Thirteen Liberal ridings are among the first in the nation to lose doorstep mail delivery under a target list released yesterday by Canada Post. Constituencies facing service cuts include Carleton, Ont., won by first-term Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy in an upset over Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre one year ago: "Make difficult decisions, show political courage and move forward." READ MORE
Canadians should question self-censorship by subsidized press, a leading economist and commentator yesterday told the House affairs committee. La Presse, the largest daily in Québec, admitted to canceling a regular column by Professor Sylvain Charlebois after he criticized hidden subsidies for daily newspapers: "This raises broader questions about how comfortable we are collectively with challenging prevailing narratives." READ MORE
Seven years of federal subsidies have permanently compromised media in Canada, current and former editors yesterday testified at the Commons heritage committee. A 2019 bailout originally promised to be temporary has instead marked the end of independent journalism, MPs were told: "Sooner or later, news media will run out of other people’s money." READ MORE
One of the largest unions in Canadian newsrooms yesterday sought federal controls on what people say about media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Government regulation of lawful but hurtful criticism was supported by “95 percent of media workers,” said the president of the Canadian Media Guild: "The toxicity we face online and in person while doing our jobs is becoming overwhelming." READ MORE
Cabinet remains adamant that dairy quotas will never be negotiated in United States trade talks, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said yesterday. The U.S. has singled out dairy quotas as unfair: "You confirm you will not touch a hair on the head of supply management?" READ MORE
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson’s department budgeted $1.2 million for a camera giveaway to homeless people to take photographs for an “arts-based exhibition,” Access To Information records show. The grant was approved under a Veteran Homelessness Program: "With your camera, take pictures of your surroundings." READ MORE
Cabinet yesterday denied pork barreling in Sarnia-Lambton, Ont. after Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu defected to the Liberal caucus. MPs questioned an interview Gladu gave to a local reporter in which she boasted of receiving a call from the Minister of Housing’s office to “talk about all the things we need in Sarnia” hours after floor-crossing. READ MORE
I believe we all look for and need a family. It’s where we go for friendship and respect. If your family at home is so dysfunctional you can’t stay in the house, if you have been told how useless you are, that you are a failure, then you’ll find family with a motorcycle gang or a group of young people shooting up drugs under a bridge. Family is the big difference. The wounds never really heal but there are people who do break their negative habits. Lives change with forgiveness.
