Defence Minister Anita Anand yesterday said the military will launch a new recruitment campaign for the army, navy and air force. Anand in testimony at the Commons defence committee made no mention of the recent loss of Canadian Armed Forces members due to a vaccine mandate: “We have to make sure we have the right number of people.”
Achieving climate goals will be difficult and painful, a Liberal MP said yesterday. MP Ryan Turnbull (Whitby, Ont.) said all Canadians are “going to have to switch our lifestyles” to meet emissions targets: “That is going to be painful.”
Canadians’ paper mail would have more privacy protection than email under a cabinet bill pending in the Senate, a federal lawyer testified yesterday. Liberal-appointed senators have opposed Bill S-7 An Act To Amend The Customs Act: “What’s the worst that could happen if the legislation is passed?”
A federal agency had ample warning of rising passenger volumes before hours-long delays at airports, figures show. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority knew for months that travel volumes were predictably doubling and tripling from 2021 levels: “Additional funding will be necessary.”
The Public Health Agency yesterday said it will fund new research on the effects of Covid on the nation’s children. It follows an earlier report that school closures and lockdowns were more disruptive than the coronavirus: “There is much we still need to know.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and five staff billed more than $100,000 to attend a United Nations climate conference, newly-released records show. Air fare for the six cost more than $37,000 including $11,246 for Guilbeault, who called for urgent action on climate change: “We need more environmentalists in the House.”
A Saskatchewan Conservative MP is the first parliamentarian in 75 years to be barred from her Commons seat. MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton-Melville) said she was escorted off Parliament Hill Friday by the Sergeant-at-Arms after declining to disclose her vaccine status. The last MP barred from the House was a Communist spy: “There is nothing that validates this kind of behaviour.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is “too busy” to mind her budget bill, say MPs. Opposition members of the Commons finance committee submitted a rewritten bill with dozens of amendments: “We have suggested to delete, delete, delete.”
Federal agencies are warehousing millions of rapid Covid test kits only weeks after Parliament voted to spend billions more with suppliers. Total spending on rapid tests is more than $4 billion to date including millions of kits the government could not give away: “We are just actually in the midst of loading up.”
Federal candidates in Prairie provinces and Ontario were most likely to campaign door to door in the nation’s first pandemic election, new data show. An Elections Canada survey also found winning candidates were more likely to have asked for votes in person: ‘Despite the need for pandemic precautions 7 in 10 candidates interacted with electors by going door to door.’
A recent poll
in the United Kingdom
asked people
who is best suited
to reign after Queen Elizabeth II.
Prince William came first,
winning a commanding 63 percent
of the votes.
The most favourite royal.
His father
must be proud.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
A third law enforcement executive, former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly, yesterday denied advising cabinet to use emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino claimed February 28, “We had to invoke the Emergencies Act and we did so on the basis of non-partisan professional advice from law enforcement.”
Cabinet is concealing the true cost of a landmark bill that would extend official bilingualism to the private sector, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Actual costs were more than a quarter billion, said analysts: ‘Departments have not announced details and refused to provide these details.’
A shortage of oil and gas workers is a big problem, says Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan. His remarks follow a report that cabinet’s climate change plan threatens 170,000 energy jobs, by federal estimate: “Are you spinning us here? Are you serious?”
Federal Covid vaccine mandates would be unlawful under a private bill tabled yesterday in the Commons. “These mandates have been nothing more than a cruel attempt to demonize a small minority and they are absolutely unnecessary and without any scientific basis,” said Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.), sponsor of the bill: “End this discrimination.”
