Chinese prison labour was assigned to work at a Canadian-owned mask factory in Shanghai, according to the Communist Party press. The Department of Public Works has said it does not know if it purchased slave-made goods: "We do the job not for a reward but driven by our inner eagerness."
Ex-finance minister Bill Morneau charged taxpayers more than $80,000 for pre-pandemic travel prior to abruptly resigning cabinet for accepting free trips from a federal contractor. Access To Information records yesterday disclosed by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard) showed Morneau’s expenses included a $583-a night hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 'It features discreet attentive service along with magical surroundings.'
China is a “predatory country” unfit to join any free trade pact with Canada, Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole yesterday told reporters. O’Toole has proposed Parliament pass legislation mandating disclosure of all lobbyists' ties to the People’s Republic: "Push back against the bad actions of the Chinese Communist Party."
Parliament’s legalization of cannabis normalized marijuana use, says Department of Health research. The 2018 bill made Canada only the second country after Uruguay to permit recreational use of cannabis: 'The smell of cannabis is now more prevalent than cigarette smoke.'
MPs will seek immediate resumption of Commons committee investigations of federal contracting, We Charity and China subterfuge in Canada, MP Erin O’Toole (Durham, Ont.) yesterday said on his first day as Leader of the Opposition. All hearings were suspended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until September 23: "Mr. O’Toole spoke with Prime Minister Trudeau over the phone."
Cabinet yesterday claimed labour shortages in waiving a requirement that jobless migrants leave the country before reapplying for work here. Any migrant worker with a legitimate job offer may stay, said Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino: "We have heard from employers who continue to face challenges."
The Department of Agriculture yesterday paid more than a million dollars to distribute surplus seafood to Nova Scotia food banks. The initiative to help processors get rid of unsold stock follows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appeal to Canadians to aid the industry by eating more lobster: "Not only will it taste great but it will help people."
New federal data show a ban on contact hockey for players under 13 did reduce brain injuries. Hockey Hall of Famer Eric Lindros earlier told a Commons committee that curbs on body-checking should be extended to older players: "Why are we starting to hit when not everyone has gone through puberty?"
Decriminalizing heroin and cocaine is “something worth deliberating”, says Health Minister Patricia Hajdu. A private Liberal bill pending in the Commons would repeal a federal law that criminalizes simple possession of street drugs: "I hear the calls across the country."
Volunteer groups warned the We Charity program was misguided and badly drafted, according to internal Department of Employment memos. One organization refused a $100,000 fee from We Charity in protest over the program's design: "They indicated there was a fee."
Federal auditors have cited a Crown corporation, the National Arts Centre, for sloppy budgeting. Directors failed to set aside funds for necessary maintenance and repairs even after charging taxpayers a quarter-billion for renovations. Cost overruns at the concert hall once prompted two parliamentary investigations: 'It doesn't match London or Paris.'
A sixty-foot artifact of the nation’s pioneering era in space is to be demolished as scrap metal, says the Canadian Space Agency. Private researchers said they were unable to save the Kennedy Antenna, a parabolic dish used to track the 1962 satellite that made Canada the third country in space: "It is a shame."
Managers of a federal employees’ group insurance plan have lost a preemptive bid to dismiss a costly class action lawsuit. Sun Life Assurance Company is accused of miscalculating cost of living increases for thousands of beneficiaries: "The plaintiff has pleaded some evidence."
2021 marks a hundred years since neither Liberals nor Conservatives won a majority of seats in the Commons. This had never happened before. It is now commonplace and uniquely Canadian, explains Professor Nelson Wiseman of the University of Toronto.
“Canadian voters have become volatile, more volatile than American voters,” Wiseman writes in Partisan Odysseys. “Although there is no generally accepted measure of party identification, Canadians are less likely than Americans to have party affiliations ingrained into their personal identities.”
The federal deficit is near $400 billion, seven times the previous record, with proposals by cabinet yesterday to extend new benefits to jobless workers. “Our government has taken on more debt so Canadians didn’t have to,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters.
