Public Works Minister Anita Anand is justifying a pandemic distribution deal with Amazon by claiming it’s a “Canadian company”. Staff would not disclose terms of the Amazon contract after a deputy minister suggested the firm could profit despite cabinet claims to the contrary: "Is Canada Post not capable of doing the same thing?"
The Department of Employment acknowledges pandemic relief programs have been announced without details or even definitions on how benefits will be paid. MPs in the Commons human resources committee questioned the Prime Minister’s offer of $5,000 grants to students "who choose to do national service".
Cabinet will not detail the multi-billion dollar cost of a pandemic relief program to pay half the cost of commercial rents for shuttered businesses. Restaurants alone pay $750 million a month in rents nationwide, the Commons finance committee was told: "Can you continue to spend at this rate?"
A cabinet appointee who held public office while president of an Ontario construction company breached no conflict laws, says the Ethics Commissioner. Moreen Miller’s conduct as chair of a Crown corporation prompted a $2 million lawsuit pending in Ontario Superior Court: "I find it unlikely."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “He is not yet the Minister, nor the Deputy Minister, or even the Assistant Deputy Minister…”
9/11 was an inglorious episode for journalism. The reaction to extraordinary events ran the gamut from A to B: anxiety and bravura. When commentators weren’t beating the drum for war, they were cringing every time the floorboards squeaked. Consider the scare that started with an insect bite.
On October 15, 2001 Nancy Rochon, a Parliament Hill employee, went to a nursing station for calamine lotion. Rochon had been gardening and developed a rash on her hands after she was bitten by a ladybug.
A Senate security guard happened by: had Nancy opened mail recently? Why yes, she replied; Rochon worked in the Journals Branch and opened mail all the time. Mail – hands – rash — anthrax!
Cabinet will not detail any federal guidance on easing pandemic shutdown orders. Saskatchewan yesterday became the first province to fix a schedule for reopening by storekeepers, golf courses and campground operators: 'They don’t need handouts, they need to get back to work.'
A recession Black Friday will strike a week today as commercial rents fall due on small businesses hit with pandemic shutdown orders, MPs were told yesterday. Thousands face insolvency: "We’re on the cliff."
The Treasury Board yesterday invoked employee safety in withholding pandemic records including details of sole-sourced contracts. Opposition MPs cited “an awful lot of questions” over concealed files: 'Accountability is key.'
Mass photocopying of works for university course packs breaches the Copyright Act, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled in a decision released yesterday. Authors and publishers blamed the practice for a disastrous fall in copyright income: "It is theft."
Lawmakers worried about physical distancing could reconvene Parliament in a hockey arena, the House affairs committee was told yesterday. It would be the first change of venue since a 1916 fire forced MPs to debate in a dinosaur museum: "I must admit it’s quite interesting."
Christmas came early at Canada Post as housebound consumers did so much shopping by internet, parcel deliveries soared to holiday levels. Management yesterday said deliveries on a single day, April 20, totaled 1.8 million parcels: 'Volumes are well over thirty percent higher.'
The manager of the nation’s $300 million pandemic medical supply stockpile yesterday admitted the Public Health Agency had no idea what shortages existed prior to Covid-19. Sally Thornton, vice-president of the Agency, told the Commons health committee that managers were having to make “course corrections” as acute care hospitals run short of masks, gowns and gloves: "I am in charge."
A hodgepodge of pandemic regulations has forced police to ticket Canadians for everyday activities, says the nation’s largest police union. The Canadian Police Association complained of a “general lack of consistency” by regulators: "Why are you trying to prevent me from going to this park?"
Cabinet yesterday said it will recall Parliament into emergency session for a third time to pass another pandemic relief bill, this one to provide $9 billion in aid to university and college students. Cost of the Canada Emergency Student Benefit puts the federal deficit close to $200 billion this year: "We’re working out those details."
