A federal panel assigned months ago to combat anti-Semitism has convened one meeting to date with no agenda or work plan, a member said yesterday. Heritage Minister Marc Miller announced the panel last February with a “mission to foster social cohesion.”
The Army Cadet League, longest-running federal youth program in the nation, is petitioning MPs for millions in special funding on complaints of rising costs. Army and Air Cadets in a joint submission to Parliament said extra funding was needed for expenses from hall rentals to liability insurance: "The Cadet program is facing increasing financial pressures."
The number of asylum claims in Canada has been halved since Parliament passed legislation granting cabinet new powers to suspend foreigners’ permits, data show. The Department of Immigration in a briefing note said it had rejected more claims since the law was changed: 'While it is still too early to assess trends, we can confirm an increase in asylum claims that have been found ineligible.'
The Budget Office will undertake the first public review of new costs on the Gordie Howe International Bridge following toll concessions to the United States, an MP said yesterday. Cabinet to date has attempted to block any public scrutiny of concessions after the Prime Minister misrepresented terms: "Canadians deserve answers."
Newly-declassified records show the military lifted a ban on gay recruits in part after overestimating by fourfold the number of LGBTQ members in the Canadian Armed Forces. Canada was among the first countries to announce recruitment of gay soldiers, sailors and air crew: "Upwards to 10 percent of the military could have homosexual orientation to some degree."
Foreign agents have until October 3 to register with Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner Anton Boegman under threat of $1 million fines. The long-promised initiative came into force yesterday: "Citizens need to see this work in action."
The federal Green Party today opens a campaign to choose its sixth leader in seven years, a parliamentary record. Current leader MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands B.C.), 72, confirmed her retirement after suffering a 2023 stroke and disastrous 2025 election: "I am so lucky to be alive."
A long-promised national flood insurance program would see homeowners at greatest risk pay about $350 in surcharges under threat of being disqualified from disaster relief, according to Access To Information records. The finance department has been reviewing details of the program since 2020: "The premium threshold is currently envisioned as being set at $350."
The Canada Revenue Agency “turns a blind eye to rich taxpayers and corporations” when it comes to audits, says in-house Agency research. Public skepticism followed a significant drop in the number of audits targeting wealthy tax filers: "Rich people have an easier time tax cheating than middle class Canadians."
A Nunavut housing agency has applied for taxpayer financing to build the costliest rental properties in Canada, the equivalent of nearly $2.5 million per townhouse. The vast majority of territory residents live in public housing, Igluvut Corporation told MPs: "Nunavut continues to experience the most severe housing crisis in Canada."
Canadians in federal focus groups questioned the value of cabinet’s signature inflation-fighting program, says Privy Council research. “More needed to be done,” said a pollsters’ report: "None felt this initiative would be effective in making groceries and other essentials more affordable."
Canada should stop relying on the military as firefighters, says a Department of Public Safety briefing note. Cabinet has proposed creating its own version of the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency to handle wildfires: "Reduce pressure on the Canadian Armed Forces to enable them to remain focused on their core mission of defence."
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Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “He is not yet the Minister, nor the Deputy Minister, or even the Assistant Deputy Minister. He is the newly appointed Associate Assistant Deputy Minister…”
Politics are rough and failure is never celebrated. “I am not the only Conservative (or former Conservative) who believes that our party (or former party) has betrayed both its own best traditions and the Canadian people by practicing a quality of politics unworthy of the country,” writes former MP Tom McMillan. “Interviews and correspondence I conducted with a large number of my former cabinet colleagues and ministerial and political staff for this book revealed to me, in private, a shocking level of discontent with the party.”
McMillan’s memoirs are agonizing and intriguing at the same time. This is how teammates talk in the locker room after a championship loss. “I myself believe a once-great national institution is in ruins, or will be if the Conservative Party membership at large does not soon come to its senses,” writes McMillan.
