Disclosure Not Safe For Nazis

Federal archivists are protecting “safety of individuals” in concealing more than a million pages of records on Nazi collaborators let into Canada after 1945, says a newly-disclosed briefing note. Cabinet years ago had promised to release all Holocaust-related files: “They knew.”

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Home Starts Far From Target

Housing starts remain far short of target with new construction down by double digits in the largest markets, CMHC said yesterday. The figures contradicted repeated claims of success by Housing Minister Gregor Robertson: “Starts were down 19 percent year over year in centres with a population of 10,000 or more.”

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Feds Discover 23 Bad Apples

A federal program to “promote ethical business practices” has blacklisted 23 suppliers in two years, says a Department of Public Works memo. Managers over the same period awarded an average 2,978 contracts annually: “Certain suppliers understand the procurement system.”

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MPs OK China Spy Hearings

The Commons public safety committee yesterday by unanimous vote agreed to probe apparent failures in security screening after a Chinese-Canadian intern at NATO headquarters was arrested on espionage charges. Canadians of Chinese ancestry were owed a thorough investigation of security breaches that are “dividing our communities,” said one MP: “We need to get to the bottom of the issue, determine what went wrong.”

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I Have Secret Plan, Says PM

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday said he has a secret plan to cover “all eventualities” if the United States imposes $28 billion in new tariffs under a Wednesday deadline. Details of the plan were too confidential to discuss in public, he said: “I have a plan that will cover all eventualities.”

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Petitions For Cuban Tourism

Cabinet must lift a six-month advisory against travel to Cuba, says a Commons petition sponsored by New Democrat MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre). The petition follows a notice from credit card issuers suspending all transactions in Cuba: “With the loss of tourism to Cuba this year a lot of people are out of work.”

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Private Loans Worth $500B

The value of private business loans from Canadian pension funds, insurers and investment pools is worth about a half trillion, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. Researchers expressed unease with the largely unregulated practice in case of “a sharp downturn.”

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Cite CBC For Pro-Lib Agenda

Canadians increasingly assume the CBC and other mainstream media have some “angle or agenda” in reporting the news with a “particular political slant,” says federal focus group research. The in-house report found more Canadians “go to Reddit to see what people are saying” than rely on TV networks or newspapers.

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Blacklist Went To Thousands

New records show a federal blacklist of Freedom Convoy sympathizers was privately circulated to thousands of corporations. No account to date has documented the consequences for individuals named under the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act by a cabinet order subsequently ruled unlawful: “There was no verification.”

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Kill Mandate, Save Billions

Repeal of electric car mandates will save Canadians billions a year, according to new federal figures. Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin on Saturday served legal notice that mandates suspended six months ago will be permanently abolished: ‘Risk of job losses in the Canadian auto sector need to be considered.’

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Admit Growing Rail Protests

Opposition to a $90 billion regional high speed rail venture is growing, the Department of Infrastructure admits. An internal memo warned impending deadlines must be met if Alto Corporation, the Crown agency overseeing the project, is to start construction in 2029: “The project is increasingly scrutinized for its cost, timeline and potential impacts on communities and agricultural land.”

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Feud On Oath Of Allegiance

A legal scholar has filed a constitutional challenge against Québec to save the Oath Of Allegiance to the King. The Supreme Court of Canada is to hear a separate challenge of the oath required of MPs, senators and new citizens: “Abolition of the Oath Of Allegiance requires unanimous consent of Parliament and the provinces.”

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A Sunday Poem: “Talaria”

 

The warmth of the summer sun,

Fades as it sets below the mountain,

Alongside the lake,

In the Okanagan.

 

Sitting on the bench,

Ice cream melts,

Before you can eat it,

In the perfect summers eve.

 

Golden shoes,

On a child,

Who will never run,

Pushed along by his mother.

 

Remind one,

Of what’s just below,

The veneer of this world,

And the heart aches in a way that can’t be expressed.

 

The same way it does,

For a nation that,

Will never run again,

Subsumed to the diktat of the PMO.

 

Golden hopes wearing golden shoes,

Remind one,

Of what’s at stake,

On the perfect summer eve.

 

By W.N. Branson