An MP yesterday disclosed records indicating the federal spy agency in 2019 warned the University of British Columbia of its close cash dealings with Huawei Technologies Co. Conservatives demanded an investigation of China’s reach into Canadian universities: “I have a couple of hundred pages of emails.”
Cabinet has apologized after concealing from Parliament nearly $183,000 in contracts it awarded to an environmental group. The figure was reported as “nil” in a statement signed by Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan. A Conservative MP spotted the error: “This shows no respect for the process.”
The chair of a Department of Canadian Heritage panel advocating mandatory registration of internet news media yesterday mistakenly claimed the nation’s largest newspaper chain is already federally licensed. It’s not: “Let me be clear.”
Rewriting a continental trade pact follows years of job losses that saw automakers “go to the cheapest place you can”, a Unifor executive yesterday told the Commons trade committee. The Department of Industry in internal memos acknowledged Canada lost auto jobs to Mexico under the old 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement: ‘It’s decades of damage and neglect.’
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller will not disclose names of private New York donors who contributed to his 2019 election campaign. Under the Elections Act candidates must divulge all contributions over $200: ‘It was at a Canadian citizen’s home in New York City.’
New green fuel rules expected to raise the price of gasoline are coming soon, says the Department of Environment. Cabinet has disputed claims the regulations will have four times the price impact of the carbon tax: “This is not some left-wing, radical policy.”
The RCMP is introducing an online ethics course for members after acknowledging it receives hundreds of complaints a year to a confidential hotline. The initiative follows a Federal Court go-ahead for a billion-dollar class action lawsuit alleging widespread harassment in the force: “The RCMP is expected to uphold the highest ethical standards.”
The Department of Transport is studying labour shortages in maritime shipping after a union caught regulators licensing migrant workers in breach of federal law. The case was settled out of court last December 16: “This has been coming for a long time.”
A federal panel has struck the Bake-Off cooking contest off Canada’s trademark registry for “inactivity”. The Pillsbury Company ran the famed one-day competition for sixty-five years: ‘It is clearing the register of dead wood.’
A Senate committee chair yesterday disclosed multiple complaints of harassment are pending under a new zero tolerance policy against workplace bullying. No senators were named: “I’m afraid that’s confidential.”
The CBC in a bid at rebranding has trademarked the word “Oh”. Network lawyers filed the claim with the Department of Industry as a Conservative Party leadership candidate called for privatization of the English TV service: “Radio-Canada Oh-dio.”
Green tech firms are nearly three times more likely to rely on taxpayer subsidies than most small and medium-sized businesses, says a federal report. Department of Industry researchers noted other small companies “report difficulties in accessing financing”.
Cabinet’s latest free trade deal sets a “very dangerous precedent” for all Canadian exporters, farmers yesterday told the Commons agriculture committee. The continental trade pact limits exports of Canadian dairy products to countries worldwide: “This is a first.”
The Canada Border Services Agency will not disclose how many private cellphones and iPads it has seized from travelers. The Agency acknowledged it searches tens of thousands of devices a year under an obscure provision of the Customs Act: “Canadian law is quite permissive.”
Cabinet will not disclose how much it’s prepared to spend on the taxpayer-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline. Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday declined comment under repeated questioning at the Commons finance committee: “$17 billion and counting.”
