The Senate yesterday by a 41 to 32 vote quashed a proposal to criminalize Indian Residential School “denialism” under threat of two years’ jailing. The vote came moments after cabinet announced it opposed the amendment: "Senators may have already noticed the online backlash to the amendment has begun." READ MORE
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday in his first Question Period appearance in a week sat silently as Conservative MPs recited stories of jobless workers. Carney repeatedly wished Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre a happy 47th birthday in an attempt to be lighthearted: "Will the Prime Minister stop being so flippant about the suffering he has caused?" READ MORE
Heritage Minister Marc Miller yesterday in an abrupt reversal suspended a CRTC order tripling fees on Netflix and other video streaming services. The decision came 48 hours after Miller voted with 192 other MPs to sustain the fee hike: "Does this have anything to do with the United States threatening a tariff investigation?" READ MORE
Repealing local development charges would boost housing starts by up to 14 percent in the costliest markets, CMHC said yesterday. A wide range of advocates from the Senate banking committee to the Canadian Human Rights Commission have criticized mandatory fees as a drag on construction: "Reducing development charges increases the viability of housing construction projects in all cases." READ MORE
Forty-eight hours after cabinet appointed a new panel on anti-Jewish discrimination, Liberal-appointed Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) yesterday asked in Question Period whether it was anti-Semitic to depict Israelis as sex criminals: "Is this why the government has been so silent on the United Nations’ inclusion of Israel on the blacklist of countries that engages in sexual violence in conflicts?" READ MORE
Cabinet shelved as too costly a plan to develop a new index to raise seniors’ pensions, Access To Information records show. The Liberal Party 11 years ago promised to raise payments using a customized Seniors Price Index: 'It would have resulted in small individual benefit increases at a high overall cost.' READ MORE
Prime Minister Mark Carney in his first comment on the made-in-Canada recession yesterday acknowledged “choppiness” in the economy but again declined to attend Question Period to defend his record. “Data is going to be uneven,” he told reporters. READ MORE
On February 15, 1996 then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien attended a Flag Day ceremony at a park in Gatineau, Que. Dozens of us had arranged to demonstrate. It was a peculiar moment, seeing and hearing the Prime Minister lose control and behaving in an erratic manner. It was a powerful image. Here was the head of government attacking a protestor. There was symbolism here that went beyond the event itself.
