Taxpayers can wait up to four hours to speak to a Canada Revenue agent, says in-house federal research. The Revenue Agency earlier acknowledged taxpayers who prefer email will wait an average 57 days for a reply: “Not only is the wait time itself annoying but it can also amplify dissatisfaction if a subsequent part of the call does not go well.”
A Kenyan phone company that received millions from Canadian taxpayers lost more money again last year, new financial records show. A federal agency bought $43.4 million worth of shares in M-Kopa Holdings Ltd. of Nairobi in the name of international development: ‘These are good quality jobs in East Africa.’
Liberal MP Leah Taylor Roy (Aurora-Oak Ridges, Ont.) yesterday had no comment on an affidavit alleging Communist Party agents were hired as Elections Canada poll workers in her riding in the 2021 campaign. Taylor Roy was honoured as a “new local star” at a Chinese Canadian banquet nine days before the election was called: “The name that was given to her is Li Ya Tai Le which has a combined meaning of ‘everything goes smoothly and well.'”
Cabinet this fall for the first time will detail the true number of foreigners let into the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. It follows a May 21 report by the Senate social affairs committee that complained actual counts were misrepresented in Parliament: “We are meeting the moment.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said cabinet is prepared for any retaliation from China in a looming tariff war. Freeland effective October 1 is imposing a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles and 25 percent on steel and aluminum: “Canada needs to be ready.”
One of Canada’s most heavily-subsidized weeklies yesterday did not comment after publishing an article critical of Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre’s proposal to abolish subsidies. The Hill Times did not disclose its own six-figure funding or the fact the reporter who wrote the story had worked as a $750-a day federal consultant: ‘He is challenging poor, underpaid local journalists.’
Parliament should pay Canadians over 65 to stay in their homes, say cabinet advisors. A National Seniors Council expert panel did not estimate the cost of its proposed Age At Home Benefit but said it should not be income tested: “The federal government should think about the economic cost of inaction.”
Elections Canada says it cannot refute an affidavit by former two-term MP Leona Alleslev (Aurora-Oak Ridges, Ont.) stating it unwittingly hired Chinese Communist Party agents as poll workers in the 2021 campaign. Alleslev in a sworn statement said she received complaints from Chinese Canadian electors who said they were too frightened to vote: “Half the Chinese Canadian constituents she canvassed would tell Ms. Alleslev they were afraid to vote for her because they feared repercussions.”
Federal executives at a confidential meeting last August 29 concluded foreign agents were using illegal methods to threaten Canadians. The meeting occurred only weeks after cabinet’s Special Rapporteur downplayed foreign interference as “media allegations.”
Canada has not exported lethal weapons to Israel in six years, Department of Foreign Affairs documents show. Shipment records were compiled at the request of New Democrat MP Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona) who claimed Canadian weaponry “killed over 12,000 children” in Gaza.
The Jewish National Fund is asking a federal judge to review an August 10 ruling by the Canada Revenue Agency that stripped the longtime charity of its tax status. The Fund best known for its fundraising Negev Dinners attended by successive Conservative and Liberal cabinet members alike said it was singled out by auditors: “That is an egregious mistake.”
The Canada Savings Bonds program, a fixture for 100 years, is now being targeted by scammers, says the Bank of Canada. The last bonds were issued seven years ago: ‘If you called since February you may have been exposed to a scam.’
An Enigma.
12 years old, briefcase in hand,
ready to be Prime Minister.
Credits and debits yet to be counted.
The sum of his parts.
A Footnote.
Hedged into irrelevance.
Words and actions in perfect dissonance.
Remembered by the historians,
and puzzled over.
A Gardener.
Experience and intention.
A couple winters in Prince Albert,
are all that’s needed to adjust the policies.
And save her soul.
An Actor.
Pushing forward blindly.
When the fog lifts off the highway,
Wreckage and shattered lives emerge.
And a nation laments.
Was Borden the Best?
The lines are rote.
The lights are dim.
The stage is set.
The curtain rises…
By W.N. Branson 
Canada has the richest cuisine of any northern country, though Canadians are so defensive on the point it once provoked official protest. In 1959 Ottawa publicly flailed the U.S. publisher Bantam over a cookbook that depicted Canada as a nation of spud-eating hillbillies.
“Canadians are exceedingly fond of potatoes and they eat enormous quantities of them prepared in countless ways,” reported the Complete Round-The-World Cookbook, a promotion for Pan-American Airways written by New York food editor Myra Waldo. “The basic items of Canadian diet are few and simple: potatoes, homemade bread and maple syrup.”
Gibberish, said Northern Affairs Minister Alvin Hamilton: “This is more than slightly out of date.” Was it ever in date? Canadian food heritage is Winnipeg goldeye, tourtière and partridgeberry jam, roast duck, strawberry soup and Indian pudding.
In Nothing More Comforting, retired museum curator Dorothy Duncan assembled the best of her Century Home magazine columns chronicling the national diet from pre-Confederation times through the early 20th century. It is “an incredibly complex culinary heritage,” wrote Duncan. An example: The diary entry of a York pioneer who recounted Christmas supper at Lake Ontario in 1800: “Soup, roast beef, boiled pork, turkey, plum pudding and minced pies.”
Nothing More Comforting is a jolly collection of recipes early Canadians enjoyed, adapted to the modern kitchen, with a narrative recounting the rituals of cookery. From 1837, “To Cure Hams: Let a leg of pork hang for three days, then beat it with a rolling-pin and rub into it one ounce of saltpeter.”
Duncan delves into “the seductive and sensual properties associated with many vegetables.” She exposes the medicinal value of the common onion. From 1884, “Onion Porridge: Take a Spanish onion as big as you can procure, peel and split into quarters, and put these into a small stewpan with a pint of water, a pat of butter and a little salt; boil gently. An excellent remedy for colds.”
In praising “our long tradition of food,” Duncan rescues heritage recipes lost to time like blueberry grunt and rhubarb fool, potted cheese, cherry soup and Solomon Gundy, a dish of pickled herring. And, yes, there is maple syrup and potatoes.
By Holly Doan
Nothing More Comforting: Canada’s Heritage Food by Dorothy Duncan; Dundurn Press; 256 pages; ISBN 978-1-4597-0669-9; $19.99
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh last night expressed disgust after cabinet forced an end to a national rail lockout in 17 hours. Singh said he was prepared to dissolve Parliament rather than support action against 9,300 Teamsters. “Whether it’s a confidence motion or not, I don’t care,” he said.
