A registered charity had members hector a newspaper editor over coverage deemed insufficiently pro-Palestinian, records show. Canada Revenue Agency rules restrict political activity by taxpayer-supported charities: “The Income Tax Act requires a charity to be constituted and operated exclusively for charitable purposes and all the charity’s resources must be devoted to charitable activities.”
Monthly Archives: December 2023
Seek “Hate Speech” Plaintiffs
Jewish advocates yesterday appealed for volunteer plaintiffs in civil court actions against anti-Semites at Canadian universities. It follows a demand by the Commons justice committee for immediate action to protect religious freedoms: “Shameful acts have one goal, to terrorize Canadians.”
Rare Frog Versus Backhoe
The Department of Environment yesterday confirmed a five-figure fine against a Québec contractor for operating equipment in the habitat of the rare Western Chorus Frog. Protection orders for the endangered frog earlier halted a $22 million subdivision in La Prairie, Que.: “It is a secretive species.”
Anti-Israel Rallies Costly: CN
Canadian National Railway has lost millions and suffered “irreparable harm” due to anti-Israel protests on its freight lines, say courts in three provinces. Cabinet in 2022 invoked emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy on unsubstantiated fears of identical rail blockades: “Individuals are calling upon others across Canada to join in their efforts and take actions including blockades of CN Railway lines in an effort to impact the economy and specifically companies which they associate with being economically tied to Israel.”
CBC-TV Ad Revenue Crashes
CBC television ad revenues fell 16 percent in the first half of the year, records show. Catherine Tait, the network’s $497,00-a year CEO, made no mention of the disastrous figures in November 2 testimony at the Commons heritage committee: ‘There is an adverse revenue outlook for the next three years.’
Name Cabinet Friends Judges
Cabinet yesterday named former Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman and an ex-Ontario Liberal legislator to the bench. The latest judicial appointments follow a long list of rewards for Liberal Party friends and donors: “Should that or does that disqualify them from being appointed to the bench?”
Losses Mounting At VIA Rail
Operating losses at VIA Rail will climb 14 percent this year and keep climbing through 2024. The taxpayer-owned railway complained of “difficult operating and financial environments.”
Youth Court Data Worrisome
More than a third of Canadians say they lack confidence in the youth criminal justice system, says in-house research by the Department of Justice. The findings were “cause for concern,” wrote researchers: “Thirty-nine percent reported not being confident.”
Corruption Looks Bad: Report
Canada faces “increased perceptions of corruption,” says a Department of Public Safety report. The document cited no specific cases but noted “establishing a strong ethical tone at the top may be a useful tactic.”
97 Canadians Jailed In China
China hold more Canadian citizens in prison than any other foreign country outside the United States, records show. The Department of Foreign Affairs invoked the Privacy Act in declining to discuss individual cases: “It shouldn’t take a crisis for people to get basic information.”
Green Record Just “Shoddy”
Canada’s record on climate change is “so shoddy,” says Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco. Testifying at the Senate energy committee, the Commissioner dismissed cabinet claims Canada is a climate leader: “The list of failures grows longer.”
Traveling 4,500 Km For VIA
New Democrat MP Taylor Bachrach (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) yesterday took the transcontinental train 4,500 kilometres home for Christmas to promote his bill for better VIA Rail service. “It’s six days from Toronto to Smithers,” Bachrach told reporters: “We’re going to talk about passenger rail on the way.”
Bread Price Probe In 9th Year
A federal investigation into bread price fixing is entering its ninth year without any conclusion in sight. “I understand people are concerned,” said Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell: “It’s a significant endeavour.”
A Sunday Poem: “Honour”
The Canadian Museum of History
celebrated 125 years of the
Stanley Cup.
An evening of tribute offered
food,
bar drinks,
your picture with the Cup, and
an opportunity to rub shoulders with
former NHL players.
Even free parking and coat check.
All for $150 a ticket.
Lord Stanley
would have been pleased to know
how far his contribution
to amateur hockey
has gone.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
![](https://www.blacklocks.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Strayer-cover-color-e1702654969139.jpg?x50034)
Review: Was It Truly Worth It?
Of all countries on earth how many old colonies managed constitutional independence without gunfire? The answer makes a very short list. First is Canada. This rare achievement took many years and much desk-pounding and today is taken for granted. Canada’s Constitutional Revolution is a celebration of the fact.
The late Barry Strayer, a federal judge, recalled only weeks after the 1982 Charter of Rights was proclaimed thieves broke into his Ottawa home: “When the police came and we were discussing it with the detectives, one of them said, ‘Well, there’s probably not much we can do. It used to be before this Charter thing that we’d round up a few of the likely suspects and take ‘em down to the station. We usually got results.’”
Strayer was a constitutional lawyer, ex-CCF organizer and retired assistant deputy justice minister who helped guide the decades-long, peaceful process to a made-in-Canada Constitution. “I think it is legitimate to call it a revolution,” he writes.
Strayer’s Revolution goes beyond a recitation of task forces and telephone calls. His first week in Ottawa in the winter of 1967 it was so cold the Eternal Flame went out: “I reflected briefly on whether this was a metaphor.” In summer the river log booms bobbed past Parliament and the “pungent, sulphurous odours from the pulp and paper mills” blanketed the Hill.
Then there were the people. Jean Chrétien was “quick minded” but bored by details, Strayer recalls. Ray Hnatyshyn joked “he had passed constitutional law only because he had borrowed my notes.”
Joey Smallwood was a name-dropper who “would mention what ‘Dick Nixon’ or ‘President Ceausescu’ of Romania had said to him.” Certain MPs liked to “treat officials as either stupid or malevolent.” W.A.C. Bennett threw terrible parties; he was a teetotaler who liked ginger ale. Pierre Trudeau, when complimented on his elegant office as justice minister in 1967, shrugged: “When a guy joins the Liberal Party he never knows where he’ll end up!”
All these people, every one of them fallible, set out to achieve what so few countries dream of: a calm, orderly transition from colonialism without violence or sectarian hatred. Strayer’s Revolution is so human and matter-of-fact he dispenses with the Charter proclamation ceremony in three paragraphs. The Queen showed up, it rained, that’s it.
Instead he chronicles a warmer story, like the experience of negotiating with First Nations. “We would make a suggestion and their team would sit across the table in silence. This I found unnerving. It instinctively made one think one said something outrageous and that it should be withdrawn.”
“Was it all worth it?” asked Strayer. It was.
By Holly Doan
Canada’s Constitutional Revolution by Barry Strayer; University of Alberta Press; 360 pages; ISBN 9780-8886-4649; $34.95