Cabinet was willing to “use all tools at our disposal” under its drug policy including “national decriminalization,” says a federal document. The memo to Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks is dated just five weeks before British Columbia abruptly ended its experiment with decriminalized drug use on complaints of public disorder: 'Tools include approaches to decriminalization.'
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s department is refusing comment over its hiring of forensic auditors to assess risk of a “national compensation program.” Staff would not confirm they anticipated millions in fraud and waste through a costly gun buyback scheme scheduled in 2025: "Help."
The federal Phoenix Pay System failure has now cost taxpayers $3.7 billion and counting, the highest figure disclosed to date. The latest damages are cited in a Department of Public Works briefing note: "It gives us all kinds of lessons about how to build a better public service."
CBC employees should not “feel compelled to weigh in on controversial news stories” on Twitter, says a network ombudsman. The advisory followed one CBCer's tweet in sympathy with a Palestinian activist arrested for threatening to kill Jews and drink their blood: "The journalist should have included more context."
A performance audit of the Canada Summer Jobs program is underway with investigators’ findings due by year’s end, says a federal memo. It is the first audit since program managers were accused of withholding hire-a-student subsidies from employers who did not subscribe to cabinet’s political views: 'Follow-up focuses on religious beliefs.'
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “Old stones, ancient lines. Boundaries. Demarcated. Decimated. The blind lead the Blinded…”
Thursday, August 6, 1981 was a day to remember. At 11 am Eastern the Bank of Canada raised the prime rate to 21 percent. The country had a million unemployed for the first time since the Dustbowl. Farmers and small business owners had a hunted look. Mortgage and trust companies collapsed, 17 of them, and then the banks.
No one who survived the summer of ’81 ever forgot it. “Scarring,” the economists call it now. At a 2017 hearing of the Commons agriculture committee, members were chattily debating farm debt when an oldtimer, then-MP Bev Shipley (Lambton-Kent, Ont.), spoke up. “I remember the 1980s,” he said. The room froze.
Author Aaron Hughes’ 10 Days That Shaped Modern Canada omits that date to remember. Hughes acknowledges his work is necessarily subjective. Hughes’ favourite dates are neither mine nor yours. That is not the point.
CBC managers “pushed through the correction” of a news story mildly critical of the federal government, Access To Information records show. CEO Catherine Tait has repeatedly denied any political interference in ensuring "correct" CBC News coverage: "Complaints are treated as confidential."
Defence Minister Bill Blair yesterday said the military should bolster thinning ranks by cutting its minimum enlistment period in half to as little as 18 months. “We have to go faster,” Blair told reporters.
Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan yesterday abruptly quit cabinet. O’Regan is the third Liberal MP to confirm he won't seek re-election in Newfoundland and Labrador where a provincial Liberal government has campaigned against the federal carbon tax: "Nerves are rubbed raw."
More Canadians were killed in rail accidents last year than air accidents, according to the Transportation Safety Board. Investigators blamed trespassers: "The numbers speak for themselves."
A hasty email breached privacy rights of more than 1,000 Canada Student Loan borrowers, says Northwest Territories Privacy Commissioner Andrew Fox. The Commissioner yesterday detailed his investigation into a hurried email that mistakenly disclosed two years’ worth of financial records on borrowers: "A moment’s inattention led to a privacy breach that affected 1,159 people."
Health Minister Mark Holland yesterday told reporters he was a recent victim of road rage. Asked for comment on the shooting of Donald Trump, the Minister replied: “The United States is different than us, but not that different.”
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault’s business partner yesterday admitted he lied to reporters about company dealings. Stephen Anderson, an Edmonton importer, was threatened with contempt by the Commons ethics committee: "The jig is up."
Senate chauffeurs, mail clerks and maintenance workers have won a three-year wage hike compounded at 11.7 percent. Total spending by the Senate is estimated at $134.9 million this year, according to budget documents: "We have not looked at the impact of potential reductions."
