The Department of National Defence in three years spent nearly $300 million hiring transport contractors due to its inadequate vehicle fleet, say auditors. A total 203 separate contracts were approved: "Armed Forces transport capability cannot satisfy the transportation requirements."
A federal climate program to install clean energy in First Nations cost the equivalent of more then $9,000 per person, records show. The disclosure follows a 2023 report acknowledging a multi-million dollar program to phase out diesel generators in Arctic Canada was nowhere near to reaching its target: "Projects can take more than 10 years to develop."
Talk radio is a lucrative medium for white bigotry, says Liberal appointee Senator Charles Adler (Man.). Speaking in a podcast, Adler said his radio career was impacted by his refusal to “play that game.”
CMCH yesterday cautioned Canadians against celebrating temporary gains in housing starts amid a longer term construction decline. Housing Minister Gregor Robertson repeatedly pointed to a temporary increase in housing starts last summer as proof that “our plan is working.”
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme assigned a total seven officers to policing hate crimes in seven provinces, records show. Most were part-timers. The disclosure followed complaints of weak protection of Jews, the leading target of hate crimes in Canada, by official estimate: "What are the risks?"
Cabinet acknowledges a “moral obligation” to recover Indigenous artworks that vanished from government offices, the Commons heritage committee was told. One MP said federal managers appeared determined to downplay the loss of paintings, jewelry, sculptures and other art that went missing from a multi-million dollar collection: "I do believe there is a moral obligation."
Liberal MP Tatiane Auguste (Terrebonne, Que.) has lost her Commons seat after the Supreme Court invalidated her election by a single ballot in 2025. It was the closest federal campaign in 62 years: "I think this is an issue that goes beyond party politics."
Extraordinary pandemic-era infringements of Canadians’ rights were justified in the name of public safety, says the Supreme Court of Canada. Judges by a 5-4 decision upheld a Newfoundland and Labrador order that prohibited outsiders from entering the province: "These were difficult times."
A former campaign manager and longtime political aide to Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, Ont.) has been cited for multiple violations of the Elections Act. Breaches included falsifying records: 'He was the official agent.'
The political heart of Ottawa spans a ten-square block area of the old city stretching from Wellington to Somerset Streets. Here on Somerset lived Prime Minister John Thompson, a workaholic who wrote Canada’s first Criminal Code, created Labour Day in 1893 and was an early supporter of votes for women: “About all the exercise I can get is the walk from my house up to the Hill and back.”
Lost to history is the state funeral of Generalissimo Trujillo, strongman of the Dominican Republic, shot by assassins in 1961. Canadian diplomat John Graham attended the mass. “The only people in the entire church without guns were the clergy and the diplomatic corps,” he recalls.
Fearful that rebels would seize the corpse for public display, Trujillo’s henchmen hoisted it from the church by helicopter winch. “The Generalissimo’s coffin swinging in the air was a moment of unbearable, transcendent mystery for the dazed and credulous mourners below,” writes Graham. Only later did diplomats learn Trujillo wasn’t in the coffin. They’d stuffed it with an unknown corpse while preserving El Presidente in a freezer for quiet burial.
The Department of Environment spent more than 10 years and $1.4 million building a “net zero” garage in Whitehorse that it neither needed nor finished, say auditors. The project was commissioned by then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna as proof her department could “lead by example.”
Illegal immigrants and refugee claimants receive an average $1,363 per year worth of free health care at a total cost of $989 million this year, the Budget Office said yesterday. “Can you understand why Canadians are really frustrated and mad about this program?” Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Riding Mountain, Man.) asked the Commons health committee.
Canadians should beware of “illegitimate” media for the sake of social cohesion, Heritage Minister Marc Miller said yesterday. His remarks followed a briefing note stating cabinet is relying on the CBC and its $1.6 billion annual grant to promote “social cohesion.”
Muslim observances now outnumber Christian days on the federal calendar, according to an Access To Information memo by the Immigration and Refugee Board. It was due to the inclusion of “diversity, equity and accessibility related dates,” it said.
