The Department of Environment yesterday promised to cut costs at its next climate change conference. Delegates at the last United Nations meeting spent a fortune on air fares and booked a hotel with a disco, camel rides and room rates up to US$1,270 a night: "Be consistent when you fly around the world as the Prime Minister does, preaching to everyone about the environment." READ MORE
Walmart Canada saw shrinking profits on groceries last year, the company CEO last night testified at the Commons agriculture committee. There was no profiteering on food inflation, he told MPs: "I know our customers." READ MORE
MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.), now threatening to sue media for libel, eight years ago as a Liberal member of the Ontario legislature helped pass a law restricting libel suits. The free speech law was to “preserve the democratic rights we enjoy in this country,” Dong said at the time. READ MORE
Public school books should be rewritten to remove stereotypes about Muslims, federal Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby said yesterday. Elghawaby was earlier director of an advocacy group that wrote a booklet for schoolchildren that identified the Red Ensign as a hate symbol: "Education is very, very critical." READ MORE
Cabinet has “a long way to go” in achieving its promise of 100 percent internet coverage nationwide, Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. The latest audit found only 60 percent of Canadians outside cities have reliable, affordable internet service: "This report is pretty startling." READ MORE
MPs are demanding to question David Johnston, 81, “special rapporteur” on suspected election fraud. The Prime Minister has asked Johnston to take two months considering whether to call a public inquiry already sought by Commons vote: 'People talk about him like he’s Spiderman, that he's going to fix everything because he is a great guy.' READ MORE
Canadian delegates to a climate change conference booked a luxury resort rated one of the least environmentally-friendly hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, records show. Room rates ranged from $405 to $1,300 a night at the resort with a mediocre Green Star rating but 13 bars: "How much was spent?" READ MORE
This was Arthur Meighen. He was really a farmer. He was born on a farm, and anytime we were driving someplace he would say, “Don, take the back roads.” He wanted to see the cornfields, for miles and miles. He loved that. As a boy he’d walked from farm to farm selling milk, and walked his whole life – six miles a day. He said to me, “That’s the only time I have when I can think and nothing bothers me.” He’d walk at a good half-pace, but definitely with a purpose. He’d lean forward slightly. He loved walking, and he loved walking by himself.
