Canada Post paid bonuses last year while losing a record $1.57 billion, CEO Doug Ettinger yesterday disclosed. Payments were made even as cabinet told the post office to “cut the fat.” READ MORE
MPs Want To See Secret Plan
MPs yesterday demanded Public Works Minister Joel Lightbound release a confidential report on postal service cuts. Cabinet has withheld the 2025 document for months: "Parliamentarians, municipalities, workers, citizens still do not have a detailed plan of what is going to happen." READ MORE
Chinese Autos Face Scrutiny
The Canada Border Services Agency yesterday said it will likely investigate whether imported China-made battery electric cars are assembled with slave-made parts. Conservative MP Michael Kram (Regina-Wascana) questioned why cabinet didn’t first check before approving the import of more than a quarter million Chinese vehicles: "Would you say it’s more than a little bit irresponsible?" READ MORE
No Crypto Campaign Donors
The Senate yesterday by a 58 to 4 vote passed into law a cryptocurrency ban in election financing. The bill is the first of its kind that prohibits use of bitcoin in ordinary transactions where traceable money is accepted: "Changes to prevent anonymous and hard-to-trace funding channels are welcome." READ MORE
“May” Ask To Blacklist Coal
Environmental groups opposed to coal mining may petition cabinet to blacklist the rock as toxic, the Department of Health said yesterday. The remarks came in response to a Commons petition sponsored by the Green Party: "Regulate the mining, use, export and import of thermal coal in Canada." READ MORE
Cabinet OK’d Frequent Flyer
Cabinet in a confidential order granted its Chief Science Advisor “blanket authority” to travel worldwide even as other federal managers were ordered to cut expenses, Access To Information records show. Dr. Mona Nemer, a University of Ottawa biochemist, was told to charge expenses “where a personal benefit exists or may appear to exist.” READ MORE
PM Waives Buy Canada Rule
Prime Minister Mark Carney has granted federal managers arbitrary powers to ignore his Buy Canadian policy, records show. New reasons to bypass Canadian contractors include “administrative burden.” READ MORE
Guest Commentary
Anti-Semitism was not uncommon in those days. The worst MP I ever saw? Social Credit’s John Blackmore of Lethbridge. People couldn’t understand how he kept getting elected in Alberta. He was a kook, just out of control, and a blatherskite. He was once cited for using his House mailing privileges to distribute anti-Semitic literature. In 1954, Blackmore sought a federal commission to probe an “imperialist conspiracy of Eastern European Reds of Mongol and Turkic affinities.” He became a figure of fun in the Press Gallery because of the silly things he did, but with a dark, racist tone.
