High profile Canadians may be in the pay of foreign agents, says a Department of Public Safety memo. The document did not identify any public office holders by name: “Do Canadians not deserve to know?”
The Government of Canada is so secretive its own employees must file Access To Information requests to retrieve records, says the largest federal public service union. The Public Service Alliance in a submission to Parliament said documents should be made public as a matter of course: “We are concerned.”
The typical gun owner in Canada has a rifle or shotgun, enjoys camping and shoots for sport or food, says in-house research by the Department of Public Safety. “They are worried about the public’s view of firearms owners,” wrote researchers.
Taxpayers will lose billions with a federal waiver on Canada Student Loan interest payments, new figures show. The Department of Employment said interest charges since 2016 totaled $3.38 billion: “This measure is targeted at making loan repayment more affordable.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada yesterday budgeted $720,000 for a national survey on the scope of “long Covid.” The Agency acknowledged it knew little about the number of Canadians with debilitating symptoms months after testing positive for the coronavirus: “This is serious.”
Blacklock’s managing editor today named the Parliamentary Press Gallery in an Ontario Superior Court lawsuit. It follows the December 2 eviction of Tom Korski from the National Press Building, a Gallery first.
The lawsuit states the Gallery executive committed “breach of contract, breach of duty of good faith and breach of the duty of honest performance.” It seeks $224,000 in damages, costs and “a declaration that the defendant breached the Gallery constitution.”
“The Gallery’s conduct is reprehensible and constitutes a breach of the duty of good faith and the duty of honest contractual performance,” wrote counsel Jessica Kuredjian of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP of Toronto. The Press Gallery has not yet filed a statement of defence.
Documents to be submitted in Superior Court show over a six-month period the executive of the press association compiled a list of grievances from the same three of 313 members of the Gallery: Emilie Bergeron and Michel Saba of Canadian Press and freelancer Hélène Buzzetti, a former Gallery president.
Blacklock’s was denied permission to speak to complaints at a Board hearing and was twice denied permission to read written complaints discussed by competitors at closed-door meetings. Korski was locked out of his office for alleged “serious misconduct.” Counsel Kuredjian wrote Superior Court the allegations “do not meet the definition of ‘serious misconduct’” in the Gallery’s own bylaws.
“In particular the complaints as alleged did not involve any threatening of physical or psychological harm to any members of the Gallery or materially interfere with the ability of other Gallery members to perform work for which Gallery membership is required,” wrote Kuredjian. “To the contrary.”
Numerous reporters, photographers and editors worked alongside Korski “for years and in some instances over a decade without Korski’s conduct materially affecting their ability to perform work for which Gallery membership is required,” wrote Kuredjian.
Complaints were that Korski “was impolite,” “frightened a complainant for no particular reason” and “made a complainant nervous for no particular reason.” Records show other complaints were that Blacklock’s staff posted a tweet critical of Canadian Press committee coverage, listened to English-only audio feeds from the House of Commons, called Freelancer Buzzetti an “idiot,” once propped open a newsroom door during the pandemic and tore a piece of paper “in a theatrical gesture.”
Gallery President Guillaume St-Pierre of the Journal de Montréal was accompanied by an armed constable in serving the December 2 eviction notice. The eviction was approved following a closed, half-hour Board meeting on November 15 attended by President St-Pierre, John Tasker and Rachel Hanes of the CBC, Luigi Della Penta of Global News, Catherine Levesque of the National Post, Boris Proulx of Le Devoir and Mia Rabson of Canadian Press.
By Staff 
A new $2 billion “green” Crown corporation will be permitted to buy, sell and swap shares in other companies without public scrutiny. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday wrote the confidentiality order into federal regulations: “You’re saying, ‘Give me the $2 billion, I’ll buy some shares.'”
Cabinet yesterday wrote numerous loopholes into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promised crackdown on foreign real estate speculators. “We’ll crack down on the predatory speculators that stack the deck against you,” Trudeau said in an August 24, 2021 campaign speech. “No more foreign wealth parked in homes that people should be living in.”
A Toronto man accused of waving a Nazi flag at the Freedom Convoy has filed a $1.5 million defamation lawsuit against his accuser. Ontario law restricts libel claims if allegations, even if untrue, “relate to a matter of public interest.”
Indigenous smudging ceremonies do not breach a 2008 prison smoking ban, a federal judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of a convict who complained he was irritated by fellow inmates’ symbolic burning of sage and sweetgrass: “Smudging is a ceremony that is used to pray.”
A large number of Canadians, 44 percent, fear climate change will affect “food security,” says in-house research at the Department of Health. Canada is a net exporter of food with federal analysts predicting an increase in the number of frost-free days would actually boost production: “What worries you the most about climate change?”
A costly CBC libel has resulted in seven figures’ worth of legal bills for taxpayers, records show. The payouts follow a network story that falsely accused a Montréal businessman of links to organized crime: “A journalist must not exaggerate or mislead the public.”
Transit ridership nationwide remains far below pre-pandemic levels despite high gas prices and heavy subsidies, Statistics Canada data showed yesterday. Transit operators have petitioned Parliament for even more subsidies to offset losses at the fare box: “The pandemic has dramatically reduced ridership.”
A federal fund intended to direct industrial polluters’ fines to conservation instead let millions sit unused in an account managed by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department, say auditors. Proceeds in the Environmental Damages Fund include the largest fine ever levied, on Volkswagen: “The program’s annual closing balance is steadily increasing.”
The number of Top One Percent taxpayers in Canada has remained virtually unchanged since Parliament introduced a 33 percent federal tax rate, records show. Introduction of the highest tax bracket followed the 2012 Occupy Movement: ‘Even if you took away 80% of their income and spread it across all the rest of the 99% you really wouldn’t move the needle.’
