The Senate human rights committee last night voted 7 to 1 to criminalize Indian Residential School “denialism.” Public statements intended to promote hatred by downplaying the impacts of Residential Schools would be outlawed under threat of two years in jail: "It can involve denying, minimizing or justifying the documented abuses, deaths, forced assimilation and intergenerational harms." READ MORE
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday skipped Commons questions over the recession to take a 15-minute tour of a construction site in his Nepean, Ont. riding. The Prime Minister would only let media “take a picture of him wearing a hard hat and carrying a hammer around pretending he’s a carpenter” but would not discuss his management of the economy, said Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. READ MORE
The Commons yesterday by a 193 to 134 vote rejected an Opposition motion to freeze mandatory fees charged video streaming services. Companies like Netflix and Disney Plus face a tripling of rates, from 5 to 15 percent of their yearly Canadian revenues, under a May 21 CRTC order: "Who will pay for this?" READ MORE
The CBC was flooded with angry emails after former TV host Travis Dhanraj told MPs he was instructed to keep Conservatives off the air, Access To Information records show. “We don’t hit the mark in every story,” one manager acknowledged in discussing Dhanraj’s March 10 testimony at a parliamentary committee hearing: "Perceptions of bias, whatever direction they take, are of great concern." READ MORE
Federal managers yesterday testified they never authorized a $10 million charge by Indigenous Languages Commissioner Ronald Ignace to host a four-day conference in Ottawa. An internal audit is underway: "How many Indigenous people could have learned their language with $10 million?” READ MORE
The Department of Immigration says there is “high interest” in foreigners applying to become Canadians under 2025 changes to the Citizenship Act. Conservative MP Brad Redekopp (Saskatoon West) in Commons debate on budget Main Estimates pressed for a number: "Does the Minister stand by her estimate?" READ MORE
Prime Minister Mark Carney has yet to comment on federal data showing Canada fell into recession for the first time since the pandemic. Figures were confirmed Friday, one day after Carney mistakenly told New York business leaders that Canada would “have the second-fastest growth in the G7 this year.” READ MORE
On February 15, 1996 then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien attended a Flag Day ceremony at a park in Gatineau, Que. Dozens of us had arranged to demonstrate. It was a peculiar moment, seeing and hearing the Prime Minister lose control and behaving in an erratic manner. It was a powerful image. Here was the head of government attacking a protestor. There was symbolism here that went beyond the event itself.
