Cabinet yesterday enacted new regulations to speed the deportation of illegal immigrants. Minister of Immigration Lena Diab in a legal notice said the typical refugee claimant was male, Haitian and under age 30: 'Lengthy processing times make the removal of failed refugee claimants harder.' READ MORE
A multi-million dollar plan to modernize the federal patent office ran two years late and went 114 percent over budget, the Department of Industry disclosed yesterday. Figures detailed at the request of Conservative MP Arnold Viersen (Peace River-Westlock, Alta.) showed patent holders still waited nearly four years on average for documents to be approved even after managers spent millions to computerize the system: "Do we have a marketplace that allows our inventors to first showcase their products to the world? We do not." READ MORE
Cabinet must identify and track clear targets on housing starts, says a Commons committee. The recommendation followed a decision by the Department of Housing to drop its longstanding promise to build 500,000 new homes annually as the minimum required to restore affordability: 'Publish clear, measurable targets for federal housing programs relating to the number of units created.' READ MORE
New data show labour inspectors targeted religious institutions in ongoing investigations of abuse under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Four institutions were fined a total $117,500 over a nine-day period. The labour department did not comment: "Inspections have become increasingly complex." READ MORE
Cabinet aides prepared a video featuring Prime Minister Mark Carney to be shown at mandatory citizenship ceremonies, Access To Information records show. No rule prohibits it though the Department of Immigration had cautioned that swearing-in ceremonies, a legal requirement for new citizens, should be nonpartisan: "Citizenship ceremonies provide a forum for visibility." READ MORE
Gambling advertising has spoiled the enjoyment of sports, says Conservative MP Ned Kuruc (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, Ont.), former assistant with Canada’s national Muay Thai martial arts team. Kuruc and other members of the Commons heritage committee passed a private bill proposing regulation of advertising: "We see where sports and betting have become one." READ MORE
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday expressed irritation when asked why he reversed three years’ worth of interest rate cuts. “There’s no immediate benefit of raising interest rates,” Macklem told the Commons finance committee after Conservative and Liberal MPs alike opposed the October 28 increase: 'Explain to small business owners why the decision was made because I’m having a hard time explaining it to them, okay?' 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.
