Recruitment of new Mounties continues to be a fraction of needs, an RCMP union has told the Commons public safety committee. The National Police Federation counted only 380 graduates from the RCMP police academy in Regina last year, about a third of requirements: "The backlog it has created will be felt for years."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday: “Minimum wage goes up. Tim Hortons sends a letter to employees, cancelling paid breaks, cutting health benefits. Some say that’s not the Canadian way…”
Cabinet’s $327,000-a year chief science advisor has not published an annual report in two years despite a requirement to account for the “state of federal government science.” Records show Dr. Mona Nemer, an Ottawa chemist, instead spent nearly a quarter million flying from Yokohama to Paris since her appointment: "Science is everywhere."
The CBC has retracted another false Freedom Convoy story that suggested foreigners played a large role in the protest. The claim was made on a radio broadcast of The World This Hour, self-described as “Canada’s most trusted audio newscast.”
The Department of Transport that regulates national airports does an inadequate job of managing its own, says an internal audit. Investigators found favouritism in contracting, misuse of government credit cards and unexplained spending at seven small, federally-owned airfields: "Employees have side jobs, family relations work together and business partners are friends."
A Parliament Hill ban on lobbyist-paid interns is unfair, says the corporate-sponsored Canadian Political Science Association. The practice was prohibited four years ago by Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion as a clear conflict of interest: "They are not volunteers because they are paid by the organization that places them."
Children’s participation in sports has declined so sharply it could affect future Olympic programs, says the Department of Canadian Heritage. Staff blamed high costs but made no mention of cabinet’s 2017 repeal of a fitness tax credit: "This could result in a gap in the number of high performance athletes competing in a decade or so."
MPs have quietly dropped a committee investigation into a mystery woman who jumped on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during Freedom Convoy protests. Cabinet blamed convoy truckers for the incident though the woman was never identified nor arrested and Ottawa police would not testify: "We describe this as a unique demonstration."
Statistics Canada for the first time is collecting data on the number of stolen and smuggled firearms used in gun crimes. However it “may take a few years” to compile figures from police nationwide, it said: 'Who owned it? How it was stored? Was the owner licensed?'
CMHC last year awarded the equivalent of a five-figure bonus to almost every employee on its payroll, according to records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Bonuses were paid as CEO Romy Bowers publicly lamented the tragedy of homelessness in Canada: "On any given night as many as 35,000 people across our country may be experiencing homelessness. Why is this happening?"
A sawmill operator has been ordered to pay $1,000 for breaching privacy rights of an employee forced to take a drug test. Run of the mill mishaps at work are not sufficient justification for testing, a British Columbia labour arbitrator ruled: "When a breach of an employee’s privacy rights is established an award of general damages is appropriate."
Canadians should expect a brutal war in Ukraine to last for years, the chair of the Commons defence committee said yesterday. Military commanders called it a valid concern: "This is something we are very concerned about."
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is promising more media subsidies after thanking reporters for their Freedom Convoy coverage. “Look at the role that the journalists played,” said Rodriguez: "I think there are even more things we should be able to do."
CBC-TV assigned a security guard to protect every single reporter assigned to cover the Freedom Convoy, a journalism seminar was told last night. Media recounted the extraordinary security measures at a Carleton University “Journalism Under Siege” seminar: "This was a real threat."
Internal records show managers at the national archives were driven to exchanging profane emails following a public outcry over removal of webpages celebrating John A. Macdonald. Response from taxpayers was overwhelmingly negative, admitted staff: "Are you guys on drugs?"
