Canadians are carrying about a third less pocket change than before the pandemic, says the Royal Canadian Mint. The agency counted 27,000,000 fewer new coins in circulation: "The Mint continues to deal with ongoing impacts of the shift towards electronic payments."
The $343,000-a year president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has awarded himself an 85 percent increase in his travel and hospitality budget, records show. Pierre Tremblay in an internal memo acknowledged an “elevated risk” of exposure after cabinet promised to cut unnecessary spending: "The Commission understands the current fiscal context where departments have been asked to reduce their spending."
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree confirms cabinet has yet to fulfill an April election promise to hire more police and border guards. “I’m not responsible for the hiring,” he told the Commons public safety committee.
A cabinet bill to expand hate crime prosecutions is not a ploy to regulate the internet, says Attorney General Sean Fraser. His remarks follow two failed attempts in four years to censor lawful internet speech: "The only circumstance where you could imagine some online comment attracting scrutiny under this law would attach to behaviour that is criminal today but is punished less severely."
Federal regulators propose changes to radio licensing as the industry enters its second century, including the issue of long-term permits and approval of new 50-watt commercial stations. “Radio is in a period of transition,” wrote the CRTC.
The Department of Health has completed focus group testing of long-studied food labels intended to cut Canadians’ consumption of sugar, salt and fat. The food industry has complained new labeling regulations to take effect January 1 will cost millions: "More than half of pre-packaged foods in grocery stores are high in nutrients of concern."
We are grateful this holiday to friends and subscribers as Blacklock's embarks on a 14th great year of independent, all-original Canadian journalism. On behalf of contributors, please accept our thanks. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor.
Poet Jeff Blackman writes: “It’s been so long since the opposition hounded you, ‘What’s a million? What’s a million?’ Clarence. The amateur partisans with their seasonal pragmatism actually believe your big picture, cost-benefit Karma…”
In spring 1999 a paramilitary group called the Scorpions descended on Podujevo, Kosovo, a mid-sized city the size of Medicine Hat. Albanians were rounded up. It was a cold morning, and one small boy named Shpetim, age 9, jammed his hands in his pockets to keep warm. The gesture seemed to irritate the gunmen.
They ordered Shpetim to empty his pockets, and out tumbled the boy’s collection of marbles – plunk, plunk, plunk. The boy’s mother, unsure of what to do, bent down and tried to gather them up as they scattered, writes Eliott Behar. Later they shot Shpetim in the head.
Behar is a former Ontario Crown prosecutor who recounts his two years’ work as a war crimes attorney at The Hague. Behar was raised in Toronto, the son of an architect. His family numbered Holocaust survivors. He is a skillful writer with a police reporter’s eye for detail.
Canadians must be ambitious if cabinet is to meet its climate targets, Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin said yesterday. Her remarks followed testimony by the Commissioner of the Environment that Canada has the worst climate record of any G7 country: 'We are a poor performer.'
There was “no money to be made” in collecting tuition from tens of thousands of foreign students, the president of Conestoga College of Kitchener, Ont., yesterday told the Commons immigration committee. MPs scoffed at John Tibbits' testimony, noting Conestoga was the nation’s heaviest user of the foreign study permit system: "Do you deserve your $640,000 salary?"
Public Works Minister Joel Lightbound in his first meeting with Canada Post’s largest union since the launch of a national strike said service cuts “would stand.” The Canadian Union of Postal Workers distributed minutes of the hour-long meeting in a newsletter to members: "The Minister and his staff appeared to be interested in what we had to say."
Canada’s chief bank inspector yesterday warned lenders to brace for “unexpected economic outcomes” amid the unresolved tariff war. Superintendent of Financial Institutions Peter Routledge said his office will increase monitoring of bank loans: "The lack of clarity on tariffs is generating unease."
Liquor, beer and wine would see mandatory health warnings under a private bill yesterday taken up by the Senate social affairs committee. Senator Patrick Brazeau (Que.), a recovering alcoholic and sponsor of the bill, told legislators to prepare for intense lobbying by industry: "Personally, it led me down a very, very, very dark path."
Cabinet is far short of its target to build electric auto charging stations despite more than a billion in subsidies, says a federal audit. The report warned even if successful there was “no evidence” that financing a national network at taxpayers’ expense would lower emissions: 'Government involvement is necessary to address market failure.'
