A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge by a Liberal appointee over a potential conflict of interest. The Nova Scotia lawyer sought to quash a request that he get out of private practice while serving as a public office holder: "What happened here?"
The number of businesses in tax delinquency with the Canada Revenue Agency jumped 83 percent in the past decade, new records show. The period coincided with pandemic impacts that saw 1 in 10 small businesses vanish nationwide: 'Delinquent accounts have unpaid tax debt.'
Cabinet has “work to do” on security following the arrest of a suspected Canadian spy at NATO headquarters, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said yesterday. The Minister said he was leaving the investigation up to Belgian police for the time being: "There will obviously be some serious learning that comes out of that."
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday would not answer the Commons finance committee when asked if he would cap spending on cabinet’s regional high speed rail venture at $90 billion. The Budget Office has predicted costs are already 26 percent over budget: "Are you uneasy with this?"
The Department of Heritage yesterday would not explain why it approved thousand in foreign travel expenses by an advisor after cabinet promised to cut unnecessary travel. Taxpayers were billed more than $46,000 in five months for business-class junkets abroad by Amira Elghawaby, former Toronto Star columnist and Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia: "It's really important to be a fiscally responsible government."
Governor General Louise Arbour’s son-in-law in a rare political commentary by a Rideau Hall family member has publicly denounced Rebel News Network. “My mother-in-law has nothing, directly or indirectly, to do with it,” said Michael Spratt, an Ottawa lawyer.
MPs yesterday took up Second Reading of a private bill mandating compensation for damage to religious properties by arsonists or vandals. It follows federal data documenting numerous arson attacks on churches: 'Compensation to the property owner is novel.'
Ex-cabinet advisor and Toronto Star columnist Amira Elghawaby billed taxpayers nearly $18,000 for a business-class junket to England to ‘define Islamophobia,’ newly-released expense accounts show. Expenses included a $2,947 stay at a four-star hotel in Piccadilly: "Personal attendance was required."
Cabinet is now censoring internal audits at the passport office after successive investigations documented mismanagement that cost taxpayers millions. The latest Audit Of Passport Delivery Service redacted its findings: "I wouldn’t be surprised if they claim some sort of success despite the disaster we’ve seen."
Provinces were to blame for homelessness by emptying the mental hospitals, then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s cabinet agreed in confidential 1999 meetings. Newly-declassified records show ministers in private conversation said homelessness also appeared to be an issue with the “native population.”
The Department of Transport’s electric car rebate program paid millions to affluent drivers with six-figure incomes who planned to buy a zero emission vehicle anyway, new records show. A fraction of electric car buyers, 5 percent, made under $50,000 a year: "It’s a fair question to ask whether regular Canadian taxpayers should be subsidizing the purchase of luxury vehicles for people who are prepared to pay full price for them."
Fewer than half of “assault style” firearms banned by federal order were surrendered to police under a now-suspended amnesty program, records show. The roundup was deferred until 2027 at the earliest due to a pending Supreme Court of Canada challenge by gun owners: 'Most did not see themselves or their peers as a major factor in gun crimes in Canada.'
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “When the summer warmth fades to winter’s chill, my heart seeks the sentimental to its detriment. And the memories fall with the snow: a Thursday night in St John’s, icons, scoundrels and minstrels. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…”
Those who live long enough reach a point where all regrets and anxieties simply vanish. No one on their 100th birthday recites a century’s worth of petty gibes. Perhaps it’s the distraction of arthritis, or the comfort of knowing there are no surviving witnesses to our most embarrassing incidents.
Cherie Dimaline, Governor General’s Award-winning author, is only in her 40s and not there yet. Dimaline vividly recalls all her regrets and anxieties, like the time she got drunk on Jägermeister.
“Remember there was that party you went to in your early twenties, when they were giving out free Jägermeister and you were still broke enough to think you needed to drink the hell out of that Jägermeister because, well, it was free, and then you got so drunk you started an argument with that group of strangers who said you were an idiot?” writes Dimaline. “Oh, man, you really were an idiot. Wait, let me play that back in detail for you.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it didn’t have time to invite Afghan War veterans to speak at the ceremonial groundbreaking for a National Monument to Afghan War dead. The 40-minute ceremony did hear from non-combatants including Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight: "Why?"
