Blacklock's Reporter

A parliamentary review of cabinet actions against the Freedom Convoy must not delve into cover-ups or concealment of evidence, legislators were told last night. New Democrat MP Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, Ont.), who supported use of the Emergencies Act against protesters, said the review must be wide-ranging and above board: “The cynicism, the lack of trust, the erosion of faith in our democratic institutions is still very much a topic at hand.”

No manager was fired or reassigned for crude bigotry at the Department of Immigration, MPs were told yesterday. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser called racism “a sickness” in his department, explaining Black employees may now attend trauma counselling: “We do know that within the public service and as well within our department these problems do exist.”

Only a quarter of Afghan nationals who aided Canadian forces and pleaded to enter Canada have been admitted by the Department of Immigration to date, records show. MPs on the Commons immigration committee yesterday expressed anger over the slow pace of rescues: “We know the Taliban has ramped up their brutal regime.”

There is limited scientific justification for universal vaccine mandates, two medical experts yesterday told the Commons health committee. The Prime Minister’s dismissal of unvaccinated Canadians as a racist fringe group was uniquely unhelpful, said the president of one medical association: “It was politically driven. It did not help anyone in the health care industry.”

Informants flooded the Canada Revenue Agency with tips on suspected cheaters who falsely claimed pandemic relief cheques, records show. The volume of tips to the Agency doubled to more than 60,000 last year: “The leads program saw a significant increase.”

More than a third of government-assisted refugees remain on welfare a decade after landing in Canada, analysts with Statistics Canada said yesterday. Higher welfare rates followed landmark 2001 changes to immigration law: “It marked a major policy shift.”

Canadian Pacific Railway is owed a perpetual tax holiday under terms of a contract endorsed by John A. Macdonald, an executive said yesterday. The House of Commons and Saskatchewan legislature have voted unanimously to repeal terms of the contract written into the 1881 Canadian Pacific Railway Act: “We say we shouldn’t pay unconstitutional taxes.”

Founding Unifor president Jerry Dias accepted a secret $50,000 commission from a Covid supplier whose test kits he promoted to employers, union executives disclosed yesterday. Dias in his last appearance at a parliamentary committee lamented the lack of corporate ethics in Canada: “The thinnest book in the world is the book of corporate ethics.”

The Canada Revenue Agency paid millions in wage subsidies to insolvent companies, data show. Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier in a report to Parliament would not disclose total costs of subsidies paid to failing firms: ‘It is due to confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act.’

Federal departments and agencies last year spent more than $600,000 on payments to tweeters, bloggers and other social media influencers, records show. Local celebrities including a CBC-TV Dragons’ Den personality were hired to praise government’s work: “Communication is a fast-paced environment.”

A promised federal dentacare program will cost about $4.6 billion a year by 2025, according to Parliamentary Budget Office figures. Introduction of free dentistry for 6.5 million people is among terms of a vote swap between Liberal and New Democrat MPs: “The New Democratic Party is basically the government.”

Parliament will ban replacement workers in the federally regulated private sector by December 31, 2023 under terms of a Liberal-NDP vote swap. New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday compared the pact to a political marriage: “I am not going into this hoping for it to fail.”

Canada’s largest Coca-Cola bottling plant is justified in suspending unvaccinated workers without pay, a labour arbitrator has ruled. Employees work in close quarters on the factory floor, the arbitrator noted: “An employee’s personal beliefs cannot override the employer’s interest in doing everything possible to maintain the health and safety of the workplace.”

Canadian Pacific Railway and 3,000 Teamsters yesterday agreed to binding arbitration to end a brief shutdown. The nation’s largest rail network suspended freight for 60 hours: “We are opposed to back-to-work legislation. We would discourage that as a process.”

Canada’s last ambassador to Kabul last night said he fled the city leaving 1,250 Canadians behind because it was too dangerous for diplomats. “We all saw on TV it was two planes after ours that the people were hanging off the airplane when people fell off it,” said Reid Sirrs. “So it was quite close for us.”