The Department of Immigration last night said it does not track agents of the Communist Party of China posing as students, tourists and workers in Canada. The department said only a criminal conviction would prompt a review of any visitor’s visa: “It doesn’t seem to be working.”
Federal agencies were so short of pandemic supplies the army was issued date-expired personal protective equipment, the Commons defence committee learned yesterday. A total fifty-five military contracted Covid-19: “They had nothing other than what they could get their hands on from maybe Home Depot.”
Employees in the Department of Public Works complain they are “drowning in a pool of repetitive, menial and uninspiring tasks”, says an internal report. Mental Health Ombudsman André Latreille said employees also believe they work too hard: “It is difficult.”
The Canada Revenue Agency will not know the full scope of fraudulent Covid relief claims until applicants file their 2020 tax returns, says Assistant Commissioner Ted Gallivan. One federal estimate said ineligible claims for $2,000 Canada Emergency Response Benefit cheques totaled nearly half a billion: “The fact we don’t have a global figure doesn’t mean we aren’t working very hard.”
Federal pay equity will cost nearly $2 billion over a decade, says the Department of Employment. Most expenses are to increase benefits for underpaid women in federally-regulated workplaces, said the department: “Wage inequality is complex.”
Christian engagement rings are not a religious symbol even if blessed by a priest, a federal labour adjudicator has ruled. The decision came in the case of a Catholic mail clerk who claimed discrimination after being ordered to remove her ring at a Canada Post sorting plant though Sikh coworkers were allowed to wear silver bangles called karas: “My conscience has led me to be steadfast.”
The budget for ongoing renovations to Parliament Hill buildings increased another $152.9 million last year, according to records. The Department of Public Works has yet to fix a final budget for the multi-billion dollar refit, the costliest in Canadian history: “I find it kind of bizarre.”
Federal agencies that fail to speak French should have to pay cash fines, says Language Commissioner Raymond Théberge. Cabinet has repeatedly rejected the proposal to levy penalties under the 1969 Official Languages Act: “I know it sounds odd to talk about linguistic police.”
I wonder if Cabinet members
and opposition leaders
get together in a local pub
at the end of Question Period
to celebrate another successful day
at the workplace.
Their daily show
perfectly delivered;
audience is kept excited,
engaged,
satisfied.
I deserve to know;
I am the one paying for it.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A UN committee report says Alberta “tar sands” have poisoned the environment, and questioned whether companies were implicated in human rights abuses. The report described oil sands mining as “disturbing”, “alarming” and “troubling”: “Reports were received that Indigenous women have gone missing after alleging health impacts from oil sands operations.”
The pandemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of “zombie businesses” that are insolvent but unable to file for bankruptcy, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. Covid-19 shutdowns slowed proceedings in bankruptcy courts: “We’re only at the tip of the iceberg.”
Paperwork is so difficult for veterans filing legitimate claims for benefits that “I mightn’t be great at it myself,” Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay said yesterday. A backlog of claims by injured vets numbered 49,216 this year, according to the Budget Office: “These are people who served this country.”
Canadian consumers should be on the lookout for China-made products and challenge importers to prove they are not relying on slave labour, the chair of the Commons ethics committee said yesterday. A separate subcommittee of Parliament on October 21 said it believed slave-made imports from China are sold here: “This is actually happening.”
Members of the Senate national finance committee yesterday complained information is so sparse Canadians can’t be sure of the size of the deficit. Parliament is the only assembly in Canada that has yet to see a 2020 budget: “Why is there no reporting?”
Cabinet just prior to the pandemic polled Canadians’ views on a “climate budget”, according to records. The concept fared badly in focus groups. A planned March 30 budget was cancelled and never rescheduled: “Many more felt it was a bad idea.”
