A small business stung by malicious online comments from an unhappy customer cannot sue for defamation, Ontario Superior Court has ruled. Internet trash talk under the guise of customer reviews is protected free speech, said the Court: "Now with the internet everything gets a grade and a review."
MPs yesterday threatened co-founders of We Charity with subpoenas after the Kielburger brothers told the Commons finance committee they could only spare an hour for questioning on their ties to cabinet. Craig and Marc Kielburger were ordered to testify today for four hours under threat of a summons: "There are tons of unanswered questions."
A Liberal-appointed senator yesterday cited Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “ethical failings” in dealing with We Charity. “Did the Trudeau government want to use public funds to come to the rescue of the organization?” said Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne (Independent-Que.): "The conflict of interest is glaring."
The Senate yesterday passed into law a bill granting a $600 tax-free bonus to Canadians with disabilities. Senators approved the bill grudgingly, calling it a measly payment four months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic: "It seems awfully meager."
The Canada Revenue Agency says it does not know if corporations under investigation for tax fraud have claimed pandemic subsidies. More than 269,000 companies have claimed $22.3 billion in federal grants under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program: "We didn't want to judge."
Federal prison researchers in a profile of young inmates say convicts under age 22 are typically high school dropouts from bad neighbourhoods who “take pride in criminal exploits”. The Department of Public Safety has estimated career criminals cost taxpayers more than a million dollars by age 30: "You can add up the costs."
Taxpayers paid $73,220 to jet Health Minister Patricia Hajdu home for weekends in Thunder Bay even as her department told the public to avoid non-essential travel. Disclosure of the costs came as Hajdu again instructed Canadians to follow the rules: 'It’s normal to be confused.'
Constables on patrol have been spat on, cussed and yelled at in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter protests, a police union told the Commons public safety committee. Union executives complained police have been unfairly targeted in media debate on bigotry: "Police officers have been broadly targeted both by activists and some political figures."
A federal website has published climate change commentaries opposing aid for oil companies or airlines, claiming “the world remains on fire”. Neither the author nor Department of Industry would comment: "Browse through this set of articles."
An independent audit of the Senate, the first since 2012, has raised questions on contracting. It follows disclosures Senate managers broke rules in spending $95,000 to hire doormen and ushers without legislators’ approval: "When someone breaks the rules we say, ‘Oh, well.'"
Almost one in ten Canada Student Loans Program borrowers default on their debts, says the Department of Employment that runs the program. Staff called it the best performance yet in the 56-year history of the program: "This is the lowest rate ever achieved."
Ongoing pandemic paid leave for federal employees who are neither sick nor working from home has now cost $623 million, the Parliamentary Budget Office reported today. Analysts calculated 1,470,000 hours of paid leave have been claimed: "It's huge."
A Toronto talent agency has until July 29 to surrender records detailing all speaking fees paid to members of the Trudeau family. The Prime Minister as an MP said he collected nearly $300,000 in fees: 'It's important disclosures are made.'
The Department of Public Works says it does not know if billions’ worth of masks and other pandemic supplies contracted in China are made by slave labour. MPs yesterday called the admission shocking: "Canadians deserve to know if their government is financially supporting forced labour."
The Public Health Agency is now having to lease warehouse space for pandemic supplies after closing three warehouses and throwing away millions of masks. One MP yesterday called it acknowledgement of a “grave mistake” in managing a federal stockpile of emergency medical goods: "These are literally people’s lives."
