Victor Li, chief financial officer for We Charity, yesterday was threatened with contempt of Parliament if he does not answer MPs’ questions by Friday. The Commons ethics committee has sought details of We Charity finances for eight months: "I am just getting rather frustrated with the sense of entitlement."
Federal labour inspectors have cited Canada Post for breach of health regulations, the fourth citation in eight weeks. The post office had boasted its plants were virtually Covid-free in early months of the pandemic but has since stopped reporting rates of infection: "The employer has failed."
The Assembly of First Nations yesterday did not comment on claims political aides to National Chief Perry Bellegarde bullied Indigenous women reporters. The allegations are detailed in a federal report to a United Nations agency: "Intimidation against female Indigenous journalists can come from Indigenous political leaders."
A contractor managing Canada’s visa office in Beijing says it never asked local hires if they were Communist Party organizers out of respect for employee privacy. VFS Global Inc. said it would not be surprised if Communists were on the payroll, calling the Party a “grassroots organization” in China.
The Canadian Football League is endorsing a bill to legalize bookmaking so long as players, coaches, referees and linesmen are forbidden from placing bets. “The integrity of competition means everything to us,” Commissioner Randy Ambrosie wrote the Commons justice committee: "Wagering can engender concerns which must be addressed."
Then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s cabinet in 1982 opposed media subsidies as a waste of money, say declassified records. Ministers killed a draft Newspapers Act that would have paid matching grants for news coverage up to $150,000 a year: 'It was an unwise use of scarce financial resources.'
The Commons industry committee has voted unanimously to open hearings by month’s end on Rogers Communications' $26 billion purchase of its Calgary-based rival Shaw Communications Inc. A final report would go to the House by July before regulatory reviews are complete: "Are we going to bring a few witnesses in to wag our fingers at them? Fine, I enjoy that."
The Supreme Court will rule Thursday at 9:45 am Eastern whether the federal carbon tax is lawful. Seven of fifteen lower court judges said the law granted cabinet powers so sweeping it was unconstitutional: "What’s your Plan B if the Supreme Court rules against the government?"
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “Climate change is here and Canada rolls up its sleeves. Lawyers present their case. Judges listen…”
Stéphane Dion was so disorganized he literally could not run his own household. An Ottawa grocer suspended deliveries to Stornoway, official residence of the Leader of the Opposition, after Dion forgot to pay his account. Professor Brooke Jeffrey of Concordia University writes a certain unnamed hotel chain refused to take Liberal Party bookings for non-payment.
Jeffrey’s Road To Redemption documents the Liberals’ fall and rise from 2006 when the Party stumbled to third-party status in the Commons. It dramatized “a steady decline in voter support across the country over several decades,” writes Jeffrey.
Road To Redemption is not a dispassionate account. Professor Jeffrey is a longtime Liberal insider, former director of the caucus research bureau, and feeds the mythology of Liberal insiders as a kind of master race of wily political operatives. Federal Liberals are “often described as the most successful political party in the Western world,” claims Road To Redemption.
A Victoria newsroom whose editor campaigned against the Conservative Party has been designated a “qualified journalism organization” by the Canada Revenue Agency. The Narwhal News Society has also received more than $354,000 in taxpayer grants: "No, honestly, those federal programs do not affect our coverage."
Ongoing deficits ensure future tax increases are certain, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The finance department projects deficits will total two-thirds of a trillion by 2025: "Those numbers are astonishing."
Payment of billions in federal pandemic relief saw an increase in “government-related scams,” says a Canada Revenue Agency report. The Agency counted millions “lost to Covid-19 fraud” but did not elaborate: "Where we are focused is organized crime."
Then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1981 drafted a bill to legalize marijuana but dropped it over cabinet squabbling, according to declassified records. The initiative came 37 years before Parliament repealed a criminal ban on recreational cannabis: "The government should not be seen to be liberalizing laws on cannabis."
The labour department yesterday said it will consider first-ever Canada Labour Code amendments to cover electronic overtime by employees who take Zoom calls, texts and company emails after hours. A public consultation is open until April 30: "Risks include anxiety, depression and burnout."
