Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said cabinet is looking out for “the safety of every single Canadian” in issuing a travel advisory for LGBTQ people visiting the United States. Freeland cited no specific threat: "Our travel advisories are done very professionally."
Municipalities owe ratepayers a duty of care but only on accurate calculations of their property tax, a British Columbia tribunal has ruled. The decision came in Duncan, B.C. where assessments jumped an average 34 percent and City Council in two years hiked taxes 14 percent: "We are at their mercy."
The Department of Foreign Affairs held a secret ceremony honouring Ambassador Reid Sirrs and other diplomats who fled Afghanistan aboard a half-empty military plane during the fall of Kabul, records show. Canadian military called the incident an embarrassment: "Some still carry this emotional weight to this day."
Federal auditors have uncovered more irregularities over government-issue charge cards, this time at the Immigration and Refugee Board. A random check identified missing records, transactions that were “not properly signed and dated” and a lack of spending limits: "No documentation was on file."
Drug deaths rose by a third in 2021, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The increase in fatalities due to “accidental poisonings” followed parliamentary proposals to decriminalize heroin nationwide: "What do you think the impact of decriminalizing small amounts of illicit drugs would be?"
Federal healing lodges account for a high number of prison breaks, according to Correctional Service records. New data show 70 percent of federal escapees are Indigenous: "Escapes from healing lodges represent a challenge for residents, staff and community alike."
A federal lawyer implicated in editing Blacklock’s Wikipedia page yesterday was named a Superior Court judge. The 2016 incident led to disciplinary measures against an unidentified courthouse clerk: “I’m just doing my job.”
A CBC executive, Michel Bissonnette, has billed nearly $30,000 in travel expenses to date this year including a now-cancelled junket to the French Riviera, records show. Bissonnette repeatedly flew business class to Paris and once hired a driver to chauffeur him five blocks through downtown Ottawa: "We simply can’t be in a position where we have to keep cutting."
The cost of a federal tax credit once dubbed an “open bar” for corporations is now approaching levels last seen a decade ago when the previous Conservative cabinet cut the subsidy. More than 16,000 companies nationwide are now claiming the Scientific Research and Experimental Development credit, said a federal report: "I’m a big, big fan."
There is no evidence a five-year, $133.7 million climate change program reduced diesel emissions in Northern Canada, says a federal audit. The program mainly resulted in “trusting and respectful relationships” with Indigenous people, wrote auditors.
The post office warns it is tracking another heavy loss this year. Revenues for parcels, letter mail and flyers all fell in the first half of 2023, said the Canada Post Corporation: 'We acknowledge the magnitude and significance of recurring financial losses.'
CBC Radio billed more than $160,000 in legal fees to challenge a CRTC order over use of the n-word, according to Access To Information records. The network won its free speech case June 8 in federal court: "The CRTC overstepped its jurisdiction."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “The Liberal Party invites you to participate in a discussion. You may post your opinion, but will have to become a Party member first, declare your support in their philosophy…”
It says in black and white in the Constitution Act everyone has “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression” in this country. In fact, there is little case law on the issue.
In truth, most Canadians have no real investment in the right of expression and could not tell you what it means. The Charter of Rights is squeezed through a Canadian filter that emphasizes conformity and quiet manners.
So we come to Lawrence Hill’s odd essay, Dear Sir, I Intend To Burn Your Book. The title lures the reader in anticipation of a vigorous defence of the right to make trouble. It delivers instead an apologia for hurting someone’s feelings.
In 2007 Hill published a bestseller based on a 1783 British military ledger documenting the migration of American blacks to Nova Scotia. The Book of Negroes sold 500,000 copies in Canada. However, when the novel appeared in The Netherlands under the title Het Negerboek, Hill’s publisher received a death threat and a Black rights group burned copies in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark.
Fewer than half of suspicious packages entering Canada by cross border mail are X-rayed for guns, says a Department of Public Safety report. Auditors said they could find no information on how many guns were seized: "It was not specified."
