MPs yesterday demanded public release of contracts signed with vaccine manufacturers amid uneven distribution of medicines in Canada. Cabinet declined: “The federal government refuses to release a single word in a single contract it has signed.”
The Department of Fisheries yesterday said a six-figure expense at a luxury resort and spa was no holiday. Staff billed for training crew at the same time cabinet told Canadians to “hunker down” and stay home: “Parts of the resort utilized by the inshore rescue boat personnel were closed to other guests.”
A single department, Public Works, spent more than a million buying work-from-home office chairs and desks for twenty percent of its employees, say Access To Information records. A government-wide pandemic chair giveaway cost more than $36 million: “We will continue to maximize telework for the foreseeable future.”
Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office grumbled Québec asked for too many rationed medical supplies only days into the pandemic, internal records show. A national emergency stockpile had virtually run out after the Public Health Agency threw away millions of masks and other items months before: “Hey, we asked for this stuff and we’re not getting it.”
A federal bill banning hurtful comments on Facebook and Twitter is necessary to avoid violent anti-government protest, says Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault. Testifying at the Commons heritage committee, Guilbeault lamented attacks on the public service and federal agencies: “Canadians are asking the government to step in.”
Craig and Mark Kielburger will be summoned back to testify before MPs over negotiations with cabinet for a $43.5 million grant. Members of the Commons ethics committee said the Kielburgers will be treated as “hostile witnesses” if they don’t volunteer to take questions: “The committee shall summon these witnesses should they not respond.”
The Canada Revenue Agency paid $2,000 CERB cheques to more than half the residents of one remote Yukon hamlet, according to Access To Information records. Yukon had the highest rate of CERB payments of any jurisdiction last year: “Once we see annual income tax returns we can determine if payments were correct.”
Jesse Moore, a Nairobi millionaire whose company received $15.4 million in taxpayers’ aid, in a confidential email told employees to beware Blacklock’s accounts of his business dealings. International Trade Minister Mary Ng refused comment.
“Our company continues to be the target of false reporting,” Moore wrote in a staff email marked “DO NOT FORWARD.” “In recent months M-Kopa has been subject to untruthful and highly misleading articles written by Blacklock’s Reporter. These have since been repeated by a small number of blog sites in Kenya.”
Immediately following the email directive, Minister Ng’s office ended all contact with Blacklock’s over the Kenyan venture. Ng approved the financing. Cabinet in a January 15 Ministerial Mandate letter had pledged not to blacklist media. “Foster a professional and respectful relationship with journalists,” said the letter.
Moore is the Canadian CEO of M-Kopa Holdings Ltd., a Kenyan door-to-door sales company that received millions in federal funding. It was the first recipient of aid by FinDev Canada, an agency launched by cabinet in 2017 on a $300 million mandate to promote international development.
Access To Information documents and other records show FinDev bought $15.4 million worth of shares in Moore’s company without consulting its chief investment officer – the job was vacant at the time – and without disclosing financial details of company operations.
Moore’s company had two-year losses of $51 million when it received the funding. Moore as CEO held stock options worth $633,000 and received a six-figure salary, the equivalent of $397,500 a year including bonuses.
M-Kopa sells Kenyans home appliances, cellphones and household loans at interest rates calculated at 254 percent a year, a rate outlawed in Canada under the Criminal Code. Both Moore and FinDev have declined to answer questions on executive pay, interest charges and other details of M-Kopa operations.
In his email to staff, Moore mistakenly claimed he had contacted Blacklock’s. “M-Kopa and FinDev Canada have sought corrections and offered factual information which has been repeatedly ignored by Blacklock’s editor,” wrote Moore.
“In response to their unprofessional and unethical journalism practices, we have found no value in engaging with them any further,” wrote Moore. “If you do have any questions or concerns about something you read online, do know that you are always welcome to reach out to myself. If you see any misleading articles in the media or social channels, you can contact our communications team.”
“I ask everyone to not let these baseless claims distract us from the important work we do,” said Moore. “We all know what we are achieving, and the truth of our impact should make us all very proud.”
FinDev has not detailed staff contacts with Moore prior to funding his company. The agency censored a total 2,730 pages of records concerning Moore’s company under Access To Information.
By Staff 
Competition Bureau investigators are widening an anti-trust probe in farm chemicals, according to Federal Court records. The Bureau since 2019 has alleged the nation’s largest chemical manufacturers targeted a start-up discounter that promised farmers low-cost pesticides: “If anyone thinks socialism is going to feed the world just call Russia.”
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. was awarded a $150 million pandemic contract despite former executives being cited for bid-rigging, fraud, bribery and illegal campaign contributions, records show. Opposition MPs have questioned why the Québec engineering firm is not blacklisted as a federal contractor: “We look like a banana republic.”
The Bloc Québécois last night protested a rewrite of the citizenship oath to include the word “constitution.” A cabinet bill revising the oath will be opposed, an MP told the Commons Indigenous affairs committee: “Did this come from the government, this idea to include the word?”
Federal departments installed $2 million VIP electric auto charging stations for exclusive use by cabinet ministers and their deputies, records show. “We absolutely do need to be leading by example,” Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna said earlier.
An audit yesterday confirmed proportionately fewer Black jobseekers are hired by federal managers though reasons were unclear. The Public Service Commission audit reviewed jobs posted prior to 2020 Black Lives Matter protests: “There are likely other issues at play.”
A national broadcast ombudsman yesterday cited CTV National News for inaccurate reporting on Donald Trump. The network apologized for what it called an inadvertent error, adding “there was no intent to ‘spin’ the news.”
Parliament’s Budget Officer yesterday said CERB payments to high schoolers will be investigated. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not comment on $635.9 million in relief cheques to children, but called the pandemic “potentially scarring” for young people: “That is why we moved forward with unprecedented measures, with the CERB for students for example.”
