A Conservative bill to allow Canadians to buy interprovincial liquor by mail yesterday was introduced in the Commons. The bill would see consumers use Canada Post to bypass provincial liquor board monopolies: "There would be open free trade in this."
A federal bank hired consultants for tips on China’s “business practices” amid the arbitrary detention of two Canadian consultants in Beijing. The Business Development Bank yesterday would not say if its training included advice on avoiding arrest: "Our mission is to create more and better business."
Federal court managers in an ethics audit credit themselves with upholding “high standards” but omitted all reference to staff editing plaintiffs’ Wikipedia pages. André Bolduc, chief auditor at the Courts Administration Service, yesterday did not comment: “Disciplinary measures were taken.”
Former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro is petitioning a federal judge to examine a refusal by the Canada Border Services Agency to grant him a Nexus travel card. Del Mastro said the decision appeared to be score-settling by political opponents: "I have been a good person my whole life."
Attorney General David Lametti yesterday said his department is reviewing whether Canadian-based pornography websites breach the Criminal Code. Twenty MPs and senators including Conservative, Liberal and Green Party members yesterday petitioned cabinet to take action: "It is happening here in Canada."
Justin Trudeau’s talent agent yesterday said he has been badgered by unnamed accusers over corporate sponsorship fees paid to the Prime Minister. Trudeau has acknowledged collecting $1,341,500 in speaking fees in the period from 2006 to 2012 including payments by federal contractors: "Have you ever been a member of the Liberal Party?"
A former Québec Liberal MP’s company needed an advance payment to meet a $237 million federal contract for pandemic ventilators. Frank Baylis said his firm had re-mortgaged buildings and asked bankers to extend lines of credit in weeks prior to winning the contract: "I didn’t speak to anybody to try and influence them to give a contract to Baylis Medical."
Pandemic lockdowns unfairly punish small business while permitting big retailers to remain open, says an Ontario judge. “Small businesses can ill afford yet further losses in this horrible year,” said Superior Court Justice Frederick Myers: "Everyone sees the apparent unfairness."
A Department of Finance executive who dismissed the cost of a $43.5 million We Charity grant in a breezy email says she was just joking. Michelle Kovacevic, assistant deputy finance minister, was questioned by the Commons ethics committee: "Have you ever knowingly misrepresented the facts?"
The Department of National Defence is refusing comment that it advised members, including young reservists, they will get rationed Covid-19 vaccinations before the frail and elderly. Health Minister Patricia Hajdu said a portion of vaccine shipments must be ‘protected’ by the federal government: "Supplies will be limited at the outset."
New Democrats have introduced a bill to fix emissions targets in law. Critics said they feared the proposal would raise the carbon tax: "People are tired of words."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “The chime of the bells of the Dormition Abbey intertwines with the Arabic music from the passing BMW…”
Parliament claims ownership of every rock and iceberg in the Arctic, just as the Beijing Politburo claims every island in the South China Sea. True, Norwegians were the first to travel the Northwest Passage. And American submarines have secretly sailed through Arctic waters since 1958. And Russians have been planting flags at the North Pole since 1962 – but the idea is stuck fast. We pretend to own the Arctic, and the world pretends to care.
Unlike the People’s Daily, Canadians are capable of critical self-analysis of nationalistic land claims – which brings us to Lock, Stock and Icebergs, a fresh look at our stake in the unspoiled North. Author Adam Lajeunesse of the University of Waterloo in meticulous research points out how tenuous our Arctic “territorial integrity” is, and how haphazard Parliament has been in enforcing it.
The Senate last night erupted in protest after a legislator called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a bribe-taker. Sharp words came during debate on a motion to investigate federal funding for We Charity: "I’d be more than happy to see him in a court of law."
The carbon tax will cost farmers at least $235 million over five years, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The Department of Agriculture had concealed the data as secret: "These are exorbitant bills."
