The national debt is now worth the equivalent of more than $33,000 for every man, woman and child in Canada, Budget Officer Annette Ryan said yesterday. Sustainability of Canada’s finances is a concern if interest rates rise or growth shrinks, she said: "The economy still remains tenuous." READ MORE
Use of the Liberal Party’s “Canada Strong” election slogan in federal advertising violates a directive against partisan misuse of public funds, members of the Commons government operations committee said yesterday. The Privy Council promised to investigate: "It literally violates the Treasury Board rules." READ MORE
Statistics Canada yesterday denied downplaying anti-Semitic incidents in a national hate crimes report. Access To Information records showed the agency provided a confidential advance copy of its “highly anticipated” report to Heritage Minister Marc Miller’s department before it was published: "The department will get to review work in progress." READ MORE
Canada’s new Chief Public Health Officer yesterday called the pandemic “a very difficult time for everyone” but would not discuss which specific errors contributed to public distrust. “Trust in health and institutions has been strained,” Dr. Joss Reimer of Winnipeg told the Commons health committee: "Whether those were the right or wrong decisions, we know there were many difficult things." READ MORE
MPs yesterday recommended first-ever annual reporting on military suicides. The Commons veterans affairs committee complained of “data shortages” amid conflicting figures: "Release an annual report on deaths by suicide." READ MORE
Cabinet has jurisdiction to regulate the internet, Heritage Minister Marc Miller said yesterday. Canada had fallen “a couple of years behind” European countries in monitoring legal content, he said: "We’re working on it." READ MORE
Cabinet rates its “nation building bill” a success though no project has been approved since it passed into law last June 26, a parliamentary committee was told. Conservative MP Aaron Gunn (North Island-Powell River, B.C.) ridiculed the claim at a hearing of a Special Joint Committee: "John A. Macdonald and Wilfrid Laurier are looking down on us saying, ‘These guys know how to build things now’?" READ MORE
I often wonder what became of Dennis. He was known to neighbours in the North Park district of Victoria where I lived in 1997. It was a rough-and-tumble neighbourhood. Dennis had a wife and baby. I had seen them going to the welfare office down the corner. He was violent, and he could get very drunk. I don’t think he ever finished high school. I can’t say if restorative justice would have done Dennis much good. Afterward I wondered, what brought Dennis to the point in his life that he was so hateful, so angry, he would shave his head and wear a “White Power” t-shirt and look for someone to hurt?
