Canadian banks typically disregard federal guidelines requiring that they answer all customer complaints, says a Financial Consumer Agency of Canada report. Access To Information records show the Agency itself disregarded tens of thousands of consumer complaints: “Banks failed.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday made diplomatic history with Parliament in summer recess by announcing recognition of Palestine as a country. MPs including members of the Liberal caucus voted down an identical proposal in 2024: “I am speaking for Canada now.”
Federal employees who post partisan, self-serving or vulgar comments on social media even by anonymous personal accounts should expect scrutiny and criticism, says a new Treasury Board directive. The policy, the strongest yet, warned provocative posts on Twitter, Instagram and other social media undermined public trust in the Government of Canada: “Ask yourself how this post could be perceived by a reasonable person.”
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday repeated assurances there will be no recession this year though the economy shrank in June. Macklem acknowledged an “unusual degree of uncertainty” in months ahead.
The Canada Revenue Agency is so reliant on consultants an internal audit warns that managers developed “an employer-employee relationship” with contractors. The Revenue Agency spent millions on private advisors last year though it has more than 55,000 employees: “The relationship between the employer and the consultant could result in legal, financial or tax liabilities for the Revenue Agency.”
Federal meteorologists propose to improve weather forecasting using artificial intelligence, says a Department of Environment briefing note. It follows a 2020 audit that found Environment Canada was still relying on radar stations so obsolete they couldn’t find parts for repairs: ‘AI could provide earlier warnings of weather and environmental events.’
The Department of Transport has sealed all records regarding Confederation Bridge tolls until November 2026. Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday had no comment on costs of ongoing subsidies to the Bridge operator whose investors included then-Transport Minister Anita Anand’s husband: “It is the taxpayer who is getting dinged on that.”
The Department of National Defence is relying on “approximately 300” members of the Canadian Armed Forces to patrol the territories, an area six times the size of France, according to figures detailed in a briefing note. Allies were welcome to send troops to the Canadian Arctic, it said: “New activities aim to support a near year-round military presence.”
Twenty-two Canadian diplomats were fired last year for fraud, theft, embezzlement, soliciting kickbacks and other wrongdoing, according to Department of Foreign Affairs figures. No police were called: “We are all responsible.”
The Department of Health is documenting pushback by cannabis users over new federal warnings linking marijuana to psychosis. “I’m confused,” federal researchers quoted one focus group participant who questioned the timing of new warnings seven years after Parliament legalized marijuana: “How do we know it affects the brain?”
A quarter of the Senate, 26 Liberal appointees, yesterday signed a petition accusing cabinet of exporting lethal military shipments to Israel. Cabinet has repeatedly denied approving any arms shipments to Israel: “We haven’t exported arms to Israel in 30 years.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday announced lower tolls on Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Bridge without disclosing how many millions in new subsidies will be paid to compensate the operator. Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s husband is managing director of an investors’ group that held a 34 percent share in Strait Crossing Development Inc., one of the most profitable toll bridge operators in the country: “It’s big money.”
Most Canadians say they pay too much federal tax under a system that punishes the middle class, says in-house Canada Revenue Agency research. Almost two thirds of people surveyed agreed that “rich people have an easier time tax cheating than middle class Canadians.”
A shawarma shopkeeper who spoke casually of bombing synagogues to “kill as many Jews as possible” yesterday was sentenced to 60 days’ house arrest. Justice Edward Prutschi, the sentencing judge in Ontario Provincial Court, said Jews are fearful and angry: “Many Canadian Jews live in a state of perpetual heightened anxiety.”
The federal government spends more than a billion a year with American suppliers though actual benefits to U.S. contractors have not been calculated, says the Department of Public Works. A figure of $1.3 billion a year is quoted in a briefing note written at the same time cabinet announced U.S. President Donald Trump was trying to “destroy the Canadian economy.”
