Police in Hamilton have dropped a criminal investigation into theft of millions of pandemic masks imported from Shanghai by the Department of Public Works. There were no leads and no suspects, the department said: “The products were not recovered.”
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi must investigate Canada Labour Code breaches at one of the nation’s largest federal mail distribution plants, a member of the Commons health committee said yesterday. Canada Post was cited by a federal inspector for failing to promptly report Covid-19 cases: “It is completely unacceptable to see a Crown corporation break the law.”
The Department of Public Works in self-congratulatory internal emails said it was “very proud” of doing a great job on pandemic management, “a great story for us.” The messages were exchanged as Covid deaths nationwide approached 9,000: “We’re everybody’s government!”
Cabinet will consider subsidizing any green project, “anything really” that appears feasible, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said yesterday. His remarks followed federal auditors’ complaints of difficulty in tracking actual costs and benefits of green subsidies: “We’re willing to look at anything really, you know, if it seems like it’s a good idea.”
A Québec company received a quarter-billion pandemic contract to supply ventilators that repeatedly failed testing, internal records show. Cabinet justified the sole-sourced contract on a claim of “extreme urgency.” First deliveries of rebuilt devices are scheduled this week, eleven months after the contract was approved: “It was an emergency situation.”
The Department of National Defence is so dysfunctional “it’s like pushing a rock uphill,” a former military ombudsman yesterday told the Commons defence committee. Gary Walbourne in 2018 abruptly quit his $203,000-a year post after complaining his office lacked independence: “I knew it was a hit job.”
China’s ambassador to Canada yesterday dismissed a parliamentary vote condemning his country for genocide. Evidence of atrocities are “lies spread by a very few certain people due to anti-China intentions,” said Ambassador Cong Peiwu: ‘Those kinds of claims are lies of the century.’
Senate Speaker George Furey hosted a VIP salon supper for three Liberal-appointed senators the same day the Prime Minister lamented “difficult lessons about inequality” in a speech to the United Nations. The meal was catered from a French restaurant that sells $13 Martinis: “There are still tough times ahead.”
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday dismissed a consumers’ petition opposing email billing by telecom companies. The decision followed a 2020 CRTC ruling that customers at Koodoo Mobile were not entitled to paper bills: “I don’t see a commitment to the consumer here.”
The Department of Public Works concealed a multi-million dollar heist of pandemic masks, according to internal records. Millions of surgical masks vanished from an airport warehouse at Hamilton, Ont. after the Prime Minister and local authorities announced the delivery: ‘We are not comfortable with publicly divulging the location.’
Canada’s federal whistleblower protection law is “nearly entirely dormant,” the International Bar Association said yesterday. Cabinet to date has ignored a 2017 recommendation from MPs to strengthen the law targeting disclosure of wrongdoing: “Whistleblowers are essential for credible law enforcement campaigns against corruption.”
Federal inspectors will defer penalties against scofflaws under new truck safety regulations, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said yesterday. Canada for six years has reviewed electronic engine monitors already mandated in the United States since 2017: “Pay attention.”
Lawyers should not make snide Twitter remarks about former clients, the Law Society of Ontario said yesterday. The regulatory guidance came on a complaint filed by Blacklock’s against Mark Bourrie, an Ottawa solicitor who lamented news coverage of the We Charity “non-scandal.”
“Mr. Bourrie appears to consider his comments to be a personal opinion made in the context of a journalist,” wrote a Law Society investigator: “Mr. Bourrie should be careful about any statements he makes about his former clients.”
Bourrie in an unprovoked series of tweets last August 22 called Blacklock’s one of a “rogues’ gallery of fake news” along with the website Canadaland and other publishers. Blacklock’s “started going off the rails five or six years ago,” he said.
Law Society Rules Of Professional Conduct state a solicitor must not “undermine the client’s position on a matter that was central to a previous retainer.” Bourrie in 2018 was retained by Blacklock’s to serve libel notice on yet another tweeting Ontario solicitor, Christopher Ball of Kingston, who published a post claiming Blacklock’s was a front for an Italian crime syndicate.
The Law Society yesterday said Bourrie was issued regulatory guidance “to remind Mr. Bourrie of his professional obligations and to help him comply with the Rules Of Professional Conduct.”
Bourrie, a former Parliamentary Press Gallery member, in Twitter comments blamed numerous media outlets including the Globe & Mail, National Post, Sun Media, Maclean’s and others for criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “The people attacking Trudeau on this are the same folks who claim the free market can solve our economic problems,” he tweeted.
“Opportunistic opposition MPs and a reckless desperate media drummed up the bogus We Charity scandal,” he wrote. Bourrie in other Twitter posts described media as “grotesque,” “flying monkeys,” “puppets,” “the Tories and their media stooges,” newsrooms that “collect scalps” and “put heat on people until they break” and reporters who “can’t speak French.”
“Thanks Justin Trudeau,” tweeted Bourrie. “Justin Trudeau is no Churchill, but I am damned glad he won the 2019 election”; “How many ‘have you stopped beating your wife?’ questions is Trudeau expected to answer?”
“Sociopaths are succeeding in taking him down with the help of Hill media and reckless Opposition MPs,” tweeted Bourrie: “There are quite a few women in media, on the left and on the right, who are just as dishonest and vitriolic about Trudeau. You might be able to show a preponderance of men are hateful, but there’s a substantial number of women, too.”
Bourrie in 2019 announced in a CBC Radio interview he planned to quit social media as a New Year’s resolution. “There’s a lot of crap out there,” he said.
By Staff 
[photo: Tom Sandler, CNW Group/Charles Taylor Prize]
The Commons finance committee yesterday killed a private bill to shut down Canada Revenue Agency operations in Québec. The Bloc Québécois had sought to have the province collect all income tax within its borders and remit the federal share back to Ottawa: “I’ve never had a bill defeated at committee.”
The Department of Health was so poorly prepared for the outbreak of the pandemic it had to send masks to Florida for safety testing, say internal records. And the number of ventilators stored in a $300 million national stockpile was only one percent of what was needed: “It’s an embarrassment to this country.”
