Health Canada does not require that drug injection sites be located a minimum distance from schools, daycares or playgrounds, according to a departmental report. It was not cabinet’s job, Health Minister Marjorie Michel told MPs: "You are aware they’re next to playgrounds, schools and daycares but you don’t know how many?"
Federal regulation of sports betting ads is unnecessary since “kids aren’t watching television,” says the gaming lobby. A bill mandating federal regulation passed the Senate unanimously and is currently before the Commons: 'It is unnecessary.'
The Commons finance committee today is expected to open hearings into corporate tax avoidance through offshore accounts. Liberal MPs have called the hearings a bid to “dig dirt” on Prime Minister Mark Carney who benefited from Bermuda tax shelters as chair of Brookfield Asset Management: "They dig dirt on day one."
Statistics Canada disciplined 72 employees for misconduct last year including 15 who were fired, according to first-ever disclosure of wrongdoing in the workplace. The agency counted another 21 complaints of harassment and 31 cases of lost or stolen taxpayers’ property, mainly cellphones and laptops: "Everyone is responsible for fostering an ethical workplace."
Unnamed contractors appear to be gaming the federal system by bidding low on tenders with ambiguous wording to take advantage of revisions at escalating costs, says Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic. He called it “bid low, let it grow.”
Small independent brewers face steep costs under a Senate bill mandating cancer labels, says a lobby group. The private bill would compel all packaging to carry warnings of health risks: "I have never met anybody who thought beer was health food."
Canadians face jail for “justifying the Indian Residential School system” under a Commons bill introduced by New Democrat MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre). The maximum penalty is needed to “end Residential School denialism,” said Gazan.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: "A guy bigger than me comes my way..."
Professor Gene Allen has compiled a history of The Canadian Press from a corporate secretary’s perspective. I didn’t think that was possible. Writing about a newsroom without the people is like writing about the circus without the big top.
Making National News covers ground already ploughed in The Story Of The Canadian Press, a 1948 account by former CP president Mark Nichols of the Winnipeg Tribune. Neither is compelling.
The story of any organization – a newsroom, a box factory, a daycare centre – is the story of humans. Allen, a professor of journalism, appears to miss the point. The result is predictably lifeless. An example is his story of Jack Best.
The Canadian Coast Guard has orders to avoid all military conflict though it’s now under military supervision, a senior officer yesterday told MPs. “If there were anything, we leave,” testified Deputy Commissioner Marc Mes.
Free speech advocates yesterday urged the Commons public safety committee to rewrite a cybersecurity bill. The measure would allow the industry minister to block any individual’s internet access by secret order: "That's dangerous."
An updated Immigration Levels Plan due to be tabled in Parliament today will instead be delayed until budget day, Immigration Minister Lena Diab yesterday told MPs. It is the first plan to be tabled since the Prime Minister said the system was broken: "There are limits."
Chief of Defence Staff General Jennie Carignan yesterday apologized for racism in the army, navy and air force. “We failed,” she said.
The nation's Arab population numbers nearly 800,000 with the majority foreign born, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Montréal was home to the largest Arab community: "Over one quarter of Arabs in Canada, 27 percent, were children."
The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner says she needs triple the number of staff lawyers to handle growing complaints of wrongdoing by federal managers. A “surge of submissions” left a backlog of hundreds of whistleblower complaints alleging misconduct and corrupt practices: "Cases are being delayed."
