Parks Canada proposes to introduce Mandarin-language programs in celebration of “a great Canadian hero,” Maoist propaganda figure Dr. Norman Bethune. The agency said Bethune’s Ontario birthplace will become a shrine to the Communist surgeon: “The man is a giant!”
A Toronto MP expelled from the Liberal caucus for nepotism approved severance pay of $9,391 to her sister. The Commons yesterday ordered MP Yasmin Ratansi (Don Valley East, Ont.) to pay the money back: “The Board noted Ms. Ratansi’s lack of cooperation.”
A federal climate bureau spent more than $600 million last year, says an internal audit. Spending did not include $800,000 in annual staff time to manage newly-detailed carbon offset regulations: “Doing nothing is not an option.”
Xinhua News Agency, the propaganda arm of China’s Communist Party, is out of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery after 57 years. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not comment: “There is no perfect democracy, only democracy that fits best.”
The $675 million Public Health Agency “lacked everything” despite assuring legislators it was prepared for the pandemic, a Liberal-appointed lawmaker told the Senate national finance committee. “I was told twice, not just once but twice, you had enough resources on hand to deal with the pandemic,” said Senator Éric Forest (Que.): ‘There was a huge gap between the perception and the reality.’
The Public Health Agency in an internal memo worried about pandemic litter. Staff complained of the “environmental impact” of Canadians throwing away used masks, though the Agency itself landfilled millions prior to the outbreak of Covid-19: “With hindsight, would I have liked it to have been different?”
Canadians struggling with rolling lockdowns and foreign travel bans made 6,570,000 visits to national parks last summer, says Parks Canada. Staff at the Prime Minister’s Office feared Covid chaos as city people headed for the woods, according to internal emails: “Parks Canada is delighted.”
The UK enhances
the range of weapons
and radar capabilities
of its Typhoon fighter jets.
France improves
its ballistic missiles’ tracking system
and develops the European Patrol Corvette
– a new class of military ships.
The U.S. builds
nine Virginia-class attack submarines,
the most advanced
in its nuclear fleet.
Canada won’t be left behind.
In a bold move,
DND relocates thousands of employees
from downtown Ottawa
to its new headquarters,
15 kilometres away.
When the process is completed,
the former Nortel campus
will host no less than
9,446 workspaces.
Boosting national defence.
Next on the list:
resolve the shortage
of parking spots
the move created.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
We Charity’s Kielburger brothers face jail as hostile witnesses if they don’t testify on conflicts of interest in their dealings with cabinet, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. “There are precedents,” said Philippe Dufresne, the Commons law clerk: ‘Historically there has been authority to bring an individual into custody.’
Police in Hamilton have dropped a criminal investigation into theft of millions of pandemic masks imported from Shanghai by the Department of Public Works. There were no leads and no suspects, the department said: “The products were not recovered.”
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi must investigate Canada Labour Code breaches at one of the nation’s largest federal mail distribution plants, a member of the Commons health committee said yesterday. Canada Post was cited by a federal inspector for failing to promptly report Covid-19 cases: “It is completely unacceptable to see a Crown corporation break the law.”
The Department of Public Works in self-congratulatory internal emails said it was “very proud” of doing a great job on pandemic management, “a great story for us.” The messages were exchanged as Covid deaths nationwide approached 9,000: “We’re everybody’s government!”
Cabinet will consider subsidizing any green project, “anything really” that appears feasible, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said yesterday. His remarks followed federal auditors’ complaints of difficulty in tracking actual costs and benefits of green subsidies: “We’re willing to look at anything really, you know, if it seems like it’s a good idea.”
A Québec company received a quarter-billion pandemic contract to supply ventilators that repeatedly failed testing, internal records show. Cabinet justified the sole-sourced contract on a claim of “extreme urgency.” First deliveries of rebuilt devices are scheduled this week, eleven months after the contract was approved: “It was an emergency situation.”
The Department of National Defence is so dysfunctional “it’s like pushing a rock uphill,” a former military ombudsman yesterday told the Commons defence committee. Gary Walbourne in 2018 abruptly quit his $203,000-a year post after complaining his office lacked independence: “I knew it was a hit job.”
