New data show labour inspectors targeted religious institutions in ongoing investigations of abuse under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Four institutions were fined a total $117,500 over a nine-day period. The labour department did not comment: "Inspections have become increasingly complex." READ MORE
Cabinet aides prepared a video featuring Prime Minister Mark Carney to be shown at mandatory citizenship ceremonies, Access To Information records show. No rule prohibits it though the Department of Immigration had cautioned that swearing-in ceremonies, a legal requirement for new citizens, should be nonpartisan: "Citizenship ceremonies provide a forum for visibility." READ MORE
Gambling advertising has spoiled the enjoyment of sports, says Conservative MP Ned Kuruc (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, Ont.), former assistant with Canada’s national Muay Thai martial arts team. Kuruc and other members of the Commons heritage committee passed a private bill proposing regulation of advertising: "We see where sports and betting have become one." READ MORE
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday expressed irritation when asked why he reversed three years’ worth of interest rate cuts. “There’s no immediate benefit of raising interest rates,” Macklem told the Commons finance committee after Conservative and Liberal MPs alike opposed the October 28 increase: 'Explain to small business owners why the decision was made because I’m having a hard time explaining it to them, okay?' READ MORE
Parliament should let the courts define what “national interest” would justify quashing a lawful strike, an Air Canada executive yesterday told MPs. Unions have cautioned the ambiguous phrase does not appear elsewhere in labour legislation: "‘National interest’ is fairly vague." READ MORE
CBC News yesterday was again censured by its own Ombudsman for anti-Israel coverage. The Ombudsman cited a story by reporter Chris Brown that was so biased it breached the network’s Journalistic Standards And Practices guide: "There is one important point I’d like to address: journalistic neutrality." READ MORE
Members of the Commons science committee yesterday expressed disbelief after senior Public Health Agency staff could not explain their use of terminology like “pregnant people” to identify expectant mothers. “You can’t answer a simple question about biological reality?” asked Conservative MP Vincent Ho (Richmond Hill South, Ont.): "Should we stop using the term ‘mother’?" READ MORE
My mother was a brilliant, beautiful woman, a woman with a passion for great literature, high fashion and duplicate bridge. She was a woman who disliked sentimentality of any kind, so I hope somewhere she’ll forgive me if I say I’m still haunted by the memory of the day I took her for that fateful neurocognitive exam, the day the specialist delivered the bleak diagnosis: Alzheimer’s. I failed my mother when she needed me most.
