A final hunt is underway to recover billions in pandemic relief cheques pocketed by 432,000 people nationwide, says the Canada Revenue Agency. Fraudulent and mistaken applications for Covid relief cost taxpayers the equivalent of more than $12,000 per claimant, records showed: 'Any individual who receives something they were not entitled to should pay it back.' READ MORE
Indigenous dialects should be recited aloud at Remembrance Day observances, according to a First Nations recommendation to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Assembly of First Nations also urged the definition of “veteran” be expanded to include Indigenous fighters in pre-Confederation Canada: "First Nations Veterans Council members advised that ceremonial readings should be specifically noted as commemorative." READ MORE
The finance department polled Canadians’ views on the national debt ahead of Thursday’s budget by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, documents show. Federal focus group participants described the 13-figure debt as almost incomprehensible and “just a number.” READ MORE
A federal labour board arranged sensitivity training on Muslim traditions to avoid “trivializing” workplace complaints, Access To Information records show. It followed a proposal by a separate department to cancel coffee breaks for a month in observance of Ramadan: "The ways Islamophobia can permeate a workplace can often be nuanced." READ MORE
Canadian contractors have filed more than a dozen complaints over the new “Buy Canadian” policy, says Parliament’s Procurement Ombudsman. “Suppliers are looking for clear explanations,” Alexander Jeglic told MPs: "We are hearing questions about whether foreign-owned multinationals operating in Canada should receive the same preferences as Canadian small and medium-sized businesses." READ MORE
The Coast Guard confirms it reclassified all 7,378 of its employees including six-figure executives as defenders of the nation to help cabinet meet NATO spending targets. They had been under supervision of the fisheries department until 2025: "A senator asked for a breakdown on the total number of employees affected by the transfer of the Canadian Coast Guard to the Department of National Defence." READ MORE
Poet W.N. Branson writes: "West of madness and East of Justice, in the traditional territories of our ancestors, a performative ritual calls the Spirits..." READ MORE
My mother was a brilliant, beautiful woman, a woman with a passion for great literature, high fashion and duplicate bridge. She was a woman who disliked sentimentality of any kind, so I hope somewhere she’ll forgive me if I say I’m still haunted by the memory of the day I took her for that fateful neurocognitive exam, the day the specialist delivered the bleak diagnosis: Alzheimer’s. I failed my mother when she needed me most.
