Diplomats in staff emails depicted Fiji as a backwater where it was hard to find office supplies or make a long-distance phone call, Access To Information records show. Liberal MP Randeep Sarai (Surrey Centre, B.C.), Secretary of State for International Development, last January 16 opened Canada's first Fijian mission in what cabinet called an important step in “Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.” READ MORE
A highway billboard calling the Prime Minister a liar was Charter-protected free expression, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled yesterday. Counsel with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms that won the case called the decision “a welcome affirmation of the importance of political expression.” READ MORE
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation of Moncton yesterday was fined $212,025 for breach of anti-money laundering regulations. The penalty is the latest in a series of violations by casino operators: "Very suspicious." READ MORE
Parks Canada in an internal report calls the creation of national parks culturally “harmful” and a “colonial injustice.” Management “now acknowledges this harmful historical legacy,” said the newly-disclosed report withheld from the public for two years. READ MORE
Virgina Mearns, cabinet’s $181,000-a year Arctic Ambassador, has been cited for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Act and fined $400. MPs have long sought more serious penalties for violators: "There should be real consequences." READ MORE
Liberal campaign organizer Tom Pitfield's Senate appointment was not patronage, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. The appointee had “deep technological knowledge” needed in the Senate, he said: "I am very pleased." READ MORE
Urban women over 65 are most likely to worry over climate change, Statistics Canada said yesterday in a rare psychosocial questionnaire. No reason was given: "Climate-related hazards in Canada and abroad can have a mental health impact with some people experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety." READ MORE
Robert Peary’s wife had given him a handmade flag to carry on his last expedition in 1906 when he claimed to discover the North Pole. Peary died in 1920 but left a written account of the map’s location in a cairn at Cape Columbia overlooking the Arctic Ocean. Hidden in the cairn was a rusted tin with a perfectly preserved remnant of the flag the size of a handkerchief. Later we gave it to Peary’s widow. We made other finds that year: tins of fruitcake from an 1875 British expedition, and letters addressed to Amundsen left behind by a Danish team in 1920. And we began the work of mapping the Canadian Arctic.
