Say Convoy Was Anti-Semitic

A federal report cites the 2022 Freedom Convoy as “anti-Semitic and racist” but makes no mention of anti-Israel street protests targeting Jews. The Department of Canadian Heritage report was completed after Hamas attacks on Israel: "Address the rise of right wing extremist groups in Canada and the spread of alt-right and veiled white nationalist narratives." READ MORE

Gov’t Paid Profane TikToker

The Department of Canadian Heritage paid thousands to a Toronto pundit who disparaged Conservatives in a series of profane TikTok posts, Access To Information records show. Dylan Horner did not comment: "Shut the f--k up. This is exactly why you can’t trust Conservatives." READ MORE

MPs Signal Another Filibuster

Opposition MPs are signaling another slowdown on federal budget bills. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland last year faced a five-week filibuster on complaints of deficit spending: "Canada feels more broken than ever before." READ MORE

Admit Preferential Treatment

The Department of Immigration in an internal report acknowledges complaints of “privileged” treatment of Ukrainians compared to Afghan war refugees. Aid for Ukrainians included free flights and $490.7 million in cash grants: "There is a perception of unfairness." READ MORE

Firing Over $1,663 In Scrap

A labour board has upheld the firing of a federal employee for selling $1,663 worth of scrap metal without permission. The Montréal plumber with the Department of National Defence said he didn’t consider it stealing: "Although he argues he believed the scrap was sent to the dump, still, it was not his property." READ MORE

Book Review: Murder At Sea

Wicked and revolting in its day, the First World War 110 years later is recalled through haunting vignettes: the Trench of Bayonets buried alive at Verdun, the Russian princesses thrown down a mine shaft in Siberia, the soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment who marched smartly to their doom at the Battle of the Somme. One haunting vignette is the sinking of the Llandovery Castle, a Canadian hospital ship. “The blood boils at the very thought,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time. Author Nate Hendley’s Atrocity On The Atlantic is a full accounting. Hendley neither delves into psychoanalysis nor uses unnecessary adjectives. He is a crime writer. He gives the Llandovery Castle a crime writer’s treatment. It works. The sinking was simple murder, a gangland slaying at sea. READ MORE

Guest Commentary

Francesco Sorbara, MP

Sacrifici

Italians came to Canada with nothing. Theirs was not a celebrated arrival. There were no Welcome Wagons or resettlement programs or language training. In 1961 Ontario’s provincial secretary said of Italian-Canadians, “They need to learn about us, about our way of doing things, the ideas and institutions we prize, and to acquire some work skills.” When the CBC broadcast a 1963 documentary on our community they called it Ciao Maria and profiled a singing barber. As late as 1971 the Globe & Mail would still publish a Letter to the Editor that complained you can’t invite Italians to dinner: “They bring their own gallon of wine.”