Blacklock's Reporter

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday defended an abrupt policy change in support of censoring YouTube videos. Cabinet last Friday had MPs on the Commons heritage committee vote to regulate YouTube under the Broadcasting Act despite an earlier pledge to let “user-generated content” alone: “It is all about restricting content that ‘undermines social cohesion,’ but what does that even mean?”

Federal departments and agencies awarded $5.8 million in contracts to China suppliers last year even as Chinese jailers held Canadians in arbitrary detention, records show. It was “business as usual,” said an MP who sought the figures: “It is wrong.”

A federal “cost savings” program to electrify transit will see vehicles purchased at double the cost of conventional buses, data show. Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna launched the program March 4 on a promise of savings: “We’re tackling climate change.”

A 30 percent tax on excess profits for large companies that saw pandemic gains would raise $7,947,000,000, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The figures were sought by New Democrats who advocate what leader Jagmeet Singh called a “pandemic profiteering tax.”

Labour Minister Filomena Tassi yesterday introduced a rushed bill ordering striking Montréal longshoreman back to work under threat of $100,000-a day fines. Tassi called it “a matter of life and death.”

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson yesterday disclosed his wife Tara owns stock in one of Canada’s largest gas companies. Wilkinson has repeatedly invoked the couple’s school-age daughters in justifying federal climate change programs, but omitted mention of family shares in Enbridge Inc.: “It is something we must take action on in the short term if we want to leave a livable planet for our kids.”

Cabinet is not interested in “regulating all of the internet,” the parliamentary secretary for Canadian heritage said yesterday. Remarks by Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin (Toronto-Danforth) followed a heritage committee vote to control YouTube content: “Should the government restrict access to the internet and social media to combat the spread of misinformation?”

Cabinet is seeking Parliament’s quick passage of a back-to-work bill to end a longshoremen’s strike at the Port of Montréal. A bill will be introduced today in the Commons: “The Port’s activities cannot be stopped. We need the Port.”

The Commons yesterday took up a Bloc Québécois bill to retroactively eliminate pension payments for ex-Governor General Julie Payette. MPs from all parties cited public outrage over Payette’s pension for life: “Things went terribly wrong.”

Retailers yesterday appealed to the Commons environment committee to delay a ban on six single-use plastic items for at least a year. Quick enforcement would only hurt small shopkeepers, said the Retail Council of Canada: “Businesses need as much certainty as possible.”

The Commons heritage committee has voted to regulate YouTube under federal law. The Department of Heritage said YouTube management, not individual users, will be liable for complying with the Broadcasting Act: “The only reason the government is doing this is to stretch the justification of regulating public airwaves into a justification for regulating private viewing.”

A federal agency bought stock in a money-losing Kenyan cellphone company at three times the price of shares in Ford Motor Co., records show. Export Development Canada called the “investment” speculative, and said it now plans to dump the stock that cost taxpayers $15,400,000: “The rate of return on this investment is difficult to predict.”

The Department of Health in internal emails rated a failed contractor as “solid” even after its Covid test kits failed clinical trials. Spartan Bioscience Inc. received a $16.6 million cash advance for rush orders of test kits never delivered before it filed for bankruptcy court protection April 6: “We are in good shape.”

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says she needs to “do a better job of explaining” where billions have been spent on public works. Auditors in a March 25 report said they found only a partial picture of where the money went: “Even the Auditor General for Canada can’t connect the dots.”

A gibe to “go back to Québec” is not a breach of the Human Rights Code, a British Columbia tribunal has ruled. The Victoria tribunal dismissed a complaint of discrimination, saying the remark was rude but not discriminatory: “It is not so virulent or egregious.”