Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna’s department approved subsidies for tennis courts, free Wi-Fi and Indigenous art exhibits in the name of public works, say auditors. “We build infrastructure for the next fifty to one hundred years,” McKenna earlier told the Commons.
Any federal bailout of Canadian airlines must be conditional on prompt cash repayment of tickets for cancelled flights, consumer advocates yesterday told the Commons transport committee. The Department of Transport has estimated passengers are owed billions: “They were forced to provide interest-free loans to the airlines.”
A federal moose hunt in a national park has cost taxpayers more than $4,300 per animal. The cull at Cape Breton Highlands National Park was launched in 2015 after staff complained of “severe moose browsing.”
A Conservative bill to allow Canadians to buy interprovincial liquor by mail yesterday was introduced in the Commons. The bill would see consumers use Canada Post to bypass provincial liquor board monopolies: “There would be open free trade in this.”
A federal bank hired consultants for tips on China’s “business practices” amid the arbitrary detention of two Canadian consultants in Beijing. The Business Development Bank yesterday would not say if its training included advice on avoiding arrest: “Our mission is to create more and better business.”
Federal court managers in an ethics audit credit themselves with upholding “high standards” but omitted all reference to staff editing plaintiffs’ Wikipedia pages. André Bolduc, chief auditor at the Courts Administration Service, yesterday did not comment.
“The audit identified strong values and ethics practices,” wrote Bolduc. His Audit Of Values And Ethics concluded “employees must uphold high standards of values and ethics in their interactions with members of the public.”
The audit covered the period from 2014 to 2018. Blacklock’s in 2016 discovered an unidentified person at the Federal Court in Ottawa used a courthouse computer to edit its Wikipedia page. Blacklock’s then and now is a plaintiff in copyright actions against the Government of Canada.
The Courts Administration Service is exempt from the Access To Information Act and would not release details of the Wikipedia editing. “Disciplinary measures were taken against the employee,” Daniel Gosselin, then $267,700-a year chief courts administrator, said at the time.
Gosselin refused to name the employee who freelanced as a Wikipedia editor. “The measure taken took into consideration the employee’s wrongdoing,” wrote Gosselin.
Then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould in a letter to Blacklock’s said Court staff must operate “at arm’s length from the government,” and declined comment on the incident. Access To Information memos indicated Department of Justice staff were puzzled by the Wikipedia edits. “Who could have made the change?” wrote one staffer.
Court managers said their IP address was accessible by any of more than 620 employees and members of federal courts. Blacklock’s has never been able to confirm whether the Wikipedia editor was an employee or appointee directly involved in its litigation, now in its eighth year of case management.
Auditor Bolduc yesterday would not discuss the incident. “The audit found evidence the chief administrator, senior management and human resources places a high degree of emphasis on values and ethics and set a positive tone at the top,” wrote the auditor.
“An ethical framework ensures an organization’s corporate culture fosters ethical behaviour in its employees based on respect for democracy, respect for people, integrity, stewardship and excellence,” said the Audit Of Values. “It also contributes to maintaining public confidence and trust in the institutions of government.”
A Public Sector Values And Ethics Code mandates that all federal employees, including court clerks, “shall act at all times in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny, an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law.” A 2017 Department of Justice memo Judicial Independence And The Courts stressed “courts must be independent.”
By Staff 
Former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro is petitioning a federal judge to examine a refusal by the Canada Border Services Agency to grant him a Nexus travel card. Del Mastro said the decision appeared to be score-settling by political opponents: “I have been a good person my whole life.”
Attorney General David Lametti yesterday said his department is reviewing whether Canadian-based pornography websites breach the Criminal Code. Twenty MPs and senators including Conservative, Liberal and Green Party members yesterday petitioned cabinet to take action: “It is happening here in Canada.”
Justin Trudeau’s talent agent yesterday said he has been badgered by unnamed accusers over corporate sponsorship fees paid to the Prime Minister. Trudeau has acknowledged collecting $1,341,500 in speaking fees in the period from 2006 to 2012 including payments by federal contractors: “Have you ever been a member of the Liberal Party?”
A former Québec Liberal MP’s company needed an advance payment to meet a $237 million federal contract for pandemic ventilators. Frank Baylis said his firm had re-mortgaged buildings and asked bankers to extend lines of credit in weeks prior to winning the contract: “I didn’t speak to anybody to try and influence them to give a contract to Baylis Medical.”
Pandemic lockdowns unfairly punish small business while permitting big retailers to remain open, says an Ontario judge. “Small businesses can ill afford yet further losses in this horrible year,” said Superior Court Justice Frederick Myers: “Everyone sees the apparent unfairness.”
A Department of Finance executive who dismissed the cost of a $43.5 million We Charity grant in a breezy email says she was just joking. Michelle Kovacevic, assistant deputy finance minister, was questioned by the Commons ethics committee: “Have you ever knowingly misrepresented the facts?”
The Department of National Defence is refusing comment that it advised members, including young reservists, they will get rationed Covid-19 vaccinations before the frail and elderly. Health Minister Patricia Hajdu said a portion of vaccine shipments must be ‘protected’ by the federal government: “Supplies will be limited at the outset.”
New Democrats have introduced a bill to fix emissions targets in law. Critics said they feared the proposal would raise the carbon tax: “People are tired of words.”
The chime of the bells
of the Dormition Abbey
intertwines
with the Arabic music
from the passing BMW
and the brisk steps
of the orthodox Jews
in prayer shawls
rushing to the Wailing Wall.
It is here
where the grey street cat
on top of the overflowing garbage bin
looks at me,
wonders about my whereabouts.
It is here
where the baby girl
scoops rice from her bowl,
most of it ends up on the floor,
while her parents
enjoy a moment
at this restaurant.
It is here
where the young couple
sit on the bench
in a late night hour,
under the street light,
holding hands.
It is here
where every civilization builds
on the ruins of the past,
adding a chapter
to 4,000 years
of violent succession.
It is here
where conflicts
pretend to co-exist
in the unnamed space
between war and peace.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
