Parliament must stop the stigmatization of the forestry industry as environmental Neanderthals, the Commons natural resources committee was told yesterday. MPs have accused U.S.-funded green groups of interference in Canada: “We are not dumb people.”
Former Québec Liberal MP Frank Baylis is being summoned back to Parliament Hill, this time as a witness at Commons ethics committee hearings on federal contracting. Baylis’ firm Baylis Medical Company in the past year received two federal contracts: “Is that how you guys want to play?”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in a report says millions in interest-free pandemic loans intended for small business went to operations in “public administration” though rules excluded government organizations. Freeland’s department did not explain the payments worth more than $200 million: “The rules are fairly clear.”
A Liberal MP says he’s sorry after tweeting a profane acronym. MP Adam Vaughan (Spadina-Fort York, Ont.), parliamentary secretary for housing, said he had to look up the meaning of “wgaf” and did not know how it was posted on his Twitter account. “It might have been spell-check,” said Vaughan.
A new wave of pandemic shutdowns may “have a greater impact on the health of Canadians” than the coronavirus, the Commons health committee was told. The remarks followed the Prime Minister’s direction that Canadians again stay home and avoid non-essential travel: “Millions of Canadians suffered.”
The Commons heritage committee has passed a bill to proclaim a paid legal holiday, but only for federally-regulated employees. Private companies that operate under the Canada Labour Code estimated costs at $600 million: “Understand what a paid holiday means.”
The federal government promotes
gender-neutral language.
“Flight attendant” not
“steward” or “stewardess”,
“server” not
“waiter” or “waitress”,
singular “their” rather than
“his” or “her”.
Some invent Peoplekind
to replace Mankind.
The Prime Minister’s website
has yet to join.
Activities are His visits, His speeches,
Governor General is Her Excellency,
the Monarch is still Her Majesty the Queen.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
MPs have abused free lunch privileges at taxpayers’ expense, the former chair of the Commons government operations committee said yesterday. Legislators debated the ethics of enjoying free food while constituents grapple with a recession and pandemic: “If we’re going to talk about cutting down on costs, let’s go all the way.”
Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna yesterday acknowledged the taxpayer-owned Canada Infrastructure Bank has not completed any projects since it was established in 2017. McKenna said the Bank “absolutely does need to deliver” after receiving $35 billion: “I have high expectations.”
Newly-disclosed records confirm Health Minister Patricia Hajdu used a federal jet eleven times even as her department told Canadians to avoid non-essential travel. Hajdu’s office had previously admitted to only half as many flights, and yesterday had no comment: “Think again and stay home.”
The Liberal chair of the Commons natural resources committee yesterday was ordered to apologize for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Code. MP James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.) was cited for failing to promptly disclose all personal assets that include shares in SNC Lavalin Group Inc. and various oil companies.
“I apologize for not fully completing all my disclosure obligations when I filed in January,” MP Maloney wrote in a statement. “It was not my intention to withhold any information.”
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion ordered the MP to apologize to the Commons. “A Member’s protracted breach of their disclosure obligations cannot be viewed as trivial,” the Commissioner wrote in his Maloney Report.
The two-term Toronto MP, a lawyer, was required to file a Disclosure Statement sixty days after his re-election October 21, 2019. Maloney instead was the last of 338 MPs to file his statement this past September 14.
Records indicate Maloney owned shares in SNC Lavalin and forty-three other corporations including Apple, Alibaba Group Holdings, Bank of America, Bank of Nova Scotia, Berkshire Hathaway Class B, Canadian National Railway, Cenovus Energy, Citigroup, Enbridge, Facebook, Google, Manulife, Microsoft, Philip Morris International, Starbucks Corp and Suncor Energy.
“Throughout my 25-year career as a lawyer and my time as an MP I have always taken my ethical and disclosure obligations seriously,” wrote Maloney. “I understand and accept the Commissioner’s report.”
Commissioner Dion said his office repeatedly wrote Maloney to remind him of his duty to disclose investments and assets. Staff in the ethics office contacted Maloney fifteen times including letters and emails on November 13, January 16, January 22, January 24, January 27, February 7, February 19, February 26, March 18, April 27, May 21, June 1, June 9, June 25 and July 10.
“Not only did he delay completing his disclosure well beyond a reasonable time, he also failed to respond to communications from the Office for months,” wrote Commissioner Dion. The demand for a public apology is the first by a federal ethics commissioner.
Former Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido (Steveston-Richmond East, B.C.) on October 19 told the Commons he was sorry for breaching the Conflict Of Interest Code after the House passed a motion ordering him to apologize. Peschisolido lost re-election last year after Global News reported Chinese investors used his law firm to channel funds into Canada.
“Members need to know there will be a reckoning if there is a breach of the Code,” Conservative MP Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville, Ont.), sponsor of the censure motion, earlier told the Commons. “We have seen a slow and steady degradation of the confidence Canadians can have in this democratic institution.”
By Staff
The Department of Environment yesterday introduced a bill mandating targets leading to net zero emissions within a generation. The department did not explain how it would eliminate tailpipe emissions from government-owned trucks, locomotives and ferries, the largest transport fleet in the country: “Why did you not include more accountability?”
Federal agencies spent more than $36 million on new desks, chairs and other equipment to have employees work from home, according to records. The Department of Public Works said it was not a waste of money: “Employees will continue to leverage flexible work arrangements.”
Parliament must regulate “predatory capitalism” and tax “the richest of the rich”, a Liberal-appointed Senator yesterday told the Chamber. Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.) proposed raising the corporate tax rate from fifteen to twenty-one percent and taxing “passive investments” in private companies: ‘Rich people have fled big cities and located themselves in the suburbs.’
A federal judge has dismissed a climate change lawsuit that claimed rising greenhouse gas emissions breach Charter rights. “The courts must leave these decisions in the hands of others,” wrote Justice Glennys McVeigh of the Federal Court: “It is hard to imagine a more political issue than climate change.”
