Air passengers face a two-year wait on service complaints filed with the Canadian Transportation Agency. The federal regulator yesterday acknowledged only 1 in 5,000 Canadians will file a complaint over delayed flights, denial of boarding or damaged luggage: "Our current backlog is 30,000 complaints."
The Department of Finance privately ridiculed its own inflated claims of economic hardship blamed on the Freedom Convoy, records show. Bloomberg News figures repeatedly cited by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland were “too cute,” wrote the department’s director general of economic analysis: "Seems large to me?!"
Storage of mobile field hospitals will cost taxpayers more than $135 million this year, records show. “This is something I was completely unaware of,” said Public Works Minister Helena Jaczek. The storage costs follow a sole-sourced $150 million contract to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. for field hospitals: "That is not exactly directed to preventing or treating Covid."
Liberal political aides were angry over the number of soldiers, sailors and air crew who sympathized with the Freedom Convoy, records show. The RCMP had so many members support protesters it issued a 35-page guide “regarding the participation of current or prior employees” in street demonstrations: "How the f—k many?"
Credit union depositors who made Freedom Convoy protest signs were reported to police, records show. Desjardins Group, one of the country’s largest credit unions, also reported customers who made “suspicious” purchases of fuel: "We are waiting for more instructions."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act sets a precedent for future leaders in confronting divisive protests, civil rights advocates warned at the close of the Freedom Convoy inquiry. Trudeau defended his actions on the 43rd day of hearings: 'This invocation of the Act will then open the floodgates to the Act being used again and again and again.'
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in a confidential videoconference with bankers said she “couldn’t agree more” with a recommendation that cabinet deploy armed soldiers against the Freedom Convoy. “It is a threat to our democracy,” said Freeland: "All options are on the table."
Cabinet’s “central concern” in freezing Freedom Convoy accounts was that angry depositors might yell at bankers, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. Freeland elaborated on worries she raised at a secret February 19 cabinet meeting about bank employees’ well-being: "My central concern was, you know, that some poor teller not get yelled at."
Perrin Beatty, a former Conservative minister who wrote the Emergencies Act, privately warned cabinet “lots of long term issues” would follow its use of the law against the Freedom Convoy. “I am worried,” Beatty texted the finance minister: "I am particularly concerned about the radicalization of people who would normally be law-abiding."
Small business confidence is falling amid fears of a Christmas recession, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said yesterday. A members’ questionnaire found “the 12-month index is the lowest recorded since 2009 outside of recessions.”
Exports of seal products have fallen to a pittance amid international protests, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The Atlantic seal industry once worth millions has seen exports of a few thousand dollars a year: "It’s not a lot."
The Commons ethics committee for the second time in seven weeks has censured the RCMP as evasive and uncooperative. The latest reprimand came over the Mounties’ undisclosed use of spyware: "The committee would like to note the lack of cooperation shown by the RCMP."
Defence Minister Anita Anand yesterday said she never considered deploying tanks against the Freedom Convoy. The remarks followed disclosure of a text exchange in which two cabinet ministers joked about “how many tanks” it would take to clear protesters off Parliament Hill: "We were not considering deploying tanks in any number."
A Senate committee last night began rewriting cabinet’s latest attempt at regulating legal internet content. Members of the Senate transport and communications committee proposed 100 separate amendments to Bill C-11: "There are numerous sources of uncertainty related to this bill."
Attorney General David Lametti yesterday said he was so frightened by the Freedom Convoy he left his downtown Ottawa condo and thought it unsafe to walk the streets. “It only takes one person to recognize me,” he said: "I felt personally threatened."
