MPs yesterday said they suspected the Department of Foreign Affairs misled Parliament in defending its purchase of an $8.8 million Manhattan penthouse for New York Consul Tom Clark. One department manager testified she used a “mis-word” in writing a staff email stating Consul Clark asked for a new condo at taxpayers’ expense: “Things you are saying are tough to believe.”
CBC-TV will “reassess the need” for future cuts after paying its managers millions in bonuses, says a senior executive. Carol Najm, chief financial officer, defended bonus payments at the Senate national finance committee: “What sacrifices were asked of the management at CBC?”
The RCMP yesterday denied soft-pedaling its treatment of Communist Party “police stations” used by the People’s Republic to intimidate Chinese emigres in Canada. Counsel at the Commission on Foreign Interference questioned why Mounties appeared distracted by “diplomacy.”
More Canadians must buy electric cars, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. A federal memo earlier proposed cabinet nearly double rebates: “Make sure we have adoption.”
Cabinet yesterday lost a key test of its grip on Parliament. A majority of MPs including five Atlantic Liberals ignored cabinet orders in calling for funds to raise Old Age Security: ‘This Halloween might be Trudeau’s last as Prime Minister.’
Canadian insurers yesterday told a Senate committee “tens of thousands of employers” are reviewing workplace benefits for potential cutbacks if Parliament passes a pharmacare bill. Health Minister Mark Holland called the testimony “a bunch of malarkey” and asked that senators pass the bill by Thanksgiving: “I’ve got to try to wash that away, that nonsense.”
A federal judge has issued a rare Court order blocking public access to an anti-Israel website. The temporary order was requested by Indigo Books & Music Inc. against anonymous protesters: “It is not an order that engages freedom of expression.”
Elections Canada yesterday released Official Voting Results showing loss of Liberal Party support in a pivotal summer byelection in Toronto was widespread. Liberals lost dozens of polls in Toronto-St. Paul’s, once among the safest Liberal seat in the country: “They are not happy.”
Québec is home to the country’s heaviest drinkers, Statistics Canada data showed yesterday. Saskatchewan residents were the least likely to drink heavily: “A higher proportion of those living in Québec reported drinking.”
Young Canadians have “diminished faith in the future,” the Government Representative in the Senate said yesterday. Senator Marc Gold (Que.) called it “disturbing.”
Chinese language media in Canada are dominated by Communist Party news and views, a retired editor of one of the nation’s foremost Chinese dailies said yesterday. Foreign agents typically co-opt publishers trying to make a living on a “shoestring budget,” the Commission on Foreign Interference was told: “From Toronto to Vancouver much of the Chinese language media in these communities exist under the immense influence of the Chinese Communist Party.”
There is no evidence of any fraud in irregularities involving millions in Department of Environment subsidies, the Deputy Minister testified yesterday. The Commons government operations committee opened hearings following an internal audit that showed grants were so mismanaged it represented “potential legal and reputational damage.”
Cabinet should not declassify a secret blacklist of suspected Nazi collaborators recommended for prosecution 39 years ago, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said yesterday. Suspects named in the confidential 1985 list even if long dead have “several generations of descendants” who deserve privacy, said the Congress president: “Today we hear repeated calls for the disclosure of the names of these innocent people.”
The underground economy now comprises a third of the Canadian trucking industry, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. Black market operators dodge billions in tax and flout labour laws, said the Canadian Trucking Alliance: “Please help.”
Chinese spies target political aides including unwitting assistants who express no strong views on China, says a secret federal memo. The document by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service explained political staff are co-opted as “gatekeepers” for MPs and senators: “Foreign interference activities often transcend party lines.”
