New Democrat leader Avi Lewis yesterday said he will be “clear and consistent in my position” on alleged Israeli genocide and claims of a powerful Jewish lobby in Canada. Jews expressed alarm over Lewis’ election Sunday: "The NDP has become a hostile place for the vast majority of Jewish Canadians."
A federal plan to "modernize" the CBC will remain secret, the Department of Canadian Heritage said yesterday. It censored 21 of 22 pages of the confidential memo written weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney won the 2025 election: "The government has recommitted to protecting Canada’s cultural sovereignty and identity by strengthening CBC."
Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight is delaying release of records sought by MPs regarding millions in unpaid benefits for Métis veterans of the Second World War. A $30 million fund approved by Parliament paid only a fraction to old soldiers, sailors and air crew: "It is difficult."
A federal judge has faulted Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne for disobeying a Court order in a tax case. The Minister’s office and Canada Revenue Agency failed to comply with a 2025 order to disclose emails and memos regarding treatment of a Jewish charity: "Orders of the Court must be obeyed."
Vancouver activist Avi Lewis yesterday said Canadians were at war with a corrupt elite he blamed for inflation. Lewis won the federal New Democrat leadership on the first ballot with his pledge to “tax the rich.”
A historic site dedicated to 19th century Prairie homesteaders will be reimagined as a monument to “inequities on the Prairies” including mistreatment of Indigenous people, says a Parks Canada report. Celebration of European settlement at Saskatchewan’s Motherwell National Historic Site lacks diversity, said the plan tabled in Parliament: "Motherwell’s second wife is noted for her connection to the difficult history of the Residential School system."
More than 57,000 Canadians living abroad voted in the 2025 federal election, a record, according to an Elections Canada memo. More are expected in the next election with the passage of a cabinet bill granting citizenship to the grandchildren of Canadian citizens abroad: 'There is increasing demand by international electors.'
Cabinet last year pocketed a 25 percent profit on mandatory security fees charged airline passengers, records show. Advocates have sought relief from fees introduced in 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks: "How much is collected from passengers?"
John A. Macdonald was a vagabondish fellow who never stayed in one place for long and occasionally had trouble paying the mortgage. Our founding prime minister had at least five homes in Ottawa. Few survive. One today is the High Commission of Brunei. Another was demolished to make way for an economical grey, mid-century apartment tower across the street from a vacant convenience store.
Covid is a tale of failure by federal executives and political aides. They did not mean to cause death and suffering; these people are not monsters. They were merely reckless and incompetent in the manner of Titanic officers who kept a dance band and well-stocked liquor cabinet but no binoculars in the crow’s nest. The Public Health Agency of Canada was fully funded at $675 million a year and found money for climate change conferences but literally could not run a mask warehouse. It was their job to keep you safe. They failed.
Displacement City is a story of failure. The City of Toronto budgeted $663 million a year for homeless and housing programs yet authors count 10,000 homeless people. The City has 75 years of experience in public housing and a six-figure CEO at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, yet was reduced to arguing whether to install communal toilets at tent cities in municipal parks.
Liberal MP Michael Ma (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) yesterday questioned whether accounts of slave camps in China were “hearsay.” The remarks prompted an outcry at the Commons industry committee: "It is something I have never experienced before, that a Canadian politician would be defending China’s human rights."
The finance department's senior director of forecasting yesterday boasted Canadians were enjoying “real gains in income.” MPs on the Commons finance committee questioned Brian Torgunrud's claim by pointing to household debt levels, poverty rates and homelessness.: "I have a statistic here."
Use of bitcoin to finance political campaigning would be outlawed under a cabinet bill introduced yesterday in the Commons. Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said cabinet was unaware of any suspicious use of cryptocurrency in campaigns but was “trying to be as responsive as we can.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday said Canada met its NATO obligation to spend $60 billion or 2 percent of gross domestic product on military preparedness. No budget document substantiates the $60 billion figure: "It’s focus."
The Canada Revenue Agency will no longer mail T1 tax returns to paper filers at a $1.8 million annual saving. Traditionalists will have to download and print their own forms: "The Agency sent educational letters to them."
