Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould in a confidential interview with the RCMP urged police to widen their investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group scandal, newly-disclosed records show. Access To Information files released yesterday by the group Democracy Watch noted Wilson-Raybould’s pleas were ignored: "I don’t know, we didn’t know, we don’t know."
Small and medium sized businesses lost about $60 billion in the first year of pandemic lockdowns and travel bans, Statistics Canada figures showed yesterday. Data were drawn from firms that applied for interest-free loans at taxpayers’ expense: "We need to keep businesses going."
A veterans’ petition still gathering signatures in the Commons asks that cabinet apologize for a botched war memorial that misidentified dead heroes. The memorial at Port Hope, Ont. was installed under a Highway of Heroes project that received $3 million in federal funding: "Issue a formal public apology."
Canada must sharpy reduce immigration quotas due to a national housing shortage, Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) said yesterday. Freeland as finance minister had claimed record high immigration was essential to growth: "Tie the number of new immigrants to housing availability."
Cabinet aides last September considered a federal investigation of “shrinkflation,” records show. No inquiry was held into food processors’ lawful practice of charging consumers the same or more for less: "Boxed macaroni and cheese has gone from 230 grams to 220 grams or 200 grams depending on the brand."
A federal judge has approved a class action settlement with Canadian veterans who complained of racial discrimination over a 40-year period. Only a fraction of eligible veterans applied for the minimum $5,000 in cash compensation, Federal Court records show: "This is a complex claim."
Canada is currently short nearly 69,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers, says a Department of Health report. The figure is lower than 2023 estimates but still “substantial,” it said: "Canada clearly has urgent work to do."
Expanding a municipal-style court system on First Nations is worthwhile but will take time, says a Department of Justice report. Researchers studied First Nations in four provinces that already enforce bylaws on traffic, waste management, retailing and landlord and tenant disputes: "Be patient."
New Democrats are prepared for an election call in six weeks, says leader Jagmeet Singh. The Party has fewer than half its candidates nominated but will fill the slate for a March call, he said: "Mark Carney is going to call an early election."
The Parliamentary Press Gallery is “highly undemocratic” and dominated by media reliant on federal subsidies, says Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. His remarks followed a 2019 court ruling in which a federal judge faulted the Gallery and House of Commons administration for blacklisting two news organizations based on secretive “internal media accreditation guidelines.”
Tax filers may keep secrets from their spouses but not the Canada Revenue Agency, Tax Court has ruled. The decision came in the case of a husband who kept a secret Swiss bank account “to hide funds from his wife.”
Canada’s National Holocaust Memorial will see “wide-ranging” changes to the exhibit by 2026, says a Department of Canadian Heritage briefing note. The review follows complaints after the Ottawa monument opened in 2017 with a dedication plaque that made no mention of Jews: "Requests for revisions have come from descendants of Holocaust survivors."
Young professionals from pharmacists to teachers who relocate to rural Canada will qualify for thousands in student loan forgiveness under proposed regulations. The Department of Employment on Saturday said new rules would take effect November 1: "Help support increased access to health care and social services in these communities."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Ottawa to provide Kiev with satellite images of the conflict zone…”
The inside story of the federal Green Party remains untold. It must have its share of intrigue and score-settling. What little that has been said touches on apocalyptic themes. Annamie Paul, the Party’s only Black Jewish leader, likened her tenure to crawling over broken glass. “It has been extremely painful,” she told reporters in 2021. “It has been the worst period of my life.”
The Party was first registered in 1984. Once fresh and new, it has faded with time and now has the persona of the Raging Grannies, a 1980s troupe that appeared on the periphery of street protests wearing CBC buttons and foretelling doom over Cruise Missile tests.
The bookshelf of Green Party literature remains thin. David Chernushenko, former deputy leader, once self-published a science fiction novel Burning Souls. It predicted by 2025 Canadian civilization would be reduced to Cascadia, an armed colony in southern British Columbia besieged by four million Latin American famine refugees: “Could Cascadia possibly hold off such a torrent? Or would something else kill those wretched folks first? Pity anyone on the open road.”
