Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez yesterday appointed a panel of “experts,” mainly professors, for advice on regulating the internet in Canada. Cabinet has proposed hiring a federal censor to block legal online content deemed hurtful: “I think in some ways this will really help freedom of speech.”
A record 26,000 air passengers filed complaints with federal regulators over Covid flight cancellations, records show. The flood of grievances followed airlines’ refusal to pay cash refunds: “Compensate as generously as possible the passengers who had their flights cancelled.”
The CBC in an internal memo asks that producers use Google and other public data sources to determine the ethnicity of invited guests and interview subjects. The point was to ensure news programs “better reflect the diversity of Canadian communities.”
All-Canadian manufacturers of personal protective equipment have received few federal contracts despite millions spent on high-grade masks, the Commons health committee was told yesterday. A large share of N-95 contracts in Canada went to two companies, both multinationals: “This undermines the entire domestic Canadian PPE industry.”
Cabinet is striving “every single day” to curb misconduct by military commanders, Defence Minister Anita Anand said yesterday. Her remarks followed a guilty plea by General (Ret’d) Jonathan Vance to obstruction of justice: “It is not my role to comment on the results of an individual criminal defendant.”
The retired cabinet minister who wrote the Emergencies Act last night urged Parliament to examine carefully whether extraordinary powers were needed against the Freedom Convoy. Perrin Beatty, 71, wrote the law 34 years ago and never expected it to be invoked in his lifetime, he said: “Ask how we got to this point.”
The Department of Environment yesterday said “more needs to be done” to lower auto emissions. It followed a March 21 report from an advisory panel recommending a four-figure Green Levy on pickup trucks and SUVs: “Reduce the number of single passenger trips in motorized vehicles.”
Three quarters of small and medium sized businesses nationwide applied for taxpayers’ pandemic subsidies, the Department of Industry said yesterday. Virtually every operator who asked for aid got it, data show: “With an approval rate of 98 percent nearly all small and medium enterprises that requested government financing had their requests approved.”
The Canada Revenue Agency is among the most expensive tax collectors in the industrial world, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reported yesterday. Giroux was formerly the Agency’s chief data officer: ‘For every dollar of operating expenses Canada collected $74 in net tax revenue. The international average is $126.’
The Senate yesterday opened debate on a bill mandating disclosure of foreign agents paid to lobby federal public office holders. The bill follows testimony from a former national security advisor that Chinese agents posed a clear threat: “Foreign influence and interference is real.”
The Department of Environment has finalized new terms of a federal fuel standard expected to further raise the cost of fuel. An environmental advocacy group yesterday said it was told of the proposal at a confidential briefing: “At the end of the day politicians have an obligation to the public to tell them the straight goods.”
Federal agents have intercepted just one shipment of suspected slave goods from China since issuing an advisory against suspicious imports more than a year ago. MPs on the Commons foreign affairs committee yesterday expressed astonishment at the low rate of inspections: “I am a bit stunned by that response.”
Federal employees have filed more than 7,000 complaints of workplace violence and harassment since Parliament passed an anti-harassment bill, records show. Cabinet four years ago said the bill would curb inappropriate behaviour from sexual violence to Twitter gibes: “It’s going to apply to any activity linked to work.”
Canadian consumers quickly overcame fears of Covid and adapted to pandemic precautions, federal data show. Bank of Canada researchers said lockdowns, not public anxiety, were to blame for the worst economic impacts: ‘Canadians were adapting to restrictions and becoming more familiar with new ways to consume.’
Parliament should raise taxes on real estate investors and use the money to subsidize affordable homes, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The submission by an ex-Toronto city planner follows disclosures CMHC identified the number of Canadians who own second properties: “We know Canada’s housing system is broken.”
