The Department of Veterans Affairs has asked statisticians to calculate when the last Canadian survivor of the Second World War is likely to die, Access To Information records show. Statistical tables were compiled in planning for a national tribute: "The last surviving Second World War veteran is projected to pass away between 2034 and 2038."
Diplomat Neil Macdonald, husband of Canada’s Ambassador to Vatican City, in an election commentary ridiculed Conservative voters as “rumpy-Trumpy” and questioned whether Hitler had worse media relations than Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday had no comment: "Fanboys in Alberta thought becoming the 51st state was a super-keen idea."
Results are pending in three more judicial recounts in federal ridings with narrow outcomes in April 28 balloting. A Superior Court ruling that gave Liberals a win by a single vote in suburban Terrebonne, Que. was the closest call since 1963.
The federal government in pre-election focus groups shopped various slogans to persuade Canadians to support a cap on oil and gas emissions, according to in-house research by the Privy Council Office. Depicting energy companies as hugely profitable corporations that could afford clean technology was most popular, said a report: "Asked whether they had seen, read or heard anything about the federal government’s action on this front, only a small number indicated they had."
Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne yesterday called this a “pivotal time” for fundamental rights in Canada. Dufresne avoided all mention of his 2023 dismissal of privacy rights under pandemic mandates: "At a time when the personal information of Canadians is being collected, used and shared at an unparalleled pace and volume on a global scale, effective privacy protection requires more than the status quo."
A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit by RCMP members who complained that monitoring of police radio calls breached their Charter right to privacy. The case followed a 2017 New Brunswick investigation into organized crime: "An individual choosing to share personal information while at work in a work-related communication channel does not translate into having an objective expectation of privacy."
Canadian diplomats described as “pleasant and friendly” a 2024 visit to the West Bank that cost a Liberal cabinet minister her job. Ex-Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks (York Centre, Ont.) acknowledged Jewish constituents were upset aftershe posed in an official photograph holding hands with a Holocaust denier: "I have been asked this many times."
“Uncertainty of the political landscape” is impacting subsidized newspapers, says the Manitoba daily that led the national campaign for a $595 million media bailout. The publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press did not identify any political party by name but noted loss of taxpayers' aid would hurt the business: "We anticipate circulation to remain challenging."
Refugee claims by air passengers fell 75 percent after cabinet reintroduced visas on Mexicans, Canada Border Services Agency figures show. Taxpayers saved millions when the visa rule was brought back into force on February 29, 2024: "Do you regret not doing it earlier?"
A third of payday borrowers have “self-control issues,” says a Bank of Canada report. Researchers said a significant number of people who borrow money at exorbitant rates were in “households that suffer from temptation.”
Global warming in theory would make the Northwest Passage a viable route for commercial shipping, says a Department of Environment report. However the region remains ice-bound and hazardous, it said: 'Insurance is costly.'
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “CEO Steve Jobs wanted my money. In return he will grant me with access to something attractive to look at, fun to touch, that will keep me busy for quite a while…”
Canada is not the kind of country that wakes up in the morning to the sound of trumpets and drums. No MP ever gave a speech entitled “Canadian Exceptionalism” and if somebody tried, a voice in the back of the room would say: “In fairness, Belgium makes pretty good chocolates.”
Yet we enjoy an extraordinariness most dramatically illustrated in the immigrant experience, and none more unusual than the story documented in Reflections On Malcolm Forsyth. The composer in his dying days devoted his last breaths to a national tribute.
“His last major work was A Ballad For Canada written for the National Arts Centre Orchestra,” recalls Robin Elliot, Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College: “By the time of the premiere, Forsyth had been hospitalized with pancreatic cancer and knew he did not have long to live. He was released from hospital on oxygen tanks, a flight to Ottawa was arranged, and he was in the National Arts Centre to receive a standing ovation after the first performance of the work on June 9, 2011. He then returned to Edmonton and died less than a month later.”
Canadians should expect “permanent effects” of the tariff war that may outlast tariffs themselves, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. “Trust has been broken,” he said.
Most mortgage holders are struggling to pay household expenses, says a federal report. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada noted more people are relying on credit card debt at 19 and 20 percent interest to get by: "Two thirds of mortgage holders are struggling to meet their financial commitments."
