A first-term New Democrat MP is a federal supplier whose firm has been awarded almost a half million in contracts since her election in 2021. MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut) in a mandatory disclosure said she was a major shareholder in a company with ties to an ex-Liberal cabinet minister: “I hold a significant ownership interest in this company.”
The military has appointed gay advisors to help “innovate” religious instruction in the Canadian Armed Forces, says a briefing note. It follows a cabinet-appointed panel’s recommendation that Catholic chaplains be purged from the army, navy and air force over church teachings that contradict federal policy: “Chaplains provide a ‘safe place’ for members.”
Long-running negotiations to create an Indigenous museum across the street from Parliament are expected to continue into 2024, says a federal briefing note. The project is now in Year Six without a start to construction: “We will continue to work with our partners.”
You were a few seats away from me.
Darkness camouflaged my staring at you.
You seemed mesmerized,
smiling whenever DiCaprio
made his entry.
I was mesmerized by my own fantasies.
Still couldn’t make my move,
for all these people between us.
Blocking all options.
Perhaps I was also fearful
of your date, who sat beside you,
and mine
who sat beside me.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
More than a fifth of Canadians say the cost of home heating has now become a “significant financial burden,” says in-house federal research. The majority of homeowners who heat with natural gas have seen rates nearly double from last winter: “What is the amount you pay each month for your home heating bills?”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s department says it did a “comprehensive assessment” before awarding a $133,822 grant to a consultant who fantasized on Twitter about shooting Jews. New rules will require grant applicants to swear an oath they are not anti-Semitic, said a department briefing note: ‘The project was approved following a comprehensive assessment.’
Airlines were flooded with thousands of complaints over Christmas flight cancellations, delays and lost luggage, the Commons transport committee was told yesterday. Sunwing Airlines, the smallest carrier, said it alone had 7,000 complaints from customers: “We failed.”
Cabinet will introduce amendments to toughen penalties for poor airline service by June, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said yesterday. It follows complaints from the Commons transport committee that current fines are modest and grudgingly applied: “What is the purpose of a $200 fine?”
A Saskatchewan utility has been ordered to pay damages to employees subjected to drug tests after workplace accidents. Testing without some suspicion of impairment was unjustified, a labour arbitrator ruled: “Employees have a right to privacy.”
Former Liberal MP Will Amos (Pontiac, Que.) billed taxpayers for a private five-figure training course he completed a month ago, more than a year after leaving office, records show. Authorities yesterday did not explain why expenses were paid for Amos, now a private consultant after he was censured by the Commons for misconduct: “I’m now serving Canadians in new ways.”
Indigenous advisors will be hired to help rewrite a 1990 museum policy to promote “equity, diversity and inclusion,” the Department of Canadian Heritage said yesterday. Payments include $100 per hour to elders and “knowledge keepers” for comment on Canada’s colonial past: “Advisory services will be paid as appropriate.”
The Canada Revenue Agency rates poorly on combating tax avoidance by wealthy individuals, says in-house research. The latest finding follows complaints auditors are more likely to hector small tax filers over trivial breaches of the Income Tax Act: “Would you say the Agency does an excellent job?”
Canada this year will have more seniors than children for the first time in its history, data show. Statistics Canada yesterday identified the greyest cities in the country: “The number of beneficiaries of the Old Age Security basic pension is projected to increase.”
Unions acted in good faith in accepting employers’ vaccine mandates, a labour board has ruled. The judgment came in the case of unvaccinated Albertans who complained their Natural Gas Employees Association failed to adequately represent them: ‘Nothing indicates the union acted in bad faith.’
VIA Rail’s $413,500-a year CEO Martin Landry yesterday avoided all mention of executive bonuses in apologizing for poor service. Landry said he was sorry in a statement issued ahead of Commons transport committee hearings to begin Thursday: “Show them what VIA Rail is all about.”
