Internal records on the flight of Canada’s last ambassador to Afghanistan will not be disclosed to the public, says the Department of Foreign Affairs. Staff cited the “sensitive nature” of evidence detailing why Ambassador Reid Sirrs fled Kabul aboard a half empty plane, leaving behind thousands of Canadian citizens and Afghan allies: "We were the first embassy to depart."
A witness at the Freedom Convoy inquiry testified she heard Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly tell a business group he was scared of the truckers. Sloly later compared the protest outside Parliament to the violent 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol that injured 138 police: "There was a sense that maybe our leaders were a little shaken."
An Ottawa New Democrat councillor who petitioned cabinet to take steps against the Freedom Convoy testified she was terrified of truckers but acknowledged seeing no acts of violence. “I wrote to the Prime Minister begging for resources,” said Catherine McKenney, a mayoralty candidate: "I didn’t personally witness any acts of violence. I was told about them.'
Bootleg tobacco now accounts for a third of the Canadian market, says one of the nation’s largest cigarette makers. Imperial Tobacco Canada Inc. in a submission to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee put tax losses in the billions: 'It's arguably the most lucrative criminal enterprise in Canada today.'
A new labour department mandate requiring federally regulated private employers to provide workers with free sanitary napkins would cost about $11.6 million a year, by official estimate. Cabinet called it a basic right for Canadian women: "Government intervention is necessary."
When political fixer Jean Pelletier was fired as chair of VIA Rail in 2004 the National Post reported with a straight face he was denied “due process.” Pelletier was cast not as a target of Liberal score-settling but a victim denied his fundamental right to a porkbarrel appointment.
Sociologist Dominique Clément would call this a case of “rights inflation.” Like real inflation, it cheapens the currency. Pat references to human rights now run the gamut from Tibetan genocide to accessible washrooms. Forgotten are the nuances of the English language that draw proportional distinction between atrocities and grievances.
“There is a danger in framing any and all grievances as rights violations,” writes Professor Clément of the University of Alberta’s Department of Sociology. “This raises questions about the widespread use of rights talk. These days, almost every grievance is framed as a human right.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland grossly inflated estimates of the Freedom Convoy impact on the economy, internal documents show. Freeland cited figures described in one Department of Transport memo as an “extreme case” that did not reflect actual data: "I have many figures in my head."
The Freedom Convoy was the culmination of a “mass protest movement” against pandemic mandates and lockdowns, a convoy inquiry lawyer said yesterday. Counsel at the Public Order Emergency Commission counted more than 140 major demonstrations and legal challenges nationwide leading to the truckers’ blockade outside Parliament: "Just stick to the facts, the raw facts."
Paul Rouleau, the Liberal-appointed judge heading the Freedom Convoy inquiry, yesterday promised Canadians a “fair and meaningful” investigation stripped of any partisanship. “Be prepared to work hard,” he told lawyers at the Public Order Emergency Commission: "The public has a right to know what happened."
Federal debt charges have surpassed the $26.5 billion national defence budget, the Parliamentary Budget Office confirmed yesterday. Debt charges were $31.2 billion and rising, it said: "Public debt charges are projected to more than double."
Air Canada couldn’t count to 10, a British Columbia small claims court judge has ruled. The Civil Resolution Tribunal ordered the airline to pay $775 in damages and costs for garbling its arithmetic at the expense of a North Vancouver couple: 'Explain how to count 10.'
The RCMP in a briefing to deputy ministers the very day cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act falsely claimed Freedom Convoy protesters had weapons outside Parliament. They didn’t. A police memo attributed the rumour to “intelligence information.”
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki when testifying at parliamentary hearings must appear “self-confident and firm,” speak slowly and beware of trickery by MPs. The advice is detailed in a five-page tip sheet written by the Mounties’ government affairs unit: "Smile and pause."
The Commons immigration committee yesterday by a 6 to 5 vote rejected a review of records showing now-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino backdated documents to mislead a federal judge. Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs called the incident a simple mistake: "There’s something fishy that has happened here, something strange."
The onus is on cabinet to justify extraordinary police powers used against the Freedom Convoy, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said yesterday. Civil rights lawyers are participating in a judicial inquiry that opens today at 9:30 am Eastern: "The burden is on them, not the other way around."
