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."
A Liberal-appointed director of a federal foundation acknowledges he voted to award $393,805 in grants to a Québec company in which he had a direct interest. “We all declared conflicts of interest – well, not everyone,” Guy Ouimet testified at the Commons industry committee: "I have acted in good faith."
Cabinet has spent almost $200 million on carbon tax paperwork since Parliament introduced the fuel charge in 2019, new records show. Hundreds of federal employees administer the tax described by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault as the cheapest, “most efficient” way to cut greenhouse gas emissions: "Carbon pricing is central to our climate plan."
The cost of keeping federal prisoners in a maximum security penitentiary now averages almost a quarter million a year, new documents show. The Correctional Service blamed fixed costs in what is one of the world's most expensive prison systems: 'The staff-to-inmate ratio is one to one.'
Cabinet must establish a federal task force to protect religious freedoms, the Commons justice committee yesterday wrote in a report to Parliament. Canadians should be free to attend a Hebrew school or menorah lighting without harassment, said one MP: 'Without freedom of religion, there actually is no freedom.'
Calling the Prime Minister a liar yesterday saw Conservative MP Damien Kurek (Battle River-Crowfoot, Alta.) ejected from the Commons for unparliamentary language. “He lied,” Kurek said after leaving the chamber: "The Prime Minister lied. His minions continue to lie."
Cabinet has no plan to solve the housing crisis, the CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said yesterday. “There is not a plan,” Bowers testified at the Senate national finance committee: "I just need an answer; is there a plan yet?"
