The political heart of Ottawa spans a ten-square block area of the old city stretching from Wellington to Somerset Streets. Here on Somerset lived Prime Minister John Thompson, a workaholic who wrote Canada’s first Criminal Code, created Labour Day in 1893 and was an early supporter of votes for women: “About all the exercise I can get is the walk from my house up to the Hill and back.”
Explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson said the Arctic was at the very centre of national life though southerners thought of it as the edge of the frontier. The unforgiving land and its rugged people are instantly recognizable worldwide as uniquely Canadian. Say “Canada” from Germany to Japan and foreigners see Inuit art, Northern lights and merciless winters.
Johnny Neyelle, a Dene Elder with the Bear Lake people, from the 1980s made cassette recordings of ancient lore and his life experience. Neyelle had a stark purpose. As his son Morris puts it, “I realized that storytelling was changing and that kids weren’t coming to listen to the Elders’ stories anymore.”
MPs yesterday demanded to see actual menus for costly in-flight meals for Governor General Mary Simon. Food expenses on a junket to Dubai were the equivalent of $218 per plate for breakfast, lunch and supper servings for Simon and 45 others: "We’d like to know whether we are dealing with caviar and champagne."
Canada is headed for recession and it is “not going to feel so good,” David Dodge, retired Bank of Canada governor, yesterday testified at the Senate banking committee. Dodge faulted his successors at the Bank for incorrect forecasts that were “not very helpful.”
Bonuses for federal executives and upper management cost more than $190 million last year. The Treasury Board called it a credit to the “world class public service.”
A reporter for the Canadian Bar Association National Magazine faces a Commons review after posting a Twitter comment about shooting a Conservative MP. Protests yesterday coincided with a parliamentary report that complained of online abuse targeting public office holders: "This is not normal political discourse."
A statutory review of marijuana legalization comes too late to save dozens of federally licensed wholesalers and retailers that have filed for bankruptcy, a cannabis trade group said yesterday. A total 34 marijuana corporations have become insolvent since 2020: 'We cannot wait for changes.'
A police blacklist of bank account holders named as Freedom Convoy sympathizers was emailed to lobbyists, records disclose. The RCMP distributed names, birth dates, phone numbers and other personal information by unencrypted email, contradicting public claims by cabinet: "Haphazard would be an understatement."
Nearly $3 billion in pandemic relief was paid to undeserving claimants, records show. Less than a billion has been recovered to date, cabinet disclosed in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons: "The intended total recovery amount cannot be predicted with accuracy."
The passport office took more than two years to restore in-person staffing levels despite warnings of increased demand for travel documents. Newly-disclosed records also confirmed as late as this past summer more than a tenth of staff continued to work from home: "We are doing everything we can."
Criminal law should not punish misguided drug dealers who just want to “put bread on the table,” Attorney General David Lametti said yesterday. Lametti made the comment in defending a cabinet bill to repeal mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine traffickers: "Did you talk to victims’ groups?"
French is a fifth or sixth language in provinces west of Québec, says new Census data. Figures show in the largest English-speaking cities francophones are outnumbered by residents who speak Russian or Hindi: "We know French is on the decline across Canada."
Inflation and interest rates will remain above pre-pandemic rates for about two years, a deputy governor of the Bank of Canada said yesterday. Paul Beaudry told University of Waterloo students it was “too early” to say if interest rate hikes will choke the economy into recession: "You get worried."
Fighting inflation is “so important,” Government House Leader Mark Holland said yesterday. His remarks followed new figures showing grocery prices year over year are up nine percent for vegetables and 15 percent for bread: "Action against inflation, it's so important."
Pandemic restrictions on the size of outdoor gatherings were justified, Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench ruled yesterday. The decision came in the case of protesters fined $2,800 apiece for breaching a public health order limiting outdoor gatherings to ten people: "We can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all."
