Cabinet in an Access To Information memo has cautioned a $15,000-a week federal panel reviewing the Broadcasting Act to “avoid any real or perceived conflict of interest”. Four of seven panelists are current or former lobbyists.
The Department of Health proposes a breath mint giveaway to lower smoking rates among young Canadians. In-house research described the promotion as appropriate and useful: “Participants suggested a host of additional promotional items including fidget toys.”
The Federal Court of Appeal in a rare 2-1 split decision says Canadian Pacific Railway must compensate a shipper for loss of service due to fire. The amount of compensation was not disclosed: ‘It establishes a level playing field despite the near-monopoly power a railway may exert.’
Cabinet yesterday rejected any blacklisting of the country’s largest engineering firm from bidding on public works. Three former executives with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. have pled guilty to offences in the past six months: “They continue to get huge federal contracts.”
The Department of Industry in an internal memo claims taxpayers turned a 25 percent profit on subsidies to Bombardier Inc. The claim was cribbed word for word from a Bombardier news release. Staff did not comment: “The facts speak for themselves.”
Federal departments have continued to award millions in contracts to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. even as former company executives pled guilty to wrongdoing, including payment of $109,616 in illegal cash contributions to Liberal Party organizers. Smaller contractors have faced blacklisting under a Government-Wide Integrity Regime: “I think this is ridiculous.”
Government agencies last year spent 80 times more ad money with Facebook than daily newspapers in Canada. The Treasury Board defended the practice even as cabinet contemplates a costly bailout of dailies: ‘The picture is not a pretty one.’
The Commons has given Second Reading to a Senate bill banning the capture of live whales for display. Cabinet hasn’t issued a whale license since 1992, when teams captured belugas at Churchill, Man. for display at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. They died: ‘We want to get this passed into law.’
Federal agents have dropped a seven-year battle with a charity falsely accused of misusing donations for political purposes. The collapse of the government case follows a 2018 Ontario Superior Court ruling that prompted amendments to the Income Tax Act: “It’s a huge victory.”
Newly-released accounts detail $375 million spent on a weekend G7 summit in Charlevoix, Que. last year. Costs ranged from nearly a quarter-billion dollars for the RCMP to $20,000 fireworks and $1,300 for chocolates and cigars: “We have done our due diligence.”
Conservatives yesterday appealed for Commons ethics committee hearings on a cabinet proposal for election-year surveillance of foreign Facebook posts, and government-paid fact checking of Canadian digital media news coverage. “Let’s vote on it now,” said MP Peter Kent (Thornhill, Ont.).
Press photo associations yesterday protested the publication of a doctored National Post image appearing to ridicule MP Maxime Bernier. Publishing any altered photo without a prominent advisory to readers is unacceptable, photographers said: “Otherwise it really confuses the reader.”
A cabinet bill to ban bear-baiting should open a “deeper ethical” review of animal rights protection, Attorney General David Lametti yesterday told the Commons justice committee. “That’s a larger question,” he said.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday challenged reporters to “do the math” in dismissing a Parliamentary Budget Office report that cabinet paid top dollar for the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Analysts concluded cabinet overpaid by as much as 20 percent when it nationalized the line last May 29: “What does that mean?”
Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould yesterday said cabinet will spend $7 million to hire monitors to “critically assess online news reporting” in election-year coverage. Government-sponsored fact checkers were not publicly identified. One is a group led by a former Toronto Star executive.
“Ultimately it’s not our job to tell Canadians what is good or bad information, but to provide them the tools and the resources to, when something comes to them, to make a choice on their own and to say where this information is coming from, who is behind it, and what their objective is,” Gould told reporters.
Media monitoring would not apply to newspapers. Gould did not explain what criteria monitors would use to assess news stories. The Canada Elections Act section 91 already prohibits the publication of “false statements of fact” involving a candidate or political party.
The Act’s fake news ban has never been used though it’s been in force since 2001. Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault in testimony last November 7 in the Senate said his office already monitors Twitter, Facebook and other social media for falsehoods to “make sure electors have correct information”.
“When you open up a newspaper, you have a sense this is coming from a journalist who’s professional, who has done their research, who has worked at it, and whose information is coming from a reliable source,” said Gould. “Of course, depending on which newspaper that is, you have a sense of where that information is coming from. When you go onto a social media platform and you see a meme or you see a story, if it’s being shared by a friend or a cousin or someone trusted, you may implicitly share that information because it’s coming from a trusted source.”
“The objective is to have civil society organizations in Canada who can help provide some of the civic awareness and education to evaluate news, digital media, etcetera, the information coming to Canadians, so they can make their informed choice of how they ingest this information, and how they share it or not,” said Gould.
One monitor, the Public Policy Forum of Ottawa, last November 28 confirmed it applied for funding to act as federally-subsidized fact checker. The Forum’s CEO Edward Greenspon is a former vice-president of the Toronto Star.
A spokesperson said the Forum was not influenced by the Liberal Party. “The Public Policy Forum does not receive government funding,” communications director Carl Neustaedter earlier told Blacklock’s. “It is independent and non-partisan.” Public accounts show the Forum received $593,000 in federal contracts and fees since 2015.
Government agencies to date including the Privy Council Office, Department of Justice and Department of Canadian Heritage have refused to disclose records on dealings with the Forum’s Digital Democracy Project to “expose” unreliable news stories.
By Staff 
