MPs have ordered Health Minister Patricia Hajdu to appear for lengthy questioning at the Commons health committee for the first time in eight months. Hajdu angered committee members by scheduling about 45 minutes to take questions on pandemic management and $25 billion in health spending, a sum equal to the entire national defence budget: “They should be ashamed.”
The Commons veterans affairs committee has summoned a billionaire Texas grocer to appear for questioning for failing to “show proper respect” for the nation’s war dead. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, was cited over a supermarket policy that ordered employees to remove Remembrance Day poppies: “It is so disrespectful.”
The Department of Justice has ordered a new trial for a Surrey, B.C. barber convicted 37 years ago of killing his two young sons. The Department last year opened a review of forty-seven cases of alleged wrongful conviction nationwide: “There is a reasonable basis to conclude a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.”
All parties have expressed support for a Conservative bill to extend funeral leave for workers stricken with a death in the family. The Canada Labour Code and Employment Insurance Act require that employees, even those on compassionate care leave, promptly get back to work once a death occurs: “Pretty rough.”
A federal money-laundering watchdog has fined a Montréal casino $147,015 for breach of federal law. The penalty by the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre follows criticism of arbitrary fines by the agency: “They wanted to sacrifice me to set an example.”
Cabinet will impose limits on record deficit spending though details cannot be disclosed, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland last night told the Commons. “I am not hiding anything,” said Freeland.
The Commons public accounts committee yesterday passed a Conservative motion ordering a 35 percent increase in the budget for federal audits. The Office of the Auditor General for years complained it was so short of funding it delayed investigation of misspending: “The Auditor General’s work is extremely important.”
A taxpayer-funded Canadian Muslim Voting Guide published in 2019 by Wilfrid Laurier University breached federal law, says Elections Commissioner Yves Côté. The Guide that criticized opposition MPs carried a government logo and indicated it was funded by a federal agency: “The Commissioner has determined a violation was committed.”
A Black woman from British Columbia who spent more than twelve hours in airport custody on false suspicion of drug smuggling has lost a racial profiling complaint against the Canada Border Services Agency. Legislators have complained the Agency is the only police force in the country without independent oversight: “Persons at border crossings have reduced expectations of privacy.”
The Speaker of the Senate yesterday banned pandemic masks with slogans. A Manitoba senator was ordered to remove a “Vote 16” mask that promoted amendments to the Canada Elections Act: “This is a new situation. for us.”
Companies aren’t people and cannot claim Charter protection against cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The decision came in the case of a Québec firm fined $30,843 for selling $18,396 worth of kitchen cabinets without a permit: ‘The purpose is to ensure compliance with regulations.’
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson yesterday said he will soon introduce legislation to meet greenhouse gas emission targets that “may” include taxes. Cabinet had promised before the 2019 election it would never raise the federal carbon tax: “It may be tax mechanisms, and it’s pricing pollution.”
Canadians can afford to pay for wage increases for public employees, Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos last night told the Commons government operations committee. Duclos defended a settlement with the largest federal public service union that pays a 2.8 percent increase retroactive to 2018, a further 2.2 percent increase last year and 1.35 percent this year: “Why?”
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday confirmed auditors targeted small businesses that applied for pandemic wage subsidies. MPs on a 176-152 vote ordered the audits suspended until next June: “The last thing they need is a call from the Canada Revenue Agency.”
Parliament’s Pay Equity Act will cost federally-regulated employers almost two-thirds of a billion, the Budget Office said yesterday. The labour department claimed it could not estimate the cost when legislators passed the Act two years ago: “It’s almost an impossible task.”
