The House affairs committee yesterday rejected an investigation of Liberal Party records concerning Independent MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.). The MP quit the Liberal caucus after admitting to repeated contacts with Chinese authorities: "Did you ask if the Prime Minister knew?"
Cabinet yesterday in a Ways And Means Motion said it will introduce a new federal agency, the Canada Water Agency, first promised four years ago. Delays in the Canada Water Agency Act allowed mass dumping of raw sewage into waterways by Ontario and Québec municipalities: "We urge you to move quickly."
Liberal MPs on the Commons government operations committee yesterday opposed public disclosure of federal contracts with electric auto battery manufacturers. The Opposition has asked to check whether taxpayers are subsidizing foreign workers: "If they’re so sure this is a good deal for Canadians, they’re certainly not acting like it."
Cabinet should consider directly paying individual reporters up to $45,000 a year in the name of diversity, says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. Direct cash payments would be in addition to rebates of $29,750 per employee at cabinet-approved newsrooms: "A paradigm shift is needed in the way traditional news media share the stories of Indigenous, racialized and religious minority communities."
The Commons Speaker yesterday censured Conservative MP Jake Stewart (Miramichi-Grand Lake, N.B.) for calling New Democrats "Hamas supporters." The ruling followed complaints of a double standard that excused insulting remarks by cabinet: "Unnecessarily provocative statements will no longer be tolerated."
The CBC kept a $75,000-a year executive chauffeur on the payroll, Access To Information records show. The position was cut in 2020 as a pandemic austerity measure: "We invent ourselves every year to try to find new ways to do things because we have to offer more but with a smaller budget."
Federally-subsidized B.C. Ferries concealed poor service by lowering on-time performance targets, says a Department of Transport audit. The Parliamentary Budget Office earlier noted federal departments similarly hide poor results by lowering service targets to levels they could meet: "They usually set the bar not too high so it doesn’t look too easy, but neither too low so it’s fairly easy to achieve most of the time."
The government should provide a home to every person who cannot work, says Housing Minister Sean Fraser. Unemployed currently number 1,229,400 according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada: "If you cannot work you should have a home too. Government should work together to provide it to you."
CBC News’ refusal to report the killing and kidnapping of Jews as terrorism leaves “room for improvement,” says a network ombudsman. CBC managers justified the editorial policy as an attempt at impartiality in covering October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel: "When you have 40 babies who are beheaded? Whose side are you on?"
Attorney General Arif Virani has rejected a standalone registry of foreign agents despite repeated appeals by MPs from all parties. Virani would not say who opposes the public unmasking of lobbyists in the pay of China and other foreign states: "A registry is not a universal solution."
The fate of tax-funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada is uncertain following an upheaval over inside dealing. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters he'd “reserve judgment” on whether the federal agency will continue after 22 years: "I am not satisfied with the current situation."
The Correctional Service is asking telecom companies to jam cellphones at federal penitentiaries, records show. Thousands of bootleg mobile devices have been smuggled into custody: "The Correctional Service continues to explore new, innovative means of preventing and seizing contraband."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Noam Chomsky must be popular. 100 books and counting…”
The Humboldt Broncos catastrophe begs for treatment by a skillful Canadian poet. Prairie road, quiet night, the sickening rip of metal as a busload of clean-cut, small-town kids perished on their way to a playoff game. It inspired an extraordinary outpouring of national grief beyond any celebrity death. Yet there are few hockey poems in Canada, “no doubt related to the snobbery with which the Canadian cultural elite has treated hockey historically,” notes Writing The Body In Motion: A Critical Anthology On Canadian Sport Literature.
Editors Angie Abdou of Athabasca University and Jamie Dopp of the University of Victoria compiled this beautiful anthology on literature and sport. “Hockey, as a game, is a potential source of fun and play,” writes contributor Jason Blake. “That said, sport and play are not synonymous, nor does a game necessarily engender enjoyment (as anyone who has played Monopoly knows).”
Contributors recount a haunting story from poet Randall Maggs’ 2008 Sawchuk Poems that tells of the night legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk was given a misconduct penalty for telling referee Red Storey to “go f—k yourself”; two days later, Sawchuk skated up to the ref at the Montreal Forum to ask why he was penalized.
A doubling of pre-election payroll rebates for government-approved newsrooms crosses the “line of integrity” in journalism, the Commons heritage committee was told yesterday. Conservative MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood), a former broadcaster, said cabinet appeared to be throwing money at favoured media outlets "When you see millions of dollars being spent on journalists there is a line of integrity I think has been crossed."
