Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s wife held shares in a Ukraine war defence contractor as he pledged to be “out front in helping Ukraine with military aid,” records show. The holdings are among an extensive stock portfolio in the Mendicino family: "Canada will continue to be there for Ukraine."
Canada’s “guest of honour” sponsorship of a German book fair with Governor General Mary Simon cost more than $18 million, according to a newly-disclosed federal audit. The event lasted four days in 2021: "Canada assumed significant financial and operational obligations."
The Department of Veterans Affairs in a briefing note denies inflating the number of ex-military in Canada as an excuse to pad its budget. Census data showed the department over-estimated the number of Canadian veterans by 34 percent: "We will have more clarity."
A Japanese eatery has been fined $10,000 for imposing a $3.80 service charge on Black customers. “Canadian courts have long recognized the presence and pernicious effects of anti-Black racism,” ruled the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal: 'Although this was a single incident the seriousness is such that a significant award ought to be made.'
The Department of Employment is wary of raising Employment Insurance premiums as part of any long-promised “modernization” of the program, according to a briefing note. Premiums are currently a maximum $1,400 a year for employers and $1,000 for workers: "The government is taking a cautious approach."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Ancestry offers a new service. Analysing my DNA, they will uncover my ethnic mix, discover distant relatives, find new details about my family history…”
Was a book ever timelier? The Public Servant’s Guide To Government In Canada was published following the disastrous YouTube appearance of Canada’s top public servant Michael Wernick, $326,000-a year Clerk of the Privy Council. Just google Wernick and vomitorium if you missed it.
Testifying at the Commons justice committee, Wernick became every critic’s caricature of the Ottawa bureaucrat: peevish, smug, partisan. Wernick in prepared opening remarks used the personal pronoun I nine times: I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I.
“I worry about people losing faith in the institutions of governance,” said Wernick. “Tip: Most Canadians don’t follow government activities,” notes The Public Servant’s Guide. “Public servants should bear in mind that many, if not most, citizens do not pay much attention to politics or public policy.”
Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan yesterday said cabinet does “not want to be back here again” following a tentative end to a West Coast port strike. O’Regan did not explain his remark: "The scale of this disruption has been significant."
Fewer Canadians have a “high level of trust” in the Canadian Armed Forces, says in-house research by the Department of National Defence. The public overall had a positive opinion of the army, navy and air force but noted it received plenty of “bad press.”
More than $2 billion in Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments have been clawed back from undeserving applicants, says the Department of Employment. The billions were deducted from tax refunds or Employment Insurance cheques: "A total 1,108,676 clients have fully repaid their debts."
Access Copyright, one of the country’s largest collectives representing 13,000 authors, yesterday said it will lay off staff and cut budgets due to the loss of millions in royalties under an Act of Parliament. Cabinet has yet to adopt a 2019 recommendation of the Commons heritage committee that it curb free photocopying under the Copyright Act: "Actual people are losing actual jobs."
A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against Duracell Canada to ban its use of trademarks owned by rival Energizer Canada. The ruling follows eight years of litigation: "This is a case about comparative advertising."
Almost a third of Canadians complain they felt pressured to comply with public health orders during the pandemic, according to in-house Department of Health research. And a tenth say they sought advice or counselling for mental health support: 'Some touched on anxiety over surveillance by public authorities.'
High interest rates, the highest in 22 years, will continue into 2024, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. Macklem said he has “been surprised” by persistently high prices for groceries: "Meat’s up six percent, bread’s up 13 percent, coffee’s up eight percent, baby food’s up nine percent."
The Bank of Canada paid out nearly $27 million in raises and bonuses last year even as it admitted bungling forecasts, records show. Access To Information figures obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation showed nearly half the Bank's staff are now paid more than $100,000 a year: "We got some things wrong."
