Cabinet must cut spending 15 percent, says a Canadian Chamber of Commerce submission to the Commons finance committee. The figure represents the steepest cuts since then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s 1995 austerity program that eliminated 45,000 federal jobs: "Canadians are right to be concerned."
A federal agency is expanding a program to educate high schoolers on credit, debt and “the difference between needs and wants.” The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has faulted parents for failing to teach children about basic budgeting: "Parents are the first place where children should be learning something."
The Ontario New Democratic Party Caucus breached the Labour Relations Act, says an arbitrator. The Caucus was censured for firing a employee who complained of workplace groping and lewd misconduct by her boss, a member of the legislature: "The Caucus issued a termination letter."
Poet W.N. Branson writes: "Psychology of place, The weight presses down. Plans are laid, The best laid plans. Cartier and Donnaconna, Did they know?..."
Papua New Guinea is best known as the malarial graveyard of 8,000 Australians in World War Two and the jungle spot where oil heir Michael Rockefeller vanished on a 1961 canoe trip. He is believed to have been eaten by tribespeople. Here is where Tony Robinson-Smith and his wife Nadya, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., decided to take their holiday.
The point of travel is to see, smell and taste a different world. Of Canoes And Crocodiles achieves this with humour and meticulous note-taking. The couple set out to cover the 1,126-kilometre Sepik River by dugout canoe. “It will be dangerous,” warns one villager. “You should not go alone,” says another.
They carry no firearms but 20 cans of tuna, instant coffee and mosquito netting. The result: Of Canoes And Crocodiles is the best of travel writing, rich and vivid. “It is an overcast, windless day and the air seems soupy and stale,” writes Robinson-Smith. Any reader could smell it.
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault faces new demands for records after his business partner admitted lying to reporters. The Commissioner of Ethics yesterday disclosed he asked Boissonnault for emails and texts: "I am concerned about this."
Cabinet yesterday refused to release findings of its investigation into a former Muslim Students’ Association activist appointed Canada’s Chief Human Rights Commissioner. Birju Dattani's appointment was suspended only minutes before it was to take effect following protests from B’nai Brith and others: "Dattani has a history of anti-Semitic commentary."
Health Minister Mark Holland’s department has quietly researched “suggestions for regulatory measures” on alcohol like restricting glamourous depictions of drinking in the movies, says a federal report. It follows a proposal to mandate cancer warnings on liquor, beer and wine: 'Suggestions included restricting the depiction of alcohol consumption in movies.'
The RCMP must “enhance public trust” by showing more candour in explaining policing methods, says an internal audit. The Mounties in 2022 were censured by a Commons committee for lack of accountability in using facial recognition technology and spyware: "There has been limited transparency."
Contractors pretending to be Indigenous to land federal work are “of great concern,” Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein yesterday told the Commons public accounts committee. An audit of Indigenous claimants has yet to be disclosed: "It is something that needs to be addressed and dealt with."
A federal manager named a key figure in the $59.5 million ArriveCan scandal yesterday denied any involvement in sweetheart contracting. “I was just a low level employee,” testified Diane Daly, a $108,000-a year senior administrator with the Department of Public Works: "I did not have the expertise to know what an IT-anything was."
Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s department has shelved a proposal for click-box citizenship following a public outcry. The department in a briefing note said it accepted Canadians attached profound meaning to publicly swearing allegiance to Canada in person, a legal requirement for new citizens since 1947: "I do not agree with this interpretation where the oath of citizenship is only a formality."
Canada is “slowly losing our democracy” due to mean tweets and click-bait media, Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld (Ottawa West-Nepean) said yesterday. Her remarks followed criticism of Vandenbeld’s conduct at a July 31 committee hearing: "I believe in my heart that Canadians care."
A Federal Court ruling allowing federal managers to share Blacklock’s passwords without payment or permission is “riddled with mistakes,” one of Canada’s foremost internet law experts said yesterday. Barry Sookman, senior counsel with McCarthy Tétrault LLP of Toronto, said all internet publishers are left to question if they have legal protection against “Government of Canada subscribers” who overstep property rights: “It is clear the recent Blacklock’s Reporter case is riddled with mistakes.”
Employees who choose to use daycare cannot claim discrimination if their schedule is upset by workplace duties, a federal labour board has ruled. Parental decisions on childraising are “a question of choice,” wrote an adjudicator: "It was incredibly stressful."
