A failed vaccine factory in Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos’ Québec City riding received twice the federal subsidies originally claimed, the Commons health committee was told yesterday. A factory executive refused to release the contracts: "We didn't deliver anything."
Senators yesterday cited the Canadian Human Rights Commission as incompetent. The $41.6 million Commission was found to mistreat its own Black employees: "These findings call into question the inability of the Commission in respond to human rights complaints in a fair and equitable manner."
Cabinet yesterday detailed its timing for promised expansion of a $13 billion dentacare program to subsidize teenagers and seniors. The program would see 9,077,196 more Canadians eligible for subsidies currently paid to 395,000 children under 12: "The intention here is to fill the gaps."
Federal agents have seized tens of thousands of firearms in cross-border mail, says a Canada Border Services Agency report. The figures are the first to date on the scope of gun smuggling: "The total number of firearms successfully smuggled into Canada is unknown."
Liberal MP Greg Fergus (Hull-Aylmer, Que.), first Black Speaker of the Commons, is now the first Speaker since Confederation to be summoned for cross-examination by MPs. The House affairs committee meeting in secret session agreed Fergus will face questioning for misconduct: "He must sever his Party connections."
A fifth of Canadians surveyed have been victimized by electronic fraud, says in-house research by the Department of Public Safety. The public told federal researchers that scamming by phone and internet has reached epidemic proportions: "Participants believe financial crime to be pervasive."
CTV News faces a formal complaint from B’nai Brith over its coverage of a pro-Israel rally on Parliament Hill. Announcer Omar Sachedina is accused of using needlessly inflammatory language to characterize the peaceful protest: 'Announcers must avoid allowing their personal biases to influence their reporting.'
Lawn signs promoting an anti-Trudeau book in the 2019 campaign were subject to Elections Act regulations, a federal judge has ruled. The publisher Rebel News Network fought a $3,000 fine for failing to register as a campaign advertiser: "The lawn signs were election advertising."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “It took 30 minutes for an Alabama inmate to die of a lethal injection. In Oklahoma, 43 minutes…”
If no two murders are alike, all wrongful convictions seem strikingly similar: a shocking crime, an excitable crowd, a round-up of the usual inarticulate suspects.
Author Robert Sharpe, former justice of Ontario’s Court of Appeal, documents such an outrage, the 1884 hanging of two men in Prince Edward County, Ont. for a crime they almost certainly did not commit. Sharpe does not call it judicial murder – after all he was a judge – but the signs are there.
Peter Lazier, a farm equipment salesman, was shot to death in a county farmhouse on Friday, Dec. 21, 1883 at 10 pm. Two armed robbers scuffled and opened fire with a .32 pistol before fleeing the scene. Lazier’s killing was the first murder in the county in years.
Within hours, two neighbours were named as suspects. A coroner’s inquest convened the next day. Then came the public outrage, the speedy trial, the gallows.
Free hotel rooms and meals for refugee applicants and illegal immigrants cost $769 million this year, says the Department of Immigration. Lengths of hotel stays ranged “from a few weeks to a few months,” said an official: "Where are you putting these people?"
Immigration Minister Marc Miller yesterday extended regulations allowing a half-million foreign students to work full time hours in Canada, telling reporters: "It was popular." Figures show the unemployment rate for Canadians grew after the rules were changed: "I don’t think students are taking jobs away from other people."
The Public Health Agency of Canada yesterday acknowledged it had no evidence its ArriveCan app saved lives. The Agency had claimed the $54 million program saved so many lives it justified the cost: "Can you let us know how many?"
Parliament should rewrite the Canada Labour Code to classify port workers as essential, freight shippers yesterday told the Commons trade committee. The designation would prohibit longshore strikes and see all disputes resolved through binding arbitration: "The victims of strikes are not the workers."
A typical family of four will spend $16,297 on groceries next year, says a national Food Price Report by analysts at four universities. One co-author has recommended Parliament enact a food stamp program for Canadians who can’t afford fresh fruit and vegetables: "Such a program could be meticulously targeted to provide essential grocery store assistance to those in dire need."
