Federal regulators should take down websites with hurtful words, says a former Supreme Court chief justice. Beverley McLachlin yesterday said enforcement measures must be taken against internet publishers deemed to hurt democracy: “The consequences ultimately would be to shut them down, which happens in non-democratic countries all the time.”
A Toronto publisher who publicly opposed a federal newspaper bailout sought and received funding under the $595 million program, according to records. “No statement, thanks,” said David Skok, editor of The Logic Inc.
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday listed publishers who applied for subsidies and were approved, including The Logic. Editor Skok in a 2019 commentary called the program an insult to readers.
“It will have a direct impact on the daily assigning and editing of a journalism product,” wrote Skok. “But worse, the policy is an insult to the audience.”
Parliament in 2019 amended the Income Tax Act to pay publishers 25 percent payroll grants of up to $13,750 per newsroom employee annually and a 15 percent tax credit to online subscribers. Publishers must apply for subsidies and be approved as “qualified journalism organizations” by the Canada Revenue Agency.
An Agency document Guidance On The Income Tax Measures To Support Journalism explained Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier would have final say over which publishers received aid based on “a consistent practice of providing rebuttal opportunity for those being criticized” in news coverage, including the cabinet.
Editor Skok in his 2019 commentary Canada’s New Journalism Subsidies Will Pick Winners And Hurt Start-Ups said the Revenue Agency was “getting into the minds of editors to dictate what areas of coverage are deemed more important than others.” Subsidies were “problematic” and “will have a direct impact on the daily assigning and editing of a journalism product,” wrote Skok.
“I founded The Logic on the belief that journalistic independence comes from financial independence,” Skok wrote in a separate 2018 commentary. “I still don’t think government intervention was needed.”
Records show The Logic Inc. last year in addition to payroll rebates received a $218,049 grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage, pandemic wage subsidies, an interest-free Canada Emergency Business Account loan and a sole-sourced $271,200 contract for “communications research services” from the Department of Public Works.
Publishers are not required to tell readers they are federally subsidized and subject to Canada Revenue Agency monitoring for criticism. Blacklock’s neither solicits nor accepts government grants. Other publishers that received payroll rebates were:
Bob Cox, publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press who lobbied for the bailout program on behalf of News Media Canada, testified at 2019 hearings of the Commons finance committee that subsidies should not be paid indefinitely. “We will have to save ourselves,” said Cox.
“The program itself is envisioned to be for five years and I felt that was an appropriate period of time because of course there will be news outlets, newspapers, that fail the transition and you can’t give them forever,” said Cox. “There does need to be a deadline.”
CWA Canada, a union representing newsroom guilds, earlier criticized the bailout program as rife with conflicts of interest. “Big publishers were salivating at the prospect of government money and they got it,” said Martin O’Hanlon, union president.
By Staff 
Photo The Logic
A federal judge has struck a cabinet order delaying local elections under the Indian Act in the name of pandemic safety. A similar law affecting voters in 338 parliamentary ridings remains on the books: “The government is asking me to tolerate an invalid exercise of power because it was done for a good reason. This is simply incompatible.”
In-house investigations at the Canada Border Services Agency are haphazard and raise questions of fairness, says an internal audit. Legislators for years have sought to strip Agency management of the right to investigate complaints against employees: “Fairness is essential.”
Cabinet must order a post-Covid judicial inquiry into pandemic management including favouritism in federal contracting, Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole said yesterday. O’Toole also endorsed a proposal from a former Québec prosecutor for ongoing monitoring of contracts: “We need complete transparency and accountability.”
Parliament should be more helpful and friendly to China, says a former Bank of Canada executive. The People’s Republic has a sunny outlook while “there’s a sense of things being very broken” in Canada, he said: “If I had to wager, I wager they will make it.”
The Department of Public Works claims to have discovered $28 million in urgently needed repairs to a building it’s owned for decades. Members of the Senate committee on internal economy expressed unease with ongoing spending on Parliament Hill renovations: “We can probably build a new building for just over that.”
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal says it’s seen a flood of complaints over mandatory mask orders. The province’s Human Rights Code “does not protect people who refuse to wear a mask as a matter of personal preference or because they believe wearing a mask is pointless,” said the Tribunal.
The CBC has seven vice-presidents, ten directors general, five directors of finance and a “strategic intelligence department” with a $900,000 budget, according to records disclosed in a labour hearing. Management has praised its “visionary talent” in spending a $1.3 billion-a year federal grant: “We are covering the planet with very few resources.”
The Prime Minister’s Office has named a Canadian supplier blamed for selling substandard pandemic masks for use at municipal nursing homes in Toronto. The city’s solicitor had asked that the name be withheld: “So consider that confidential.”
Cabinet has signed an order, the first of its kind, that caps selected fees charged taxpayers by accountants and tax consultants at $100 a year. Consultants had called the cap ruinous for 60,000 firms nationwide that handle claims for disability credis, though the sponsor of a bill to regulate fees said too many taxpayers were victimized by unscrupulous promoters: “This money was siphoned off by the middlemen.”
Evan Siddall, retiring $459,000-a year chief executive of CMHC, in farewell remarks to the Commons finance committee said the corporation never lied to Canadians about home equity taxes. Siddall did not comment on Access To Information records: “I was accused of lying, in fact, and a media cover-up on this.”
Self-help seminars for federal prisoners cost taxpayers up to $7,331 per inmate but may save money in the end, says a Correctional Service study. Participation is voluntary in group discussions on “goal setting,” “learning style,” “healing” and other topics: ‘The ultimate goal is to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens.’
A Senate committee has endorsed a bill to appoint an “artist laureate” to inspire the nation. “Give a vote of moral support to Canadian creators in this very dark time,” said Senator Patricia Bovey (Man.), sponsor of the bill: “It expresses the soul and substance of who we are as Canadians.”
Canada’s original NORAD headquarters, an underground complex once home to the nation’s first supercomputer, will be scrapped. The Department of National Defence said it could think of no further use for the 1963 bunker at North Bay, Ont.: “Bringing the facility up to health and safety standards is not feasible.”
