Condo speculators in Metro Vancouver caught with thousands of unsold units should be allowed to fail, says a Commons petition sponsored without comment by Conservative MP Dan Albas (Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna, B.C.). Petitioners opposed a $1.45 billion bailout of developers at taxpayers’ expense: "Unsold units should be allowed to fall to prices that households can afford through open market discounts, credit or losses, or receivership." READ MORE
Military and civilian employees in the Department of National Defence have been cited for cheating on timesheets and fuel cards at taxpayers’ expense. No individuals were discharged though similar offences resulted in firings and police investigations in other departments: "We are constantly looking." READ MORE
Diplomats in staff emails depicted Fiji as a backwater where it was hard to find office supplies or make a long-distance phone call, Access To Information records show. Liberal MP Randeep Sarai (Surrey Centre, B.C.), Secretary of State for International Development, last January 16 opened Canada's first Fijian mission in what cabinet called an important step in “Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.” READ MORE
A highway billboard calling the Prime Minister a liar was Charter-protected free expression, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled yesterday. Counsel with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms that won the case called the decision “a welcome affirmation of the importance of political expression.” READ MORE
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation of Moncton yesterday was fined $212,025 for breach of anti-money laundering regulations. The penalty is the latest in a series of violations by casino operators: "Very suspicious." READ MORE
Parks Canada in an internal report calls the creation of national parks culturally “harmful” and a “colonial injustice.” Management “now acknowledges this harmful historical legacy,” said the newly-disclosed report withheld from the public for two years. READ MORE
Virgina Mearns, cabinet’s $181,000-a year Arctic Ambassador, has been cited for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Act and fined $400. MPs have long sought more serious penalties for violators: "There should be real consequences." READ MORE
Robert Peary’s wife had given him a handmade flag to carry on his last expedition in 1906 when he claimed to discover the North Pole. Peary died in 1920 but left a written account of the map’s location in a cairn at Cape Columbia overlooking the Arctic Ocean. Hidden in the cairn was a rusted tin with a perfectly preserved remnant of the flag the size of a handkerchief. Later we gave it to Peary’s widow. We made other finds that year: tins of fruitcake from an 1875 British expedition, and letters addressed to Amundsen left behind by a Danish team in 1920. And we began the work of mapping the Canadian Arctic.
