Lost $20M Over Poor Security

Security at a secret Public Health Agency warehouse was so inadequate $20 million worth of specialty drugs were ruined after staff failed to notice a freezer door was left open, the Commons health committee learned yesterday. The lack of security prompted enquiries by a “foreign national,” MPs were told: "We are aware through a vendor we work closely with that there was interest from a foreign national in obtaining access to our warehouse locations." READ MORE

Won’t Name Chinese Targets

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service yesterday refused to say how many federal ridings were targeted by foreign agents in the 2025 general election. “I am not able to tell you the numbers,” Vanessa Lloyd, a CSIS election monitor, told the House affairs committee: "During the election period the Task Force observed instances of foreign interference." READ MORE

Housing Starts Down Not Up

Housing starts will go down, not up, this year despite ambitious federal targets for record-high construction rates, CMHC data showed yesterday. The federal mortgage insurer said a national recession was possible: "This will make 2026 one of the weakest years in recent decades." READ MORE

Deficit Is Not Done At $78.3B

Cabinet’s current $78.3 billion deficit, the highest in Canadian history outside of pandemic overspending, will likely rise even higher before the budget year expires March 31, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. No new figure was mentioned: 'It may now run a bit higher.' READ MORE

Bridge Threat Unnerves Feds

One cabinet member yesterday expressed alarm after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded 50 percent of the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge at Windsor, Ont. The threat in a social media post prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to call the White House: "When President Trump talks, we listen." READ MORE

Arithmetic Wasn’t Too Funny

A Department of Finance executive who oversaw a 192 percent hike in the deficit yesterday apologized after laughing about his inability to calculate basic interest. “I don’t find it very funny,” one MP told Deputy Minister of Finance Nicholas Leswick. READ MORE

RCMP Can’t Run Crime Lab

RCMP in an internal report admit mismanaging crime labs in three provinces. Service was so slow investigators were hiring private labs for testing despite the higher cost, wrote auditors: "Only 50 percent of surveyed clients were satisfied." READ MORE

Guest Commentary

Peter Ittinuar

1962

A government agent said, “We’re taking you to Ottawa for a little experiment, wouldn’t you like that? Isn’t that great?” My parents were never asked if they thought all of this was a good idea. I did not know then how much I would grow to miss my family, and how lonely I would be. Here we had running water and store-bought clothes, bigger schools and libraries, supermarkets and suburbs. Why did the government do it? I think they honestly believed their values as a middle-class, southern, industrial society were best for Inuit. It was as simple as that.