An Ontario court will hear the country’s first Black Lives Matter defamation lawsuit. A shoe cleaning business sued for slander after an ex-employee published profane tweets calling owners “Caucasian people” unsympathetic to the protest movement: “The public has an interest in knowing about a company’s stance on matters of social and political importance.”
A federal agency spent nearly $13 million to create jobs in Kenya with subsidies for a Nairobi company that promptly laid off staff. FinDev Canada withheld Access To Information records on the transaction for a year, and censored thousands of pages of documents: “We performed our own due diligence.”
Taxpayers have paid more than $70 million to subsidize the purchase of California electric cars, data show. The Commons environment committee yesterday was told rebates are a subsidy for the rich: “What we’re doing is subsidizing a vehicle that a wealthy person is going to buy.”
Snowbirds and holidayers should stay home this winter, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said last night. Blair said cabinet can’t forbid Canadians from chasing the sun, but recommended they stock up on private health insurance: “We will continue to discourage it.”
Parliament must make up a $70 million-a year shortfall in the MPs’ pension plan, actuaries said yesterday. The plan currently pays an average $69,800 a year to retirees: “The number of deaths among pensioners was less than anticipated.”
The Department of Transport yesterday ordered that all aircraft including bush planes be equipped with digital emergency distress beacons. Scofflaws face $15,000 fines: “It is not just about costs.”
Former ambassador John McCallum last night said he had “not received a penny” from the People’s Republic of China, but added he is a paid consultant for Chinese companies. McCallum was fired as ambassador in 2019 after remarking it would be “great for Canada” if it didn’t have to extradite a Huawei Technologies executive wanted on U.S. bank fraud charges: “Right now I cannot divulge names of clients.”
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday acknowledged “suspicious activity” in claims for $2,000 pandemic relief cheques, including applications by people who were clearly ineligible. MPs and the Department of Employment said they relied on the Agency to verify claims upfront: “That is a simple principle that an average person understands.”
The federal carbon tax would have to more than double if cabinet is to meet its long-term emissions targets, says a federal agency. The Canada Energy Regulator calculated the current $50 tax cap, equivalent to 12¢ a litre on the price of gasoline, is insufficient: “It is difficult to predict.”
The chief clerk of the federal public service last night refused to say how many We Charity records have been withheld from MPs. The Commons finance committee has sought to censure federal agencies for concealing documents: “What you’re indicating to us is disturbing.”
Eight hundred foreign criminals wanted for deportation remain fugitives nationwide, the Canada Border Services Agency said yesterday. About 2,000 were successfully deported since auditors uncovered sloppy record-keeping at the Agency: “I don’t quite understand why we would tolerate this.”
A third of a million foreigners entered Canada after cabinet invoked the Quarantine Act, records show. Foreign visitors included 18,000 China passport holders: “I think staying home this year is probably the right thing to do.”
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough yesterday said auditors will have to “follow up” with Canadians who claimed to be jobless in applying for $2,000 pandemic relief cheques. The program went 240 percent over-budget. Qualtrough’s department earlier claimed checks were done upfront to confirm applications were legitimate: “It was not abandoning any checks and balances at the get-go.”
Claims for paid sick leave under the Employment Insurance Act increased forty-nine percent even before the pandemic, according to a Department of Employment audit. Staff could not explain the jump in claims, “more than five times the predicted increase.”
A federal bank has doubled its estimate of bad loans due to the pandemic. Accounting by the Business Development Bank follows a warning taxpayers cannot be sure of risks in loans approved by Crown corporations: ‘It is related to economic shock caused by Covid-19.’
