In Peel, where the largest South Asian-Canadian community in the country thrives, the unique cultural and demographic landscape has created a perfect storm of conditions for human traffickers. Canada is currently without a national strategy to guide anti-human trafficking efforts. A review of the previous five-year plan showed mixed results, and a significant lack of investment.
Advocates are urging Ottawa to prioritize the approval of a new strategy that addresses the rapidly changing dynamics of human trafficking.
The provincial election is officially underway.
In the coming days The Pointer will be gathering information about the candidates seeking election across Brampton and Mississauga to inform readers about their background and experience as they vie to represent you inside Ontario’s legislature.
With candidates vying for support ahead of the February 27th provincial election, crime and community safety have become the burning issues for many voters across Brampton.
In the north of the city crime has taken on a dark dimension, with a range of concerns including shootings, auto thefts and break-ins that residents have raised to local and provincial leaders who ultimately make decisions about the use of taxpayer money to keep those same residents safe.
As campaigning ramps up ahead of the Ontario election on February 27th, democracy advocates and resident groups are wondering why the PC Party has absented its candidates from debates, other events and media interviews.
Ghost candidates are creating questions about how voters are supposed to know what to expect if local PCs running for office are elected, and how they would address specific issues unique to a riding.
The controversial proposal to expand Brampton’s Emerald incinerator, one of Canada's largest waste-burning facilities, has drawn concern over potential health risks, including increased exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. Despite claims of "clean energy" experts argue that incineration only adds to environmental harm, releasing toxic pollutants like mercury, dioxins and furans into the air.
Local advocates, health professionals and environmental groups are calling for a halt to the expansion plan, urging the provincial government to reconsider its policies and prioritize more sustainable, cleaner alternatives for managing waste.
Meghan Nicholls, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, is calling out elected officials.
Forced to shutter vital programming due to a lack of funding while demand continues to rapidly increase, she says food banks can no longer fill a widening gap created by ongoing government failures.
While EV sales explode in some parts of the world, the number of Ontarians transitioning to electric vehicles has slowed considerably under Doug Ford, whose government has repeatedly rolled back key incentives that once supported a growing market. From rebates to public charging infrastructure, the cuts have stymied EV growth, leaving the province behind others like British Columbia and Quebec, where key policies and incentives have driven adoption.
Ontario still has an opportunity to catch up by investing in rebates, expanding charging infrastructure and supporting used EV incentives, but experts are wary of a government that makes “evidence-free” decisions.
Human Rights issues were raised at a recent council meeting, where a proposal to avoid using the Notwithstanding Clause to clear homeless encampments was brought forward.
In the end, with the mayors of Niagara’s largest cities firmly behind Doug Ford’s plan to forcibly remove those staying in encampments, efforts to act with compassion were defeated.
In Part 2 of Traffick Stop The Pointer looks at the dedicated service providers helping survivors heal and move on from one of the most devastating forms of exploitation.
These organizations operate in a space that is underfunded, as politicians all too often are more concerned with offering empty words than taking real action to fix a flawed system.
The Brampton mayor’s mother-in-law is running against the Ontario Liberal leader in the Mississauga East—Cooksville race. Allegations have been raised against Patrick Brown, accusing him of using staff paid by Brampton taxpayers, including two who work in his office, to help with Silvia Gualtieri’s campaign.
Brown has previously directed City staff to help candidates including himself. A whistleblower provided evidence of the mayor’s inappropriate use of Brampton taxpayer funds to work on a federal campaign while an integrity commissioner complaint revealed Brown had used City staff for his own bid to become federal Conservative leader.
Following an internal investigation into the misuse of municipal funds, the Region of Peel has launched a lawsuit against former caseworker Hamza Dualeh alleging he was sending money for made up expenses to various benefits recipients and splitting the proceeds under Peel’s Homelessness Prevention program. A statement of claim filed on February 4 alleges that over an 18-month period, Dualeh issued approximately 1,300 fraudulent payments totalling more than $4 million through the Homelessness Prevention Fund.
In a 9-1 vote, trustees at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board recently held up a long-standing ban of the Pride flag. The decision has laid bare a significant disconnect between many local parents and the students whose schools do not feel welcoming to them.
That is not stopping them from advocating for representation and recognition in the spaces built for young people to learn in a supportive environment. Obstacles posed by older generations continue to drown out the experiences of students across the board.
After false claims that Mississauga’s population is in decline, new data from Statistics Canada show the opposite. The city is booming.
Numbers from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation over the last five years also show Mississauga continues to see major new developments, with the second highest value in new condos across Ontario last year.
The trucking/warehousing industry is the largest in the city, employing tens of thousands of workers.
Cross-border contracts account for much of the work they do. Insiders warn that if the paused tariffs ever come into effect, the impacts would ripple across Brampton, throwing hundreds of thousands of residents connected to commercial transportation into a potential downward spiral.
Ahead of Ontario’s February 27 election, the Doug Ford government is facing more backlash for its controversial Bill 212, which aims to dismantle bike lanes, a move critics argue puts cyclists and the province’s climate goals at risk. On January 25, Brampton residents and cycling advocates rallied outside Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office.
In the first of a four-part series, The Pointer looks at the rising rates of human trafficking in Peel and across the province.
Service providers are grappling with an increasing number of survivors with complex needs, while they are under-resourced and struggling to help survivors.
False promises made by Doug Ford's PC government have undermined environmental laws, favouring developers and expanding the aggregate industry at the cost of Ontario’s natural spaces.
In Caledon, Milton, Burlington and other communities the threat of quarry expansions looms as Ford pushes sprawling developments and highways that need aggregate. Local leaders and activists gathered in Milton last week to rally against these destructive practices.
As Ontarians prepare for the February 27th election, the PC government has once again made bold nuclear energy announcements. The proposed nuclear plant near Port Hope could become the province's largest, yet crucial details are scarce.
Critics are questioning if the vague plans being trumpeted are a calculated political play designed to energize voters while leaving out complexities of the nuclear strategy.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie’s former role as Mississauga’s mayor included run-ins with her fellow Peel politician, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown over a number of critical issues, primarily her desire to see Mississauga become an independent municipality, a position Brown aggressively lobbied against.
Less than a day after she announced the riding she’s seeking to represent at Queen’s Park, Silvia Gualtieri, Brown’s mother-in-law, was officially named as Crombie’s PC opponent.
After five years of legislative violations, shelved reports and blatant discrimination, a 2023 review concluded Ontario was in the midst of an “accessibility crisis”. Instead of acknowledging his alarming conduct, Premier Doug Ford—following a pattern of behaviour since being elected in 2018—refuses to prioritize the needs of those living with disabilities.
Advocates are demanding change as the province enters a historically short provincial election campaign.
The health of the Great Lakes is increasingly at risk as Premier Doug Ford's PC government advances two contentious projects: the redevelopment of Ontario Place and the construction of Highway 413. They threaten to exacerbate the strain on an already fragile ecosystem. The Ontario Place project, which aims to reroute sewage into the West Channel, could pollute vital water bodies, while Highway 413 threatens to undermine critical watersheds. The Great Lakes are already struggling from climate-induced pressures.
Despite a ruling by Ontario’s Information Privacy Commissioner, that City of St. Catharines officials argued against releasing documents detailing alarmingly high levels of dangerous toxic chemicals at the former GM site in the middle of the municipality, officials are now claiming they did not try to prevent the release of the disturbing information.
In an effort to fill the gaps in a food insecurity crisis advocates have warned will only worsen without sufficient policy change and government spending, Bill Graham and his wife Shirley have been providing free food tables for Mississauga residents since March 2020, an initiative that now serves more than 2,000 people monthly.
As Premier Doug Ford’s pre-election cheques get ready for delivery, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario warns the province’s homelessness crisis is at a ”tipping point”.
As Ontario faces mounting pressures from climate change, the push for sustainable, resilient and affordable housing has become more urgent than ever. But in the midst of rising costs and regulatory hurdles, some are questioning whether green building standards are worth the investment.
RESCON, the group representing Ontario's home builders, is challenging Toronto’s Green Standard, claiming it's slowing down development. Experts like The Atmospheric Fund argue that far from hindering growth, green standards not only protect the planet and homeowners, they also lower long-term costs.
The Brampton mayor and his local council allies made the claims at a Peel Regional council meeting Thursday where the police budget for 2025, described as reckless and unsubstantiated, was approved despite no detailed financial analysis or policing studies to justify the extra $144 million.
Brown and some of his Brampton allies told stories of residents calling police after violent crimes were committed, without any response, suggesting it was due to a lack of funding and resources. The unproven anecdotes were told to justify a $144 million budget increase for Peel Police that one prominent expert described as “an utter failure of governance”.
The 2025 budget reveals the City of Brampton’s commitment to climate action remains largely symbolic.
With Brampton's vulnerability to flooding and the growing demand for public transportation, Mayor Patrick Brown has made significant cuts, including to stormwater management and transit funding, while ongoing expansions like the Goreway gas plant and waste incinerator pose new pollution risks.
With collective bargaining discussions ongoing, Peel paramedics are highlighting pay gaps of up to $30,000 compared to other first responders like police and firefighters.
The union is demanding fair wages, better benefits, and comprehensive mental health support.
After a disturbing increase in measles cases across Ontario last year, and Canada's first human case of avian flu, a spotlight is being shone on Peel’s underfunded public health unit and its ability to deal with emerging threats.
Officials are striving to safeguard vulnerable populations, but their efforts are hampered by a backlog of immunizations created by the pandemic, vaccine misinformation and chronic underfunding.
Despite deep cuts to critical services and delayed projects, Brampton Council passed the 2025 budget Monday without a single voice of opposition or meaningful debate by councillors. The session, lasting less than two hours, has residents questioning the lack of accountability and transparency under the leadership of Mayor Patrick Brown who is forcing a 23.3 percent increase for Peel Police.
With all the cuts to the city’s services and infrastructure, despite a provisional 8.4 percent tax hike for the total 2025 property bill, many Brampton residents are questioning what they are getting for the stiff increase.
As the controversy around Peel Police’s crippling 23.3 percent budget increase heightens, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish now claims she voted against the financial request while she was still on the police board, despite the record showing that she abstained from the vote late last year.
On Thursday, a motion being presented by the Mayor to the Region of Peel’s budget committee calls for the police budget to be limited to a 14 percent increase. But after the police services board already flatly rejected any reduction, the move seems like a waste of time.
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, Canada faces uncertainty about its environmental future. While Trudeau framed climate action as a cornerstone of his governments and delivered key early policy wins, critics have pointed to a series of controversial decisions over recent years, accusing him of prioritizing political points over climate progress.
As the country heads toward an election, advocates warn that without strong leadership committed to climate action, key initiatives like the Oil and Gas Sector Emissions Cap Regulations and the Clean Electricity Regulation could be sidelined, jeopardizing the nation’s environmental future.
The Ontario government has paid out $23 million in lawsuits to sweep aside allegations of sexual and physical abuse within schools for the deaf and blind.
There has never been a review of the board responsible for these schools, despite piles of evidence of mismanagement and harm. It’s time for the Auditor General to step in.
The controversial mayor’s lack of a financial strategy is creating serious issues for the City of Brampton and its residents. Ignoring critical spending in order to freeze the budget in previous years has left key projects like the chronically delayed downtown revitalization underfunded or ignored.
In 2025, Brown is cutting even deeper, while residents question what happened to all the promises he has made during election time.
After facing several delays, the Region of Peel confirmed to The Pointer that its regional reception centre, meant to provide shelter and wrap-around supports to asylum claimants, would not open in the fall as scheduled. As frigid temperatures arrive, those without shelter are once again at risk, roughly a year after two asylum claimants perished outside a Mississauga shelter while waiting for a spot to open up.
Despite receiving $22 million in federal funding specifically to open the reception centre with hundreds of shelter beds before winter, the Region has refused to explain why it failed to do so.
The federal government’s decision not to designate Highway 413 for a full impact assessment has drawn sharp criticism for its reliance on provincial legislative mechanisms to address environmental and Indigenous concerns.
Ottawa claims the Highway 413 Act and Ontario's Endangered Species Act offer adequate oversight—Premier Doug Ford’s government has been condemned for systematically weakening environmental protections and ignoring safeguards set out in these laws.
A recent report from Peel staff confirms that no one at the Region has seen the financial or labour projections made by the PC government’s now dismantled Transition Board to justify sweeping changes to the two-tier municipal system.
The Province's failure to provide transparency throughout the reconfiguration process has created confusion at the Region, where staff retention has been a struggle amid uncertainty about the future.
Shunning recommendations in the City’s financial plan, Mayor Patrick Brown’s 2025 budget proposes cuts to areas in desperate need of funding, including transit, the library system, key infrastructure and climate change mitigation.
His proposed salary hikes alongside budget cuts to services and infrastructure will force residents to pay dearly in the not-too-distant future.
Alok Mukherjee warns the increase, described as “ludicrous” and “unsustainable”, could have larger implications for police budgets across the province.
The unprecedented size of the police budget increase suggests a reckless approach to the use of public funds, raising questions about the need for so much more money in one year and how the board could possibly justify being so blindsided that its irresponsible oversight led to a shortfall equivalent to almost a quarter of its budget, and about 40 percent over two years.
False reports in major Indian media outlets claim suspects in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the slain Sikh-Canadian activist, have been freed. The disinformation campaign has attempted to cast doubts about Canada’s judicial process, despite claims by federal Indian officials that their government will do everything to cooperate with Canadian authorities investigating a murder allegedly orchestrated by India’s ruling BJP government. The RCMP debunked the Indian reporting, confirming all suspects remain charged.
Regions like Niagara are emerging as leaders in innovative alternatives to traditional energy systems. Adoption of heat pumps and geothermal energy demonstrate the region's commitment to reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The provincial government, however, has introduced Bill 165 to override the Ontario Energy Board's decision to end subsidies for new natural gas connections.
Life continues to be increasingly unaffordable for Canadians struggling with the cost of telecommunications, groceries, housing and transportation; even air travel has become out of reach for more and more Canadians.
Unlike markets around the world where competition in the cellular phone sector, travel industry, among grocers and other areas helps keep costs more affordable, one large Canadian company says consumers here continue to be abused by governments that protect certain companies and prevent competition that would dramatically reduce the cost of living.
Brampton’s delayed 2025 budget, finally set for release on January 10, won’t likely face much scrutiny inside City Hall, which is tightly controlled by the mayor. Patrick Brown has cancelled or postponed critical infrastructure projects which have been ignored as a result of his demands for unsustainable cuts to key municipal needs.
Meanwhile, the city’s taxpayers continue to fund his own bloated staffing, lavish trips around the world and costs associated with legal battles & a revolving door hiring approach to control loyalty to the mayor.
Ahead of the holidays a staff report to council revealed more dysfunction under Patrick Brown’s leadership.
Bylaws meant to provide oversight of the vast rental market in the city, which has suffered from illegal secondary suites for years, cannot be enforced due to unclear wording and a lack of resources to carry out inspections. Councillors in the past have reported seeing twenty tenants, often international students, crammed into one basement.
With a string of empty promises from Patrick Brown, a growing list of projects in the city remains unfunded. Money from Ottawa for critical work, such as the Riverwalk redevelopment plan, has not been matched by Brampton under Brown’s watch, putting the funding in jeopardy.
The five Liberal MPs in the city have not managed to secure equitable fair-share funding for a wide range of infrastructure needs, with the Conservatives now aiming to win the six seats that will be up for grabs in the looming election.
With right-wing populism gaining traction globally, climate change is increasingly weaponized against the left. In countries like the U.S. and Canada, right-wing leaders like Donald Trump, Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith are rolling back climate policies while promoting the oil and gas industry as part of the solution to bring the cost of living back down to more affordable levels.
The rightward shift is fueled by conservative voices, amplifying climate denial and silencing those who push for change, using economic claims to counter them.
With no sustainable, long-term solution to tackle homelessness, Peel Region has to pour more money into its overflow hotels and emergency shelter spaces to meet the surging demand for temporary housing.
The cost has nearly doubled from two years ago.
Around the world, young activists are taking their governments to court to demand urgent climate action. In Canada, 15 youth recently secured the right to take their case to trial in 2026, building on a similar victory in Ontario just months earlier.
Both cases argue that government inaction on climate change is a violation of their fundamental rights. But it has taken five years for groups to make meaningful progress in the courts — while the impacts of climate change have rapidly intensified. Are the courts moving too slowly to address a crisis that puts the entire planet at risk?
A recent audit of Ontario’s opioid strategy confirmed the Premier and Minister of Health did not conduct any studies or reviews to support the decision to close supervised consumption sites. Among several findings, the audit also showed the PCs were aware of the impacts of closing several of these sites, including increased risk of deaths from overdoses and emergency department visits, before the decision was made.
Over 50 environmental organizations in Ontario recently sent an open letter to the provincial government, urging stronger protections for vital ecosystems in the face of escalating biodiversity loss.
A new global report highlights the dire need to preserve critical parts of the planet for food security, water quality, human health and climate stability. Meanwhile, Canada’s environmental commitment is under scrutiny with the federal government’s recent update to its emissions target falling short of expectations.
After repeatedly dodging requests to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic, instead claiming more research would be conducted, the PC government has now cut short the study intended to gather more information.
Advocates continue to ask why Doug Ford, who regularly talks about being tough on crime, has failed to take violence against women seriously.
