Ex-cabinet advisor and Toronto Star columnist Amira Elghawaby billed taxpayers nearly $18,000 for a business-class junket to England to ‘define Islamophobia,’ newly-released expense accounts show. Expenses included a $2,947 stay at a four-star hotel in Piccadilly: "Personal attendance was required." READ MORE
Cabinet is now censoring internal audits at the passport office after successive investigations documented mismanagement that cost taxpayers millions. The latest Audit Of Passport Delivery Service redacted its findings: "I wouldn’t be surprised if they claim some sort of success despite the disaster we’ve seen." READ MORE
Provinces were to blame for homelessness by emptying the mental hospitals, then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s cabinet agreed in confidential 1999 meetings. Newly-declassified records show ministers in private conversation said homelessness also appeared to be an issue with the “native population.” READ MORE
The Department of Transport’s electric car rebate program paid millions to affluent drivers with six-figure incomes who planned to buy a zero emission vehicle anyway, new records show. A fraction of electric car buyers, 5 percent, made under $50,000 a year: "It’s a fair question to ask whether regular Canadian taxpayers should be subsidizing the purchase of luxury vehicles for people who are prepared to pay full price for them." READ MORE
Fewer than half of “assault style” firearms banned by federal order were surrendered to police under a now-suspended amnesty program, records show. The roundup was deferred until 2027 at the earliest due to a pending Supreme Court of Canada challenge by gun owners: 'Most did not see themselves or their peers as a major factor in gun crimes in Canada.' READ MORE
Poet W.N. Branson writes: "When the summer warmth fades to winter's chill, my heart seeks the sentimental to its detriment. And the memories fall with the snow: a Thursday night in St John’s, icons, scoundrels and minstrels. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you..." READ MORE
Those who live long enough reach a point where all regrets and anxieties simply vanish. No one on their 100th birthday recites a century’s worth of petty gibes. Perhaps it’s the distraction of arthritis, or the comfort of knowing there are no surviving witnesses to our most embarrassing incidents. Cherie Dimaline, Governor General’s Award-winning author, is only in her 40s and not there yet. Dimaline vividly recalls all her regrets and anxieties, like the time she got drunk on Jägermeister. “Remember there was that party you went to in your early twenties, when they were giving out free Jägermeister and you were still broke enough to think you needed to drink the hell out of that Jägermeister because, well, it was free, and then you got so drunk you started an argument with that group of strangers who said you were an idiot?” writes Dimaline. “Oh, man, you really were an idiot. Wait, let me play that back in detail for you.” READ MORE
The men who kidnapped me called themselves mujahadeen, Holy Warriors of God. They once asked me, “What would you do if the Americans invaded Canada? Would you not take up a gun and fight to protect your family and your country?” My experience as a hostage is a window into the psychology of violence. Every act of violence seems to have a pointing finger behind it, an accusation, a narrative that explains and justifies it. War turns us into the very thing we hate.
