Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs yesterday by a 6-5 vote blocked a committee motion asking that cabinet disclose a secret blacklist of Nazi collaborators let into Canada after 1945. The majority on the Commons heritage committee expressed unease in identifying suspected war criminals: "This is an extremely delicate situation." READ MORE
Won’t Take Orders On CBC
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge yesterday refused to say if she will comply with a Commons committee order banning future CBC executive bonuses while the Crown broadcaster pleads financial hardship. CBC management cut 346 jobs on complaints of “chronic underfunding” while approving $14.9 million in bonuses: "There is a media crisis." READ MORE
Electric Subsidies A Hard Sell
Canadians in federal focus groups question the billions budgeted in subsidies for the electric auto industry. Cabinet proposes that by 2035 all new car buyers must purchase a zero emission vehicle: "A number expressed concerns." READ MORE
Ask Who Pays For Drug Plan
Cabinet yesterday appointed a five-member panel to find ways to pay for a universal pharmacare program. The final report is not expected until after the next general election: "There is lots to work out." READ MORE
Want All Subscribers To Pay
All Canadian cable and satellite TV subscribers should be obliged to pay for LGBTQ programming, the country's only gay-themed channel has told the CRTC. Out TV Network of Vancouver said it faced “continued marginalization and discrimination” with a 60 percent decline in subscribers. READ MORE
New ArriveCan Plan By 2026
Canadians driving across the U.S. border will be asked to pre-submit photos and license plate numbers to the Canada Border Services Agency beginning in 2026, says a federal report. The “traveller modernization” plan is separate from the Agency’s $59.5 million ArriveCan program that ended in failed audits and an RCMP investigation: "Officers will be given smartphones to access the digital referrals." READ MORE
Rely On An “Honour System”
Health Minister Mark Holland’s Public Health Agency has failed an internal audit on conflicts of interest. Auditors said management operated a feeble honour system that asked staff to disclose unethical contracting without any “clear reporting mechanism for employees to report other employees’ conflicts.” READ MORE
Guest Commentary
Imagine if the government removed all the children because we were Mormon, that Mormons were declared unfit parents, that parents left behind could not leave Stirling and were governed by petty regulations. Then imagine parents knew our children would be told everything they’d been taught was not only wrong but ridiculous, that our morals were evil, our faith childish, our family values absurd, our self-image distorted. Would you not feel an agonizing sense of failure? Would you not feel deep loneliness and loss of hope?