Attorney General Sean Fraser yesterday said he feared some future justice minister will use federal hate crimes legislation to settle scores with environmental groups or political opponents. Fraser did not identify any person by name: “Those are dangerous conversations.”
Parliament should criminalize Indian Residential School denialism just as it outlawed wilful downplaying of the Holocaust, First Nations leaders yesterday told the Senate human rights committee. Indigenous witnesses condemned skeptics who state “no children actually died or are buried at these sites.”
A federal Taxpayer Bill Of Rights is “non-binding,” says the Canada Revenue Agency. The admission followed repeated Court rulings that the measure was neither a bill nor any guarantee of rights for taxpayers: “It would probably be better if the document were given a different name.”
A failed experiment with decriminalization left British Columbia with the lowest public support of any province for a “public health” approach to drug addiction, says in-house Department of Health research. New findings followed admissions the “safe supply” policy led to public disorder: ‘Support is only 15 percent in B.C.’
Nearly half of Canadians surveyed distrust the federal government to “make good decisions in the public interest,” according to in-house Privy Council research. The study documented growing public skepticism: “On the whole, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way democracy works in Canada?”
Federal agencies have warned a mass attack targeting Canadian Jews may occur in coming months, the Senate human rights committee was told yesterday. Senators did not question the testimony: “This is not theoretical.”
Communities targeted by public disorder have “lost confidence” in police, prosecutors and the courts, Toronto’s Deputy Chief of Police yesterday told the Senate human rights committee. The testimony followed complaints of repeated, violent attacks on Jews: ‘When a Jewish school is shot at, social damage resonates widely.’
Cabinet has no plans to update a federal grant program for schoolchildren that’s been unchanged for decades, says a report by the Department of Social Development. It follows complaints the Canada Education Savings Grant hasn’t kept pace with costs: “This is a way to help our grandchildren given that parents are struggling to make ends meet.”
Taxpayers face Olympic-sized debts from hosting FIFA Men’s World Cup matches in Vancouver and Toronto, the Budget Office said yesterday. Thirteen games scheduled through June and July will cost the equivalent of $82 million apiece: “Federal support will be $473 million with the remainder of $593 million funded by other levels of government.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs spent more than $32 million on an iceberg-themed pavilion at the Osaka World Fair, records show. Expenses included $164,279 for questionnaires and $50,000 on “creative concept options” even as Prime Minister Mark Carney appealed to Canadians to make sacrifices: “We won’t play games.”
Statistics Canada yesterday said it’s revising how it calculates inflation for its benchmark Consumer Price Index but wouldn’t discuss what changes are contemplated. The agency in the past has removed or added check-out items to reflect changing spending patterns, it said: ‘The Index can only reflect changes in consumer expenditures when basket weights are updated.’
An activist group is out of Department of Canadian Heritage funding for the first time since 2020 after being accused of anti-Catholic bias, Access To Information records show. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network received hundreds of thousands in taxpayer funding until MPs questioned its role in “spurring greater polarization.”
Billions in federal aid for Ukraine are an expression of Canadian values, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. “We’re going to be on the right side of history,” he told reporters.
Cabinet’s “Buy Canadian” policy is to be phased in over an indefinite period, says a memo by the Department of Public Works that manages most federal contracts. The announcement of the policy last September 5 did not imply Canadians would get immediate preferential treatment in contracting, it said: “Measures will be phased in.”
Rideau Hall on Saturday stripped civil honours for a Canadian Business Hall of Famer. Jacques Lamarre, retired CEO of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., had his Order of Canada revoked: “Events of recent years have been trying for me.”
