A federal labour board has upheld the firing of an archives clerk who didn’t show up for work for six months, then spent three years delaying hearings on his settlement agreement. “Astonishing,” wrote a labour adjudicator.
The Privy Council Office yesterday expressed regret after Access To Information censors concealed as a state secret a 1959 speech by then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. His Commons speech has been on the public record for 62 years but was stored in a file marked "TOP SECRET."
Actual checkout prices on select foods at the grocery store far exceed the overall inflation rate, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Average yearly retail price increases for meats, produce and dairy items run as high as twenty to thirty percent in some provinces: "This affects Canadians’ pocketbooks."
Rigid discipline in an “independent” Senate caucus of Liberal appointees sees members reprimanded for speaking out of turn, Senator Marilou McPhedran said yesterday. The Manitoba lawyer quit the Independent Senators Group after describing the caucus code as “work together, think together, stay together.”
A Manitoba court has agreed to strip the license of a lawyer who opposed the Canada Revenue Agency and compared income tax to a scheme by Hitler. The solicitor was found guilty of tax evasion after failing to report more than a half-million in income: "What kind of country do you want to live in?"
The Department of Public Works in internal emails says it considered ordering copper pandemic masks but worried over the additional expense compared to cotton masks. Staff looked into the purchase after learning of a Chinese program to distribute free copper fabric masks to schoolchildren: "This is something we can do in Canada?"
Federal management of office buildings is so “unreliable” taxpayers face billions a year in unfunded maintenance costs, says an internal audit. The Government of Canada is the biggest landlord in the country, the report noted: "It is no longer sustainable."
A Facebook group of thousands of unvaccinated federal employees is petitioning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to permit them to remain on the job. The 3,200-member group Feds For Freedom cited the Department of Health’s own legal opinion that compulsory immunization is unlawful: "This vaccine mandate is unconstitutional."
Québec for the first time in more than a half century faces diminishing representation in the Commons. Redistricting will see British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario gain seats in a new 342-member House: "This is the first time since 1966 that a province has lost a seat in the House."
Cabinet under House rules cannot unilaterally deny any unvaccinated MPs their seat in the Commons. The last MP refused entry to the House was Soviet spy Fred Rose (Cartier, Que.), expelled in 1947. Only two others since Confederation were denied their right to sit in the Commons, none for medical reasons: "Maybe it’s something better asked of the Prime Minister."
A 65-year old Air Canada pilot has lost a challenge of mandatory retirement rules. A Canada Labour Code arbitrator said accommodating senior pilots was unreasonable though the Aeronautics Act does not mandate a retirement age.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday: “You envision a world of perfect harmony…”
Author Wendy Dobson calls China’s system “authoritarian state capitalism.” Analysts similarly called pre-war Italy a “corporate state.” Like the Beijing Politburo of 2021, Mussolini in 1934 mesmerized outsiders with showboat statistics. Italian GDP appeared to defy Depression-era gravity, growing year over year from 1929 to 1939 while the Canadian economy shrank five percent overall.
“Everything looks well ‘on the surface’,” wrote economist Henry Schultz of the University of Chicago on a 1934 Italian tour. “No debating, no complaints.” The UK Saturday Review in 1934 put Mussolini on its cover and enthused: “He dragged Italy out of the mire of socialism and in a few years has made it the most successful and prosperous country in Europe.”
Interestingly, both pre-war Italy and contemporary China adopted the identical economic tools: over-valued currency, state management of the economy, price controls, abolition of independent trade unions, abolition of dissent, abolition of a free press, restrictions on mobility rights, property rights and rule of law, voodoo statistics and disastrous state spending. In fascist Italy one in five workers was a government employee.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is reviewing reports of 195 deaths of people who took Covid shots. The Agency said it was not proven all 195 fatalities were caused by vaccines though it budgeted for a $75 million compensation fund including payment of burial expenses: "These deaths occurred after being vaccinated with a Covid-19 vaccine."
Canada must end the “race to the bottom” on corporate tax cuts, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday told reporters. The Liberal Party has proposed $4.2 billion a year in new taxes mainly on corporations: "Everyone else had to tighten their belt."
