Forty percent of poll workers and returning officers surveyed want to retain old-fashioned hand counting of paper ballots in future campaigns, says an Elections Canada report. It followed a 2021 Liberal Party proposal for voting by smartphone: "This is pretty significant."
Commercial radio stations would receive forever licenses under a CRTC proposal detailed Friday. Regulations open for public comment to July 6 would extend AM and FM licenses in perpetuity, saving station operators the cost of attending regular renewal hearings every five to seven years: 'This would save time and effort.'
The Senate has passed into law a cybersecurity bill rewritten by critics with greater privacy protection. The measure in final debate was rated better than none: "Yes, this legislation is long overdue."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Applicants for Summer Jobs program must check a box on the form. Agree with women’s right to abortion…”
The First World War gave Canada progressive income tax, national trade unions, the Department of Health, votes for women and daylight saving time. The price was 61,802 dead and 172,000 injured. Was it worth it?
With the passing of all eyewitnesses to the cataclysm, Canadian culture has “systematically diminished the violent effects of the First World War,” notes The Great War. Politicians sense it is now safe to stand on tombstones to speak on patriotic themes that play well with focus groups. It is left to historians to correct the record.
Great War is drawn from a Western University conference that saw researchers, genealogists and others examine the cost and contribution. “Military triumphs and narratives of sacrifice will have to be weighed carefully against the brutal realities of the war’s human cost,” editors write.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne misled Canadians on the size of his near-record 2025 deficit, Budget Office figures disclosed yesterday. Analysts said there is now a 99 percent chance the finance department will miss ongoing targets: "What credibility do you think you have on any fiscal matter?"
The Senate yesterday rewrote a hate crimes bill to restrict the public display of the noose. The amendment came on a personal appeal by Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard (N.S.) who recounted her own experience with anti-Black bigotry: "They yell profanities at you and tell you to go back to Africa.”
Cabinet’s $90 billion regional high speed rail venture will “change life as we know it,” Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon yesterday told MPs. MacKinnon acknowledged the service will be inaccessible to most Canadians, but said it would create “new worlds of intercity travel” for some Ontarians and Québecers: "You’re a businessperson, someone who wants to go to a hockey game or a baseball game and come back the same evening."
Canadians’ faith in public institutions is in decline, a Treasury Board executive yesterday told the Commons ethics committee. The remarks during a statutory review of the Lobbying Act followed disclosure that several individuals in breach of the law escaped prosecution: "There are a lot of challenges in maintaining the public’s trust."
A Canada Post experiment to save rural post offices by turning them into "community hubs" had mixed results, says a management report. The post office would not say how much it earned or lost on the venture: "Currently there are no plans to launch additional locations using the ‘community hub’ format."
The Senate yesterday by a 41 to 32 vote quashed a proposal to criminalize Indian Residential School “denialism” under threat of two years’ jailing. The vote came moments after cabinet announced it opposed the amendment: "Senators may have already noticed the online backlash to the amendment has begun."
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday in his first Question Period appearance in a week sat silently as Conservative MPs recited stories of jobless workers. Carney repeatedly wished Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre a happy 47th birthday in an attempt to be lighthearted: "Will the Prime Minister stop being so flippant about the suffering he has caused?"
Heritage Minister Marc Miller yesterday in an abrupt reversal suspended a CRTC order tripling fees on Netflix and other video streaming services. The decision came 48 hours after Miller voted with 192 other MPs to sustain the fee hike: "Does this have anything to do with the United States threatening a tariff investigation?"
Repealing local development charges would boost housing starts by up to 14 percent in the costliest markets, CMHC said yesterday. A wide range of advocates from the Senate banking committee to the Canadian Human Rights Commission have criticized mandatory fees as a drag on construction: "Reducing development charges increases the viability of housing construction projects in all cases."
Forty-eight hours after cabinet appointed a new panel on anti-Jewish discrimination, Liberal-appointed Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) yesterday asked in Question Period whether it was anti-Semitic to depict Israelis as sex criminals: "Is this why the government has been so silent on the United Nations’ inclusion of Israel on the blacklist of countries that engages in sexual violence in conflicts?"
