A federally-sponsored foundation is offering cash for election coverage. The judges’ panel assigned to approve $35,000 grants is led by Margo Goodhand, a former Winnipeg Free Press editor who once urged Liberals to “stand up to the bullies” in the Conservative Party: 'Trudeau will show us the way.'
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday said he has “not had any circumstances” to drop candidates including one who posted anti-Semitic conspiracies on Instagram. Party headquarters declined to answer numerous questions regarding the New Democrat who claimed Jews controlled the Government of Canada: "Has the NDP had to drop any candidates so far in this race?”
A Crown bank yesterday declined comment on its broadcast of TV and YouTube ads during the general election campaign. A federal policy forbids taxpayer-funded promotions in a writ period: "It it is especially important to avoid anything that could call into question political impartiality."
Canada’s leading prescription drug middleman is under investigation by federal anti-trust lawyers. The Competition Bureau in a Federal Court affidavit questioned the business practices of Express Scripts Canada Services of Mississauga, Ont.: 'The inquiry is focused on alleged patient steering and margin squeezing.'
Liberal MP Paul Chiang (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) last night abruptly resigned while under RCMP investigation after threatening a political rival with arrest for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. “I served with integrity,” said Chiang, a former police sergeant.
Canada must develop its own nuclear weapons program, says the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. The group yesterday released a National Policy Guide recommending Canada arm itself with nuclear warheads as protection against Russian terror and American expansionism: "The future of Canada’s freedom and the freedom of Europe depend on our ability to defend our sovereignty."
Cabinet to date has spent more than a quarter billion dollars on its Two Billion Trees Program with no deadline yet for completion, says a briefing note by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s department. It will take several more years to ensure “the right conditions,” wrote staff: "Tree planting at this scale takes time and careful planning."
All news media will be allowed to assign reporters to televised election debates. The Leaders’ Debates Commission dropped its blacklist of media critical of the Liberal cabinet after twice losing Federal Court challenges over censorship: "It is not the mandate of the Commission to regulate the journalistic profession."
Alberta Attorney General Mickey Amery in an unusual court application seeks to pre-empt a new trial for a convicted murderer. Canadians deserve “intelligible and transparent reasons” that justify any claim of miscarriage of justice, Amery wrote the Federal Court: 'They failed to provide any reasons.'
New Democrats yesterday declined comment over a candidate's claim that Jewish lobbyists controlled the federal cabinet. Remarks by Ehab Mustapha (Mississauga-Erin Mills, Ont.) followed Party leader Jagmeet Singh’s 2021 pledge of more thorough vetting of candidates after two nominees were removed for anti-Jewish remarks: "Groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs have been influencing policy behind closed doors."
Cabinet’s “safe supply” drug policy was cold-hearted and mean, says Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. Millions spent on decriminalization in British Columbia and supervised consumption sites nationwide should have been diverted to counseling and treatment, he said: "What was cold-hearted and mean was leaving those people in tent cities dying of drug overdoses."
Liberals on Saturday night acclaimed a new candidate without any Party meeting in Don Valley North, Ont., the Toronto riding that became the epicentre of foreign interference investigations. Ousted three-term MP Han Dong expressed disappointment: "You were aware then that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had concerns about foreign interference in Mr. Dong’s nomination?"
A federal labour board in the first ruling of its kind has upheld the firing of a government employee for falsely claiming thousands in pandemic relief cheques. “She knew,” wrote an adjudicator with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board.
Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard has ordered the Department of Justice to disclose thousands of memos regarding ongoing concealment of postwar files on Nazi fugitives let into Canada. The department promised to comply with a deadline but only after the election campaign: "I order the Minister of Justice to provide a complete response."
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “‘A Mari Usque Ad Mare,’ from sea to sea, the last whiffs of nationalism are burned off like an early morning fog…”
