Regulatory oversight of the CBC is a “complete charade,” Liberal-appointed Senator Percy Downe (P.E.I.) said yesterday. Downe’s remarks followed an admission by the CRTC that it would never pull the CBC’s television license regardless of whether it follows the rules: "This is really a scam."
Bank of Canada executives yesterday acknowledged many Canadians remain beaten down by the cost of living despite earlier celebrations that inflation had cooled. “People feel like things are more expensive and they are,” Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers testified at the Commons finance committee: "We would be giving people a false sense of hope if we said prices will come down."
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault “received zero dollars” from his interest in a subsidized Montréal firm, managing partner Andrée-Lise Méthot yesterday told MPs. However Guilbeault’s own ethics filings show he drew income from Cycle Capital Management while in cabinet: "I know Steven Guilbeault."
Federal regulators yesterday said they are “working to establish digital credentials” for the public without parliamentary go-ahead. MPs have repeatedly rejected introduction of any electronic national ID system as expensive and risky: "The committee was warned many times about the prospect of the police being able to stop people on the street and demand proof of their identity."
A “significant number” of Canadians would resist any attempt to introduce a federal version of bitcoin, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. Skeptics included citizens suspicious of government overreach: "A significant number would reject it."
Manitoba’s representative in the federal cabinet yesterday said he stands by his criticism of Winnipeg radio commentator Charles Adler's appointment to the Senate. “I stand by it today,” Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal told the Commons Indigenous affairs committee: "There are many eminently qualified Manitobans who are better suited to represent our province than Charles Adler."
Any future Conservative cabinet will repeal the GST on new home construction under $1 million, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Poilievre said inflation-driven “bracket creep” now sees virtually all homebuyers taxed at five percent: "This is insane."
ArriveCan emails were destroyed by the Canada Border Services Agency only days after they were sought under the Access To Information Act, records show. The Act forbids deliberate destruction of records under a maximum penalty of two years in jail: "Please do a search."
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department is targeting household cats as an ecological peril. The department in a report complained tens of thousands of pet cats were roaming Canadian cities hunting birds: "Did you know there could be up to 48,000 cats roaming in Gatineau, Que.?"
A federal agency proposes to write its own news stories for subsidized publishers at an undisclosed cost to taxpayers. Stories would be reviewed and fact-checked by federal employees before they’re published on “trusted media platforms.”
A federal Court Challenges Program has cost $24.9 million since cabinet revived subsidies for Charter challenges in 2017, says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. The department would not say which lawsuits were subsidized or why: "No one is able to tell me who got the money."
Most Black Canadians were born abroad with a majority arriving here after 1971, new Statistics Canada data show. The figures contradict federal claims a legacy of Canadian “slavery and exploitation” is to blame for income disparities: "Slavery and exploitation were part of Canadian society for over 200 years."
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “In the storm, the grandmother worried about her people. The road crew worried about the storm. The explorers worried about the beer…”
In 1997, returning home one evening from a cruise on the St. Lawrence River, criminologist Patrice Corriveau witnessed an assault. Five men were tormenting a sixth.
“A gang of arrogant roughnecks, bursting with testosterone, decided to taunt him; they deem his attire too effeminate and conclude he must be a ‘faggot,’ a ‘queer,’” writes Corriveau. “With unbelievable violence, these brave souls shove the young man around as a crowd watches without reacting or intervening in any way.”
Upset by what he’d seen, Professor Corriveau of the University of Ottawa devoted his doctoral studies to the persecution of gays in French culture, typically men “used as scapegoats by a society disturbed by sexuality,” he writes. The result, La Répression des Homosexuels au Québec et en France, is adapted to English by UBC Press.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau improperly disclosed classified information and ignored suspicious activities by Chinese agents in Canada because it was to the advantage of the Liberal Party, opposition lawyers yesterday told the Commission on Foreign Interference. The comments came on the last day of hearings: "Party before country."
