The Prime Minister is attempting to “guillotine” parliamentary debate over a landmark bill on industrial permits, says a former federal housing minister. Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, Ont.) made the comment yesterday while the Prime Minister was out of the Commons on G7 business: "For what?"
Opposition MPs yesterday signaled difficult days ahead for cabinet in pushing bills through committee. It followed a warning from one Conservative that the 45th Parliament will “hold the government to account.”
The Commons yesterday by a 172 to 165 vote endorsed a lifetime ban on two ArriveCan contractors. Evidence showed Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony, two consultants with GC Strategies Inc. of Woodlawn, Ont., made millions as government suppliers: "These were a couple of guys working in their basement."
Anti-Israel protestors who published website endorsements of election candidates accusing Jews of genocide were not engaged in “partisan activity,” Elections Commissioner Caroline Simard has ruled. Access To Information records showed Simard’s office disregarded complaints the unregulated activity breached the Canada Elections Act: "The group’s activities were not election advertising or partisan."
Prime Minister Mark Carney faces growing opposition to his “nation building” bill on warnings the Commons must pass it by midnight Friday. Environmentalists joined Conservative and Liberal MPs in questioning the scope of Bill C-5: "This should be carefully scrutinized."
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson attempted to hide millions’ worth of investment property from MPs, according to British Columbia land titles uncovered by TheBreakerNews. Robertson would not discuss his real estate dealings when questioned in the House: "I think the focus here needs to be on building homes for people to live in, not building homes for investors to own."
The Department of Public Works is hiring private IT consultants to manage 660,000 federal web pages at an undisclosed cost. It follows cabinet’s 2023 promise to “reduce spending on consulting.”
MPs ridiculed Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali as embarrassingly uninformed after he appeared unaware of a 2024 committee motion to ban federal employees from moonlighting as contractors. Critics jeered as Ali was handed scripted answers during questioning on budget estimates: "This is embarrassing. I would be embarrassed. I am almost embarrassed for him."
Solar panels embody the teachings of Jesus, says MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.). The re-elected Green Party leader in her first Member's Statement to the 45th Parliament endorsed the blessing of solar panels on her parish church, explaining she was trying to “follow the path of Jesus Christ in my work.”
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “It’s a million little things that portend a fall, small enough to go unnoticed, gradual, until it’s not. And arresting it Is harder, the longer it runs…”
Fifteen years after the G20 riot in Toronto, there is little doubt protestors won the battle. The G20, Toronto Police, media and government – all were exposed as heavy-handed and paranoiac.
Putting the State on Trial is an eloquent collection of essays dissecting 72 hours in June, 2010 that smashed reputations to smithereens. Nobody – not government, not police, not media – looks good in this saga, save protestors themselves who exercised their right to dissent. “The riot gear, the verbal assaults, the seemingly irrational physical abuse on hapless citizens caught in the maze, and the initial denial by the police that any of the actions were indicative of an out-of-control policing operation, sparked outrage,” authors write.
The facts: The federal cabinet insisted on holding the summit in Canada’s largest city. Then the Ontario cabinet cordoned off five square blocks of downtown Toronto under an obscure 1939 law intended to protect power plants from Nazi saboteurs. Under Regulation 233/10 any person could be arrested for entry, or failing to provide ID. It became “a trap for those who exercised their ordinarily legal rights,” as Ontario’s ombudsman later observed.
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault will be called by the House affairs committee to explain irregularities in the April 28 election. Perrault has apologized for unexplained poll closures in one riding and faces a lawsuit over irregularities in another: "The public could also testify."
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson would not answer repeated questions in the Commons on whether he personally speculates in real estate. Robertson’s office yesterday did not comment: "I am here to answer questions on behalf of my department."
The Jewish National Fund has won a Court order compelling federal auditors to disclose confidential records concerning the longtime charity’s loss of tax status last August 10. The National Fund, a registered charity since 1967, has accused the Canada Revenue Agency of bias: "I find the Jewish National Fund’s allegation of bias is a tenable ground of appeal."
The Commons yesterday by a 335-0 vote gave unanimous Second Reading to a cabinet proposal for a $5.8 billion income tax cut. Passage came on a warning from seven New Democrat MPs that they would seek amendments once the bill lands at finance committee hearings: "More troubling are the unintended consequences of this tax measure."
