Canadians in federal focus groups say the carbon tax merely punishes the public without tackling climate change. The tax is currently charged at 14¢ per litre of gasoline: ‘It was felt it placed too much of a financial burden on the individual.’
National greenhouse gas emissions are up despite the carbon tax, data show. Figures contradicted Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s claim that “our plan is working.”
Air passengers who want compensation for poor service should buy insurance, says Canada’s civil aviation authority NAV Canada. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has promised tougher regulations against airlines for delayed flights and lost luggage: “Regulations should be a last line of defense, not the first line of recourse.”
I look at pictures
of execution chambers
in U.S. penitentiaries.
A bed, adjustable,
equipped with arm rests.
A mattress for softness,
clean sheets,
and a pillow for comfort.
Ceiling lights reflected
in a sparkling-clean floor.
Curtains on the windows;
a wall mounted clock;
mirror;
heater;
and an air conditioner.
By the bed,
a set of syringes;
sterile, to prevent
infection.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office yesterday said it played no role in attempting to censor a 2021 Toronto Sun column critical of the government. Authorities for a second day would not name who in officialdom invoked federal authority in demanding Facebook delete links to the newspaper article: “Neither I nor any other staff member of the Minister’s office made this request.”
Subsidized media should check their conflicts of interest with Parliament’s Ethics Commissioner, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. His remarks came at a news conference when a reporter questioned Poilievre’s proposal to cut CBC funding: “We need a neutral and free media, not a propaganda arm for the Liberal Party.”
The Department of Indigenous Services will not tell MPs what it spent on legal fees in a 16-year dispute over First Nations child welfare funding. A firm represented by one lawyer in the case, former Liberal Senate appointee Murray Sinclair, was paid $169,365 for two months’ work: “The department cannot speak to a specific amount in legal fees.”
A CBC reporter in apparent breach of the network’s ethics code publicly campaigned against coverage by “all white” editors at a rival newsroom. The CBC code mandates that employees “maintain professional decorum” in personal use of social media: “I should start a list of all the insensitive bullshit published in The Record.”
Parliament’s Budget Office yesterday confirmed the federal ratio of debt to GDP will increase this year despite cabinet’s earlier promise to hold the line. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland had called it “a line we will not cross.”
Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen yesterday quietly wrote more loopholes into his own Act restricting foreign real estate speculators. Canada needs foreigners to build houses, wrote Hussen’s department: “Development activities are needed to increase Canada’s housing supply.”
Three political aides yesterday would not comment over an attempt to censor Facebook links to a 2021 Sun column critical of the government. Aides implicated in the failed scheme did not respond to questions: ‘They tried to have it banned as misinformation because it was embarrassing to them.’
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday ruled out any interest rate relief this year despite risk of a recession. Bank data show rate hikes have cost households billions: “Income spent on interest payments will continue to rise as homeowners renew their mortgages.”
Cabinet yesterday granted municipalities two years to meet retroactive payment of union wages at the RCMP. However local authorities will be charged interest: “Jurisdictions may require additional time to repay the total amount owing due to financial hardships.”
Laziness is not a firing offence, a federal labour board has ruled. The decision came in the case of a prison guard who performed night shift duties while relaxing on a mattress: “She had a lax, nonchalant attitude toward a very serious situation.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department spent more than $79,000 polling Canadians on whether they preferred the phrase “climate change,” “extreme weather” or “climate crisis.” Results were inconclusive: “Duh, of course the climate changes.”
