Political aides in the Prime Minister’s Office instructed staff to “work in some compassionate lines about caring” in public statements on mask shortages at nursing homes, according to internal emails. Most Covid victims in Canada were over 80: “It feels weird that there’s nothing we can do.”
The Toronto-Dominion Bank withheld promised fee discounts from half a million seniors in Canada, according to a federal investigation. The Bank yesterday was fined $400,000 for breach of the Bank Act but saved $31 million by withholding seniors’ rebates: “TD does not dispute these totals.”
Cabinet faces up to $15 billion in costs after a federal judge yesterday upheld claims of systemic underfunding of First Nations child welfare programs. Federal lawyers had fought the case since 2007: “No one can seriously doubt First Nations people are among the most disadvantaged.”
Attorney General David Lametti’s department commissioned in-house research on racial profiling by traffic police in the aftermath of the George Floyd case. The $147,463 study found Canadian drivers pulled over admitted their own wrongdoing and saw no evidence of bias: “They did not perceive they were being targeted in any way.”
A $157,000-a year justice of the peace has lost her job after publishing a newspaper commentary. “The misconduct was very serious,” the Ontario Superior Court ruled in dismissing a claim of free speech: “She defended it as accurate and truthful.”
A single complaint from a passerby prompted the Department of Public Works to budget more than $103,000 to restore a sculpture outside the post office in Stouffville, Ont., according to Access To Information records. The fading artwork nicknamed “the lemon” by local ratepayers was in a cabinet minister’s riding: “This is embarrassing.”
Most Canadians expect to carry the impact of pandemic debts into retirement, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries said yesterday. Researchers found the financial fallout from Covid was so bleak more than one in ten Canadians, 14 percent, said they “do not expect to ever retire.”
A frustrated contractor told the Department of Public Works it was “killing our doctors and nurses” by rationing pandemic masks from the outbreak of Covid, according to internal emails. Shortages caused by mismanagement of a national stockpile were “beyond embarrassing,” said a Canadian distributor: “It’s approaching negligence.”
Immigrants and visible minorities have more pride in Canada’s treatment of ethnic groups than white people, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The agency said most Black, Asian and Arab-Canadians were prouder of the nation’s achievements than whites: “Immigrant respondents, 63 percent, were more likely than Canadian-born respondents (43 percent) to be proud of Canada’s treatment of all groups in society.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday omitted any deadline to mandate vaccination of 300,540 federal employees and millions of air travelers and train passengers. Cabinet had originally set an October 31 deadline for compulsory vaccination: “Are you prepared to lay off tens of thousands of workers?”
Lobbyists representing the bailout press endorse cabinet censorship of the internet. News Media Canada called itself the nation’s “most precious guardian” of free speech but proposed the Department of Canadian Heritage extend censorship to critics who use legal but hurtful words against media: “The news publishing industry remains under threat from the unregulated and unchecked social media.”
Bauer Hockey Limited received a multi-million dollar sole-sourced contract for medical supplies without first receiving certification from the Department of Health, according to internal emails. Document show the order for plastic face shields was rushed for a next-day announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “I want to share a quintessentially Canadian example of this collaboration.”
The Green Party’s Annamie Paul yesterday resigned after describing her year-long tenure as federal leader as a bitter experience that had her “spitting up blood,” calling it the “worst period in my life.” Party support fell by two-thirds in the September 20 general election: “I knew.”
Skilled trades are stigmatized in Canada, says internal research by the Department of Employment. A survey of teenagers and young adults found many considered the work too hard, boring and “not as respected” as other jobs while acknowledging trades paid better than many university degrees: “It’s a chronic situation.”
MPs are more likely to read letters than emails from constituents, says an academic study. Handwritten notes are “the most impactful” on parliamentarians, said researchers: “100 emails about one issue will make us think but 100 letters would really give you pause.”
