Environmental groups are petitioning the Commons finance committee to launch a Youth Climate Corps at a billion a year. Cabinet promised a similar initiative in its election platform, but as a pilot project at a fraction of the cost: "The investment must go much further."
The president of an Ontario college listed among the heaviest users of foreign student permits says Canada lost “trust and credibility” in curbing applications. MPs on the Commons immigration committee expressed frustration with testimony by David Agnew, president of Toronto’s Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology: "You make over $450,000 a year."
Governor General Mary Simon yesterday praised public efforts in learning more about the Indigenous experience in Canada. Her scripted remarks for Truth and Reconciliation Day were in contrast to a 2023 speech in which the Governor General referenced hidden Residential School burials and media “denialism.”
The Canadian Space Agency will ask employees to self-identify sexual and gender preferences as “key to driving organizational success.” Census data show fewer than half of one percent of Canadians identify as transgender or non-binary: "We have updated our internal self-declaration forms to enable employees to self-declare as members of the two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual community."
The CRTC yesterday abolished the phone book as a condition of telecom licensing. One commissioner, the lone dissenter, called it a disservice for Canadians in country ridings who must still rely on landlines and telephone directories: "Should we not make an effort to hear from those most likely to depend on phone books?"
The National Research Council is budgeting millions to renovate a vacant library into an “engaging workplace” with an atrium, staff gymnasium, “wellness rooms” and an executive suite for Mitch Davies, its $377,500-a year president. Notices to contractors were issued Friday, only days after the Prime Minister instructed federal agencies to earmark unused property for public housing: "Our people make big things possible."
The Department of Environment secretly commissioned in-house research on a New Democrat proposal to restrict advertising by oil companies, records show. Pollsters were told to gauge support for the private bill by then-MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) though the measure never went further than First Reading in the Commons: "Fossil fuel advertising currently deploys techniques which knowingly mislead the public."
A subsidized “anti-hate” expert blames Blacklock’s Reporter for a review of its federal funding. Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said in a Friday podcast he thought Blacklock’s was “really cool” until it began reporting on his activities: "They’re the ones who recently reported that we target Catholics."
Canadians nationwide would be directed to open Canada Day celebrations with Indigenous “sacred fires or other appropriate ceremony” under a petition sponsored by Liberal MP Karina Gould (Burlington, Ont.). It follows a federal report suggesting July 1 observances “adapt to emerging needs and social expectations.”
Illegal immigrants need more free legal help, Amnesty International says in a submission to the Commons finance committee. The Federal Courts Administration Service has complained immigration cases are already clogging dockets with taxpayers' costs up more than 300 percent: "Provide Legal Aid funding to ensure certainty and consistency for refugees and migrants regardless of where they are in the country."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Compasses of all shapes and sizes on display at the outdoor equipment store. I check the selection, wondering who’s buying them…”
“We know ourselves only through stories,” writes Professor Daniel Heath Justice of the University of British Columbia. Canadians define themselves through stories of pipelines or Catholicism or the fisheries or our grandparents’ ethnicity. Why Indigenous Literatures Matter tells a poignant story of discovering his Cherokee roots through a 1976 bestseller The Education Of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, the biography of an Indigenous boy raised by Tennessee mountaineers.
“I read it every year,” writes Justice. “I suggested it to others. It told me a story that was so familiar; it became part of my story of self. But it wasn’t until I was an undergraduate that I learned the shattering truth.”
Shocking levels of federal borrowing are pushing the nation to a point where “something is going to break,” Interim Budget Officer Jason Jacques yesterday warned the Commons government operations commitee. His remarks came hours after Jacques tabled documents indicating cabinet skipped this year’s deficit target by 62 percent: "That's what is shocking."
It is not CMHC’s job to solve the housing crisis, the federal insurer's $551,000-a year CEO yesterday told the Commons public accounts committee. Coleen Volk omitted all mention of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s earlier promise to ensure “everyone in Canada has a home they can afford” by 2030.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers last evening launched a national strike hours after cabinet abruptly announced sweeping cuts to mail delivery. Service cuts were similar to measures detailed in a 2013 Action Plan shelved by Liberals a decade ago: "We cannot accept this attack."
