Crown corporations should have powers to conceal records as confidential under the Access To Information Act, says the Federal Court of Appeal. The key ruling on disclosure was watched closely by three Crown agencies: 'It needed to provide a guarantee of confidentiality to its customers.'
A tariff war with the United States will cost a million Canadian jobs, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said yesterday. The figure is in addition to unemployed who currently number 1,505,000 according to a February 7 Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada: "A million jobs at risk is no joke."
A federal agency is charging taxpayers an undisclosed sum to install a sun lounge atop a government office building. The National Research Council yesterday would not discuss expenses for the project that includes flower boxes, a splash pad and Brazilian walnut benches for relaxing during work hours: "Suggest green solutions whenever possible."
A continental trade war will be painful, costly and unavoidable if the U.S. proceeds today with threatened tariffs, says Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland. “It is self-mutilating for the United States,” Freeland told reporters: "This tariff war is a really dumb idea."
Governor General Mary Simon yesterday in pointed remarks to foreign diplomats lamented a tense rise in “economic nationalism.” Her speech came as U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a tariff war will commence today: 'Canada understands respect.'
Canada’s chief bank inspector says a current mortgage “stress test” may be replaced altogether with tighter scrutiny of banks instead of borrowers. “We’ll decide after we have a full year of testing,” Superintendent of Financial Institutions Peter Routledge said in a memo.
Organizers of Mark Carney’s Liberal leadership campaign are shielding the candidate from media following criticism he lied about his record. News coverage of one invitation-only Carney speech was restricted to reporters instructed to “RSVP to receive location details.”
Canadians are more alert to “potential biases in ‘mainstream’ news” with the growth of independent media and multiple news sources on the internet, say CRTC researchers. The public said media typically do a poor job of reporting on different political views, said a report released Saturday: 'People are being more selective.'
Cabinet is counting on the CBC to save Canadian democracy from American threats, says Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. The Crown broadcaster was just as important as Parliament or the courts in the current "security crisis," she said.
A multi-billion dollar fund intended to subsidize projects that deliver “social benefits” never defined the term, says a Department of Natural Resources audit. Analysts said it was difficult to determine if taxpayers received value for money: 'They have yet to fully determine a comprehensive method to measure them.'
Canadian Pacific Railway has been cleared of liability in the nation’s worst postwar train wreck. The Railway was not to blame for the 2013 Lac-Mégantic disaster, the Québec Court of Appeal has ruled: "Canadian Pacific was not the owner of the train that derailed, or its cargo."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “My cat sleeps through the hurricane, undisturbed by 150 miles-per-hour gusts…”
It was a popular quip in the 1980s that West Edmonton Mall’s waterpark had more submarines than the Royal Canadian Navy. The sub service was always the heartbreak branch of the military: underfunded, ill-equipped, with working conditions that would be intolerable in a federal prison.
Author Julie Ferguson spent decades researching this affectionate tribute to the nation’s hard-luck submariners. It remains an intriguing and little-known story. It is also a mystery why anyone ever volunteered for submarine duty in the first place.
Modern underwater warfare dates from 1863 when the Confederate navy launched a combat submarine in Alabama’s Mobile Bay, the H.L. Hunley: a ten-metre tube with hand-cranked propeller and lighting by candle. The idea was to sneak up on Union warships dragging a canister of gunpowder in tow. Instead the Hunley sank like a stone. Rescuers later recovered corpses of crewmen huddled together clutching candles, their faces frozen in agony: “The spectacle was ghastly.”
Housing affordability should be restored by 2055 or so based on current development rates, CMHC said yesterday. Research showed planning and obtaining municipal permits took about twice as long as actual construction of a typical apartment building or townhouse row: "This is far too long."
Cabinet supporters are dismissing criticism of Mark Carney over misleading statements he made regarding his involvement in relocating a corporate head office from Toronto to New York. However one minister said Carney should explain himself to Canadians: "You've got to ask Mr. Carney."
