Children’s participation in sports has declined so sharply it could affect future Olympic programs, says the Department of Canadian Heritage. Staff blamed high costs but made no mention of cabinet’s 2017 repeal of a fitness tax credit: “This could result in a gap in the number of high performance athletes competing in a decade or so.”
MPs have quietly dropped a committee investigation into a mystery woman who jumped on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during Freedom Convoy protests. Cabinet blamed convoy truckers for the incident though the woman was never identified nor arrested and Ottawa police would not testify: “We describe this as a unique demonstration.”
Statistics Canada for the first time is collecting data on the number of stolen and smuggled firearms used in gun crimes. However it “may take a few years” to compile figures from police nationwide, it said: ‘Who owned it? How it was stored? Was the owner licensed?’
CMHC last year awarded the equivalent of a five-figure bonus to almost every employee on its payroll, according to records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Bonuses were paid as CEO Romy Bowers publicly lamented the tragedy of homelessness in Canada: “On any given night as many as 35,000 people across our country may be experiencing homelessness. Why is this happening?”
A sawmill operator has been ordered to pay $1,000 for breaching privacy rights of an employee forced to take a drug test. Run of the mill mishaps at work are not sufficient justification for testing, a British Columbia labour arbitrator ruled: “When a breach of an employee’s privacy rights is established an award of general damages is appropriate.”
Canadians should expect a brutal war in Ukraine to last for years, the chair of the Commons defence committee said yesterday. Military commanders called it a valid concern: “This is something we are very concerned about.”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is promising more media subsidies after thanking reporters for their Freedom Convoy coverage. “Look at the role that the journalists played,” said Rodriguez: “I think there are even more things we should be able to do.”
CBC-TV assigned a security guard to protect every single reporter assigned to cover the Freedom Convoy, a journalism seminar was told last night. Media recounted the extraordinary security measures at a Carleton University “Journalism Under Siege” seminar: “This was a real threat.”
Internal records show managers at the national archives were driven to exchanging profane emails following a public outcry over removal of webpages celebrating John A. Macdonald. Response from taxpayers was overwhelmingly negative, admitted staff: “Are you guys on drugs?”
The Canadian Taxi Association in a submission to the Senate confirms at least thirteen Covid deaths among drivers based on incomplete data, it said. Cabbies asked to be included among front line workers in a pandemic remembrance bill: “Honour the courage, selflessness and dedication of essential workers who work in all sectors.”
Mandatory body worn cameras by the RCMP will not be in place until 2023 at the earliest. The Mounties have resisted demands for cameras dating from the videotaped 2007 death of a Vancouver man in police custody: “It will take approximately 18 months for the majority of cameras to be rolled out.”
The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations will not comment on a $200,000 contract to ex-senator Murray Sinclair’s law firm. The payment for two months’ work covered the period Sinclair worked as a federal negotiator in settling an Indigenous child welfare claim: “I spoke to Murray Sinclair last night.”
Complaints from a Toronto Star reporter prompted the national archives to order a Saturday night purge of webpages deemed offensive, according to Access To Information records. Chief archivist Leslie Weir within hours of reading a Saturday Star headline announced she wanted pages “modified or taken down ASAP” though staff were not assigned to work the weekend: “Thank you for your collaboration on this urgent situation.”
Freedom Convoy sympathizers whose accounts were frozen by cabinet order will have their files marked for life, the Canadian Bankers Association said yesterday. Bankers also disclosed they froze accounts of individuals who never appeared on an RCMP blacklist of 257 names: “If in fact they illegitimately froze a bank account they would face zero legal consequences.”
Public Works Minister Filomena Tassi has brought in the lawyers to conceal the value of a sole-sourced lease to a longtime Liberal Party donor. Tassi’s department refused multiple requests to disclose payments to a Québec landowner whose property was used to process illegal immigrants: “This was the ideal location.”
