Cabinet will press ahead with a bill to regulate the internet, says Prime Minister Mark Carney. Bill C-34 is a third attempt to regulate political speech in the name of social stability: "This fall we will press ahead with the Act to protect Canadians online." READ MORE
Any decision on whether to mandate face and fingerprint scanning of air passengers on domestic flights is up to cabinet, says the federal agency responsible for airport security. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) proposes to introduce biometric scanning on local flights by 2031: "CATSA will not be the authority to determine whether biometrics should be mandatory." READ MORE
Then-Finance Minister Paul Martin in a secret 1995 cabinet session warned “compound interest is killing us” after decades of deficit spending, newly-declassified records show. Ministers were told to promptly cut billions in spending “come hell or high water.” READ MORE
A federal manager who called racism a “Canadian reality” has been appointed chair of the Canadian Museum of Immigration. Daniel Quan-Watson’s appointment followed complaints from Museum curators of a “shift in Canadian attitudes towards immigration.” READ MORE
A simple but serious error affecting the outcome of an election should count as an irregularity under the Canada Elections Act, the Supreme Court of Canada wrote in an explanation Friday of its landmark decision to void the outcome in a lone Québec constituency. Incumbent Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné (Terrebonne, Que.) lost the riding but set the legal precedent: "I think this is an issue that goes beyond party politics." READ MORE
Poet W.N. Branson writes: The old Company wound down and out of the ashes, rises the Phoenix. A people put on clearance, a pelt for a skin, the Phoenix arises anew..." READ MORE
Membership in hate groups has long been linked to economic failure. Few millionaires joined the Aryan Nations. More contentious is a theory that all human beings are prone to irrational impulses that pit Catholic versus Protestant, English versus French, white versus Black. “We are hardwired to be ethnocentric,” writes Kenneth Stern, director of New York’s Bard Centre for the Study of Hate. Stern argues we are programmed through millennia to instincts that long ago meant survival but today make no sense whatsoever. Consider the story of the spider and the sedan. He quotes social psychologist James Waller: “Automobiles kill far more people today than do spiders or snakes. But people are far more averse to spiders and snakes than they are to automobiles. Why? Because for most of our ancestral history, spiders and snakes were a serious threat to our survival and reproduction, whereas automobiles did not exist.” READ MORE
Some MPs come to Ottawa driven by passion for public affairs, others arrive by mishap. I’d worked as an educator for 30 years, teaching English, history and social studies. Current events were always very important in my class. Then I saw how Parliament works. I was shocked at the process. Debate is limited by closure. Many MPs are indifferent and never participate. There is no attempt at thoughtful analysis. Legislation is hastily passed and dissent is not tolerated. Is this too cynical?
