The Department of Immigration without any parliamentary scrutiny ordered research into enforcement of a national ID system using digital passports, Access To Information documents show. MPs have repeatedly rejected any national identity scheme as costly and dangerous: 'The assumption is the passport would be used within Canada as an identity document.' READ MORE
Year-end bonuses for federal executives are not literally tied to departmental performance, says a Treasury Board report. It follows data showing departments typically reward 90 to 100 percent of managers regardless of failure: "There is a system that is broken." READ MORE
The founder of a Palestinian activist group in Canada is in federal policing, according to Access To Information records. Documents disclosed an RCMP member is founder of the group that advocated “expressing their Palestinian identity at work” and circulated complaints about Jews testifying at parliamentary committee hearings: 'It is important to present a narrative in support of Palestinians.' READ MORE
The Department of Immigration acknowledges it let a million foreign students into the workforce without ever studying the impact on Canadian students. A single questionnaire was sent only to foreigners even as the unemployment rate for Canadian students climbed to 16 percent or more in several provinces: "A survey was sent to international students who would have been authorized to work unlimited hours." READ MORE
The RCMP is spending nearly a million a week on Black Hawk helicopters leased after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs over inadequate border security. The Mounties already had an air patrol with 30 aircraft but were faulted by auditors for scrimping on basic equipment like night vision goggles for pilots: "How many times has suspicious or illegal activity been monitored?" READ MORE
Poet Jeff Blackman writes: "Member of the National Energy Board: yes is a straight line; watch for the Y-shaped imitator. Member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee: ask a few more times what's new. Chair of the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation: remember no one can see everyone you've left behind, because you won't..." READ MORE
Mr. S, a British Columbia pensioner, took his $325,000 in life savings and left it all with Union Securities of Vancouver. He was an “unsophisticated investor,” as the investment industry puts it. He believed what the salesman told him. By the time Union Securities was finished with Mr. S virtually all his savings were wiped out. Mr. S might have sued. Instead he complained to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, a dispute resolution office created by banks and investment dealers. The ombudsman agreed Mr. S was badly treated and recommended compensation. Union Securities refused and that was it. Mr. S did not get his savings back. The ombudsman issued a news release. Alternative dispute resolution systems like the Ombudsman for Banking are growing ever popular. It is privatized justice promoted as quicker, more efficient and cheaper than public courts, writes Professor Trevor Farrow of Osgoode Hall. Lawsuits are undoubtedly expensive. Even an Ontario Superior Court judge once marveled that “excess appears to be the norm” in legal fees that run to as much as $1,000 per hour. READ MORE
When I think of my father Chung Fan Siu, I recall his constant struggle with nicotine addiction. He smoked for over 70 years. It is Dad’s life, and his eventual death, that I recall when I speak of the dangers of cigarette smoking. We could have had Dad with us a lot longer than we did, if not for the cigarettes. My mother grew to hate cigarettes. She banned smoking in our home, and Dad would huddle outside to have a cigarette. I remember it was an ongoing battle.
