The federal government paid researchers to develop attention-grabbing TikTok videos for 13-year olds, Access To Information records show. “A machine learning algorithm” targeting teenagers was financed under a program approved by then-Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould: “A machine learning algorithm will be coming out soon.”
Four cabinet ministers yesterday said they are eyeing the federal Liberal leadership in the first Party contest of its kind in 12 years. Any ministers who run face a six-figure entry fee and loss of a cabinet bonus with car allowance: “We need to know the rules.”
Violations of the Access To Information Act are so commonplace at the Department of Finance it routinely breaches its obligations more than half the time, says an internal audit. The poor compliance rate followed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s repeated promises of transparency: “Why haven’t you lived up to those promises?”
Cabinet yesterday did not comment on whether it will honour a promise to charities to extend the tax year despite the Prime Minister’s prorogation of Parliament. One lobby group said it was privately assured by the Department of Finance the promise will be kept: “We are working with the department.”
A Human Rights Tribunal in a rare ruling has ordered a complainant to pay $25,000 in costs for filing a frivolous claim against his former employer. The accusations were so outlandish they appeared “designed to obstruct the Tribunal’s process,” wrote an adjudicator: ‘This has all the markings of a frivolous and vexatious complaint.’
Lawyers for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms yesterday challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s prorogation of Parliament. The Justice Centre in a Federal Court application said suspending parliamentary business for a Liberal Party leadership contest was “incorrect, unreasonable or both.”
Taxpayers stung by new capital gains rules never passed into law by Parliament will have no recourse but the courts, according to records of the Parliamentary Law Clerk. The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday warned effective March 3 it will begin collecting interest on unpaid capital gains taxes under amendments never passed into law: “What happens if the government provisionally collects a tax that ultimately never becomes law?”
Cabinet must release names of parliamentarians suspected of acting for foreign embassies prior to any Liberal Party leadership contest or general election, Opposition House Leader Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle) said yesterday. The identities of suspects were detailed in a confidential 2024 report: “Release those names.”
Two-term MPs have lost automatic pension eligibility with the prorogation of Parliament. A bill guaranteeing payments worth an average $77,900 a year for dozens of MPs has now lapsed: “We can show Canadians that we hear them.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a four-year prosecution of Rebel News Network over a 2019 book promotion. Judges dismissed the publisher’s appeal of a $3,000 fine over lawn signs: “The lawn signs opposed the Liberal Party.”
Commons rivals yesterday put cabinet on an 11-week death watch regardless of who Liberals select to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. All opposition parties pledged a spring election after Trudeau announced his departure over “internal divisions,” the first resignation of its kind by a sitting Prime Minister in 129 years: “We have to go to an election.”
A federal program paid researchers to document supposed links between the Conservative Party and German Nazis and other hate groups, Access To Information records show. Government House Leader Karina Gould, who launched the “Digital Citizen Initiative” in 2019 under the guise of internet fact checking, yesterday had no comment: “Sowing of discontent and distrust in elected political leaders and the political process has significantly impacted how Canadians understand themselves.”
A bill to censor legal internet content yesterday lapsed with prorogation of Parliament. It marked the second time in four years that cabinet tried and failed to regulate blogs, Facebook posts and other social media deemed hurtful: “The government is close to the end of its mandate and does not have a lot of public support.”
An Alberta policeman disciplined for speaking at a Freedom Convoy rally has had his suspension without pay overturned. The punishment was “not justifiable,” ruled an Edmonton judge: “We are left in my view with factual distinctions.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs spent a record $84 million on special security at the Canadian Embassy in Kabul prior to abandoning it to the Taliban, documents show. Then-Ambassador Reid Sirrs, who had boasted of security preparedness in Kabul, fled the city the same day it fell to terrorists in 2021: “We failed. Look at us now.”
