Lockdowns were the least popular national Covid control measure, says in-house research by the Privy Council Office. Only a Québec curfew was rated worse: ‘If the following public health measures were to be reintroduced would you support them?’
The Department of Public Works will not disclose how many federal ads are flagged in breach of a ban on partisan promotions. The department in a briefing note said the number was irrelevant: ‘The number of times that issues were flagged does not provide any relevant information.’
Canada’s homeless population is smaller than originally estimated, Statistics Canada data show. A Census count of people living in shelters was less than half the number in 2016: “Some people who experience homelessness do not access shelters.”
My friend overseas
inquires
about Canadian politics.
“I’ve heard your Prime Minister
is losing popularity,” he says.
I agree that’s what the polls show.
“Think he might lose the election?” he asks.
I say that’s a possibility.
“So the Leader of the Opposition
could become your next Prime Minister?”
I tell him that’s not what the polls show.
“I don’t get it,” he says.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
New Democrat and Liberal MPs yesterday sought to censure Conservative finance critic MP Jasraj Singh Hallan (Calgary Forest Lawn) in apparent retribution for a 37-day budget filibuster. “You want to get rid of me?” Hallan told the Commons finance committee: “I am not here to make friends.”
Parliament is catering to transgender visitors by mandating the installation of “non-gender” washrooms, the Opposition Leader in the Senate said yesterday. “Why don’t we call a spade a spade?” Senator Donald Plett (Man.) told the Senate committee on internal economy: “We’re catering to a group of people who say, ‘I want to go into a washroom I don’t belong in.'”
Federal whistleblowers who disclosed secret memos on Chinese spy activities to media should be prosecuted, says a former chief of the public service. Mel Cappe, ex-cabinet secretary, compared whistleblowers to predators whose identities must be exposed: “That is a strange position to take when we lack the clarity of the truth here.”
Cabinet yesterday introduced a bill to promote “support for workers” facing layoffs due to its climate program. Some 170,000 energy workers face unemployment, according to the Environment Commissioner: “We know the stakes are incredibly high.”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez yesterday defended millions in federal subsidies for TV corporations despite cutbacks at the network with the largest audience, BCE Incorporated. Television broadcasters received more than $100 million in direct federal grants through the pandemic: “What’s not working?”
Privy Council President Bill Blair yesterday said he never saw a secret memo on Chinese spies because it was sent to the wrong office. Blair’s earlier claim that information was deliberately withheld by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was contradicted in committee testimony: ‘They sent it to another office, not my office.’
Cabinet yesterday said Canadian delegates will no longer attend meetings of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank but stopped short of dumping Canada’s shares in the Beijing operation. It followed complaints by a Canadian executive working for the Bank that the Communist Party “runs the joint.”
Cabinet had no choice but to spend billions on a Volkswagen battery plant in Ontario, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. Her remarks followed a Budget Office report warning the venture will cost taxpayers almost 20 percent more than estimated: “Canada had to be at the table.”
People have “limited levels of macroeconomic literacy,” the Bank of Canada said yesterday. The Bank complained people often failed to “understand and correctly interpret information” about deficits, inflation and central banking: “Scores are rather low.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim of discrimination by a government employee ordered to return to the office after working from home. The employee, a married mother of five, argued the order was unfair: ‘Not every conflict between one’s professional obligations and family responsibilities constitutes discrimination.’
Privy Council President Bill Blair’s claim that federal spies withheld information on Chinese interference is false, the House affairs committee was told last night. The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said he specifically sent a memo to warn Blair that foreign agents were targeting MPs: “The information was meant to be seen by the Minister.”
