A threatened vaccine order on air and rail passengers will not apply until November 30 at the earliest and will not be compulsory, the Department of Transport said yesterday. Unvaccinated domestic travelers can board with proof of a negative Covid test, similar to rules for international travelers introduced last winter: ‘Details on exceptions will be provided in coming days.’
A federal gun buy-back program is already 34 percent over budget, according to Access To Information records disclosed yesterday by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The Parliamentary Budget Office earlier warned an identical program in New Zealand doubled in cost: ‘It has all the makings of another boondoggle.’
RCMP conducted a “vast” four-year undercover probe of bitcoin dealers suspected of laundering drug money in Canada, records show. The sting operation was prompted by tips from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and tax auditors in Washington, D.C.: “Look man, do you even care where some of the money comes from?”
CMHC yesterday acknowledged it never consulted the Privacy Commissioner before collecting personal financial details on 8,951,718 homeowners including mortgage holders who had no business with CMHC. The Privacy Commissioner did not comment: “They need the trust of Canadians to operate.”
Federal agencies considered direct aid to small business to stock their own Covid masks and other personal protective equipment, according to internal emails. The initiative was dropped: “Direct money, a tax credit, I’m not sure what smart Finance folks can assist with delivery ideas.”
Matthew Boswell, the $328,000-a year Commissioner of Competition, yesterday endorsed a Commons committee proposal to ban wage fixing. It follows an investigation of alleged collusion between supermarket chains on the 2020 rollback of a $2 an hour Covid bonus for employees: “Gaps in our cartel law mean those conspiracy provisions do not protect workers.”
TV typos including innocent mistakes are a breach of newsroom ethics, a national broadcast regulator ruled yesterday. A St. John’s TV station was censured for garbling a handful of facts in a local story: “These facts were not factual.”
CMHC in a mammoth data scoop compiled personal financial records on nearly nine million mortgage holders, according to Access To Information files. Data obtained without borrowers’ informed consent included personal income, municipal addresses, credit scores and household debts even for homeowners who were not CMHC customers: “No, we shouldn’t need a privacy impact assessment.”
The Department of Public Works plans to install cafés and lounge seating in federal offices so employees can “zone out, relax or stretch,” according to Access To Information records. Staff also proposed special seating near windows called “reflection areas” where employees might look outside: “Shouldn’t we?”
A Commons committee last night rejected compulsory vaccination for MPs. Proof of a negative Covid test will do just as well, Speaker Anthony Rota said in a statement: ‘Details with respect to implementation are being developed.’
Federal investigators accuse Canadian National Railway Co. of hampering an investigation into a collision that shut down a CN main line. The Transportation Safety Board asked that a federal judge order CN to cooperate under threat of “imprisonment or a fine.”
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of an archives clerk who didn’t show up for work for six months, then spent three years delaying hearings on his settlement agreement. “Astonishing,” wrote a labour adjudicator.
The Privy Council Office yesterday expressed regret after Access To Information censors concealed as a state secret a 1959 speech by then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. His Commons speech has been on the public record for 62 years but was stored in a file marked “TOP SECRET.”
Actual checkout prices on select foods at the grocery store far exceed the overall inflation rate, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Average yearly retail price increases for meats, produce and dairy items run as high as twenty to thirty percent in some provinces: “This affects Canadians’ pocketbooks.”
Rigid discipline in an “independent” Senate caucus of Liberal appointees sees members reprimanded for speaking out of turn, Senator Marilou McPhedran said yesterday. The Manitoba lawyer quit the Independent Senators Group after describing the caucus code as “work together, think together, stay together.”
