The Office of the Ethics Commissioner yesterday confirmed its acting director of investigations is sister-in-law to a Liberal cabinet minister. The Office is conducting a closed-door investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal: “We question whether the Commissioner understands the notion of conflict.”
Federal investigators have conducted a covert sting of Bell Canada Inc. sales practices dating back eight months, Court records disclose. The Competition Bureau accuses the telecom firm of alleged deceptive marketing: “Bureau officers including myself have been the recipients of false or misleading representations.”
The Senate national security committee by a 6 to 2 vote yesterday rejected a national ban on handguns. A Manitoba senator sought to amend a current gun bill to classify 839,000 licensed handguns as prohibited weapons: “We have an opportunity to take action.”
Passenger complaints of nightmare flights aboard Sunwing Airlines Inc. have prompted a $694,500 federal penalty against the company. Sunwing had already spent $260,000 retrieving lost luggage for thousands of passengers affected by a 2018 ice storm: “Tensions began to rise in the cabin.”
Cabinet yesterday failed to meet its own commitment to empower a corporate ethics ombudsman to curb corrupt practices abroad, said the United Steelworkers. Cabinet acknowledged its appointee has few tools to penalize mining companies and others: “This looks like they wanted to check a box.”
Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu has still not decided whether to enact a Fair Wages Policy pledged four years ago, officials told the Commons. The Prime Minister in a 2015 Ministerial Mandate letter promised to set minimum hourly pay for federal contractors: ‘Employers will likely oppose it.’
The Commons will vote Wednesday on a private bill targeting “grassroots communication” by foreign-funded lobbyists. The bill’s Conservative sponsor said voters should know whether foreign groups are financing pro-carbon tax messages in the October 21 election campaign: “Canadians have a right to know.”
Cabinet has approved the private sale of a 40-foot piece of Canadiana to a New York family. The 1833 Nine Point Mile Lighthouse, oldest on the Great Lakes, will be sold by the Department of Fisheries to American cottagers: “This should belong to Canadians, for Canadians.”
Fourteen percent of Canadian women aged 20, and eight percent of men, will live to 100, predicts Canada’s Chief Actuary. Cabinet would not say if future Canada Pension Plan premium hikes are necessary: “Retirement is expensive.”
The Alberta Court of Appeal has cited Parliament’s condemnation of fraud as a serious crime in sentencing a crooked insurance broker to two years less a day in jail. “What matters is action, not talk,” the Court noted.
A last chance at full public hearings on the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal vanished last night amid Senate horse-trading. A motion to summon testimony from the Prime Minister and nine others was quietly withdrawn following a “signed agreement” between party leaders, Blacklock’s learned: “An understanding was reached.”
Transport Canada yesterday told the Commons transport committee it will conduct first-ever road tests on school bus seatbelts this year, in a Saskatchewan pilot project. Any new regulations mandating seatbelts would cost school boards up to $20,000 per vehicle refit, the equivalent of $400 million nationwide: “We know there is a cost.”
Department of Public Safety research indicates a $1.9 million anti-drug driving ad campaign was ineffective. Nearly half of cannabis users targeted by advertising described it as irrelevant: “Young users are not aware it impairs driving.”
Cabinet will broaden enforcement of the 1969 Official Languages Act, the Commons languages committee was told yesterday. The committee in a 2017 report recommended that fines be imposed on scofflaws: “Do we need to change the Commissioner’s powers?”
Advocates yesterday appealed to the Commons agriculture committee for mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods. Federal regulators on April 2 licensed the country’s first engineered fish farm: “I would have thought it was an April Fool’s joke.”
