The Department of Veterans Affairs will not recognize Indigenous fighters of pre-Confederation Canada as veterans. The honour was sought by the Assembly of First Nations: "Veterans Affairs Canada defines a veteran as ‘any former member of the Canadian Armed Forces who successfully completed basic training and was honourably discharged." READ MORE
The Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to take over management of the largest private military cemetery in the nation at a $15.9 million cost. The National Field of Honour at Pointe-Clair, Que. was established in 1929 by private donors as a dignified resting place for impoverished veterans facing a pauper’s grave: "No man who has given his services in defence of his country should be buried as a pauper." READ MORE
Poet W.N. Branson writes: "The geese flee south in the moonlight, a weird eerie sight. Silent dark shadows gliding in that putrefying light. The report of a rifle: a shock, a flash..." READ MORE
“It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk,” wrote English author Rebecca West. This is enough to make you wary of history that smells like violets. Winston Churchill & Mackenzie King casts these “two elderly statesmen” as wartime peers out to save democracy. Author Terry Reardon is struck by parallels. Both were Sagittarians born in 1874, both had blue eyes and “large egos,” both stood 5’6”. In chronicling their fifty-year acquaintance Reardon sees two dynamos of the Second World War. Well, not exactly. Churchill’s own Foreign Office in 1940 described King as “lukewarm about any war measure which he cannot show to redound to Canada’s own advantage.” READ MORE
Cabinet will add $182.4 billion in new borrowing over the next three years under a budget plan tabled yesterday. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne justified ongoing deficit spending as reasonable: "I stand by our projections." READ MORE
The head of a federal anti-money laundering agency that failed an October 29 audit yesterday declared auditors were all wrong. “I do not agree,” Stéphane Sirard, interim CEO of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, told the Commons public accounts committee: "That is deeply disturbing." READ MORE
Cabinet will grant permanent residency to nearly a quarter million foreigners in Canada on temporary permits, according to a budget document yesterday. The Department of Finance did not specify whether it would include amnesty for illegal immigrants subject to deportation: "Up to 200,000 temporary residents already in Canada would have the opportunity to become permanent residents." READ MORE
My grandfather worked as a school custodian for decades in the Toronto District School Board, a man who swept and mopped the floors, who kept the classrooms tidy and locked up at the end of the night so that children had a place to learn and teachers had a place to work. I carry his story with me. When I was 15 years old, I failed the Ontario literacy test. At the age of 30, I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. As long as I am honoured to call myself a Member of Parliament, I hope I can be a walking, talking reminder that people should never give up.
