The CBC kept a $75,000-a year executive chauffeur on the payroll, Access To Information records show. The position was cut in 2020 as a pandemic austerity measure: "We invent ourselves every year to try to find new ways to do things because we have to offer more but with a smaller budget."
Federally-subsidized B.C. Ferries concealed poor service by lowering on-time performance targets, says a Department of Transport audit. The Parliamentary Budget Office earlier noted federal departments similarly hide poor results by lowering service targets to levels they could meet: "They usually set the bar not too high so it doesn’t look too easy, but neither too low so it’s fairly easy to achieve most of the time."
The government should provide a home to every person who cannot work, says Housing Minister Sean Fraser. Unemployed currently number 1,229,400 according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada: "If you cannot work you should have a home too. Government should work together to provide it to you."
CBC News’ refusal to report the killing and kidnapping of Jews as terrorism leaves “room for improvement,” says a network ombudsman. CBC managers justified the editorial policy as an attempt at impartiality in covering October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel: "When you have 40 babies who are beheaded? Whose side are you on?"
Attorney General Arif Virani has rejected a standalone registry of foreign agents despite repeated appeals by MPs from all parties. Virani would not say who opposes the public unmasking of lobbyists in the pay of China and other foreign states: "A registry is not a universal solution."
The fate of tax-funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada is uncertain following an upheaval over inside dealing. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters he'd “reserve judgment” on whether the federal agency will continue after 22 years: "I am not satisfied with the current situation."
The Correctional Service is asking telecom companies to jam cellphones at federal penitentiaries, records show. Thousands of bootleg mobile devices have been smuggled into custody: "The Correctional Service continues to explore new, innovative means of preventing and seizing contraband."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Noam Chomsky must be popular. 100 books and counting…”
The Humboldt Broncos catastrophe begs for treatment by a skillful Canadian poet. Prairie road, quiet night, the sickening rip of metal as a busload of clean-cut, small-town kids perished on their way to a playoff game. It inspired an extraordinary outpouring of national grief beyond any celebrity death. Yet there are few hockey poems in Canada, “no doubt related to the snobbery with which the Canadian cultural elite has treated hockey historically,” notes Writing The Body In Motion: A Critical Anthology On Canadian Sport Literature.
Editors Angie Abdou of Athabasca University and Jamie Dopp of the University of Victoria compiled this beautiful anthology on literature and sport. “Hockey, as a game, is a potential source of fun and play,” writes contributor Jason Blake. “That said, sport and play are not synonymous, nor does a game necessarily engender enjoyment (as anyone who has played Monopoly knows).”
Contributors recount a haunting story from poet Randall Maggs’ 2008 Sawchuk Poems that tells of the night legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk was given a misconduct penalty for telling referee Red Storey to “go f—k yourself”; two days later, Sawchuk skated up to the ref at the Montreal Forum to ask why he was penalized.
A doubling of pre-election payroll rebates for government-approved newsrooms crosses the “line of integrity” in journalism, the Commons heritage committee was told yesterday. Conservative MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood), a former broadcaster, said cabinet appeared to be throwing money at favoured media outlets "When you see millions of dollars being spent on journalists there is a line of integrity I think has been crossed."
Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday contradicted garbled claims by the Canadian Press news agency that he falsely incited terrorism fears. It followed an earlier CP story on Poilievre that editors corrected three times: 'I am checking with the Guinness Book of World Records to see if there has ever been a news agency that had to issue three corrections for patent falsehoods in one single article.'
The New Democratic Party yesterday declined comment on a former candidate who threatened to privately prosecute Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a friend of Israel. Yavar Hameed of Ottawa accused Israel of "war crimes."
Federal regulators yesterday fined an Ontario trust company $1.6 million for failing to plainly disclose a $100 statement fee it charged mortgage customers. The penalty was five times the amount collected in fees: "Accurate disclosure of fees and costs is fundamental to fairness, honest business practices and the integrity of the financial system."
The CRTC will hold a special hearing on licensing of all foreign cable and satellite television services available in Canada, an executive said yesterday. It follows separate petitions to ban China Central Television and the Fox News Channel after Russia Today was blacklisted by Parliament: "We are going to hold a broader hearing – that is forthcoming – on how we treat foreign services."
The House affairs committee behind closed doors has agreed to public hearings into how a Waffen SS member was given a hero’s welcome in Parliament. Liberal MPs had objected to open discussion of the incident: "Deal with this matter openly and transparently to get to the bottom of one of the greatest international embarrassments."
