Every urban hotel in the nation is operating at a loss this summer, the Hotel Association of Canada yesterday told the Commons industry committee. Lobbyists said the industry is so hard-pressed insurers have warned they will be denied coverage by year’s end: "It’s just bad everywhere."
Lengthy jailing of foreigners awaiting deportation is constitutional, says the Federal Court of Appeal. The ruling came in the case of a Toronto man jailed nearly five years in Canada after Jamaican authorities refused to take him back: "Prolonged detention is constitutional."
The Public Health Agency that failed to stockpile pandemic supplies had poor management of information technology systems, says an internal audit. “IT is central to almost every aspect of Health Canada and Public Health Agency business,” wrote auditors.
A Québec contractor named an exclusive federal supplier of Canadian-made pandemic masks has failed to ship any, says the Public Health Agency. Internal documents show AMD Medicom Inc. was awarded contracts worth $381,693,476 -- three times the figure publicly disclosed -- on a promise of speedy delivery weeks ago, though it didn't have a factory in Canada: "To date the Public Health Agency has not received surgical masks from Medicom’s Canadian production facility."
The Public Health Agency in internal memos disclosed it was so unprepared for the pandemic it shipped date-expired medical items to provinces, and relied on donations from Home Depot. The documents confirmed managers had scant supplies in a national stockpile after throwing away millions of masks in 2019: 'Did they warn the cabinet?'
A federal agency, the Canada Energy Regulator, is paying $150,000 to fly trainers to Calgary for workshops on “contemplative dialogue”. Staff will attend four-day seminars on "awareness and the human person" and how to conduct smoother meetings: "Where do you go to learn that?"
TV tycoon Kevin O’Leary is named in a $13 million federal lawsuit under the Marine Liability Act. Lawyers representing families of two victims killed in a 2019 boating accident filed the Federal Court claim against O’Leary, his wife and the driver of a second power boat that collided after dusk: "He failed to keep a proper lookout."
Schoolchildren over age ten should wear masks in class, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. The Agency in a directive also recommended school boards do “risk assessments” on choir practice, and be wary of music classes where wind or brass instruments are shared: "The fall period is a bit of a challenge."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “A burial site uncovered during excavations in Ottawa. The Ontario government asks those who might be related to early Bytown residents to come forward…”
A Québec company that won a lucrative ten-year federal contract for pandemic masks repeatedly lobbied Industry Minister Navdeep Bains and his staff, records show. Bains’ department contacted AMD Medicom Inc. within hours of the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic: 'The government out of the blue reached to Medicom.'
MPs on the Commons finance committee yesterday questioned the scope of a federal grant that would have paid We Charity the equivalent of two-thirds of its annual revenue. Marc and Craig Kielburger, the $125,173-a year co-founders of We Charity, had testified they would not have made any gains on the agreement: "Does that seem to be a bit odd to you?"
Canadians are naïve in thinking “China is our friend”, a former career diplomat yesterday told MPs. "This isn't just an Ottawa problem," said the retired ambassador to Beijing.
John McCallum, former Canadian ambassador to China, yesterday was ordered to testify at a Commons committee after he refused to appear voluntarily. The order followed disclosures McCallum worked as a consultant in China after he was fired by the Prime Minister in 2019: "This China assignment is the perfect job for me."
MPs yesterday joined the United Steelworkers union in demanding immediate Canadian retaliation against U.S. tariffs on aluminum imports. The Commons trade committee condemned earlier tariffs as unlawful: "Is there hurt out there? Yes there is."
The Department of Public Works yesterday would not say if it has taken any promised rush deliveries from a Québec company awarded an exclusive ten-year contract to supply pandemic masks. Public Works Minister Anita Anand had justified the sole-sourced contract on a promise Canadian-made masks would be on their way to doctors and nurses “toward the end of July”.
