The Department of Canadian Heritage is invoking privacy in concealing terms of a settlement with an anti-Semitic consultant. Laith Marouf of Montréal was paid $122,661 for a series of anti-racism lectures before managers discovered he was banned from Twitter for fantasizing about shooting Jews: "Too many people in Ottawa knew about this."
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s future earnings rely on the success of Brookfield Corporation, the Ethics Commissioner said yesterday. Opposition MPs seek to compel Carney to sell his stock portfolio: "It is clear Mr. Carney’s future compensation is tied to the success of Brookfield."
A Liberal MP once censured for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Code yesterday complained ethics rules had been “weaponized.” MP James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.), the first parliamentarian ever ordered by the Ethics Commissioner to publicly apologize in the House of Commons, said no public office holder should be subject to “a bunch of allegations.”
Federal departments last year assigned almost 600 employees to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, records show. Cabinet acknowledged the figure was incomplete since numerous departments declined to report how many managers worked on “representation goals.”
The Privy Council Office yesterday dismissed a request from MPs to interview candidates for appointment as Budget Officer. A standoff over the key appointment will now drag into 2026: "It is so important that the choice of a Parliamentary Budget Office be neutral, unbiased and impartial."
More than a million homeowners face loss of equity if Parliament does not take steps to confront flood insurance costs, the Commons environment committee was told yesterday. The Department of Public Safety has yet to act on long-promised initiatives to save taxpayers the expense of disaster relief: "We're not going backwards."
The Department of Immigration without any parliamentary scrutiny ordered research into enforcement of a national ID system using digital passports, Access To Information documents show. MPs have repeatedly rejected any national identity scheme as costly and dangerous: 'The assumption is the passport would be used within Canada as an identity document.'
Year-end bonuses for federal executives are not literally tied to departmental performance, says a Treasury Board report. It follows data showing departments typically reward 90 to 100 percent of managers regardless of failure: "There is a system that is broken."
The founder of a Palestinian activist group in Canada is in federal policing, according to Access To Information records. Documents disclosed an RCMP member is founder of the group that advocated “expressing their Palestinian identity at work” and circulated complaints about Jews testifying at parliamentary committee hearings: 'It is important to present a narrative in support of Palestinians.'
The Department of Immigration acknowledges it let a million foreign students into the workforce without ever studying the impact on Canadian students. A single questionnaire was sent only to foreigners even as the unemployment rate for Canadian students climbed to 16 percent or more in several provinces: "A survey was sent to international students who would have been authorized to work unlimited hours."
The RCMP is spending nearly a million a week on Black Hawk helicopters leased after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs over inadequate border security. The Mounties already had an air patrol with 30 aircraft but were faulted by auditors for scrimping on basic equipment like night vision goggles for pilots: "How many times has suspicious or illegal activity been monitored?"
Poet Jeff Blackman writes: “Member of the National Energy Board: yes is a straight line; watch for the Y-shaped imitator. Member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee: ask a few more times what’s new. Chair of the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation: remember no one can see everyone you’ve left behind, because you won’t…”
Mr. S, a British Columbia pensioner, took his $325,000 in life savings and left it all with Union Securities of Vancouver. He was an “unsophisticated investor,” as the investment industry puts it. He believed what the salesman told him.
By the time Union Securities was finished with Mr. S virtually all his savings were wiped out. Mr. S might have sued. Instead he complained to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, a dispute resolution office created by banks and investment dealers. The ombudsman agreed Mr. S was badly treated and recommended compensation. Union Securities refused and that was it. Mr. S did not get his savings back. The ombudsman issued a news release.
Alternative dispute resolution systems like the Ombudsman for Banking are growing ever popular. It is privatized justice promoted as quicker, more efficient and cheaper than public courts, writes Professor Trevor Farrow of Osgoode Hall. Lawsuits are undoubtedly expensive. Even an Ontario Superior Court judge once marveled that “excess appears to be the norm” in legal fees that run to as much as $1,000 per hour.
MPs “will not be censored” in scrutinizing federal executives over management of immigration, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill) said yesterday. Her remarks followed a formal protest from a deputy minister that criticism at committee hearings made it unsafe for managers to testify: "These clips fuel anger among members of the public who then target our officials."
Cabinet last year approved an 84 percent increase in the number of federal managers paid more than $150,000 a year, records show. It coincided with public statements by the finance minister that “these are hard times for Canadians.”
