Update on Bill C-4 and Bill C-12

I've been following two bills in Canadian Parliament.  Bill C-4 and Bill C-12.  I searched on AI today to see the status of these important bills.  The reason I am interested is 15 foreign nationals facing extortion‑related charges in Canada have applied for refugee status.  This figure comes directly from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which confirmed that these individuals made refugee claims after coming under immigration investigation.  These people have lived here for a while, they didn't just come in.   It's about time this loop hole for people who are not fleeing a country that is dangerous, but coming to this country to extort our law abiding citizens for millions of dollars. Deport them ASAP!

Bill C‑4 is now law.  It received Royal Assent on March 12, 2026.  Here is what I found on Bill C-12:

Bill C‑12 – Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act

Current Stage (March 2026)

• Bill C‑12 has completed Third Reading in the Senate (March 12, 2026).

• The Senate has sent a message back to the House of Commons with amendments and recommendations.

• The bill is now “At consideration in the House of Commons of amendments made by the Senate.”

This means the House must now:

1. Accept the Senate’s amendments,

2. Reject them, or

3. Propose alternatives.

Only after that can the bill proceed to Royal Assent and become law.

Bill C‑12 will become law only after:

1. The House of Commons responds to the Senate’s amendments.

2. Both chambers agree on a final text.

3. The bill receives Royal Assent.

Given the political attention around this bill—including strong advocacy from migrant‑rights groups urging the Senate to amend or reject parts of it—debate may continue for some time.  Let's hope that doesn't happen and receives Royal Assent soon!

The Senate made three proposals:

Privacy Protection Amendment

1.  Proposed by: Senator Paulette Senior

Purpose: Protect Canadian citizens and permanent residents from unnecessary surveillance.

What it does

• Exempts Canadian citizens and permanent residents from the bill’s expanded information‑sharing powers.

• Ensures that only foreign nationals are subject to the new data‑sharing regime.

• Responds to concerns from privacy experts and civil‑liberties groups about the bill’s broad language.

2.  Proposed by: Senator Tony Dean

Purpose: Add transparency to the new asylum‑ineligibility rules (especially the one‑year claim deadline).

What it requires

The immigration minister must publish an annual report detailing:

• Average time between a claimant entering Canada and making their claim

• Number of claims ruled ineligible because they were made more than one year after entry

• How many late claimants left and re‑entered Canada

• How many late claimants applied for a Pre‑Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA)

• How many PRRA applications were accepted or rejected

• Recommendations on whether the one‑year ineligibility rule should be changed

3.  Proposed by: Senator Tony Dean

Purpose: Ensure long‑term accountability for the bill’s sweeping new powers.

What it does

• Requires a comprehensive parliamentary review of the entire Act five years after it becomes law.

• The review must assess:

• How the law has been implemented

• Its impact on asylum seekers, migrants, and immigration processing

• Any recommended changes

• A final report must be tabled in Parliament within one year of the review starting.

What Amendments Were Not Adopted?

The Senate rejected several proposed amendments that would have:

• Limited the government’s new executive powers

• Softened the asylum‑ineligibility rules

• Removed or altered Parts 5–8 of the bill (as recommended by the SOCI Committee)

What this means in practice

If someone shows up at the border and CBSA believes they have:

• Criminal ties

• Organized‑crime involvement

• Security concerns

• Fraudulent documents

…the minister can cancel their documents immediately.

Enzio Maiorca

I read these inspiring stories and I often wonder if they are true.  I checked this one out and yes it did happen.   It was the basis of the 1988 film, The Big Blue that is still available on Netflix!

In 2009, renowned Italian free diver Enzo Maiorca was exploring the waters off Syracuse with his daughter Rossana when something unexpected happened.  While descending into the depths, Enzo felt a soft bump on his back. He turned, expecting to see a curious sea creature — and found a dolphin urgently trying to get his attention. Without hesitation, the dolphin dove deeper. Enzo followed.

Around 15 meters below, they discovered a second dolphin, hopelessly tangled in an abandoned fishing net. It was fighting for air. Enzo quickly signaled to his daughter for a knife. Together, they worked swiftly and carefully to cut the net and release the dolphin.  The moment it broke free, it let out a sound Enzo would later describe as “almost human — a cry of relief.”

As they surfaced, they realized why the rescue had been so urgent — the dolphin was pregnant. Just moments later, she gave birth in the open ocean.  The male dolphin swam around the scene, then approached Enzo. In a gesture that felt deeply intentional, it gently touched his cheek with its snout — like a kiss of gratitude — before vanishing into the blue with its new family.

Reflecting on the experience, Enzo said: “Until man learns to respect and speak to the natural world, he can never truly understand his place on this Earth.”   Nature always has something to say — if we choose to listen.

Saturday Funnies

Happy Friday the 13th

 

A Look at the Legends, History, and Lasting Superstition

Few dates on the calendar spark as much curiosity—or quiet dread—as Friday the 13th. Whether you shrug it off or avoid ladders and black cats all day, this superstition has deep roots in Western culture. But where did it actually come from? The answer is surprisingly tangled, stretching across mythology, religion, literature, and even medieval politics.

Let’s explore how this infamous date earned its spooky reputation.

Long before Friday the 13th became a cultural phenomenon, the number 13 carried a reputation for bad luck.

Why 13?

• Many ancient traditions viewed 12 as the number of completeness—think 12 months, 12 zodiac signs, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 tribes of Israel.

• Thirteen, sitting just beyond that “perfect” number, felt irregular or disruptive.

• Even the Code of Hammurabi reportedly skipped the number 13 in its list of laws—likely a clerical error, but later cited as evidence of the number’s ominous status.

The Last Supper

• Jesus and his 12 apostles—13 people—shared the Last Supper on the night before his crucifixion.

• Judas, the betrayer, was the 13th guest.

This contributed to a long‑held belief that 13 at a table foretells death.

Why Friday?

Friday has its own somber associations in Christian tradition:

• Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

• Some stories claim Eve gave Adam the forbidden fruit on a Friday.

• Others say Cain killed Abel on a Friday.

While these stories vary, they helped cast Friday as an unlucky day.

Great White Shark off Vancouver Island!

 

Earlier this week, a great white shark "pinged" off the coast of Vancouver Island, researchers say.   The shark is a mature female that measures around five metres in length and weighs approximately 1,000 kilograms. She has been named Kara by researchers, who are thrilled to see her in northern waters. 

Kara was one of six sharks fitted with a tracking device in October 2025 near Point Conception in California. The device "pings" when a shark is at the surface with its dorsal fin out of the water for several minutes, giving an approximate location. 

"I've been studying these white sharks for almost 30 years, and this is the first one that's gone this far north," said Michael Domeier, who is with the Marine Conservation Science Institute and is behind the program tracking Kara.

Domeier, who is based out of Hawaii, says the program was designed to help track female sharks to see where they are giving birth, studying the animals in California and Mexico. 

While the ping is exciting, Domeier says that sharks in Canadian Pacific waters aren’t an anomaly, and that sharks have been recorded as far north as Alaska. 

Lady Jane Fellowes

Lady Jane was in one of the most impossible positions in royal history — sister to a princess, wife to a palace official, torn between two worlds. She chose silence. And kept it for 27 years.

When Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, Lady Jane Fellowes was already living inside the world her sister was entering. Her husband, Robert Fellowes, was assistant private secretary to the Queen — one of the most sensitive positions in the royal household, a job that required absolute discretion, absolute loyalty, and the management of the precise information channels between the monarch and the government.

It has been suggested by some royal biographers that Jane's position as both Diana's sister and Robert's wife left her in a difficult position when Charles and Diana's marriage was ending. She was, in effect, sitting in the middle of a constitutional and personal crisis with family on both sides. Diana was her sister. Robert's employer was the Queen. The two interests did not always point in the same direction.

Lady Jane said nothing publicly during the years of the marriage's decline. She said nothing during the Morton biography. She said nothing during the Panorama interview. She attended events. She maintained her position. She kept the silence that her husband's role required and that her own instincts apparently endorsed.

When Diana died, Jane came forward once — at the funeral. She delivered the reading. She stood at the lectern in Westminster Abbey before an audience of 2.5 billion and read from the letters of Paul, and then she sat down and did not speak publicly again for years.

Lady Sarah McCorquodale retrieved locks of Diana's hair from Paris after the crash and presented them to the princes. It was Lady Jane who, according to those who were there, informed the rest of the family of Diana's death in the early hours of August 31, 1997 — calling Sarah, then Earl Spencer, with the news that none of them could have been prepared for.

She is now Baroness Fellowes. Her husband Robert died in July 2024. She continues to maintain, with extraordinary consistency, the silence she chose in 1981.

There is, in that silence, a kind of loyalty that outlasts everything.

Call the Midwife

I've watched every season and every episode of Call the Midwife available in North America.  My cousin in the UK gave me the book that was written by Jennifer Worth shortly after it started in the UK.  PBS picked it up in North America and I've watched it ever since.  Season 15 will start on March 22 on PBS.  We are always a few months behind the UK.

Call the Midwife is a warm, historically grounded British period drama about midwives and nuns working in Poplar, East London from the late 1950s onward; it’s created by Heidi Thomas and based on Jennifer Worth’s memoirs, and remains in production with long-running acclaim—perfect for viewers who like character-led, issue-driven drama.

Call the Midwife follows the staff of Nonnatus House, a nursing convent and midwifery team, as they deliver babies and care for families in a deprived East End community. The series blends intimate personal stories with social history—covering topics from post‑war poverty and housing to public‑health advances and national scandals.

The plot follows Jenny Lee, a newly qualified midwife, who joins the midwives and Anglican nuns of Nonnatus House; their work combines midwifery, community nursing, and social outreach in a deprived urban area where 80–100 births per month in Poplar make safe childbirth the central mission.

The show balances warmth and compassion with hard historical realities—poverty, public‑health crises, and changing social attitudes—delivered through episodic, patient‑centred stories grounded in historical research.

• Series 1 (1957): Baby boom, East End poverty, post‑war immigration.

• Series 2 (1958): Gas and air pain relief, unexploded ordnance, tuberculosis, spina bifida; Nonnatus House condemned.

• Series 3 (1959): Cystic fibrosis, polio, terminal care, midwifery in prison.

• Series 4 (1960): Child Migrants Programme, nuclear‑war fears, early LGBT themes, syphilis among sex workers.

• Series 5–9 (1961–1965): Thalidomide, contraceptive pill, typhoid, interracial marriage, dementia, sickle cell, abortion debates.

• Series 10–14 (1966–1970): Medical advances (ventouse, PKU screening), addiction and neonatal withdrawal, housing crises, political debates on immigration, fertility drugs, and social change; Series 15 set in 1971 was confirmed in 2025.

Call the Midwife has been officially confirmed the 16th season will return by the BBC, ensuring the series will continue. Despite intense storylines at the end of season 15 and a temporary, planned hiatus to focus on a new prequel and a feature film, the show is not ending, with production expected to continue in 2027 or 2028.