The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board more than quadrupled its holdings in Tesla stock even as share values yo-yoed and cabinet suspended its electric car rebate program, records show. Pension managers said they had a “focus on climate change.”
Advocates yesterday petitioned cabinet to eliminate the federal corporate income tax on small business. The rate has ranged from 20 percent in 2001 to the current nine percent: "Parliament needs to act quickly."
A scandal-ridden federal agency did important work in meeting climate targets, says an in-house Department of Industry report. The evaluation made only cursory reference to inside dealing that led to the collapse of Sustainable Development Technology Canada last June: "Yes, it has been seen as a great success."
Parliament must “take a stand” against Canadian companies that move jobs to the United States to bypass Trump tariffs, the nation’s largest private sector union said yesterday. “This is the fight of our lives,” Lana Payne, Unifor national president, told reporters. “We must take a stand now.”
Canada Post management that agreed to iron-clad job security for employees 40 years ago now finds the commitment “untenable,” says a federal report. “It agreed to it,” said the Report Of The Industrial Inquiry Commission: "Canada Post might no longer like this provision but it agreed to it. It is a legal obligation.”
A municipal councillor arrested for participating in the 2022 Freedom Convoy yesterday was acquitted of all charges. Harold Jonker of St. Ann’s, Ont. earlier told a public meeting he was proud to be among the first truckers to join the protest on Parliament Hill: "I am humbled that I was able to participate in a protest that brought immense joy and hope to so many Canadians across the country."
A costly program to computerize records of cross-border freight trucks saw the Canada Border Services Agency flooded with so much information it was “impossible for them to analyze all of the data,” says an internal report. It was the second time in six years that auditors questioned the eManifest program: "Performance has not been monitored."
Canadians remain skeptical of a Department of Finance proposal for “open banking,” calling it suspiciously vague. The department since 2017 has studied the plan it claims would benefit consumers: "Awareness of the terms ‘open banking’ and ‘consumer-driven banking’ was nearly non-existent."
Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland will not comment on whether she asked the cabinet-appointed chair of a Crown bank to work as financial agent for her failed Liberal leadership campaign. The Business Development Bank denied comment, saying political activity by its directors was not public business: "It would be inappropriate to comment."
The future of the post office rests with Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has told members. A cabinet-appointed mediator recommended deep service cuts the Liberal Party opposed as "shameful" a decade ago: "It is up to Minister Patty Hajdu to decide what to do."
Neil Macdonald, former CBC pundit and husband of Canada's Ambassador to Vatican City, has deleted social media posts in which he mocked Pope Francis’ funeral, attempted a Hitler joke and ridiculed Conservative voters as bigots and losers. Removal of Macdonald’s Substack account followed a new Treasury Board directive on misuse of social media: "It can diminish the confidence."
CBC News has acknowledged the latest in a string of errors under the guise of fact checking. Management in a formal correction admitted a CBC producer got her facts wrong in purporting to correct others’ comments on election results in Carleton, Ont.: "We need the public to feel safe, that we are a beacon for that truth."
A federal agency that disregarded employees’ appeals for religious exemptions from vaccine mandates breached the Charter Of Rights, a labour board has ruled. The National Research Council was cited for twice dismissing pleas from Christian staff who objected to the source of cells used in production of Covid shots: "The state is in no position to be, nor should it become, the arbiter of religious dogma."
Blacklock's pauses for the Victoria Day observance with warmest wishes to friends and subscribers. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Translated into French my short poems aren’t so short after all…”
