Conservative and Bloc Québécois members of the Commons public accounts committee yesterday served notice they seek to review 10 years’ worth of Trudeau Foundation tax returns. It follows evidence the Foundation misrepresented a $140,000 gift from a Chinese donor affiliated with China Central Television: "Canadians are owed a proper explanation."
Cabinet spent billions more on Indigenous affairs without proportional improvement in actual services, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux said yesterday. Public Accounts show spending more than doubled after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created two Indigenous departments out of one: "Increased spending did not result in a commensurate improvement."
The entire management of the Canadian Human Rights Commission should be fired for racism, union executives yesterday told the Senate human rights committee. The Commission was cited by the Treasury Board for mistreating Black employees: "Systemic discrimination runs so deep in Canada’s public service it can be found in the very branch of the government responsible for fighting it."
Data confirm hundreds of thousands of families will not use subsidized daycare. A quarter of young children are raised in the home, figures show: "It provides a snapshot of early child care use across the country."
There is little “greening” of the nation’s commercial truck fleet despite offers of $250,000 federal grants, says in-house research by the Department of Natural Resources. Cabinet has targeted transportation as a key polluter that accounts for 22 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions: "The most common barrier identified by companies is cost."
RCMP are short of their targeted strength by almost ten percent, new data show. The Mounties acknowledged being unable to draw enough recruits despite union pay, quicker processing and a rule change that allows foreigners to apply: "Policing is no longer considered as attractive a career as it used to be."
The Office of the Ethics Commissioner confirms it is unable to investigate any misconduct until a new appointee is named by Parliament, a process that could take months. The post has been vacant since April 19: "Take notes, keep receipts."
The first reforms to lobbying rules since the We Charity scandal will come into effect July 1. Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger said amendments would govern all 8,000 registered lobbyists in Ottawa: "There will be plenty of time for people to look at it and react."
The Canada Revenue Agency may audit certain GST charges dating back 33 years under an obscure provision of cabinet’s omnibus budget bill. The Canadian Bar Association called it a bad precedent: "This type of legislation is not only unfair to taxpayers but also a breach of the rule of law."
Appointment of Manitoba’s Raymonde Gagne as $241,300-a year Speaker of the Senate comes 20 years after a reform bill to elect speakers lapsed in the Upper House. The Senate is among the last national assemblies in any English-speaking country that does not elect its speaker: "The Senate will gain in independence and dignity with the election of its speaker by secret ballot."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “A civil war in South Sudan. This mother of five is hiding in the swamps, feeding her children with water lilies until the next shipment of grains is airdropped…”
Off the highway in Morrisburg, Ont. is a “historic site,” Upper Canada Village. The attraction is a fake.
“What was it really like to live and work in the 19th century?” the pamphlets ask. “Visit Upper Canada Village and travel back in time!” It is in fact a 1961 recreation of a genuine 1761 community destroyed to make way for the St. Lawrence Seaway. To actually travel back in time you must read Negotiating A River, the saga of a mega-project that created an engineering marvel and submerged a piece of the national fabric under 40 feet of water.
In a celebration of “faith in progress and technology,” writes author Daniel Macfarlane, seaway builders decided “it was worth erasing key parts of Canadian history, literally flooding the site of Crysler’s Farm from the War of 1812. The memorial there was relocated to a hill on the new shore beside Upper Canada Village.”
Conservative MPs yesterday asked to summon Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu for questioning over clandestine operations by his Embassy. One Chinese diplomat has been expelled to date for harassing an MP’s family: "It is about as low as it gets."
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday hinted it may “take a look” at the federally-subsidized Trudeau Foundation. “Could be,” Revenue Commissioner Bob Hamilton testified at the Commons public accounts committee as MPs from all opposition parties sought an audit of the charity's books: "The potential for us to take a look? Could be."
Cabinet yesterday served notice it will invoke closure to get its budget bill out of the Commons finance committee. Conservative MPs are filibustering the bill until Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland appears for two hours of questioning: "We are running out of time."
