RCMP privately ridiculed a claim by Mark Carney that the Freedom Convoy was seditious. Carney in a Globe & Mail column appeared to pull the definition of “sedition” from an online U.S. dictionary, not the Criminal Code: "It would be a stretch."
A Manitoba credit union called police on a depositor who was not "deemed illegal" but liked the Freedom Convoy in his Facebook posts, records show. And an unnamed bank reported one customer’s credit card purchase of a gas mask. The incidents are detailed in documents on the scope of an Emergencies Act account freeze: "It won't come as a surprise."
Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne in an Ottawa speech said Canadians have a “fundamental right to privacy” but made no mention of vaccine mandates. The Commissioner gave no deadline for his ruling on Privacy Act complaints that governments had no right to require disclosure of medical information as a condition of employment or use of public services: "Privacy is one of the key challenges of our time."
The federal bank inspector is maintaining a steep “stress test” on new mortgage buyers amid a dramatic rise in loan rates. Calls to eliminate the test were understandable but risky, said Peter Routledge, Superintendent of Financial Institutions: "We see great risk in speculating on the mortgage cycle."
Canada rates among the worst in concealing federal books from taxpayers’ scrutiny, says the Parliamentary Budget Officer. “In comparison to other G7 countries Canada was among the last to publish their financial accounts,” Yves Giroux wrote the Commons government operations committee: "Because they can, just because."
By poet Shai Ben-Shalom: “I open the cupboard, reach for a mug. My mind — ahead of me — sees coffee in it. I hesitate…”
Finally, the plain truth about Canada in the 1960s. Our collective memory of this decade is so coloured by American imagery of Vietnam and Martin Luther King, the distinctive Canadian experience is forgotten even by those who lived it. Ian Milligan, professor of history at the University of Waterloo, corrects the record through meticulous research and interviews.
It was the decade of the union. “Canada’s 1960s were profoundly shaped by labour,” Milligan writes. “Skyrocketing labour unrest captivated young people, their elders, the media, and governments alike.”
Most Canadians had never had it so good: full employment in an economy geared to wartime production without any casualties. Mining and manufacturing ran red-hot. “If you could walk almost, you could get a job at Inco,” one United Steelworkers organizer recalled. Sudbury mines hired 200 men a day.
Chasing waste in pandemic relief programs has cost taxpayers a third of a billion so far, record show. The Canada Revenue Agency assigned more than 2,000 employees to recovering billions in misspent subsidies: "I think we are doing a very good job."
A defiant Conservative MP Raquel Dancho (Kildonan-St. Paul, Man.) yesterday was ejected from the Commons after protesting “underhanded” cabinet controls on everyday hunting and sporting guns. Dancho declined to apologize in a standoff with the Speaker: "We had enough of it and I called them out for lying which they did."
Parliament must press for a vote on a proper inquiry of cabinet’s pandemic management, New Democrat MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) said yesterday. “Liberals would love to do a whitewash,” he said: "The government cannot investigate itself."
New electric cars must be equipped with noisemakers under a cabinet order disclosed yesterday. Manufacturers complained they were never consulted on the proposal intended to save pedestrians from being run over by whisper-quiet electrics: "The issue is people who are walking along the street looking at their smartphones."
The CRTC yesterday rejected a proposal from Telus Communications Inc. to charge customers who pay by credit card a 1.5 percent transaction fee. The order follows a 2015 Act of Parliament that banned telecom companies from charging a paper billing fee: "Unacceptable."
The $231,000-a year Clerk of the Commons accused of sleeping at work and feeding inside information to the Liberal caucus is resigning. The Speaker yesterday thanked Charles Robert for “faithful and devoted service.”
Senators last night questioned one clause in a 172-page budget bill that would see Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland spend $2 billion on shares of a company that doesn’t exist. The company would draw private investment in green technology, said Freeland: "The green transition will cost a good deal, really a lot, and we need money."
Police cited 4,883 children for breaching the Quarantine Act, new figures show. Youngsters warned by police were among 58,760 children caught up in quarantine enforcement: 'It is in regard to minors being warned of fines if they broke quarantine.'
