Federal regulators have licensed a commercial drone operator for only the second time in Canada. The one-year conditional license was given to a drone courier at Edmonton International Airport: “Drones are profoundly transforming the transportation sector.”
David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, paid a courtesy call on the Chinese Embassy six weeks after MPs censured China for genocide and voted to petition Olympics organizers to relocate the 2022 Winter Games from Beijing. Chinese diplomats “asked to stay in touch.”
A half-billion newspaper bailout did not create jobs as promised, admits the Department of Canadian Heritage. Staff counted a continued net loss of thousands of jobs though publishers claimed increased readership through the pandemic: “This crowd knows very little about the business of operating a newspaper.”
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday pledged support for urgent passage of an unprecedented internet censorship bill. “This is serious,” Singh told reporters: “We’ve got elected officials and we can bring in legislation.”
New federal data confirm school, playground and rink closures negatively affected more Canadian schoolchildren than the pandemic. The Public Health Agency cited “significant disruptions” to daily life for the 99.9 percent of children who were never hospitalized with Covid: “Children generally experience mild symptoms if they do become infected.”
Statistics Canada yesterday added the cost of pizza delivery and gaming consoles to its benchmark inflation calculator, but downgraded soda crackers and plastic forks. It is part of the first major revision to the Consumer Price Index in four years: ‘Products may become obsolete.’
Canadian diplomats in a briefing note praised Cuba’s Communist Party for embracing “social rights” and freer speech, and blamed human rights abuses on the pandemic. The note predates mass arrests and internet censorship by Cuban authorities: “Under President Diaz-Canel, there has been some modest improvements in freedom of movement and expression.”
Canada sent more than 28,000 people into quarantine hotels at public and personal expense, according to Department of Public Safety figures. Cabinet to date has not detailed the cost of the program, though Supplementary Estimates tabled in Parliament put the expense of border measures at $225,556,596: “We have made the best decisions we can.”
Federal agencies will spend $110,000 producing a pre-election YouTube video on slavery with commentary by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Video participants include a Liberal-appointed senator who “felt a sense of hopelessness” after seeing images of Trudeau clowning in blackface: “It epitomizes how deeply rooted racism is in our country, how deeply rooted privilege and power is in our country.”
MPs yesterday summoned Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to explain cabinet’s opposition to a tax bill benefiting farmers, small business and fishing corporations. Freeland’s department questioned the validity of the law after it was approved by Parliament: “The government has fought this all the way.”
A federal judge has quashed a cabinet order blocking expansion of an Alberta coal mine in the name of climate change. Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson failed in his duty to consult a First Nation that supported the mine as a job creator, the Federal Court ruled: “There was no consultation at all.”
A federal censorship bill will be useful in prosecuting bloggers and Facebook subscribers, an RCMP specialist said last night. Bill C-36 will “see more things through to charges,” a webinar was told: “There is no such thing as free speech in Canada, only freedom of expression.”
A tax cut for hundreds of thousands of farmers, small businesses and fishing corporations is lawful, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said last evening. Freeland’s department had questioned the validity of the measure though it passed Parliament: “The law is the law.”
Cabinet must take a “special approach” to save French in Canada, says a staff briefing note to Languages Minister Mélanie Joly. New initiatives were not detailed. Cabinet has budgeted $130 million a year to promote bilingualism: “French in the country has been declining.”
Cabinet yesterday detailed a partial rollback of restrictions on foreign travelers entering Canada. It follows a decision Saturday to waive a rule that non-essential travel bans remain in place until 75 percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated: “Relaxation of measures will be a gradual process.”
