New records show a federal blacklist of Freedom Convoy sympathizers was privately circulated to thousands of corporations. No account to date has documented the consequences for individuals named under the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act by a cabinet order subsequently ruled unlawful: "There was no verification."
Repeal of electric car mandates will save Canadians billions a year, according to new federal figures. Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin on Saturday served legal notice that mandates suspended six months ago will be permanently abolished: 'Risk of job losses in the Canadian auto sector need to be considered.'
Opposition to a $90 billion regional high speed rail venture is growing, the Department of Infrastructure admits. An internal memo warned impending deadlines must be met if Alto Corporation, the Crown agency overseeing the project, is to start construction in 2029: "The project is increasingly scrutinized for its cost, timeline and potential impacts on communities and agricultural land."
A legal scholar has filed a constitutional challenge against Québec to save the Oath Of Allegiance to the King. The Supreme Court of Canada is to hear a separate challenge of the oath required of MPs, senators and new citizens: "Abolition of the Oath Of Allegiance requires unanimous consent of Parliament and the provinces."
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “The warmth of the summer sun fades as it sets below the mountain, alongside the lake, in the Okanagan. Sitting on the bench, ice cream melts before you can eat it, in the perfect summers eve…”
In 1968 the government passed a Narcotic Drugs Act to pursue a “vision of a drug-free society.” Thousands of people were jailed. Even simple possession of marijuana was punishable by up to six months’ in custody. Drug testing was punitive and commonplace and treatment was “based on obtaining complete abstinence,” noted a federal report.
The country was not the U.S. but Sweden. The scheme worked. Marijuana use by young Swedes fell to 9 percent, less than half Canada’s comparable rate.
Few analysts ever mentioned Sweden in our national debate over marijuana policy. Discussion was coloured instead by the politics, religion and demography of the U.S. Even the title of Paula Mallea’s pre-legalization book The War On Drugs, is an American invention.
Debt levels for the working poor are now “staggering,” says one of the country’s largest credit monitors. Equifax Canada yesterday in a report to the Commons industry committee said financial circumstances for millions are much worse than headlines indicate: "This gap has widened drastically."
Newly-declassified records show cabinet's 2005 decision to send Canadian troops into combat in Afghanistan followed cursory discussion. Casualties would number 2,229 including 158 killed in action: "The Canadians would be the best equipped task force in Afghanistan."
Opposition members yesterday compelled the Commons public safety committee to address the detention of an accused Chinese-Canadian spy at NATO. “Canadians need answers,” said Conservative MP Frank Caputo (Kamloops-Thompson, B.C.): "What happened?"
The Canadian Embassy in Washington yesterday had no comment after it interrupted trade negotiations to celebrate Justin Trudeau’s dating habits. “Kinda chic to date Katy Perry,” staff posted on the Embassy’s official Instagram account: "I get the PR value but it just doesn’t seem very prime ministerial."
Operators of a radio service for German-speaking Alberta farm families yesterday won federal approval to expand programming to “satisfy demand for local content,” said the CRTC. It follows Census data showing French outside Québec has been eclipsed as a second, third and fourth language in many provinces: 'One in four Canadians had a mother tongue other than English or French.'
Heritage Minister Marc Miller on a July junket to the United Kingdom scheduled confidential briefings on a Labour Party proposal to promote “social cohesion,” according to an Access To Information memo. A Labour report targeted individuals it called “digital grifters” and “politicians of grievance.”
Cabinet’s $90 billion regional high speed railway faces new barriers, specifically land use restrictions at federally-designated historic places along the proposed route including a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Parks Canada in an Access To Information memo expressed concern over “possible impacts.”
Canada was the best prepared country in the world for pandemic risk, officials boasted in newly-declassified 2005 cabinet minutes made public yesterday. The Public Health Agency to date has failed to explain what went wrong: "Canada was the best prepared among countries for a pandemic risk."
Sales of heat pumps grew sixfold nationwide even before cabinet launched a costly subsidy program to promote their use, new figures from the Canada Energy Regulator showed yesterday. The devices were most popular in Atlantic Canada where oil furnaces had been a mainstay of home heating: "Once you make the switch to get off oil and gas you can save hundreds."
