Attorney General Sean Fraser yesterday said he “will occasionally” check if judicial appointees made political donations, but denied any partisan intent. “I will on occasion have a candidate’s political activities flagged before a final appointment is made,” he said.
Judges must beware of “potential danger” when discussing current events with reporters, Supreme Court nominee Glenn Joyal said yesterday. Joyal avoided reference to the Chief Justice's criticism of the Freedom Convoy in a Québec newspaper, but said all judges must avoid editorializing: "There is a risk."
The Prime Minister’s Office yesterday would not say who gave an Ottawa pollster advance notice of an unusual proposal to finance public works through corporate donors. Pollster Bruce Anderson conducted a survey seven weeks before the announcement to gauge support for tax credits for donors who renovate 24 Sussex Drive: "My take based on these results is the approach announced by Prime Minister Carney will experience some, but pretty limited, opposition."
An Ontario judge describes the Canada Border Services Agency as ineffectual in rounding up foreign fugitives. The remarks came in the case of an illegal immigrant repeatedly arrested, jailed, released and re-arrested for theft despite a 2022 federal warrant for deportation: "I have no confidence that the Canada Border Services Agency will actually deport."
The Department of Natural Resources spent nearly $75,000 asking Canadians if they’d consider replacing home siding and roofing with fireproof materials. Regulators to date have stopped short of applying climate revisions in the National Building Code to existing structures: "The purpose of this project is to dive deeply into the intricate layers of Canadians’ perceptions."
The Department of Immigration is eager to show it's “delivering results” in a costly shelter program for illegal immigrants and refugee claimants, says an Access To Information memo to Minister Lena Diab. Managers complained of media focus and Opposition criticism of a hotel program that cost taxpayers billions: "Recent reporting and Opposition motions question overall costs."
The Federal Court says it will see a record 30,000 immigration cases this year, five times the average. Administrators served notice of long delays in paperwork affecting all plaintiffs and defendants: "This persistent surge is causing significant and sustained operational pressures on the Court."
A charity assigned to crowdfund renovations to 24 Sussex Drive will solicit donations from federally-regulated corporations, records show. Prime Minister Mark Carney, former director of the Rideau Hall Foundation, denied any conflict: "They will be raising funds."
Prime Minister Mark Carney faces a Commons ethics committee probe on whether he stands to personally benefit from a proposed $1.45 billion taxpayers' bailout of distressed condos in Metro Vancouver. Carney told reporters he had no idea of whether trustees managing his stock portfolio were speculating in British Columbia real estate: "I actually don’t know whether or not I have an actual conflict, thank you."
A Liberal-appointed trustee who quit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights over an anti-Israel exhibit says he was “berated by board members for my views.” Mark Berlin, former director with the federal Department of Justice, told a B’nai Brith podcast the Museum was “a tool of propaganda.”
Banks effective next year will be compelled to obtain depositors’ permission for electronic transfers. The anti-fraud measure follows legal rulings regarding bankers’ duty of care owed their customers: "The true number of fraud instances in Canada could be between 1.1 million and 2.2 million."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Join the celebration this Canada day. Do the little things that make a difference, a flag in hand, a pin to the collar…”
Canadians have a complex relationship with success and failure. That’s strange in a capitalist society where city life is a weekly succession of petty contests. Success is caricatured as a triumph of positive thinking that culminates in a prize, like winning on Dragon’s Den. Failure is a vaguely shameful exhibition of personal weakness: “The Morgans lost their house!”
Neither is accurate. Winners and losers strive, and even successful people fail from time to time. Billy Durant, the Michigan wagon maker who created General Motors, went bankrupt in 1936 and ended his career as manager of a bowling alley. It must have been a well-run bowling alley. Successful people like to run things.
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday denied he was ever lobbied by developers to endorse a $1.45 billion plan to buy distressed Vancouver condos at taxpayers’ expense. Carney did not say if he personally held shares in any British Columbia development as he does in Ontario: "Mark Carney helped build this system."
The Department of National Defence in a newly-declassified report described Ukraine as a “no man’s land” of organized crime and political corruption. The confidential document was written in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union: "Bribery and theft are rife."
