Airport screeners have bypassed a low-tech security check with the click of a button, according to evidence in a Federal Court hearing. The Court was told of one security guard who circumvented checks on airport employees “for the purpose of reducing the workload for herself.” READ MORE
The Commons today takes up Second Reading of a bill compelling the Canada Revenue Agency to report yearly on all tax convictions and estimate of revenue lost to tax avoidance. The bill drafted by Senator Percy Downe (P.E.I.), a frequent critic of the Revenue Agency, passed the Upper House by unanimous vote last March 12: "If you hide your money overseas, your chances of being caught are very low." READ MORE
Poet W.N. Branson writes: "The world had more colour then. The people had more to lose and even more to live for. But maybe the system has always been this myth..." READ MORE
A quarter-century after a federal health minister declared tobacco was socially taboo, it so happens about 5.7 million Canadians still smoke. The Department of Industry still grants patents for improved cigarette rolling machines, and for many Indigenous Canadians cigarettes are “an important industry that helps to provide the needs of life,” writes journalist Jim Poling, Sr. In Smoke Signals Poling documents tobacco’s role in the Canadian experience, and its long circuitous journey back to the First Nations peoples who first cultivated it. The result is a fascinating social history. Once offered to 16th century European explorers as “a sacred plant linked to the spiritual world,” tax-free tobacco is today again “a central part of Native life,” says Poling. He is thinking not of healing circles but cigarette bootlegging. READ MORE
Bonuses for executives in Housing Minister Gregor Robertson’s department averaged almost $20,000 each last year despite a housing crisis, records show. The department in a memo said high bonuses proved housing was “a Government of Canada priority.” READ MORE
The internet was a winner since "we don't have to throw a lot of cash in at this to make it happen," then-Industry Minister John Manley told a confidential 1995 cabinet meeting called to discuss the worldwide web, newly-declassified records show. Two ministers advocated censorship of content: "The private sector is going to pay for virtually all of it." READ MORE
A Crown ferry service promises to buy Canadian next time after leasing its last new vessel through a Chinese shipyard. Management said it had a "very clear direction" not to charter another Weihai ferry: "They would ideally be built in Canada or at the very least would maximize Canadian content." READ MORE
I have served in the legislature, provincial cabinet and House of Commons but none are as maligned as the Senate. Many Canadians do not understand or appreciate what the Senate does or why, or the importance of its work. The scandals don’t help. Yes, the Senate has made mistakes. Canadians are questioning why the Senate is even necessary. There’s no question Canadians have lost confidence in the accountability of Senators.
