Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne yesterday said he was never consulted on a telecom bill that would allow cabinet to secretly cancel Canadians’ internet accounts. Opponents have expressed alarm over the proposal: "We need to make sure by protecting national security we are not doing so at the expense of privacy."
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a Department of Employment staffer who pocketed the Canada Emergency Response Benefit while on the payroll. Evidence showed the employee claimed jobless benefits while working as a call centre operator assisting other Canadians seeking $2,000-a month CERB payments: "He was repeatedly dishonest."
Ridicule and skepticism regarding UFOs are discouraging Canadians from reporting suspicious activity, says cabinet’s $393,000-a year science advisor. Dr. Mona Nemer in an internal memo said she preferred the phrase “unidentified aerial phenomenon.”
One year on the job, a political appointee named Senator for Alberta over elected nominees says the position is a “huge burden” that takes a toll on health and well-being. Senator Kris Wells made the comment at a budget committee hearing: "This job requires a lot of us."
Opposition MPs on Friday pledged to block a bill granting cabinet extraordinary powers to target internet users in the name of public safety. Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.) said Bill C-8 An Act Respecting Cybersecurity “as it stands would allow the government to deprive individuals of essential services without ever seeing the evidence.”
Taxpayers oppose Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise to raise defence spending to 5 percent of GDP, says in-house Privy Council research. “Almost all reacted negatively” in federal focus groups, said a report: "Many believed 5 percent of GDP was far too high."
The Department of Veterans Affairs has revoked a quota on wreaths honouring war dead. MPs had questioned the cutback as mean-spirited: "Many ridings have dozens of cenotaphs that request wreaths for Remembrance Day."
Federal programs to have immigrant health care workers fill nursing shortages showed “mixed” results, says new Department of Immigration data. Figures indicate a quarter of immigrants let into Canada as prospective nurses were not hired: "This study reveals a mixed picture."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “At the edge of the parking lot, in a crack between pavement and curb, a seedling…”
When Idle No More protestors shut down the country’s main rail line and besieged the Prime Minister’s Office, Canadians were heard to mutter: Why can’t we solve Indigenous issues? Author Christopher Alcantara finds one answer in Negotiating The Deal, a step-by-step recounting of the maddening process that passed for land claim settlements. It was not really a process at all, and more of a game to drive mice crazy.
Alcantara documents a made-in-Canada fiasco called In All Fairness, the system developed by Parliament to settle claims by Indigenous people who never signed colonial treaties but lived here for millennia and clearly had legitimate demands. Only in 1973 did the Supreme Court recognize such claims, prompting then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau to marvel: “Perhaps you had more legal rights than we thought.”
Suspending a $3.7 billion Google tax opposed by U.S. President Donald Trump was not a giveaway, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said yesterday. LeBlanc denied cabinet made concessions to the White House, saying cabinet acted in the best interest of the nation: "I don’t think I’ve called them concessions. I’ve called them decisions."
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault yesterday said his agency will try to stop misplacing ballot boxes. MPs on the House affairs committee questioned numerous irregularities in the April 28 election including 822 mail-in ballots that went uncounted in Coquitlam, B.C.: "A ballot box got lost. How can that possibly happen?”
High schoolers have the “ability to form analytically-sound independent decisions” and should be allowed to vote, Senator Marilou McPhedran (Man.) yesterday told the Upper House. Senators adjourned debate on a bill sponsored by McPhedran to give the federal ballot to 16-year olds: "It is scientific fact."
Costs of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s increase to defence spending will be detailed soon, the Budget Office has told MPs. Expenses would be on top of this year’s estimated deficit of $68.5 billion: 'It's more than what Trudeau forecast.'
The union representing Coast Guard employees says members never signed up “to become militarized.” The Union of Canadian Transportation Employees yesterday told MPs it had no warning prior to cabinet’s decision to transfer control of the Coast Guard from the fisheries department to the Department of National Defence: "Can you imagine the surprise?"
