More than 360,000 new Canadians swore the citizenship oath at ceremonies last year, new data show. The Department of Immigration has proposed replacing ceremonies with a check box on a federal website: “The negative concerns I have heard about this idea are legion.”
Air passengers deserve more generous compensation for poor service, the Commons transport committee said yesterday. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has proposed to draft new regulations by June: “The committee heard from many witnesses on the shortcomings.”
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday ignored a request from MPs for details of new federal subsidies for Volkswagen that are suspected of running into billions. The Commons industry committee gave Champagne one more week to disclose the VW contract: “This government is afraid to give Canadians the number.”
The largest federal union, the Public Service Alliance, set a deadline of 9 pm Eastern this evening for a strike that “can shut the government down,” President Chris Aylward said yesterday. Any job action by 155,000 employees would be the largest in 19 years: “Together we wield incredible power and can shut the government down to secure a fair contract.”
Parliament must mandate public disclosure of foreign agents, a three-term Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons. “We need that to happen,” said MP Francesco Sorbara (Vaughan-Woodbridge, Ont.), a member of the Canada-China Legislative Association: “I am completely for a foreign lobbyist registry.”
Capitalism and white supremacy are to blame in part for climate change and must be corrected, a Public Health Agency report said yesterday. Findings were based on health department interviews with 30 academics and experts: ‘If we don’t address capitalism we eventually drown.’
Parliament should restrict federal disaster aid where municipalities permit development on flood plains, a federal report said yesterday. A cabinet-appointed task force complained taxpayers are left to compensate owners of costly, uninsurable waterfront property: “Disaster costs are borne by the level of government that has minimal influence on decisions that create or increase disaster risk.”
U.S. seizures of illegal marijuana from Canada have ballooned 900 percent since Parliament legalized cannabis, new data disclose. Brisk cross border bootlegging represents “potential harm to Canada’s international reputation,” said a federal report: “The overall increase of illegal cannabis exportation from Canada worldwide since domestic legalization could be as high as 2,000 percent.”
A top Liberal aide says there was no talk of dropping a 2021 Toronto candidate over allegations of secret contacts with Chinese Communist agents. “I was never involved in a conversation on the subject,” Katie Telford, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, said when questioned regarding MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.): “Conversations did occur?”
Canadians in federal focus groups say the carbon tax merely punishes the public without tackling climate change. The tax is currently charged at 14¢ per litre of gasoline: ‘It was felt it placed too much of a financial burden on the individual.’
National greenhouse gas emissions are up despite the carbon tax, data show. Figures contradicted Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s claim that “our plan is working.”
Air passengers who want compensation for poor service should buy insurance, says Canada’s civil aviation authority NAV Canada. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has promised tougher regulations against airlines for delayed flights and lost luggage: “Regulations should be a last line of defense, not the first line of recourse.”
I look at pictures
of execution chambers
in U.S. penitentiaries.
A bed, adjustable,
equipped with arm rests.
A mattress for softness,
clean sheets,
and a pillow for comfort.
Ceiling lights reflected
in a sparkling-clean floor.
Curtains on the windows;
a wall mounted clock;
mirror;
heater;
and an air conditioner.
By the bed,
a set of syringes;
sterile, to prevent
infection.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office yesterday said it played no role in attempting to censor a 2021 Toronto Sun column critical of the government. Authorities for a second day would not name who in officialdom invoked federal authority in demanding Facebook delete links to the newspaper article: “Neither I nor any other staff member of the Minister’s office made this request.”
Subsidized media should check their conflicts of interest with Parliament’s Ethics Commissioner, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. His remarks came at a news conference when a reporter questioned Poilievre’s proposal to cut CBC funding: “We need a neutral and free media, not a propaganda arm for the Liberal Party.”
