A federal judge has ruled Canadian National Railways is bound to confidential terms of a shipper’s agreement even if the contract technically expired. The decision came in the case of million-dollar mistake over the height of a railway bridge: “CN denies owing anything.”
A former Québec Liberal MP’s company was awarded a federal contract for 10,000 pandemic ventilators though none of the machines were “approved in any jurisdiction to date”, according to a Department of Health memo. Ex-MP Frank Baylis did not comment: “I never planned on being a career politician.”
The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman yesterday said it is investigating inaccurate federal claims in the awarding of a $382 million contract to a Québec pandemic mask supplier. The Public Health Agency falsely claimed the contract followed competitive bidding, and under-reported the true value of the deal by nearly $300 million: “The Ombudsman is always interested.”
Every urban hotel in the nation is operating at a loss this summer, the Hotel Association of Canada yesterday told the Commons industry committee. Lobbyists said the industry is so hard-pressed insurers have warned they will be denied coverage by year’s end: “It’s just bad everywhere.”
Lengthy jailing of foreigners awaiting deportation is constitutional, says the Federal Court of Appeal. The ruling came in the case of a Toronto man jailed nearly five years in Canada after Jamaican authorities refused to take him back: “Prolonged detention is constitutional.”
The Public Health Agency that failed to stockpile pandemic supplies had poor management of information technology systems, says an internal audit. “IT is central to almost every aspect of Health Canada and Public Health Agency business,” wrote auditors.
A Québec contractor named an exclusive federal supplier of Canadian-made pandemic masks has failed to ship any, says the Public Health Agency. Internal documents show AMD Medicom Inc. was awarded contracts worth $381,693,476 — three times the figure publicly disclosed — on a promise of speedy delivery weeks ago, though it didn’t have a factory in Canada: “To date the Public Health Agency has not received surgical masks from Medicom’s Canadian production facility.”
The Public Health Agency in internal memos disclosed it was so unprepared for the pandemic it shipped date-expired medical items to provinces, and relied on donations from Home Depot. The documents confirmed managers had scant supplies in a national stockpile after throwing away millions of masks in 2019: ‘Did they warn the cabinet?’
A federal agency, the Canada Energy Regulator, is paying $150,000 to fly trainers to Calgary for workshops on “contemplative dialogue”. Staff will attend four-day seminars on “awareness and the human person” and how to conduct smoother meetings: “Where do you go to learn that?”
TV tycoon Kevin O’Leary is named in a $13 million federal lawsuit under the Marine Liability Act. Lawyers representing families of two victims killed in a 2019 boating accident filed the Federal Court claim against O’Leary, his wife and the driver of a second power boat that collided after dusk: “He failed to keep a proper lookout.”
Schoolchildren over age ten should wear masks in class, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. The Agency in a directive also recommended school boards do “risk assessments” on choir practice, and be wary of music classes where wind or brass instruments are shared: “The fall period is a bit of a challenge.”
A burial site uncovered
during excavations in Ottawa.
The Ontario government
asks those who might be related
to early Bytown residents
to come forward.
Bones were also found
in the Prime Minister’s closet
in connection with his family vacations
to the Bahamas.
Federal Liberals
ask anyone with information
to keep quiet.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A Québec company that won a lucrative ten-year federal contract for pandemic masks repeatedly lobbied Industry Minister Navdeep Bains and his staff, records show. Bains’ department contacted AMD Medicom Inc. within hours of the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic: ‘The government out of the blue reached to Medicom.’
MPs on the Commons finance committee yesterday questioned the scope of a federal grant that would have paid We Charity the equivalent of two-thirds of its annual revenue. Marc and Craig Kielburger, the $125,173-a year co-founders of We Charity, had testified they would not have made any gains on the agreement: “Does that seem to be a bit odd to you?”
Canadians are naïve in thinking “China is our friend”, a former career diplomat yesterday told MPs. “This isn’t just an Ottawa problem,” said the retired ambassador to Beijing.
