A breezy Canada Revenue Agency manager who superimposed his photo on a picture of Clark Gable and referred to women tax assessors as “chicks” did not discriminate per se, a labour board has ruled. An adjudicator rated the conduct as harmless: “Some words may not be offensive in and of themselves but have fallen out of favour for a variety of reasons.”
The Commissioner of Lobbying is reviewing an MP’s formal complaint the Department of Finance had secret meetings, phone calls and emails with the insurance lobby on pharmacare. The undisclosed contacts appeared to breach the Lobbying Act, the Commissioner was told: “These revelations lead one to question whether the Liberal government is captive to pressure from the insurance lobby.”
The air is so filthy in Beijing that Canada now has trouble staffing its embassy, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. China had won praise from Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna for its climate change program: “I was in China on a trade mission and saw the rapid shift toward clean energy.”
Pandemic infection rates have more than doubled since August 14 and are accelerating at a worrisome pace, the Public Health Agency said yesterday. “If you look at the graph, it’s going up,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer.
CMHC is embarking on what it calls a “highly costly” program to encourage retirees to rent empty bedrooms to immigrants and students. The agency yesterday would not detail actual expenses to date: “Frankly nobody gave us a mandate.”
A liquor store clerk who claimed post-traumatic stress disorder after coworkers hid her shoes cannot claim workers’ compensation, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal has ruled. Anxiety over the prank “clearly did not meet the diagnostic criteria” for PTSD, said the Court: ‘She is worried her colleagues will do the same thing again.’
Cabinet will introduce a late budget within days following unprecedented federal borrowing for pandemic relief programs. Legislators yesterday were advised a budget is expected by Thanksgiving, October 12: “We don’t know what the world is going to look like.”
A Public Health Agency executive who admitted to putting “lives of Canadians at risk” yesterday was promoted as senior advisor to the Prime Minister. Kristina Namiesniowski, president of the Agency, was named a $238,000-a year advisor in the Privy Council Office: “Time is of the essence.”
The typical Canadian carries $70 in their wallet, mainly five and ten-dollar bills, and stashes another $185 in their vehicle glove box or dresser drawer at home, says the Bank of Canada. Researchers surveyed cash holdings in a study on the future of bitcoin and other digital currencies: “I use cash to monitor my spending.”
Canadians’ automatic right to travel between provinces does not apply in a pandemic, says a St. John’s judge. The ruling came in the case of a Nova Scotia woman denied permission to travel to Newfoundland & Labrador to attend her mother’s funeral: “Right to mobility under the Charter is not absolute.”
Most homeowners in Canada expect the government to protect them in case of overland flooding, says Department of Public Safety research. Private insurers have offered climate change flood coverage to policyholders since 2015 though few homeowners have bought it: ‘Other policyholders would essentially be subsidizing them, which is not right.’
Senior Department of Finance officials had secret meetings, phone calls and emails with the insurance lobby on pharmacare, Access To Information records show. Scores of contacts were never reported under the Lobbying Act, with careful instructions from insurers that information was “not to be shared publicly”.
A Twitter storm by homeowners prompted CMHC to quietly pull funding for federal research on a home equity tax. CEO Evan Siddall emailed the private notice to staff while publicly blaming Blacklock’s for “irresponsible reporting” in disclosing the study in the first place: “Whose bright idea was this?”
Cabinet proposes to enforce a climate change code on all Canadian companies operating abroad. The mandate would see mining, oil and gas firms “be positive on the local environment”.
Masked MPs return to Parliament Wednesday under strict orders to cover their faces. The directive follows a warning from local health authorities that Ottawa is now in a second wave of Covid-19 infections: “I think their business has changed.”
