The Canadian Transportation Agency is “incapable” of handling air passenger complaints despite hiring 120 employees to do the job, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said yesterday. Cabinet proposes to privatize the system: "What went wrong?" READ MORE
The housing department in a briefing note to Minister Gregor Robertson acknowledged for the first time that cabinet’s housing target will not be met this decade. Immigration was to blame in part, said the note made public yesterday: "One of the drivers of the housing shortage has been the strong growth in housing demand driven by immigration." READ MORE
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu would gain “ambiguous and dangerous” powers to quash legal strikes under cabinet’s bill C-39, union executives said yesterday. The bill would codify strike bans by executive order, a measure used by cabinet 10 times in two years: "This concept is ambiguous and dangerous." READ MORE
The Commons yesterday by a 298 to 23 vote rejected a Bloc Québécois motion to reinstate a 15 percent fee on Netflix and other video streaming services. Cabinet suspended the tax under threat of U.S. retaliation: "This kind of flip-flopping and back-and-forth is absolutely pointless." READ MORE
Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin in a letter to MPs would not fix any deadline for introduction of a long-promised national flood insurance program. The proposal has been under review since 2020: "Our members are frustrated that we are not yet over the finish line." READ MORE
Cabinet’s decision to grant Chinese electric vehicle makers a 278,989-car import quota over five years marked “a new path,” says an internal Department of Foreign Affairs memo. The censored eight-page document made no mention of slave-made parts: "If we concede that electric vehicles required forced labour in their supply chain, will you put them on the list of products banned in Canada?" READ MORE
Widespread promotion of online gambling is a “serious mental health concern,” the Canadian Psychological Association is warning MPs. The group urged passage of a private bill to regulate sports betting advertising: "Expansion and promotion of online gambling have become matters of serious mental health concern." READ MORE
Vietnam, China, North Korea, all have labour camps. All abuse human rights and rule of law. Perhaps these realities are too raw for Canadians. Instead we presume common interests and points of goodwill that do not really exist. These are not normal societies as you and I know them; normal gestures are pointless. Governments promote trade with communist countries but there is no evidence this diminishes the power of police states or has ever closed a single prison camp. I know how communists work.
