A federal ban on replacement workers in case of strikes or lockouts will bring “certainty in this crazy world,” Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said yesterday. The bill reflects the power and influence of Canadian labour, he said: "They are asking for more."
The Canada Revenue Agency last year paid more than a quarter million to distribute fake “news” articles written by employees, records show. Two dailies were among the newsrooms that published the Agency’s handout stories as legitimate items: "The purpose of these articles was to inform Canadians."
New data show the CBC draws just 11 percent of social media engagement nationwide, the poorest performance of any Canadian television network despite $1.4 billion in annual subsidies. The CBC has a thousand employees posting content online: 'Five Canadian media outlets attract the most engagement.'
All parties yesterday pledged support for a Bloc Québécois motion to unmask foreign spies in Parliament. “What more will it take for us to act?” asked MP René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, Que.), sponsor of the motion: "We can’t keep making empty speeches."
Irregularities in sole-sourced federal contracts to McKinsey & Company point to widespread “disregard for the rules,” Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. Hogan told MPs her auditors also encountered federal employees too frightened to disclose what they knew of misconduct in contracting: "Yes, they are afraid of reprisals."
New federal taxes on capital gains are still cheaper than rates in California, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. Freeland introduced an expected Notice Of Ways And Means Motion to raise billions more in taxes on the sale of businesses, stocks, vacation homes and other equity: "That’s a lot of additional money."
An $87,100 budget cut to a Senate committee junket to Africa is "difficult to bear," says Senator Peter Boehm (Ont.), a Liberal appointee. Boehm sought $265,400 to lead the foreign affairs committee to Addis Ababa, complaining other senators take more useless trips to write reports nobody reads: "I don’t think it’s particularly fair."
Covid ventilators auctioned as scrap metal at $6 apiece were ordered under a Public Health Agency contract that paid millions up front, records show. The secret terms were disclosed through Access To Information: "The contract went fine."
A third of Canadians will be foreign-born by 2041 based on current immigration trends, says a Statistics Canada briefing note. Canadian-born residents would become a minority in Toronto, it said: "We have made a conscious decision to be an open country."
A federal internet censorship bill is so flawed and unpopular it will never be enforced, says a Commons critic. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill) predicted a slow death for Bill C-63: "The government is close to the end of its mandate and does not have a lot of public support."
Further hikes in Employment Insurance premiums are required, says a Department of Employment memo. However the department acknowledged a rate hike this summer would be poorly timed and unpopular with employers: "Future improvements to the Employment Insurance program will require additional premium rate increases at a time when many economists are predicting a recession."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Large chunks found in stomachs of seals, turtles, whales. Tiny particles eaten by small fish, crabs and plankton, move up the food chain. Plastic clogs our oceans; 90 percent comes from just 10 rivers…”
Few historians delve into the role of violence in Canada’s economic and political life. It’s an awkward topic, layered with disapproval. Yet of four Fathers of Confederation honoured with statues on Parliament Hill, two were shot, and incidents of workplace violence are commonly cited in case law by labour boards and tribunals.
Could street violence be a rational response to government over-reach in a democracy? Certainly Britain, the U.S. and France have a 300-year history of it. Now, historian Jeremy Milloy of Trent University asks, could workplace violence be a rational and predictable response to economic dysfunction?
“It is crucial that we do not fall into the trap of naturalizing violence by essentializing working class men as violent,” writes Milloy. “Instead, we need to look at the social structures and cultural contexts that have increased the likelihood of violent actions.”
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc yesterday said he knows the names of Parliament Hill spies and which foreign governments they work for, but cited national security in refusing to disclose the information. One MP noted the Security Of Information Act permits the unmasking of foreign agents “in the public interest.”
Defence Minister Bill Blair yesterday testified his department does not “shovel taxpayer dollars” to consultants. However Blair said he opposed a blanket ban on inside contracting as recommended by MPs: "We don’t shovel taxpayer dollars to anyone."
