Canada Post managers last year pocketed nearly $31 million in bonuses even as CEO Doug Ettinger told Parliament the organization was “on the brink.” The disclosures were detailed in financial accounts requested by MPs: "One of the things I lose sleep about is keeping the good people who are with us." READ MORE
Eleven percent bonuses for federal executives are proportionate and fair, says a memo to Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali. Bonuses averaging $18,316 per executive were paid last year even as cabinet told Canadians “these are tough times.” READ MORE
Federal agents cannot keep up with deportation of foreign fugitives, according to figures in a Privy Council briefing note. Current targets are thousands short, data showed: "I liken our inventories to a bathtub; we are constantly scooping water out of that bathtub but the bathtub is filling up." READ MORE
Cabinet members and political aides received dozens of free passes to attend the FIFA World Cup including four staff and a summer student in the office of Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden (Burlington North-Milton West, Ont.), Secretary of State for Sport. The tournament cost taxpayers $1.07 billion: 'Memories will last a generation.' READ MORE
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne must “restore fiscal credibility,” say investment bankers. A Toronto think tank in a submission to MPs expressed alarm over high deficits: 'There is no path to balance the budget.' READ MORE
Poet W.N. Branson writes: "Long before the vacant promises of the elected. Long before the vacant seats in the House, Indians on foot greeted every lake, river and ridge..." READ MORE
One day in 2004 two co-workers – one black, one white – had an unpleasant physical alteration at a slaughterhouse in Brooks, Alta. The black man was fired. About 200 Sudanese employees protested the wrongful dismissal. “Management told them, go back to your jobs or we’ll fire you,” one witness recalled. They refused. Sixty were fired. The incident set in motion an extraordinary series of events documented in Defying Expectations by Professor Jason Foster of Athabasca University. Foster is a former policy director with the Alberta Federation of Labour, and a skillful writer whose account reads like a screenplay. The Brooks plant was the least promising candidate for a union drive anywhere in Canada. READ MORE
We hold sacred the right to vote. The first ballot cast by my brother and I was discussed around the dining room table. We talked about whether a government was good or bad. My parents cherished those conversations because we were free to have them. This shaped my family’s outlook on life. We were taught that Poles lost democracy because they did not cherish freedom enough. When it comes to democracy, there’s a difference between theory and practice.
