Politics in Canada is toxic and bitter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. His remarks followed 2019 committee testimony by Trudeau’s Clerk of the Privy Council that “somebody’s going to be shot in this country.”
Department of Transport lawyers coached airlines on how to reject Canadians’ requests for vaccine waivers on religious grounds, according to Access To Information memos. Even passengers with legitimate claims were to be challenged every time they switched flights, wrote staff: “These types of exemptions are anticipated to be granted very rarely.”
The Privy Council Office spent $177,458 searching for Black and Indigenous appointees as deputy ministers, say Access To Information records. Corporate talent spotters found less than a handful of interested candidates: “The government expressed its priority to address systemic racism.”
Charging immigrants to take a citizenship test is not discriminatory, a federal judge has ruled. Lawyers had sought to certify a class action lawsuit claiming fees were unfair since other Canadians gained free citizenship by birth: “Canada is a country of immigrants.”
The Department of Immigration yesterday said it will book millions’ worth of hotel rooms to house Ukrainian refugees. Canada to date has approved 216,000 of 515,000 Ukrainian applications to come to Canada. Taxpayers will cover any room damage, it said: “The contractor must ensure additional room services or features typically available such as, but not limited to, in-room mini bars.”
A Montréal anti-Semite was able to “slip through the cracks” in successfully applying for taxpayers’ grants, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Cabinet to date has not explained why federal managers failed to conduct routine checks on the contractor: “It has to stop.”
Auditors at the Department of Veterans Affairs are questioning millions spent on an old navy cemetery. The department billed taxpayers $4 million for graveyard upgrades like plots that were never sold and trails that were never used: “There is no plan.”
Homeowners on flood plains face a mandatory $900 a year premium for additional insurance under a proposal yesterday by a federal task force. A national insurance program is need to save taxpayers the cost of ad hoc disaster aid, it said: “It is the country’s most common and costly natural disaster.”
Inflation is a “perfect storm” for wage earners, says an Ontario labour arbitrator. Private sector wage settlements across Canada this year are averaging as high as three percent or more in a bid to catch up with the cost of living: “What was once hoped to be ‘temporary’ is proving stubborn and persistent.”
Inflation is the leading worry for Canadians with many questioning if the country’s best years are behind it, says internal Department of Finance research. Canadians told Minister Chrystia Freeland’s pollsters the cost of living was a bigger worry than crime, terrorism or climate change: “Wages have not kept up.”
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller yesterday said he had no idea his office approved a Canada Summer Student grant for a group whose anti-Semitic senior consultant campaigned against Jews as “human garbage.” Miller said the funding should be returned: “He’s held horribly anti-Semitic statements that we should have known about earlier.”
Cabinet is “leaning in” on a pending bill to censor legal internet content and will introduce the legislation as soon as possible, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said yesterday. The effort has stalled since first proposed in 2019: “Others within our government are leaning in on this and will bring forward the legislation as quickly as possible.”
A federal judge has certified a class action lawsuit against the Canada Revenue Agency over hacking of thousands of online accounts by CERB cheats. The Agency acknowledged flaws in its software allowed hackers to steal taxpayers’ ID to claim $2,000 pandemic relief cheques: “Did these attacks not demonstrate there was a total failure of the systems?”
Rogers Communications Inc. must answer for a July 8 blackout in pressing for its takeover of rival Shaw Communications, Chief Justice Paul Crampton of the Federal Court has ruled. Rogers executives had questioned the relevance of the internet shutdown that affected 12 million customers: “We work hard to bring the best value for money for our customers.”
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller’s office approved a Canada Summer Student grant application by a Montréal group linked to anti-Semitic slurs. Cabinet at the time required applicants to swear an oath to “respect individual human rights.”
