Old Age Security cheques for Canadian pensioners living abroad cost taxpayers more than $686 million last year, records show. Payments were up $66 million or 11 percent from 2022: "These recipients may or may not have non-resident status for tax purposes."
Federal agencies spent more than a quarter million a month on unused government-issue cellphones assigned to employees working from home, says an internal audit. The investigation by Shared Services Canada, the federal IT department, said the number of dormant telephone accounts jumped 65 percent under pandemic work-from-home orders: "The number of mobile devices that had not been used for three or more months increased by 65 percent."
Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board has a backlog of 180,000 illegal immigrants and asylum seekers asking to remain in Canada, officials disclosed at a Senate committee hearing. “Good God,” said one senator.
Cabinet ministers have been “drinking wine and schnapps” with Jewish diplomats in Ottawa instead of condemning Israeli war crimes, New Democrat MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) told the Commons. Angus did not explain the reference to German liquor: "Mom called me last night."
Cabinet’s pharmacare bill is “like a burlap sack,” the “lowest common denominator with holes in it,” says the 250,000-member Canadian Association of Retired Persons. Testifying at the Commons health committee, an Association director said retirees fear losing superior private prescription drug coverage: "What is being proposed now is more like a burlap sack."
The Commons today is expected to pass a ban on federally regulated employers’ use of replacement workers in case of strike or lockout. The bill would then proceed to the Senate: "It sends a powerful message."
Cabinet’s lowering of usury rates from 48 to 35 percent annually is insufficient, says a Liberal-appointed senator. Payday lenders charging ten times the criminal interest rate remain exempt: "Do you find 35 percent not to be an exorbitant amount?"
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “There’s a restaurant in Warsaw where the ghetto used to be. 450,000 Jews…”
Forty summers ago John Turner lost an election no Liberal leader could have won. Years later he told a friend, “I need your help rehabilitating my reputation.” To his death in 2020 Turner was a caricature who spent a pointless few weeks as prime minister.
“He felt enormous pressure to make something of himself, to be of service to his fellow man in some regard, and at the same time he doubted his ability to do it,” writes biographer Steve Paikin. “It was a contradiction that went to the core of his being. He enjoyed success and privilege, yet he was wracked with insecurity and a certain fragility.”
Paikin’s biography is poignant and funny, affectionate and candid. Hear Turner speaking to his wife in the 1970 October Crisis: “If I ever get kidnapped don’t let anyone pay the ransom.” See Turner giving an inspirational talk to ladies in the office: “You’re a f—king all star!” This is gold.
Universities are now a leading source of vulgar anti-Semitism, professors yesterday testified at the Commons justice committee. MPs were told campuses “began convulsing with anti-Semitic activity” following the Hamas killing and kidnapping of Jews in Israel last October 7: "Is this all disintegrating?"
No Canadian should lose workplace drug coverage under a national pharmacare plan, Health Minister Mark Holland said yesterday. His remarks contradicted insurers’ claims that Bill C-64 An Act Respecting Pharmacare may disrupt coverage for millions: "No company would do that."
A Liberal law mandating disclosure of corporate ownership is a privacy breach that exposes investors to “ambulance chasers,” a Liberal-appointed senator said yesterday. Senator Toni Varone (Ont.), a former contractor, said names of shareholders are none of the public’s business: "How do you maintain privacy?"
A Senate committee yesterday by a 9-3 vote agreed to grant cabinet broad powers to criminalize possession of wild animals in Canada. The Fur Institute of Canada called it “deeply concerning.”
Federally registered corporations would have to report annually on how they are benefiting society under a private Senate bill introduced yesterday. Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne (Que.) sponsored the unprecedented measure: 'Minimize any harm the corporation causes to wider society.'
Liberal-appointed senators yesterday proposed legislation to grant cabinet federal powers to criminalize possession of all wild animal species in Canada. Members of the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee expressed astonishment at the scope of the bill: 'So this would allow the government to ban fur farming?'
