Cabinet’s $393,000-a year Chief Science Advisor billed taxpayers for 12 business-class flights to Paris, records show. Nemer earlier told MPs she couldn’t recall flying business class while running up more than $400,000 in expenses: "What exactly are Canadian taxpayers paying you to do?" READ MORE
Governor General Louise Arbour yesterday in one of her first acts of office notified MPs she is cutting her clothing allowance. Arbour’s predecessor was sharply criticized for billing thousands for shoes, silk jackets and other apparel: 'The Office has revised its guidelines for clothing.' READ MORE
Foreign Minister Anita Anand yesterday could not say how cabinet's approval for 278,989 imported Chinese battery electric cars will comply with a federal ban on slave-made goods. “I cannot confirm what will be on the list,” she said. READ MORE
Parliament must never allow electronic voting, a House affairs committee report said yesterday. It followed comments by Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault that cabinet might “explore other technologies.” READ MORE
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s department yesterday said it is “extremely close” to launching a registry of foreign agents. The same department said it was “very close” six months ago: "There are going to be consequences." READ MORE
Overdose deaths went up with decriminalization of narcotics in British Columbia, then fell once police resumed enforcement of drug laws, federal Department of Health figures confirmed yesterday. Cabinet has denied the B.C. experiment was a failure: "We need to leave aside dogmatism." READ MORE
A newly-declassified 1992 federal memo predicted Islamic extremists would attempt to bypass federal security checks by filing refugee claims in Canada. The memo to the Department of Foreign Affairs complained that refugee claimants were “extremely difficult to control." READ MORE
Anti-Semitism was not uncommon in those days. The worst MP I ever saw? Social Credit’s John Blackmore of Lethbridge. People couldn’t understand how he kept getting elected in Alberta. He was a kook, just out of control, and a blatherskite. He was once cited for using his House mailing privileges to distribute anti-Semitic literature. In 1954, Blackmore sought a federal commission to probe an “imperialist conspiracy of Eastern European Reds of Mongol and Turkic affinities.” He became a figure of fun in the Press Gallery because of the silly things he did, but with a dark, racist tone.
