Taxpayers are sharply divided over ongoing financial aid for Ukraine, according to internal research by the Department of Finance. Canadians were more likely to oppose than support additional loans, subsidies and credits: "Support for Ukraine has helped the government continue to operate in the face of Russia’s illegal invasion."
Canadians’ right to privacy includes firefighters on emergency calls, a Privacy Commissioner has ruled. The decision came in the case of a request for photos of volunteer firefighters on the job in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador: "Pictures taken while fighting a fire show expressions and actions in a dangerous situation."
Sunwing Airlines owes taxpayers almost a third of a billion, according to Department of Transport records. Repayment over five years was a condition of cabinet’s approval of a takeover of Sunwing by WestJet Airlines: 'There was a significant risk Sunwing would not be able to repay the loans.'
Canadians in internal Privy Council polling share universal disapproval of internet service providers, documents show. Cabinet commissioned the research prior to approving the largest merger yet in telecom, the $26 billion takeover of Shaw Communications by Rogers: "All felt the Government of Canada should be doing more."
The Public Health Agency in an internal audit confirms from the outbreak of the pandemic it rushed to lease three private medical supply warehouses after closing three of its own depots the year before. Emergency leasing costs were not disclosed: "Too late."
Law enforcement by Parks Canada wardens consists mainly of illegal fishing and breaches of campground rules, says an internal report. The agency could not explain why it sought extraordinary new policing powers under a bill currently before Parliament: "Going through law school I was always told the devil is in the details."
Solicitors with one of the country’s largest commercial law firms are questioning a proposal to rewrite Canada’s usury law for the first time in 45 years. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said she will lower the maximum interest rate on most loans from 60 to about 42 percent a year: "It is unclear."
Poet Dahlia Kurtz writes: “Remember and Forget were walking down the street. People were staring. They couldn’t believe. ‘Forget is renowned as Remember’s nemesis!’ ‘Remember, don’t be a traitor! Come, join us!’…”
On February 6, 1940 Governor General John Buchan collapsed in his bathroom at Rideau Hall. Buchan had suffered a paralytic stroke and fractured his skull in the fall. He lay on the tiled floor for an hour before they found him. He was dead in a week.
Buchan had been a celebrity novelist. The same year he came to Ottawa in 1935, Alfred Hitchcock released a film adaptation of Buchan’s thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. It was like appointing John Grisham governor general.
Despite his international fame and sudden death Buchan today is forgotten, almost as if his service in Canada was expunged from the record. The reason is revealed in J. William Galbraith’s biography.
Buchan was a Nazi appeaser. He failed the greatest moral test of his era and was capable of “dangerous rationalization,” writes Galbraith
Easter greetings to all friends and subscribers. Blacklock's pauses for the national observance this Good Friday -- The Editor
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s “strong middle class” budget followed internal polling that warned of widespread grumbling by middle class voters. “Most were of the view the country was currently headed in the wrong direction,” said a Privy Council report: "There should be a greater emphasis on increasing benefits and financial supports for middle income Canadians."
The Privy Council Office yesterday would not comment on its apparent garbling of records over an ethics filing. Documents suggested Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc recused himself from a crucial vote a day after it happened: "How do you recuse yourself the day after?"
More than 620,000 people face clawbacks of tax refunds under a federal program to recover Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments from ineligible claimants, records show. The figures were disclosed at the request of New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, Man.), who has advocated for a CERB amnesty: "I think it is wasteful to chase the poor for money they do not have."
Cabinet yesterday confirmed it will pay $23 billion in compensation for systemic underfunding of First Nations child welfare programs. Indigenous Services Minister Patricia Hajdu called it “an important piece of healing” with minimum compensation of $40,000 per individual: "It is a total of just over $23.34 billion at this point.”
French outside Québec “remains fragile” despite billions in grants to promote the language, says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. Rates of bilingualism actually fell in English-speaking provinces over the past two decades: "The viability of francophone official language minority communities remains fragile."
