals refuse to be "forthcoming" about the claim of political interference levied against Trudeau's office.

Wilson-Raybould repeatedly told reporters Thursday that she has "no comment" on the explosive allegations. The Tory leader claimed the former justice minister's reluctance to deny the claims is telling.

"Sometimes silence can speak louder than words," he said.

Wilson-Raybould issued a statement Friday saying she's bound by ethical duty and can't comment on the allegations.

"As the former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, I am bound by solicitor-client privilege in this matter."

In a later release from his party, Scheer said "members of Parliament, and all other relevant authorities, have a responsibility to determine what happened here, and both Trudeau and his officials must be forthcoming."

Group wants to hear from Wilson-Raybould, key Trudeau advisers

The release stated three Tory MPs on the justice committee — Michael Barrett, Dave MacKenzie and Michael Cooper — and NDP MP Murray Rankin sent letters to the clerk seeking a vote on a motion calling for "no fewer than four meetings" to study the situation.

The group wants to hear from Wilson-Raybould, her successor as justice Minister David Lametti, and several people in Trudeau's inner circle: chief of staff Katie Telford, principal secretary Gerald Butts, and senior advisors Mathieu Bouchard and Elder Marques.

Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, Director of Public Prosecutions Kathleen Roussel, and Jessica Prince, chief of staff to the veterans affairs minister, have also been requested to appear as witnesses.

"If the prime minister has nothing to hide, then members of his government should have no reason to oppose these officials from testifying," he said in the release.

The opposition parties say a committee report should be delivered to the House by Feb. 28.

Wilson-Raybould's 'truth to power' statement in focus

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has also called for the federal ethics commissioner to launch an investigation.

"Given the prime minister's response, if he truly wants to clear this up and believes there's been no wrongdoing, he should welcome an investigation from the ethics commissioner. ... Tell us what happened, be transparent, invite the ethics commissioner to investigate and tell us that this is not the case or, if it is the case, then there's a serious reckoning that needs to happen," he told The Canadian Press.

A corruption conviction could bar SNC-Lavalin from being awarded lucrative federal contracts for five to 10 years — an outcome that could lead to layoffs.

The company called for a remediation agreement — deals struck when a company admits wrongdoing and pays financial penalties — after it was charged by the RCMP in 2015. The company lobbied government officials, including those in the PMO.

In the 2018 federal budget, a Criminal Code amendment was included to allow such agreements to be negotiated in cases of corporate crime.

In October, Roussel, the director of public prosecutions, told SNC-Lavalin that negotiating such an arrangement would be inappropriate. Wilson-Raybould was demoted to veterans affairs minister three months later.

Hours after the shuffle, she released a statement saying that the role of attorney general must be free from "even the perception of political interference" and involves speaking "truth to power."

The motion calling for the emergency meeting quotes Wilson-Raybould's statement directly that "it is a pillar of our democracy that our system of justice be free from even the perception of political interference and uphold the highest level of public confidence."

Bill Wilson, a hereditary First Nations chief and Wilson-Raybould's father, took to Facebook Thursday to say he wished he could protect his daughter from a "coming storm."

"But then I remembered that she is more than able to defend herself. History will prove that she did the right thing. Her DEMOTION makes sense now, UGLY POLITICAL SENSE," he wrote.

With files from The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Most Canadians don't believe Ontario Premier Doug Ford's warning that a carbon tax could throw the economy into recession.

While 36 per cent of Canadians told Abacus Data Ford is correct, 64 per cent said he was over-stating the negative impacts of a carbon tax. When people were told that many economists rejected Ford's take, even more — 74 per cent — said he was wrong.

Ford first made the claim in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in downtown Toronto on Jan. 21.

"I'm here today to ring the warning bell that the risk of a carbon tax recession is very, very real,'' he said. "A carbon tax will be a total economic disaster, not only for our province but for our entire country."

Economists and environmentalists disputed his claim, but Ford doubled down the next day.

We specifically describe the overall economic impact as 'small.'Economist Robyn Gibbard, whose study was cited by PCs

Asked for evidence, the premier's staffand ministers pointed to a Conference Board of Canada study that suggested a federal carbon tax like the one being introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in some provinces would shrink Canada's $2.1-trillion economy by about $3 billion.

One of the study's authors fought back on Twitter.

"At no point in our research paper do we say that the carbon tax could cause a recession," economist Robyn Gibbard wrote. "We specifically describe the overall economic impact as 'small.'"

More from HuffPost Canada:

• Ford Called Out For Claiming Trudeau Carbon Tax Will Trigger Recession
• Ontario PCs Adopt Part Of Federal Carbon Tax That Doug Ford Loves To Bash
• 90 Per Cent Of Carbon Tax Cash Collected Will Go To Canadians: Trudeau

Overall, the Abacus Data poll found that most Canadians are open to a carbon tax.

Thirty-five per cent said they support the idea, 37 per cent said they are open to considering it, and 28 per cent oppose it. Support climbed by 9 per cent when participants were told that most of the money raised would be returned to taxpayers.

"Canadians don't love new taxes but they are worried about climate change and want a rational discussion of what we can and should do about it," Abacus Data chairman Bruce Anderson said in a release about the survey's findings.

"Time after time, people reject rhetoric which sounds far-fetched or over-reaching, which is how people reacted to Mr. Ford's assertion."

The pollster surveyed 2,500 Canadians online between Jan. 30 and Feb. 5, 2019. Data were weighted so that the sample was representative of Canada's population by age, gender, educational attainment and region. The margin of error for a comparable sample is +/- 2.0%, 19 times out of 20.

Also On HuffPost:

OTTAWA — The country saw a rush of 66,800 net new jobs in January in a gain fuelled by a hiring surge in the private sector, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The agency's latest labour force survey said more people also searched for work last month, which pushed the unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent, up from its 43-year low 5.6 per cent in December.

Economists had expected the addition of 8,000 jobs for the month and an unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Watch: Canada's most in-demand jobs for 2019. Story continues below.

The biggest boost came from the number of private-sector employee positions, which climbed by 111,500 in January for the category's biggest month-to-month increase since the agency started collecting the data point in 1976. The number of self-employed positions, which can include unpaid work, declined by 60,700.

The services sector saw a gain of 99,200 positions, led by new work in wholesale and retail trade, while the goods-producing industries experienced a net loss of 32,300 jobs, the report said.

Year-over-year average hourly wage growth in January for permanent employees was 1.8 per cent, which was up from December's reading of 1.5 per cent, but still well below its May peak of 3.9 per cent.

Wage growth 'puzzle'

The Bank of Canada has been monitoring wage growth ahead of its interest-rate decisions as it tries to determine how well indebted households can absorb higher borrowing costs.

Last week, Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins said the country has been in a "puzzling" stretch of weak wage growth at a time when the job market has been experiencing one of its biggest labour shortages in years.

She said the struggles of energy-producing provinces, which began with the late-2014 oil slump, have been a big factor that has dragged down national wage-growth numbers. The Bank of Canada has expressed confidence that wage growth will pick up its pace.

Earlier on HuffPost Canada:

• Canada's Job Vacancy Rate Hits Record High; Here's Where The Jobs Are
• Automated Vehicles Could Kill 1 Million-Plus Canadian Jobs: Government Report
• Toronto Beats Silicon Valley In Tech Job Creation

The numbers Friday also showed that, year-over-year, the number of employee hours worked were up 1.2 per cent compared to 0.9 per cent in December.

Canada added 30,900 full-time jobs last month and 36,000 part-time positions, the report said.

More young Canadians, between the ages of 15 and 24 years old, also found work last month as youth employment gained 52,800 positions. The youth jobless rate edged up to 11.2 per cent, from 11.1 per cent in December as more young people looked for work.

By region, Ontario and Quebec had the biggest employment increases last month. Energy-rich Alberta, hit hard by the oil-price decline, shed jobs for a second-straight month and saw its jobless rate rise to 6.8 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent.

A wave of reactions poured in after Quebec Premier François Legault stated that Islamophobia does not exist in the province.

The timing of such a statement from the premier could not have been more insensitive. Legault chose to make it on the second anniversary of the Quebec mosque massacre which took place in 2017. The remark was like a punch to the gut for the broken-hearted remembering the loss of innocent lives at numerous commemoration events around the province and country. Six men were shot in cold blood on the night of Jan. 29, 2017 while they prayed, leaving behind 17 orphans, six wives, shattered lives and severe psychological wounds. Hearing someone deny the existence of Islamophobia was extremely hard to comprehend amid the dark memory of the mass killing.

The responses to the premier came from all sides of society: politicians, journalists and community figures. The hours that followed witnessed a half-hearted retraction from Mr. Legault's office — a press aide later clarified that he meant there is no undercurrent of Islamophobia in Quebec — but the damage was done. Legault's statement was like salt on a wound, souring the provincial government's relationship with its many cultural communities.

There has certainly been no decrease in prejudice in Quebec, Ontario and the rest of the country. A 2018 Statistics Canada report shows that hate crimes reached an all-time high in 2017, based on incidents reported in both Quebec and Ontario. Quebec reported a 50-per-cent increase in the number of hate crimes in the month after the massacre in the mosque, mainly towards Muslim Quebecers. Ontario witnessed a 207-per-cent increase in hate crimes against Muslims, an 84-per-cent increase in crimes against Black people and 41-per-cent increase on incidents against Jewish people.

Taking into account that a good number of hate crimes are not reported for various reasons, these statistics are more than enough to be a wake-up call for Canadians to tackle a dangerous attitude contaminating our largely inclusive, peaceful and diverse country.

Bigotry has entered the public discourse, normalizing hatred and xenophobia.

Politicians and media outlets have fanned the flames of animosity, contributing to an atmosphere that promotes hate in extreme individuals. On some occasions, the authorities have arrested people who went public with hate speech against Muslim citizens. Bigotry has entered the public discourse, normalizing hatred and xenophobia. This will lead to the same violence that was demonstrated in the Quebec City mosque.

Political leaders are building platforms around division, developing an us-versus-them mentality targeting Muslims. The provincial government's planned bill banning "religious symbols" from certain public jobs, including education, is one example. In a very strong statement published in Le Journal de Montreal, the head of "La Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE)," a teachers' union in Quebec, called the proposed bill what it is: a "hijab hunt."

The list of actions that further alienate Muslim Quebecers and other cultural communities goes on. Quebec's newly appointed minister responsible for the status of women added to the already heated climate in the province by stating that the Muslim hijab is "a symbol of oppression." A Gatineau city councillor told a newspaper that "Islamophobia is a problem invented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau."

More from HuffPost Canada:

• Quebec Premier Says There Is No Islamophobia In Province
• BLOG: Quebec's Islamophobia Has Gone Down An Eerily Familiar Path
• BLOG: Islamophobia: The Very Real Monster In Canada's Closet

At the federal level, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer was called out for falsely claiming the UN Global Compact on Immigration that Canada expressed its readiness to sign onto would allow foreign governments to dictate our country's immigration policies. In many of his appearances in the media, Mr. Scheer does not hide what is considered to be a harsh position on immigration and migrants coming into the country.

Instances like this challenge Premier Legault's insistence that Islamophobia doesn't exist. It's alive and well within the province and Canada.

As populist and far-right movements take root across the country, it is more important than ever to renew calls to recognize January 29 as a day of action against Islamophobia. Both the Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF) and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) have launched a joint campaign to request the implementation of a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia, which could be an important tool in the fight against all forms of discrimination through systematic efforts that are officially recognized and supported.

There is clearly a problem with Islamophobia in this country and it should be acknowledged matter-of-factly in order for us to begin tackling the complicated parts of it. Without a doubt such a deep social problem will not be solved by hiding or denying its existence. Open dialogue, strong political will, inclusive policies and human values can and should be used as strong tools used to fight any and all form of hate and bigotry.

Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF)

Also on HuffPost:

TORONTO — A serial killer who murdered eight men from Toronto's gay village won't be able to apply for parole for 25 years.

Bruce McArthur, 67, pleaded guilty last week to committing the crimes between 2010 and 2017.

The sentence delivered by Justice John McMahon means McArthur will not be eligible to apply for parole until he is 91 years old.

The judge says McArthur's guilty plea was a mitigating factor, as was the age the serial killer will be when he can apply for parole.

McMahon also says he has no doubt McArthur would have continued to kill if he wasn't arrested by police last year.

First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for 25 years, but a court can decide to impose consecutive periods of parole ineligibiliy for several convictions.

"The law is clear: a guilty plea is a mitigating factor. The second factor is the age of accused when he could apply for parole,'' McMahon said. "The accused has saved the family, friends and community at large from enduring a graphic public trial that would have been a nightmare for everyone.''

The Crown sought a life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years, while the defence had asked that McArthur be eligible for parole in 25 years.

McArthur's victims were Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kanagaratnam.

Court heard that many of them were immigrants and of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Some lived parts of their life in secret because of their sexual orientation. All of them had ties to the city's LGBTQ community.

The accused has saved the family, friends and community at large from enduring a graphic public trial that would have been a nightmare for everyone.Justice John McMahon

McArthur sexually assaulted and forcibly confined many of his victims before murdering them, court heard.

He killed most of the men in his bedroom, where he bound and then strangled them with rope, the court was told.

Then he posed their bodies for photographs, with many of the images featuring the same fur coat. Court heard he kept those images in folders on his computer labelled for each of his victims, accessing some of those photographs long after the killings.

McArthur dismembered all his victims and buried most of their remains in large planter pots at a home in midtown Toronto where he stored his landscaping equipment. One man's remains were found in a garbage bin buried in a nearby ravine.

When he was arrested in January 2018, court heard that officers found a man tied to McArthur's bed. Police later found a folder on McArthur's computer labelled with the man's name that contained images of him.

At a two-day sentencing hearing, loved ones of McArthur's victims spoke about the devastation, anger and struggles they experienced as a result of his crimes.

Many said they had long grappled with the disappearance of a son, father, brother or friend only to learn last year that their loved one had been killed.

Also on HuffPost:

Ah, the weekend.

Time to kick back, relax, and LOL nope. You're a parent, which means your weekend is spent keeping your tiny humans alive/happy, and maybe planning ahead on what to feed them next week so you don't do five days of frozen pizza/takeout/butter noodles again.

Not that we'd judge. We've been there.

WATCH: How to plan your menus and save time in the kitchen. Story continues below.

Getting dinner on the table each day can be a huge challenge for a lot of parents. Kids eat dinner early, which means you don't have time to putter around in the kitchen — it's EYE ON THE PRIZE time. They can also be notoriously picky, which makes it difficult to serve food you both might enjoy. (Oh, you mean you don't want to eat plain bread, a yogurt pop, and half a banana for dinner? Weird.)

You also probably want to feed your kids healthy meals, which can take some planning. And who doesn't love spending the only free time you have looking up recipes and creating a menu?

Well, good news. We did the planning for you this week. All you need to do is the groceries.

Below are six kid-friendly dinner recipes that parents will also enjoy eating, are fairly healthy, and are quick and easy to make.

Sunday: Slow cooker spaghetti and meatballs

Sunday is the perfect day to throw something hearty in the slow cooker, and this recipe for slow cooker spaghetti and meatballs will not disappoint. It's easy, it's frugal, it's comforting, and most kids love slurping down a plate full of noodles.

The slow cooker takes the meatballs to the next level.

Get the full recipe from Delish here.

And you know what you can do while your dinner is simmering away? Take the kids out back and make snow cream to enjoy for dessert!

Monday: Bean and cheese quesadillas

Pinterest

Canada's new food guide stresses the importance of plant-based proteins, and an easy way to get kids on board with Meatless Monday is with bean and cheese quesadillas. The black beans are a great protein source, and they're stuffed full of cheese and corn.

The best part? They're ready in just 10 minutes. You can also make the stuffing ahead of time to make Monday's dinner even easier.

Serve with sour cream, salsa, and some veggie sticks on the side.

Get the full Dashing Dish recipe for 10-minute black bean and corn quesadillas here.

Tuesday: Maple-glazed sheet pan salmon with sweet potato and broccoli

Pinterest

We love sheet pan dinners for their convenience. And this recipe for maple-glazed salmon with sweet potato and broccoli uses just five ingredients, and is ready in less than 30 minutes. Hell to the yes.

Kids will love the sweet maple glaze, and adults will love eating a meal that actually feels like it's for adults.

Get the full the Seasoned Mom recipe for maple-glazed salmon with sweet potato and broccoli here.

Wednesday: Brinner!

Watch: Breakfast in a blanket recipe. Story continues below.

Happy hump day! You made it to Wednesday, and you and the kids deserve a treat. That's where brinner, a.k.a. breakfast for dinner, comes in. Kids will love shaking it up by enjoying a breakfast food for dinner, and so will you.

Breakfast in a blanket is the tastiest recipe. It's eggs, it's bacon, it's cheese, and it's all wrapped up in a delightful Pillsbury crescent roll. And it's ready in just 20 minutes. Serve it with some fresh fruit, and that's dinner.

Get the full Delish recipe for breakfast in a blanket here.

Thursday: Slow cooker chicken and broccoli

Time to bust out the handy slow cooker again. Slow cooker chicken and broccoli will remind you of your favourite takeout dish, but it's way more flavourful and healthy. So not only will your kids devour it, but you'll feel good serving it to them.

It stores well in the freezer, so you can even make it ahead of time and just reheat for dinner.

Get the full Delish recipe for slow cooker chicken and broccoli here.

Friday: Pizza night

Pizza is the perfect Friday dinner. It's fun, it's delicious, and kids can look forward to it all week.

This Health Canada recipe for fun flatbread pizza uses whole grain tortillas to keep it healthy, and it's ready in about 15 minutes. Plus, kids will enjoy the chance to make their own pizzas.

Get the full Health Canada recipe for fun flatbread pizza here.

More from HuffPost Canada:

• 6 Tips To Get Dinner On The Table When You Barely Have Time To Cook
• Teens Who Eat Meals With Their Families Have Better Diets: Canadian Study
• New Canada Food Guide And Kids: Tips For Parents Of Picky Eaters

QUEBEC — Alexandre Bissonnette was driven by "racism and hatred" when he stormed into a Quebec City mosque and gunned down six worshippers in 2017, a judge said Friday as he sentenced him to 40 years in prison without possibility of parole.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot began by saying the day of the murders "will forever be written in blood in the history of this city, this province, this country."

But he rejected the Crown's request for six consecutive life sentences, which would have prevented Bissonnette from seeking parole for 150 years and guaranteed that he end his life behind bars.

Rewrote Charter section

Huot concluded a sentence of 50 years or more would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and he declared that the section of the Criminal Code allowing consecutive life sentences violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

While he did not strike down the section, he rewrote it to give himself the discretion to deliver consecutive life sentences that are not in blocks of 25 years, as had been the case. (First-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole before 25 years.)

Bissonnette, 29, pleaded guilty last March to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder after he walked into the mosque at the Islamic Cultural Centre during evening prayers on Jan. 29, 2017 and opened fire. The murder victims were Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Azzeddine Soufiane, 57; and Ibrahima Barry, 39.

'We were very upset': victim

Aymen Derbali, who was shot seven times and left paralyzed from the waist down, told reporters he did not understand why the judge dwelled on Bissonnette's life expectancy and the possibility that he would die in prison.

"We were astonished, we were very upset after this sentence," Derbali said.

Boufeldja Benabdallah, president of the mosque that was attacked, said community members were "stunned" by the decision and felt the judge was more concerned about the dignity of the killer than that of the victims and their families.

"We want to appeal to Quebec society to understand us, to understand the pain we are in today, the disappointment we feel," he said.

The Crown said it will take the time to study the 246-page decision before deciding whether to appeal. The defence also said it needs time to study the ruling.

As the judge read a detailed account of the shooter's actions, several people in the Quebec City courtroom wept. Two women left in tears as Huot described how Bissonnette approached Soufiane as he lay on the ground, already wounded, and fired another bullet into his head.

The judge said that in the years leading up to the shooting Bissonnette increasingly drank alcohol and experienced anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

Huot noted that witnesses at his sentencing hearing testified that he had been severely bullied in school and had a documented history of mental health problems. He also lacked empathy, the judge said, quoting Bissonnette's statement after the shootings: "I regret not having killed more people."

The defence had argued Bissonnette should be eligible for parole after 25 years, but Huot said that would be too little.

The Criminal Code was amended in 2011 to allow a judge to impose consecutive sentences in cases of multiple murder, but it was clear as Huot spent nearly six hours reading the decision that he was wrestling with the constitutionality of the provision.

In the end he sentenced Bissonnette to concurrent life sentences for five murders, and on the sixth added 15 years to bring the total to 40.

The longest prison sentence in Canada to date is 75 years without parole, which has been given to at least five triple killers since the law was changed to allow consecutive sentences.

Aggravating factors

All 250 seats in the courtroom were filled, with a section reserved for members of Quebec City's Muslim community. Bissonnette's parents were also present.

Among the aggravating factors Huot cited in determining the sentence were the "well-planned and highly premeditated" nature of the crime, the number of victims, the fact they were in a house of worship and the hatred of Islam that motivated Bissonnette.

On the other hand, the judge said, Bissonnette had no previous criminal record, he pleaded guilty and he expressed remorse. He noted that Bissonnette's mental health problems contributed to his actions and judged the danger of him reoffending as "moderate" at most.

A decision on sentencing was originally expected in October, but Huot pushed that back, saying he needed more information on some legal questions, including the constitutionality of consecutive life sentences.

Witnesses at the time described the former Universite Laval student entering the Islamic Cultural Centre and calmly opening fire on the crowd gathered for evening prayers.

In addition to the men killed, five others were struck by bullets. The sixth attempted murder charge related to others who were nearby in the mosque.

The crime prompted an outpouring of horror and sympathy that reached across Canada and around the world, prompting a wider conversation on Islamophobia, intolerance, and the need for better understanding between communities. During a sentencing hearing last June, the conversation began to shift to the appropriate way to punish a crime that was, in many ways, unprecedented in Canadian history.

Pleaded guilty

In pleading guilty, Bissonnette expressed shame and remorse for his actions but offered no clear explanation of why he did it. In a statement read in court, he said he was "neither a terrorist nor an Islamophobe," but rather someone who was "overcome by fear, by negative thoughts and a sort of horrible kind of despair."

But in a police interrogation played in court during sentencing, Bissonnette told investigators he wanted to protect his family from terrorists when he committed the killings. He referred to numerous attacks in Europe as well as the 2014 shooting in Ottawa outside Parliament and said he "lost it" after learning Canada was preparing to take in more refugees.

Prosecutor Thomas Jacques had argued that a 150-year sentence would be proportionate to the "carnage" inflicted on the city's Muslim community and the trauma suffered by the rest of the country. He painted Bissonnette as a calculated killer who was "looking for glory" and targeted a group of people based on bigotry and hatred.

But Bissonnette's lawyer, Charles-Olivier Gosselin, portrayed his client as an anxious and fragile man who deeply regrets his actions and is not beyond rehabilitation. He argued a 150-year term would be the equivalent of a death sentence.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Alexandre Bissonnette had already been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 35 years. This was a Reuters error as the judge was still reading his judgment.

Also on HuffPost:

CALGARY — Canada's transport minister has ordered the use of handbrakes on all trains stopped on mountain slopes following a deadly derailment earlier this week in the Rocky Mountains.

Marc Garneau said in a statement late Friday that the order is a precaution until the cause of the derailment is determined. It takes effect immediately.

"My department has issued a Ministerial Order under the Railway Safety Act to all railway companies mandating the use of handbrakes should a train be stopped on a mountain grade after an emergency use of the air brakes. This order takes effect immediately and will remain in effect as long as necessary," said Garneau.

"As I have said many times before, rail safety is my top priority and I will never hesitate to take appropriate actions when necessary."

A Vancouver-bound train with 112 grain cars was parked for two hours with its air brakes engaged on a grade east of Field, B.C., when it started moving on its own early Monday. The train sped up to well over the limit before 99 cars and two locomotives hurtled off the tracks.

Three employees with Canadian Pacific Railway — engineer Andrew Dockrell, conductor Dylan Paradis and trainee Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer — were killed.

The Transportation Safety Board has said handbrakes were not applied.

A report by the railway company details how challenging it is to run trains in frigid temperatures. It was about -20 C at the time of the crash.

"Harsh winter conditions are an inescapable reality in Canada's northern climate," says a document titled White Paper: Railroading in the Canadian Winter on Canadian Pacific Railway's website.

"Winter has a profound impact on a railway's operations and its ability to maintain service for its customers."

The white paper said cold increases air leakage from a train's air- brake system that results in varying air pressures between the head and tail end of a train.

"This is a major challenge."

Trains are shortened when temperatures dip below -25 C to ensure pressure remains consistent throughout their entire length, the report said.

A union representative has said the derailed train was shorter than the 135 cars CP has run in recent years. But a veteran Boston-based engineer said 112 cars is large for a train of full grain hoppers.

"Our forefathers in the business would never have put a train together that big under those climatic conditions and expected it to run smoothly," said Joe Mulligan with Railroad Workers United, a volunteer-run group of rank-and-file railroaders across North America.

Mulligan said it would have taken a lot of handbrakes to hold back a train so big. And there was nothing to be done once the train was in motion.

The Calgary-based railway said in the report that it also places locomotives at different points along a train in the winter. Distributing power that way makes it quicker to pressurize air brakes. The train that derailed had a locomotive at the front, middle and end.

In extreme cold, dryers are used to prevent moisture from getting into the brakes, which means it takes longer to pressurize them and do the required safety checks, said the winter railroading report.

"This unavoidably increases the train's terminal dwell time."

The white paper also said train speeds must be reduced in frigid temperatures — by at least 16 km/h below -25 C and by at least 32 km/h at -35 C.

Will Young, a locomotive mechanic based in Kansas City, Mo., and an organizer at Railroad Workers United, said cold weather takes a toll on many train components.

"Things break that normally don't. Steel just becomes brittle. Rubber seals just harden and don't work."

Young said he suspects some sort of mechanical issue caused the braking system to lose power. That could have set off the chain of events that led to the catastrophe.

"It only takes that ever-so-slight touch of momentum."

Also on HuffPost:

If you were obsessed with the "Gilmore Girls" like the rest of us back in the day, much of that obsession likely had as much to do with Stars Hollow as it did with the spitfire dialogue and Rory's relationship drama.

The oft-frequented Luke's Diner serving up large plates of crinkle fries. Sookie and Lorelai's Dragonfly Inn troubles. Rory running into Dean at Doose's Market. That gazebo. All the quirky characters (read: Kirk). Stars Hollow was legit like a YA novel come to life, with high-school romances, mom-daughter tiffs and bestie bondings all in this little town, filled with seasonal splendor.

And now for a fun fact: did you know that the original pilot of the fictional Connecticut small town where the Gilmores (and a wide array of colourful townsfolk) lived was shot in Canada? Historic Main Street Unionville, in the city of Markham, Ont. to be exact.

So if you always wished you could experience this unique and magical town IRL, come Oct. 2-4, you can! The Gilmore Girls Fan Fest (we're also miffed we hadn't heard about this GG gang sooner) will be holding its first international fan festival on Main Street Unionville this fall.

View this post on Instagram

Get your passports ready, we'll see you in Unionville October 4-6th! Tickets will be available at www.gilmoregirlsfanfest.com on 2/11 at noon! #gilmoregirls #gilmoregirlsfanfest #canada #unionvillemainstreet

A post shared by Gilmore Girls Fan Fest (@gilmoregirlsfanfest) on Jan 31, 2019 at 7:04am PST

"For anyone who has ever wanted to stand in the very spot Lorelai so confidently strode across the street to the tune of 'There She Goes,' we are pretty confident you'll love Unionville, Canada," the Gilmore Girls Fan Fest website noted.

Indeed, in the original pilot, Lorelai crosses Main Street to enter Luke's Diner for the very first time.

"We are thrilled about the opportunity to welcome Gilmore Girls Fan Fest to our town!" Shawna Ferguson, executive director of the Unionville B.I.A., said in a news release.

"Historic Main Street is a great setting for an event like this and we've already begun to hear from fans across the globe who are planning their first trip to Canada specifically for this event. Because of its charming landscape, incredible culture, unique shopping and diverse menus at our local restaurants, we see the appeal that visitors adore in Unionville and we look forward to introducing these attendees to all we have to offer," Ferguson said.

It's official!! #GilmoreGirlsFanFestival will be taking place in #Unionville October 4 - 6, 2019!

Mark your calendars because TICKETS will be available at https://t.co/WcmwT7Puhz on February 11, 2019 at 12:00pm CST. #UnionvilleMainStreet#LifeIsBetterInUnionvillepic.twitter.com/GKeKMtE8FN

— Main St. Unionville (@UnionvilleInfo) January 31, 2019

If the excitement already has you doing a little fast-talking banter you're already doing a little fast-talking banter with yourself out of excitement, here's something else to get Sookie about: some of the real cast members will also be there! You might just get your chance to take dance lessons with Miss Patty, chat with Mrs. Kim or order coffee from Zach. Making your circa-2000 dreams come true, just a plane or car ride away! (Note: the actual cast members in attendance have not yet been announced, nor have the details of the weekend festivities.)

If you just can't wait to learn about what will go down in Stars Hollow, the CanCon edition, a sample of the 2018 event in Connecticut is listed on the website. Programming and special guests for the event will be announced as soon as details are secured, said organizers.

Watch: 'Gilmore Girls' cast, fans pay tribute to Lorelai, Rory and Stars Hollow at festival. Story continues below.

According to the fansite, since 2016, the event has hosted more than 20 cast and crew members each year who have met with fans, appeared on panels and who participate in the more than 50 festival activities.

Tickets for the three-day festival will run you $365 [since you mention it in the next price, is this US or CA?] and ticket sales begin February 11, at www.gilmoregirlsfanfest.com at noon (CST). Tickets for the three-day event are US$275 and include access to all events, activities, meet-and-greets, and panels (meals and lodging are not included).

More from HuffPost Canada:

• 'Gilmore Girls' Launches 200 Luke's Diner Pop-Up Shops Across North America
• Lauren Graham Doesn't Plan On Watching 'Gilmore Girls' Revival
• 'Gilmore Girls' Stars Set To Earn $750,000 Per Episode Of Netflix Reboot

Also on HuffPost:

OTTAWA — Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould was involved in extensive, internal government discussions last fall about whether SNC-Lavalin should be allowed to avoid criminal prosecution — and government officials maintain there's nothing wrong with that.

They argue the discussions were all perfectly within the law and, indeed, the government would have been remiss not to deliberate over the fate of the Quebec engineering and construction giant given that a prosecution could bankrupt the company and put thousands of Canadians out of work.

The officials spoke on background Friday to The Canadian Press on condition that their names not be used, even as Conservatives and New Democrats demanded investigations by a House of Commons committee and the federal ethics commissioner into allegations that Wilson-Raybould was pressured by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office to help SNC-Lavalin avoid prosecution.

Watch: Andrew Scheer calls for committee probe into PMO's role in SNC-Lavalin matter

Wilson-Raybould's continued refusal to comment on the allegations added fuel to the political fire, started Thursday by a Globe and Mail report that she was demoted in a cabinet shuffle early last month because she refused to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case. In a statement Friday morning, Wilson-Raybould, now veterans-affairs minister, said she is bound as the former attorney general by solicitor-client privilege and cannot publicly talk about aspects of the case.

The company has been charged with bribery and corruption over its efforts to secure government business in Libya and wants a deal, allowed under the law, to pay reparations rather than be prosecuted.

Toronto Liberal MP Arif Virani, the parliamentary secretary to current Justice Minister David Lametti, issued the most sweeping public denial of the story the government has issued so far.

"At no point has the current minister of justice or the former minister of justice been directed or pressured by the prime minister or the Prime Minister's Office to make any decision on this or any other matter," Virani told the House of Commons on Friday. "The attorney general of Canada is the chief law officer of the Crown and provides legal advice to the government with the responsibility to act in the public interest. He takes those responsibilities very seriously."

No pressure doesn't mean no discussions, officials say

But no pressure does not mean there were no discussions about the issue, officials said. And the fact that the attorney general is supposed to be above political considerations does not mean he or she can't be involved in those discussions.

In part, that's because the attorney general in Canada wears a second hat as justice minister and, in that role, is expected to fully take part in all public-policy discussions around the cabinet table. Moreover, as justice minister, Wilson-Raybould was responsible for a 2018 Criminal Code amendment at the heart of the current controversy — which specifically allowed for what's known as deferred prosecutions or remediation agreements to be negotiated rather than pursue criminal prosecutions against corporations.

The amendment was intended to bring Canada in line with its other major allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France, which all have similar provisions in their laws. The idea behind it is that a corporation should be held to account for wrongdoing without facing a prosecution that could bankrupt the company and make innocent employees pay the price for the actions of some unethical executives.

A guilty verdict on bribery and corruption charges would result in SNC-Lavalin being barred from government contracts in Canada for 10 years. In turn, officials said that would likely cause foreign government contracts to dry up as well, potentially putting SNC-Lavalin out of business.

SNC-Lavalin also lobbied Scheer, Singh

Consequently, they said, it was natural that internal discussions would have taken place after the director of public prosecutions, Kathleen Roussel, informed SNC-Lavalin last October that a remediation agreement would be inappropriate in this case. The company is challenging her decision in court.

SNC-Lavalin has taken out newspaper ads and heavily lobbied ministers, government officials and even Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to make its case for avoiding a prosecution. Quebec Premier Francois Legault has also pressured Trudeau directly to intervene on the company's behalf.

Under the law, the attorney general may issue a directive to the director of public prosecutions on how to handle a specific case, provided the directive is in writing and made public.

Given the jobs at stake, officials said, the government would have failed in its duty had there not been discussion about whether to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case. As justice minister, Wilson-Raybould would have been involved in those discussions. And even in her role as attorney general, she was not precluded from consulting her colleagues on whether to instruct the public prosecutor to negotiate a remediation agreement.

Officials pointed to a document entitled "Open and Accountable Government" on the PMO website, which spells out the conduct expected of ministers, including a lengthy section on the dual role of the justice minister and attorney general. On the matter of issuing directives to the director of public prosecutions (or "DPP"), the document says: "It is appropriate for the attorney general to consult with cabinet colleagues before exercising his or her powers under the DPP Act in respect of any criminal proceedings, in order to fully assess the public policy considerations relevant to specific prosecutorial decisions."

(A check of an Internet archive showed that the passage has been in the document since it was first posted in 2015.)

Watch: Trudeau denies PMO 'directed' ex-attorney general

None of that is likely to matter with opposition politicians, who maintain the whole affair smells like obstruction of justice. The Conservatives' Scheer and the New Democrats' Singh both called Friday for an ethics probe into the allegations.

Conservatives and New Democrats on the Commons justice committee are also joining forces to get an emergency meeting next week to consider a motion calling on nine high-ranking government officials to testify, including Wilson-Raybould herself.

The list includes Lametti, the prime minister's chief of staff Katie Telford, and his principal secretary Gerald Butts.

"If the prime minister has nothing to hide, as he has suggested, then he should have no reason to fear these individuals appearing before the justice committee," Scheer said in a Friday morning news conference on Parliament Hill. "MPs have a duty to determine what exactly happened here and Justin Trudeau and his office must be forthcoming."

Singh similarly argued that the prime minister should have nothing to fear from an independent investigation by the federal ethics commissioner.

"All this cries out for some serious investigation," he said in a telephone interview from Burnaby, B.C., where he's campaigning for a seat in the House of Commons in a Feb. 25 byelection.

'Unprecedented' allegations: Scheer

"If he truly wants to clear this up and believes there's been no wrongdoing, he should welcome an investigation from the ethics commissioner. ... Tell us what happened, be transparent, invite the ethics commissioner to investigate and tell us that this is not the case or, if it is the case, then there's a serious reckoning that needs to happen."

Both Scheer and Singh argue the issue cuts to the heart of our democracy and independent system of justice.

"The allegations that we are hearing in the last 24 hours are unprecedented," Scheer said.

Singh accused the government of sacrificing justice in the interests of a multinational corporation. He said the allegations suggest there may have been possible violations of three sections of the federal Conflict of Interest Act: the prohibitions against public office holders giving preferential treatment to any individual or organization, using insider information to improperly further a person's private interests or seeking to influence a decision to further another person's private interests.

More from HuffPost Canada:

• Tories, NDP Demand Justice Committee Investigate Allegations Against Trudeau's Office
• Trudeau Denies Office 'Directed' Jody Wilson-Raybould To Help SNC-Lavalin Avoid Prosecution
• Jody Wilson-Raybould's Surprise Shuffle Isn't A Demotion, Trudeau Says

LONGUEUIL, Que. — Officials say three members of the same family died and 11 others were injured after a fire broke out in an apartment in Longueuil, Que.

The fire broke out in an apartment building with several dozen units early Saturday morning.

Longueil police say 14 people were taken to hospital, where a couple in their forties and a woman in her sixties died.

Const. Ghislain Vallieres says some of the others in hospital were injured jumping from their balconies to escape the flames.

Weather made fighting fire a challenge

Police say one tenant is still missing, but there's no indication that person was at home when the fire broke out.

Officials say strong winds in the area made it harder for firefighters to battle the blaze, but it was finally put out at 8:30 a.m. — more than seven hours after the flames sprung up.

Vallieres says police officers were working their way through the rubble, but the process was slow-going because the building had been weakened in the fire.

The cause of the fire has not yet been released.

Also on HuffPost:

It's been a little more than a year since Ontario's now-former Liberal government bumped the minimum wage to $14 an hour, from $11.40.

In that time, business groups have argued that the move has caused them to lay off staff, or defer hiring, or speed up automation. Those were the arguments Premier Doug Ford's government used to justify cancelling the planned increase in the minimum wage to $15.

Watch: Canada's most in-demand jobs for 2019. Story continues below.

It's hard to know what an economy would look like in a "what if" scenario that never happened. We'll never know what Ontario's economy and job market would look like had the minimum wage hike not happened.

But we can look at more than a year's worth of job data from Statistics Canada, and compare Ontario to other provinces that didn't have such a large hike in the minimum wage.

To be sure, all provinces hiked their minimum wage in 2018, but by far less than Ontario, which raised its wage by $2.40 per hour, far more than Alberta's increase of $1.40 per hour (to $15) and B.C.'s $1.30 jump to $12.65 per hour.

Quebec increased its minimum wage by 70 cents, and all other provinces hiked by between 10 cents and 30 cents.

Earlier on HuffPost Canada:

• Ontario PCs Pass Bill To Roll Back Labour Reforms, Freeze Minimum Wage
• Ontario Businesses Won't Give Up Fight Against Minimum Wage Increase
• Ontario Chamber Of Commerce Calls For Repeal Of Minimum Wage Bill

So if minimum wage hikes kill jobs, then Ontario should stand out from the other provinces in that regard, in the job data for 2018.

Let's begin by looking at job growth. From January, 2018, the first month that the new minimum wage was in place, until January, 2019, Ontario increased its total number of jobs by 2.4 per cent, historically a very strong showing and in line with several other provinces that also clocked strong years for job growth.

So the minimum wage hike doesn't seem to have had much noticeable impact on overall job growth. But let's take a closer look at the situation. Minimum-wage jobs are generally concentrated in two broad industries: food and accommodation, and wholesale and retail.

Looking at job growth in those industries, it's clear this was not a good year — at least not when compared to the overall job market, which had a strong 2018. Wholesale/retail shed 2.6 per cent of all jobs in Ontario, while food and accommodation added 0.5 per cent, a weaker showing than overall job growth.

But the situation in these sectors actually looked worse in many other provinces. All provinces except Nova Scotia and Quebec shed jobs in wholesale and retail, while employment in food and accommodation was all over the map.

So it's clear that these sectors are shedding workers in many places, but the link to a minimum wage hike is far less clear. The sudden appearance of those self-serve checkouts at McDonald's and your local supermarket may have more to do with this, but to the extent that minimum wage hikes convince business leaders to speed up automation, there may be a link there.

Still, we can see that Ontario's outsized wage hike did not have an outsized impact on hiring in industries that are reliant on minimum wage workers. Other factors are clearly in the driver's seat here.

Now let's break things down by age group. Young people are much more likely to be employed in minimum wage jobs than others. So what has been happening with youth employment?

It was not a good year for youth jobs. Canada as a whole had 2.9 per cent fewer employed people aged 15 to 24 in December of 2018 than a year earlier. The numbers were dragged down by large declines in Ontario, B.C., Alberta and Quebec. It's interesting to note that, with the exception of Newfoundland, the provinces with the largest declines in youth employment were also the ones with the largest minimum wage hikes. So there may be some negative impact on youth employment.

But again, youth jobs are also the ones most likely to be targeted for automation. So how much of this is automation and how much the minimum wage? Good luck unraveling that one.

Let's look at employment rates — the percentage of people in a given group who have a job.

Looking at "school-aged workers," those aged 15 to 24, we see that employment fell nationwide over the course of 2018, but more so in Ontario. But employment grew in the "core working-age group" aged 25 to 54. While this appears to be a nationwide trend, it's stronger in Ontario.

Now let's look at wages (or what businesses call the cost of labour). Wage growth among youth in Ontario was stronger over the past year than it was among core working-age Ontarians. The average hourly wage for youth grew 10.2 per cent in 2018, versus 2.7 per cent growth for working-age Ontarians.

Looking more closely at the data, we see that Ontario youth working in sales and service jobs saw wages grow by 18 per cent, compared to an increase of 11.9 per cent nationwide. In an era of sluggish wage growth, there is no explanation for this other than increases to the minimum wage. Young workers and those in low-wage industries benefited greatly from the wage hike.

The verdict

The data suggests that Ontario's minimum wage hike had very little effect on the overall provincial job market. It certainly did not derail job growth province-wide, as growth has been strong over the past year, and in line with other provinces which had much smaller minimum wage hikes.

The lack of a clear link between large wage hikes and job growth in food services and wholesale/retail suggests other factors are more important than the minimum wage when deciding on hiring.

But the evidence does suggest that the wage hike in Ontario, and the somewhat smaller hikes in Alberta, B.C. and Quebec, dampened demand for young workers and possibly accelerated automation in food services. The flip-side of that is that those in these industries are earning considerably more money today.

So whether or not the wage hike was a success depends on your values — which of these effects you consider more important.

While losing a loved one is always hard, it can be a reassurance to commemorate them in a way that stays true to their memory.

In the case of one recently deceased Ontario woman, her children made sure that she went out in style.

Sybil Hicks, 81, passed away on Feb. 2. Her children wrote her obituary from her own first-person perspective, and the result is something truly memorable.

"I leave behind my loving husband, Ron Hicks, whom I often affectionately referred to as a "Horse's Ass". I also left behind my children whom I tolerated over the years," the obituary says.

It also notes that Hicks finally achieved a big goal of hers.

"I finally have the smoking hot body I have always wanted... having been cremated."

The Hamilton Spectator, which published the obituary, originally reported that Hicks had written it herself before correcting their story when three of her children — Barbara, Brenda and Brian — came forward to say they had done it.

"But I really think mom was directing Barbara's hand," Brian told the newspaper. "It (the obituary) is exactly her voice."

Hicks suffered from Alzheimer's for the past eighteen years, and Brian said the family wanted to have a final chance to communicate with her through the obituary.

'Riotous sense of humour': daughter

After his mother's service on Thursday, Brian told Global News that she probably would've loved her newfound viral fame — her obituary was picked up around the world and also made rounds on Reddit and Twitter.

"I honestly think that she's travelling the world and it's not costing her a dime for air fare," he said. "My mum didn't know what the internet was and she has now got hundreds of thousands of new friends as a result of somebody's kindness and sharing her obituary."

They had never seen a life celebrated so poignantly and hilariously.Brian Hicks, son

One of her daughters, Barbara, wrote most of the obituary, which the children hoped would capture their mother's wit and intelligence.

"She was a beautiful women with a riotous sense of humour," Barbara told CTV News.

The service carried the same tone as the obituary, according to the Spectator.

"The funeral home said they'd never had so much fun. The minister picked up on the horse's ass and referred to my father that way (playfully, of course). Everyone said, with no exceptions, on social media that they had never seen a life celebrated so poignantly and hilariously," Brian told the paper.

Hicks, a mother of five and grandmother to 13, was born in Hamilton. She was a nurse and later also ran a school bus company with her family. She was also an active horticulturalist, and loved to volunteer.

Canada's real estate industry must be getting worried that the slowdown is going to hurt its bottom line. In the past few weeks, we have seen insiders launch a full-court press against the country's federal mortgage and housing rules.

Prominent voices among realtors and mortgage brokers have joined with economists at some of the country's largest banks (i.e. mortgage lenders) to call on Ottawa to revisit the mortgage stress test.

The test, which essentially requires borrowers to qualify for a mortgage at a rate that is two percentage points higher than the one they're being offered, is now obsolete, they say. It made sense a few years ago when interest rates were at historic lows, but it doesn't now that rates have risen.

Watch: The extreme measures Canadians go through to buy a home. Story continues below.

Mortgage Professionals Canada, a national industry association which represents some some 1,000 mortgage businesses and 11,000 individual mortgage brokers (the oversupply of mortgage brokers is another story), suggests the stress test should be set at 0.75 per cent above the offered rate.

Given that the discount rate for a five-year fixed mortgage in Canada is around 3.7 per cent today, this means the industry version of the stress test would only ensure that borrowers can handle 4.45 per cent. As if a higher interest rate than that were impossible, and not worth testing for.

Fun fact: The current going rate for a mortgage in the U.S. is 4.41 per cent.

Earlier on HuffPost Canada:

• What You Need To Earn To Afford A Single-Family Home In Cities Across Canada
• It's Never Been This Expensive To Own A Single-Family Home In Canada: RBC
• Lack Of Affordable Housing Causing Vancouver's Brain Drain: Minister

In the U.S., though, you get that rate for 30 years. Not so in Canada, where the typical mortgage term is five years, but the the typical amortization is 25 years.

A Canadian mortgage is a gamble on where interest rates will be up to 25 years from now. Are we sure they won't rise above 4.45 per cent in that time?

Some historical context: As recently as 20 years ago, the going discount rate on a five-year fixed Canadian mortgage was 8 per cent. It only dipped below 5 per cent when the Bank of Canada dropped its key lending rate during the Great Recession a decade ago.

Canada chartered banks prime lending rate

Is it really that inconceivable that mortgage rates could return to those levels again in the coming years? Especially considering that we are coming off interest rate levels that are the lowest in 5,000 years of human civilization, meaning there's little room for them to come down, and plenty to rise?

If we are serious about preventing Canadians from overextending themselves to the point of a national debt crisis, we may have to consider the possibility that the stress test may actually not be stressful enough as it is.

And apparently, the industry believes that a 25-year gamble on interest rates is too safe a bet. Another policy move they want to see is the extension of insured mortgage amortizations to 30 years, from 25 years.

If you can't get Canadians to take on higher mortgage payments because they already have the G7's highest debt burden and are beginning to freak out about what they owe, well, maybe you can get them to take on debt for longer instead.

Back to 2012

This would be a reversal of policy put in place by then-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who reduced the maximum insurable mortgage amortization to 25 years from 30 years. He did so because of concerns that house prices were rising too quickly, and Canadians were taking on too much debt.

That was back in 2012, when Canadians owed $1.62 in debt for every dollar of disposable income, instead of the current level above $1.70. And yet somehow it's safe again to extend mortgage lengths: The Canadian Home Builders Association says Finance Minister Bill Morneau is "considering" bringing back the 30-year mortgage.

Some experts believe Morneau should think twice before increasing Canadians' debt loads while pushing high house prices even higher.

"If you increase the amortization period you'll have people taking on more debt and as a result you'll increase prices," National Bank of Canada economist Kyle Dahms said recently. "It's hard to say if those are the right solutions."

If you can't get Canadians to take on higher mortgage payments because they already have the G7's highest debt burden and are beginning to freak out about what they owe, well, maybe you can get them to take on debt for longer instead.

In other words, affordability would worsen still, even as Canadians are saddled with more debt.

It takes some serious verbal acrobatics to sell this policy.

"The current limit of 25-year amortization for insured mortgages results in a very high rate of 'forced saving'," Mortgage Professionals Canada said in a recent report.

"Thirty-year amortization periods would also result in rapid paydown of mortgage principals and growth of homeowners' equity positions."

Translation: Canadians are being forced to save money, in the form of home equity, too quickly. (Never mind that our parents had 10-year amortizations.) If only we could keep ourselves in debt to the banks longer, it would all be okay.

Here's the real solution: Leave the (very reasonable) policy measures in place, and let the market do its work. If the industry insiders are right, and people just can't hack the stress test, then eventually sellers will have to lower their asking prices.

And then — surprise! — affordability will return, Canadian homebuyers will be able to take on far more reasonable levels of debt, and the long-term trend of rising house prices will be able to make a comeback.

Yes, homeowners would have to contend with a decline in home values. Homebuyers in expensive markets would have to save longer for the home they want, or downgrade their expectations, to meet the stress test. Real estate agents would make smaller commissions. Developers would see lower profit margins. Some land and house speculators might get wiped out.

But hey, you want to see a real economic disaster? Just let homebuyers keep taking on more debt, until one day a tiny increase in mortgage rates or a small dip in employment knocks the whole economy over like a tin shack in a desert sandstorm.

We are going to have to pay the piper eventually for excessive, unsustainable house price growth that has left home affordability at its worst levels in three decades. Better to pay today's price, than the much higher one on offer tomorrow.

"Focus, children. It is time we remind the world of who we are," house mother Elektra Abundance, played by Dominique Jackson, tells her "family" in the first episode of "Pose."

And that's what Jackson is dedicated to doing in real life: reminding the world of who transgender people are, and why they deserve the respect and safety they've been lacking for decades.

The star of the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed FX show that depicts New York's ballroom community in the 1980s was in Toronto last weekend for the Journey to Black Liberation Symposium and the Black Liberation Ball, where she judged the ballroom competition that gave Torontonians a night to celebrate and experience the house ball world.

Performing to a packed house, participants dressed in their baddest gear vogued onto the stage. Their bodies bounced, glided, slid, writhed, snapped and popped as they battled their opponents.

It was electrifying. Fierce. Fyah. Transformative.

"Ballroom saved my life," Jackson said.

House ball was created by trans women of colour several decades ago in the U.S., where competitors who represent different "houses" — groups that often function as alternative families — face off through elaborate dances, vogueing and shantaying on the runway.

"Pose" explores what life was like for trans people before the culture crossed over into the mainstream, appropriated by, among others, Madonna's "Vogue."

And the ball in Toronto, organized by JTBL symposiums co-curators and house ball veterans, Twysted and Michael Roberson, alongside Black Daddies Club founder Brandon Hay, was done in the true spirit of the community.

View this post on Instagram

It was such a pleasure to see how far ballroom has come! #kuumbafestival Hair @adrianc969 Make up by the fabulous @roxannedenobregamakeup Dress @angelayalacouture

A post shared by Dominique T.A.R Jackson (@dominiquet.a.r.jackson) on Feb 3, 2019 at 3:20pm PST

"I was proud. Our pioneers, who are no longer with us, would be very honoured," Jackson told HuffPost Canada from her waterfront hotel room. "When I was introduced to balls, it was only in New York, now it's spreading everywhere. I couldn't be happier."

Like most house ball participants, the community helped Jackson find herself, and saved her from the inner turmoil that plagued her growing up. Born on the Caribbean island of Tobago, She was lost and felt different, but growing up, was unaware of a term to describe the incongruence between the gender she was born with and how she truly felt.

"Not only was I being molested by a priest in Tobago, but I was not accepted," said Jackson. "Growing up I was told, 'Stop acting like a girl. Don't stand like that, don't act like that, deepen your voice.' But for me, it came naturally. I couldn't change anything. I tried to walk with the bop, I tried to deepen my voice, but I just couldn't."

Jackson said friends and family were saying things like, "I'd kill myself if I was like that." Jackson did attempt suicide, 15 times, when she thought life wasn't worth living if she couldn't be accepted.

"The way society is in the Caribbean, I thought I'd be better off dead," she said. "Anyone from the LGBTQ community who is from an island is trying to escape most of the time, but some of us don't have the chance to because we're murdered. There are no laws that protect us."

The only thing that kept her going was her faith in herself, especially after her family immigrated to Baltimore, Md. It was here that she told her family she wanted to transition into a woman and then, was forced to leave her family's home after doing so.

"I kept saying to myself, 'Be strong,' even through my tears, even when I was lying on the floor looking at the pill bottle, I knew I had a purpose and that I needed to be strong, even though being strong wasn't easy," said Jackson.

She repeated that mantra, "You have a purpose," throughout her life. When found herself homeless after coming out to her family. When she had to turn to sex work to make ends meet in New York City. When she was raped on the streets of Manhattan.

"My faith is my faith, and I cannot allow anyone to take that from me," said Jackson.

Trans lives matter

"Trans people have been repeatedly told that we don't have the right to live. And Black people have been told that by our slave masters and continue to be told that by society. We have, generationally, bled this kind of hatred," said Jackson.

More than two dozen transgender people were killed last year in America, according to information gathered by CNN, the New York City Anti-Violence Project and the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group.

Last month, "Empire" star Jussie Smollett was attacked by two men who hurled homophobic and racial slurs at the gay rights advocate. And, the United States Supreme Court recently allowed President Donald Trump to enforce his policy of banning certain transgender people from the military.

"It's a horrible time for a lot of us. But this is a push for us to be even more resilient," said Jackson. "We have to look at it and say, 'We have to fight for our rights.'"

Trans people have been repeatedly told that we don't have the right to live. And Black people have been told that by our slave masters and continue to be told that by society. We have generationally bled this kind of hatred.Dominique Jackson

She said #metoo and Black Lives Matter gives her hope that progress is being made, but she wants to see one more movement.

"What about Trans Lives Matter? For my book, my research indicated that from 1991-2014, there were close to 2,500 brutal murders of transsexual people," said Jackson referring to her memoir, "The Transsexual from Tobago. "In the U.S., one of my sisters was shot in the face, another one was shot by her father. Things have got to change."

"Pose" has become a vehicle to help trans people further their fight by giving them visibility in mainstream media and shedding light on a community often not well-understood.

The series features the largest cast ever of transgender actors and the largest recurring cast of LGBTQ actors ever in a scripted series. Among various award nominations, the show was recently up for Golden Globes for best drama TV series, and star Billy Porter received an acting nomination.

Jackson said that after watching "Pose," people have told her that they've reconnected with family members they ostracized because they were LGBTQ.

"'Pose' has shown that we're human beings and that's what people weren't getting, that every person is a human being. People have been killing us because they don't see us as people," said Jackson.

"All we want is equality, and for people to see us as humans who want all the same things you do: to live, love and be, freely."

More from HuffPost Canada:

• For Dancer Twysted, The Ballroom Community Unites Hope, God And Love
• Pop Culture's Appropriation From The House Ball Community Runs Deep
• Ellen Page Chokes Up Talking LGBTQ Rights, Canadian Enviro Crises

Also on HuffPost:

TORONTO — It would be a mistake for Ontario's Progressive Conservative government to contract out eviction enforcement, one tenant advocacy group says.

"When people have to be evicted from their home, there's some pretty nasty situations going on like family breakdowns, illnesses, deaths in the family, bankruptcy, poverty, mental health," said Kenn Hale, the director of advocacy and legal services for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO).

Internal documents obtained by The Toronto Star show the government is considering the use of private bailiffs to evict tenants out of their homes. Hale's colleague, ACTO policy analyst Mary Todorow, confirmed to HuffPost Canada that it was raised at a closed government consultation she attended on Feb. 1 as a way to "streamline the eviction process."

Currently, only public servants known as public enforcement officers can remove tenants once an eviction is ordered.

Some things have to be government functions.Kenn Hale

"The idea of saving a few bucks by contracting this out rather than having public servants, who are sworn to uphold the public good, is really a bad idea," Hale said. "Some things have to be government functions."

Public enforcement officers do their job with professionalism and compassion, Hale said, and they point tenants who have nowhere else to live to shelters and community services.

"It's not much," he said, "but at least there's some kind of public accountability."

Landlords have been asking for private bailiffs for years

One landlord, however, told HuffPost that the eviction process takes too long and private bailiffs would speed it up.

William Blake is a senior member of the Ontario Landlord Association (OLA), a community organization that represents small independent landlords. Blake owns about 50 units in Toronto, the GTA and Alberta.

The OLA has been asking the government to allow private bailiffs to do evictions for years, Blake said.

He said the government enforcement officers have a backlog and take too long.

"When a landlord goes through the eviction process, it can take six to eight months."

A lot of small landlords are one missed rent payment away from big troubles.William Blake

Landlords depend on rent payments for their livelihoods, he said, and going months without rent is a major financial strain.

"A lot of small landlords are one missed rent payment away from big troubles."

A spokeswoman for Steve Clark, the minister in charge of housing, would not confirm or deny that the PCs are looking at the idea of private eviction bailiffs.

The idea "is neither the current policy of the government nor proposed legislation at this time," Julie O'Driscoll, Clark's director of communications told HuffPost in an email.

Todorow, the ACTO representative who attended the government's consultation, said they fought back when the former Liberal government considered the same thing in 2016.

"It was like Groundhog Day," Todorow told HuffPost of the PC consultation. "We've already gone through this."

In a submission to the Liberal government three years ago, ACTO outlined the reasons why it opposes this policy.

Sometimes landlords and tenants misrepresent their situation, ACTO wrote in its paper, so the enforcement officer needs to be impartial. Paid bailiffs might just do as the landlord says, because that's who is paying their fee.

"Simply put, a lock-out, even if warranted and lawful, is a traumatic event for a family," ACTO wrote.

"Children simply never forget a forced eviction from their home and you cannot put a price on a responsible, well-mannered, professional coming to the door to do an undeniably terrible thing."

Also On HuffPost:

WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister appeared to marvel on social media in recent days at Winnipeg's wintry weather, but in reality he was at his vacation home in tropical Costa Rica, his office has confirmed.

Pallister's Twitter and Instagram accounts put up a few pictures last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, as daytime temperatures hovered around -20 C.

One featured a photo of snow falling outside the Manitoba legislature with a comment "Snow Day!'' A similar picture posed the question "Do you like the snow?'' It was accompanied by an emoji — a cartoon smiling face with large red hearts for eyes.

A third picture showed workers clearing snow from a side entrance of the legislature and warned: "Expect blowing snow and gusting wind this afternoon! #staywarm my fellow Manitobans!''

Expect blowing snow ❄️ and gusting wind 💨 this afternoon! #staywarm my fellow Manitobans! #WeatherWednesdaypic.twitter.com/uNGPdL6nLG

— Brian Pallister (@Brian_Pallister) February 6, 2019

The messages, it turns out, were posted by one or more of Pallister's staff. Pallister's office offered a brief explanation as to why, but would not confirm details as to how long Pallister had been out of the country.

The premier was expected to return this weekend from his property in the Tamarindo area of Costa Rica, where recent temperatures surpassed 30 C.

"As a rule, we do not comment on the premier's schedule due to security considerations,'' read a written statement from the premier's office.

"The premier's Twitter account is used as a communications tool to maintain a continuous digital conversation with his audience. It can include comments on news events, anniversaries, disasters and emergencies, and significant weather events.''

The statement also said the premier's Twitter profile notes that the account is run by the premier and staff. His Instagram profile does not.

Premier 'not entitled' to pretend he's in Winnipeg: NDP MLA

Andrew Swan, a legislature member for the Opposition New Democrats, accused the premier and his staff of being misleading.

"The man's entitled to take holidays but he's not entitled to pretend he's back here in Winnipeg ... when in fact he's down in Costa Rica doing whatever it is he does down there.''

Pallister has faced repeated criticism over his Costa Rican villa purchased in 2008.

In 2016, he said he planned to spend six to eight weeks a year in Costa Rica during his time as premier. He later revised the number to five weeks.

More from HuffPost Canada:

• Brian Pallister Says He Works Hard At Vacation Home In Costa Rica
• Brian Pallister's Wife Was Sent Sensitive Material On Personal Email While They Were In Costa Rica
• Brian Pallister Will Spend Up To 8 Weeks A Year In Costa Rica

In 2017 — a little more than a year after his Progressive Conservatives swept to power — government documents revealed Pallister was communicating with staff through his wife's cellphone and personal email account while down south. New protocols were brought in requiring the premier and all staff to use government devices and email accounts when conducting government business.

Last year, Pallister admitted to not having paid a Costa Rican national tax on luxury homes because he had failed to update his property assessment. He said he owed roughly $8,000 in penalties and back taxes on the property, which includes a 3,400-square foot bungalow, a pool, a groundskeeper's quarters and a small gym.

Earlier on HuffPost: