The Department of Health paid a Chinese manufacturer for more than $11 million worth of vaccine syringes, according to Access To Information records. The disclosure comes ahead of Monday’s deadline to begin a federal boycott of China-made medical supplies at federal offices nationwide: “We’ve signed a contract for millions of syringes.”
Visible minorities earn as much as a tenth more than White men, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Minorities were also likelier to live in big cities, achieve university degrees and remain single without children: “More than 60 percent of Korean and Chinese men and more than 40 percent of Arab, West Asian, Japanese and South Asian men had a university degree compared with 24 percent of white men.”
Subsidized newspapers face hard times without more federal concessions, a publishers’ lobbyist has written MPs. Jamie Irving of New Brunswick’s billionaire Irving family said dailies are in dire shape despite hundreds of millions in taxpayers’ grants: “News publishers are facing an existential threat.”
China’s Winter Olympics “remain a priority for international diplomacy,” says a Department of Canadian Heritage briefing note. MPs voted unanimously to petition to relocate the Games from Beijing in protest over human rights atrocities: “I don’t think the athletes are concerned,”
Politicians may not be privately prosecuted for vaccine mandates, a judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of an Ottawa man who tried to file claims against Ontario Premier Doug Ford under an obscure section of the Criminal Code: “None of this has an air of reality.”
The Commissioner of Elections yesterday confirmed a Calgary MP is the first member of the 44th Parliament to be censured for breach of the Elections Act. Liberal George Chahal (Calgary Skyview) was videotaped stealing a rival candidate’s mailbox literature: ‘It can contribute to a loss of public confidence in the political class.’
The Department of Natural Resources yesterday said it is contracting tree experts to fulfill a forestry promise made by cabinet two elections ago. Then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna in 2019 promised to create thousands of jobs planting billions of trees: “We harvest less than one percent of our forests in Canada.”
Canada’s official inflation rate reflects only a fraction of true increases in the cost of living, a former chief analyst with Statistics Canada said yesterday. Actual inflation is much higher than StatsCan’s benchmark Consumer Price Index, the Commons finance committee was told: “I am sure the inflation rate in Canada is much higher than 4.8 percent.”
Political aides yesterday declined comment on federal security measures for a Truckers For Freedom convoy. A similar 2019 rally had the Privy Council Office clear rooftops overlooking Parliament Hill and distribute staff emails claiming truckers wanted to arrest Justin Trudeau: “I’m worried that somebody’s going to be shot.”
Cabinet has no idea how many firearms are smuggled into the country from the United States, according to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s department. Staff in an internal briefing note also contradicted public claims of widespread gun seizures at the border: “The total number of firearms successfully smuggled into Canada is unknown.”
Covid caused fewer cases of serious illness among kindergartners than originally claimed, says an internal federal briefing note. The Public Health Agency also ruled out any vaccine mandate for young children and said parents’ views must be respected: “Caregivers are supported and respected during the decision making process.”
The Treasury Board is in violation of its own rules on proper use of federal credit cards, says an internal audit. An investigation found irregularities were commonplace including lack of receipts justifying purchases: “The department must show good stewardship of public funds.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage is billing taxpayers to fly hip-hop dancers, rappers and African drummers to Nunavut to observe Black History Month in February, accounts show. Documents detail nearly $83,000 in funding including talent fees for one senator to visit Nunavut: “This is not something I wish to discuss with you.”
Federal regulators say they are still awaiting cabinet’s final approval to launch on an interest-free loan program for home energy refits. Cabinet announced the plan last April 19 but has yet to introduce it: “We are waiting impatiently for it.”
Mandating vaccination is not recommended, says the deputy chief epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Dr. Howard Njoo told reporters Friday immunization was “a voluntary choice” and that positive education was preferable to coercion: “It doesn’t have to be because there’s a mandate.”
