Cabinet would gain exclusive powers to exempt China from a slave labour ban under a new Commons bill. Prime Minister Mark Carney has already guaranteed Chinese automakers market access for 278,989 vehicles with slave-made parts."Do you believe there is forced labour in China?”
Suppliers submitting bids under cabinet’s Buy Canadian program must promise not to hire foreign subcontractors, says the Department of Public Works. The new paperwork followed MPs’ complaints of numerous loopholes benefiting foreigners: "A new Declaration Form has been introduced."
Canada is soon welcoming a “high level delegation” from Cuba, says the chair of the Senate foreign affairs committee. “Cuba needs friends,” said Senator Peter Boehm (Ont.), who singled out the United States for criticism.
Health and medical benefit claims in the RCMP will cost more than $1.1 billion this year, an enormous figure, said one senator. The Mounties’ chief financial officer expressed alarm: "The rate of active regular members on long term off-duty sick leave has increased by 128 percent."
The number of Canadian businesses using artificial intelligence remains marginal, fewer than a fifth, and typically only for mundane chores like drafting a Word document, says a federal report. It follows claims by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly that Canada was a world leader in AI: "Overall levels remain low."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “This questionnaire is anonymous. Data collected will be used exclusively for statistical purposes. We aim to improve workplace experience…”
Nobody’s published an anthology of celebrity draft dodgers though there are many: William Lyon Mackenzie King, Pierre Trudeau, Bill Clinton. Robert Menzies, the Australian prime minister, as a law student enthusiastically joined his campus militia unit but declined to fight overseas in the First World War. Menzies for decades afterward faced Opposition jibes that the war had interrupted his military career. Boxer Jack Dempsey took work as a longshoreman with a draft deferment. As heavyweight title holder, “reference to the new champion as a fighter often elicited sneers about the kind of fighting he had done in previous years,” historian Joseph Furnas wrote in 1974.
None of the personalities in Crossing Into Canada are celebrities. They would not even publish their surnames. One declined to be photographed. All came to Canada to evade U.S. military service. “Support for draft evaders and deserters during the war in Vietnam was not homogenous or guaranteed in Canada,” writes editor Alison Mountz. “Resistance was controversial then and remains so today.”
The Canada Dental Care Plan will go billions over budget for years to come, says the Department of Health. Patient fees will cost taxpayers more than $18 billion over five years, a third more than cabinet’s original estimate of $13 billion: "We have just no clue."
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday expressed indignation over criticism of his wife's hiring by a Crown corporation seeking budget concessions. “I am an honorable member of this House, not you,” he told one MP on the Commons ethics committee.
Most Canadians now get their news from government-paid press, the chief lobbyist for subsidized dailies yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Subsidized media were “foundational,” testified Paul Deegan, CEO of News Media Canada: "The Government of Canada, I have to say, has been terrific."
Rail and port workers would lose the right to strike under a proposal yesterday by the Senate transport committee. “The status quo is not a viable option,” wrote the Liberal-dominated panel.
Cabinet confirms a lengthy backlog of labour complaints against Canadian companies operating abroad. The position of Ombudsman to investigate allegations of exploitation and forced labour has been vacant for more than a year: "A decision regarding the future of the Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise and the position of the Ombudsman will be taken in due course."
Social media posts deemed to undermine “social stability” would be subject to blocking orders by a federal censor under a cabinet bill introduced yesterday. “The law applies as soon as it comes into force,” said Heritage Minister Marc Miller.
More than 19,000 new Covid ventilators, all purchased through sole-sourced contracts, were sold as scrap at pennies a pound, new documents show. The 19,000 figure detailed in a Public Health Agency memo is the highest yet on confirmed waste under the $1.1 billion pandemic ventilator program: "Consider an audit."
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday acknowledged missing another forecast, this time on the likelihood of a 2026 recession. “We’ve seen a lot of volatility,” he said.
