An executive who questioned why Canadians “glorified this idea of homeownership” yesterday was named chair of cabinet’s latest housing agency, Build Canada Homes. Evan Siddall as $459,000-a year CEO of CMHC also financed research into a home equity tax but dropped the scheme when Blacklock’s made it public: 'Mr. Siddall brings deep experience.'
Telefilm Canada yesterday budgeted $1.5 million to install a temporary Canadian pavilion on the French Riviera, at the Cannes Film Festival. It follows the Prime Minister’s pledge to the Liberal caucus to banish “wasteful spending.”
A new Commons petition asks that Parliament correct an omission in Books of Remembrance by honouring the first nine Canadians killed in combat under Canadian command. The Books currently honour all other military and merchant mariners to die in service of the nation: 'It was the first battle fought exclusively by Canadian troops led by Canadian officers.'
The Department of Employment is proposing to review millions in jobless benefits for commercial fishermen. Employment Insurance regulations in the sector have remained unchanged since 1996: "Without these benefits, they did not believe many would continue to work in the industry."
Two opposition parties yesterday in a rare joint petition asked that the Commissioner of Lobbying investigate Prime Minister Mark Carney over ties to developers who stand to benefit from a proposed $1.45 billion bailout of distressed condos in Metro Vancouver. “Where did it come from?” asked one MP.
Irregularities from missing fuel to contract splitting have been uncovered at the Canadian Embassy in Nairobi. The latest critical audit in Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s department follows a series of investigations triggered by the discovery of a fraud ring at our Embassy in Haiti: "The procurement and vendor landscape remains challenging with risks linked to corruption."
The Privy Council polled Metro Vancouver residents’ wariness of energy projects ahead of an August 31 byelection in ex-environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s riding, records show. Wilkinson in 2025 won North Vancouver-Capilano by 16,568 votes: 'A number were particularly concerned about the potential for accidents such as oil spills.'
Employees at the Department of Natural Resources remain unclear about Indigenous reconciliation despite years of programming, says an internal report. The department was the first to give an entire division an Indigenous name to promote “cultural teachings, sharing circles and Indigenous recruitment programs.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to take over management of the nation’s largest private military cemetery, according to a briefing note. The National Field of Honour is home to thousands of impoverished veterans saved from a pauper’s grave by a century-old charity, the Last Post Fund: "No man who has given his services in defence of his country should be buried as a pauper."
Internal auditors are faulting the Canada Revenue Agency for mediocre management of a program to collect billions owed by tax delinquents. The Agency would not disclose how many individual and corporate tax filers have unpaid accounts: 'Limited controls are in place in the effective collection of lower risk, low complexity accounts.'
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “I suggest nominating this manager for the Outstanding Leadership Award. In last month’s staff meeting, he came closer than ever to telling the truth…”
Once upon a time officialdom discovered a new branch of science nobody had ever heard of. Fresh and exciting, it was quickly embraced by the smartest professors, the most progressive thinkers, the wisest judges. It swept the nation. You can’t argue with science.
Only later did Canadians learn it wasn’t science at all but a hodgepodge of supposition and anecdotes perpetuated by hidden agendas. Of course by then much harm was done. There were lawsuits and unsatisfying half-apologies but the people who foisted this fraud on the citizenry were not known for their humility.
It was eugenics, the scientific claim that if dull people were prevented from having children by force if necessary, society as a whole would become sharper. Psychiatry And The Legacies Of Eugenics unravels this dark and startling story, the “devastating social movement of the first half of the twentieth century.”
The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear a final challenge of a 1912 law requiring that lawyers in Alberta swear allegiance to the King. The oath is similar to that required of newly-elected MPs: "If it does not come from the heart it has no value."
The decommissioned Kingston Penitentiary this fall should be transferred to federal real estate managers for sale as Lake Ontario waterfront property, says a Correctional Service memo. The penitentiary closed 13 years ago: "Anyone who says we don’t need to put everything on the table right now is not listening."
A union’s 12-year defamation claim against Toronto journalist Jerry Agar has been dismissed by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Judges upheld a lower court ruling that “heated” or “colourful” debate on current events was "what a free and democratic society does."
