Federal employees are attempting to “manage all the conflicts” involving Prime Minister Mark Carney's private business interests, a deputy minister disclosed yesterday. Both Carney and his wife were paid by federal contractors prior to his January 15 run for the Liberal Party leadership: "We are working very closely with the Prime Minister’s Office to manage all of the conflicts he has declared." READ MORE
A national buy-back of “assault-style” firearms will cost more than a third of a billion, the Department of Public Safety said yesterday. Managers admitted the figure was based on police estimates of firearm ownership rates that were 13 years out of date: "There is a bit of a data gap." READ MORE
Internet “misinformation” is eroding Canadians’ faith in government, a Statistics Canada report said yesterday. Statisticians denied their research was sought by cabinet to justify a third attempt at censoring legal content: "The report was not requested by any public authority." READ MORE
Federal managers who spend billions on consultants are now required to sign an oath stating “they thought about” it, the Treasury Board said yesterday. Parliamentarians complain spending on consultants averaged $25 billion a year even as the public service payroll grew to more than 413,000 employees: "We have been doing work to strengthen managers’ understanding." READ MORE
Liberal-appointed Senator Kim Pate (Ont.) yesterday questioned why U.S. President Donald Trump was permitted to step foot in Canada to attend a G7 meeting. Pate pointed to regulations under the Immigration And Refugee Protection Act that prohibit travel by foreigners with criminal convictions: "I received many calls." READ MORE
Cabinet should not be held to strict definitions in fast-tracking industrial projects under Bill C-5, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc yesterday told the Senate. Asked if premiers held vetoes over permits, LeBlanc replied: "Vito’s is also a restaurant on Mountain Road in Moncton." READ MORE
This year’s federal deficit appears near $50 billion, says Budget Officer Yves Giroux. A precise figure is difficult to calculate since cabinet declined to table a spring budget, he told the Senate national finance committee: "It is very difficult to know exactly what the government’s forecasts are." READ MORE
There was a spectrum of opinion on Vietnam in those years. Officially the Canadian government professed neutrality, and there was a growing anti-war movement. Yet thousands of Canadians joined American forces to serve there. One, Peter Lemon of Toronto, became the only Canadian to win the Congressional Medal of Honor in that war. In 1970 he fended off Vietcong attackers in hand-to-hand combat while wounded comrades with his U.S. Army Ranger unit were safely evacuated to an aid station. Why did they fight? Adventure perhaps, or an idealized sense of joining the defence of a western democracy from the threat of communist expansionism and the so-called Domino Effect. Their stories are rarely told.
