The sale of costly Covid ventilators as scrap metal was “the height of incompetence,” the Commons was told yesterday. Federal agencies have yet to explain why new $22,000 medical devices were auctioned for as little as $305 for lots of 51, the equivalent of $6 apiece: “What happened to all those ventilators?”
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault yesterday under heated questioning refused to say how much he has collected from an Alberta holding company while serving in cabinet. Payments included fees collected on contracts with local authorities and the Department of Transport, the Commons human resources committee was told: “I followed all the rules.”
Cabinet yesterday introduced a long-promised bill to name paid friends of China and other foreign governments. Similar legislation in the United States has unmasked foreign agents for 86 years: “We intend to proceed quickly.”
A Liberal MP named a beneficiary of Chinese election meddling yesterday told the Commons that actions by foreign agents “were not successful.” MP Parm Bains (Steveson-Richmond East, B.C.) would not discuss events in his own riding: “We must adapt our thinking.”
Violent crimes targeting Jewish schoolchildren, storekeepers and other citizens totaled 77 last year, B’nai Brith yesterday said in its Annual Audit Of Anti-Semitic Incidents. The Criminal Code complaints were in addition to thousands of other incidents from online slurs to death chants at public rallies: “O Allah destroy the enemies of the people of Gaza.”
Room and board for illegal immigrants is costing an average $224 per day, new data show. By comparison the federal minimum wage pays $138 per day, Employment Insurance a maximum $95 per day and Old Age Security $26 daily: “How long do people stay?”
Federal agencies from the Privy Council to the RCMP have used Chinese surveillance cameras banned in the U.S. as a security risk. Widespread purchase of the equipment was uncovered by Bloc Québécois MP René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, Que.): ‘We are removing these cameras.’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kept Han Dong as the 2019 Liberal candidate in Don Valley North because he feared losing the Toronto riding, according to a China inquiry report. The Prime Minister knew at the time Dong was under surveillance over his contacts with the Chinese Consulate: “This is significant.”
Chinese agents were likely to blame for “troubling events” in at least three federal ridings, says the Commission on Foreign Interference. The conclusion in a 194-page Initial Report by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue contradicted two previous findings by Liberal appointees: “People are right to be worried.”
Higher stamp prices are inevitable due to another heavy operating loss at Canada Post, says the latest Annual Report from management. Stamp rates are up eight percent effective today to 99¢ for a domestic letter, $1.40 for U.S. mail and $2.92 overseas: “Competition has accelerated at a pace not seen in the company’s history.”
New Democrats had no comment after Independent MP Kevin Vuong (Spadina-Fort York, Ont.) said a Party organizer called him a “Zionist whore” on Twitter. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh earlier dropped two nominees over anti-Semitic outbursts, saying he found it a “challenge to vet candidates.”
On the way downtown
a busy road alongside a golf course –
I saw people swinging their clubs
At that early morning hour.
Could not tell if these were freeloaders,
playing
while others were rushing to work,
or high-ranking managers –
the true engine of our economy –
taking the time to connect with
the rich,
the ruling,
the influential.
Making decisions
that affect us all.
Had a discussion with my professor –
long ago, a different topic –
when trying to tell one organism
from another.
He said
that only an expert
can differentiate
between two closely related
species.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Years ago as a documentary producer I learned true insight into public figures is rare and exceptional when the subject is still living. Only death loosens tongues and unlocks secret diary entries. But documenting our times is not all-or-nothing. We cannot wait decades to ask, who was Justin Trudeau?
Justin Trudeau On The Ropes by columnist Paul Wells is the first of many expected profiles. Wells calls it an essay and not an obituary. “Every time he’s in trouble he thinks, I’ve been in trouble before and they were wrong to count me out,” he writes.
“In June he’ll have had this job longer than Louis St. Laurent,” writes Wells. “Nobody can take that away from him. What are his qualities? I’ve spent less time talking to him than I had spent with Harper before he became prime minister, but politics in Canada is a village. Paths cross. I’ve seen him up close.”
Trudeau On The Ropes is anecdotal and only slightly irreverent. “He is an introvert who has become skilled at pretending the contrary,” readers learn. “At a rally where he seems to hunger for attention and human contact, he sometimes needs time alone, in a quiet room, playing video games on an iPad or doing nothing at all. I’m told his need to decompress at the end of his work day didn’t always make him popular at home.”
The essay acknowledges critics’ derision of Trudeau as affected and silly. Wells recalls spotting the Liberal leader at a 2015 garden party: “His outfit was faintly ridiculous: white shoes, light jacket, some kind of Panama hat at a rakish angle, no socks.”
Wells is also defensive, almost apologetic. Panama Hat Man “is more intelligent than a lot of people are willing to believe,” he writes, adding: “Somebody who worked closely with Trudeau once told me he gets the big things right and everything else wrong.”
“He prepares,” says Wells. “He grasps complexity. He can take criticism. You can blue-sky with him, imagine alternatives, play out various scenarios for how an issue might evolve. He has the thing that some politicians have, where he remembers the last time he saw you.”
“Justin Trudeau has defeated three different Conservative leaders,” concludes Trudeau On The Ropes. “He could have lost any of those elections.”
Is Trudeau done? Maybe, maybe not, writes Wells: “It would be possible to imagine Trudeau coming back yet again if he had lately shown any inclination toward introspection or humility or a driving urge to improve his game. In the absence of those qualities, bad habits become entrenched.”
By Holly Doan
Justin Trudeau On The Ropes by Paul Wells; 95 pages; Sutherland House Books; ISBN 9781-9908-23824; $19.95
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday denied any collusion with cabinet in contemplating pre-election interest rate relief. MPs questioned Macklem over remarks he and the Prime Minister made separately Wednesday afternoon regarding a rate cut: “Elections are elections.”
A total 179 Gazans have received Canadian visas to date, figures show. Nearly 8,000 have applied, said the Department of Immigration: “This is Canada’s effort to get people out.”
