The number of police charges for drug-impaired driving jumped 43 percent after Parliament legalized marijuana, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Prosecutors had predicted the surge of cases once a 95-year criminal ban on recreational cannabis was repealed: “Do we have enough on the ground?”
A charge of witness tampering against the former commander of the Canadian Armed Forces yesterday followed Commons committee testimony of secret audio recordings of General (Ret’d) Jonathan Vance. One witness testified she recorded Vance instructing her to lie about their sexual relationship: “Yes, it’s recorded.”
A Liberal MP’s proposed equity tax on millionaires and revival of a federal inheritance tax to “help pay for the pandemic response” would cover less than a tenth of ongoing deficits, according to Parliamentary Budget Office figures released yesterday. Deficits from the onset of Covid to 2026 are $686.1 billion, by official estimate: “The math does not work.”
A federal department has grossly understated First Nations high school dropout rates despite billions in new spending, says an internal report. Data show as few as 15 percent of students schooled on-reserve finish Grade 12: ‘Results have not shown improvements juxtaposed against significant funding increases.’
Public Works Minister Anita Anand in an ethics filing says she recused herself from cabinet discussions involving Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Bridge. Anand’s husband is managing director of a group with a 34 percent share in the privately-owned Bridge, one of the most profitable corporations in the country: “It’s the most expensive driving experience in Canada.”
A consumers’ advocate has won a legal right to challenge regulatory orders on behalf of travelers. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled the group Air Passenger Rights of Halifax was entitled to plead its case for hundreds of Air Transat customers who suffered nightmare flights four years ago: ‘Passengers became physically ill.’
Parliament must tax the “ultra-rich” to pay for the pandemic, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday told reporters. Data show fewer than 365,000 tax filers pay the top federal income tax rate of 33 percent: “You know who didn’t sacrifice?”
Most hotels in Canada will be insolvent by year’s end without ongoing federal aid, a hotel lobbyist says in a submission to the Senate national finance committee. As many as 70 percent of operators face collapse even once the Canada-U.S. border reopens, senators were told: “The world is changed.”
Most pandemic victims in Canada were over age 85, had dementia or Alzheimer’s and “may have been at a high risk of dying over this period regardless of the pandemic,” says a federal report. The impact of Covid lockdowns, business failures and school closures on younger Canadians remains unknown, wrote researchers: ‘The pandemic profoundly altered many other aspects of our lives.’
Cabinet yesterday announced $19 million in subsidies for café patios and shrubbery in empty parking lots in Toronto. “This is the love being returned,” said Liberal MP Adam Vaughan (Spadina-Fort York, Ont.). Toronto returned 25 Liberal MPs in the last election with an average 54 percent of the popular vote: ‘It starts with loving Toronto more than you’ve ever loved it before.’
Canadians are twice as likely to be fully vaccinated if they live in a federal prison, data show. “We’ve prioritized them,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair earlier told reporters: “We have a duty of care for those who are in our custody, to ensure they are treated fairly and that they are kept safe.”
Tens of thousands of veterans remain on waiting lists for disability benefits nearly a year after the Parliamentary Budget Office warned of growing backlogs. The Department of Veterans Affairs in a briefing note said it will “work faster” next year: “The thing is you need the people that know how to fill out the forms.”
An Ontario “tax expert” who failed to pay more than $600,000 in federal taxes yesterday was given a federal prison term. Tax evasion is not a victimless crime, ruled the Ontario Court of Appeal: “The victims were the taxpayers of Canada.”
The Department of National Defence is billing taxpayers for millions in money-losing golf and curling clubs to “help foster esprit de corps” for members. Auditors questioned why the military was competing with local sports clubs in the first place: ‘They provide an opportunity to socialize.’
The Commons ethics committee by a 6-5 vote yesterday blocked an investigation into spending of public funds on a Liberal-affiliated data research company. Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs opposed further hearings into contracts awarded Data Sciences Inc. of Montréal: “This is a fake scandal.”
