Evidence at the China inquiry yesterday depicted Defence Minister Bill Blair, 70, as distracted and ineffectual. Witnesses testified Blair liked to work from home and had employees explain what security memos meant rather than reading the documents himself: “We were aware when drivers went to his house.”
Legislators targeted by Chinese Communist Party agents should have been warned in person, the Department of Public Safety said yesterday. Canadian MPs were among 400 parliamentarians worldwide who were targeted by Chinese hackers in 2021: “Is the current system adequate? No.”
Canadian employers have become addicted to migrant labour, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Senate last evening. Miller in November is expected to table a new Immigration Levels Plan that cuts the number of temporary foreign workers let into the country: “All of them ask for more and more.”
A make-or-break Bloc Québécois bill to raise Old Age Security would cost almost $20 billion over six years, the highest estimate to date, says a federal Briefing Binder. Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet has warned the bill must pass into law by Halloween or his caucus will “bring down the government.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said cabinet would like to adopt an Irish-style three percent annual federal tax on vacant lots. The Department of Finance opened consultations on the proposal: “Ireland has an example of a measure like this.”
British Columbia Premier David Eby asked the Prime Minister’s Office for security checks on provincial candidates including members of his own New Democratic Party, records show. An internal memo yesterday disclosed at the Commission on Foreign Interference said Eby worried about “covert ties to foreign states or significant organized crime links.”
Opposition MPs yesterday sought a committee inquiry into a videotaped incident in which an armed constable denied Parliament Hill access to a passerby because “he is not a supporter of Palestine.” It occurred during protests over Hamas’ October 7, 2023 kidnapping and killing of Jews in Israel including eight Canadians: “What has become of this country?”
Postal inspectors last year seized millions’ worth of contraband in the mail. Canada Post detailed enforcement activities in a report to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee: “Letter mail can easily conceal unadulterated fentanyl.”
Few Canadians know of cabinet’s pharmacare bill though cabinet has promoted it as groundbreaking, says in-house Privy Council Office polling. Health Minister Mark Holland said he expects the Senate to pass Bill C-64 by Thursday: ‘None were aware of a pharmacare program.’
A 400 percent passenger subsidy at one of Canada’s few Indigenous-run railways is still cheaper than flying, says a federal audit. The Québec line could not run without taxpayers’ aid and will require more subsidies in the future, wrote auditors: ‘Funding is essential.’
Cabinet proposed renaming inflation as “heat-flation” to persuade Canadians to associate the rising cost of living with climate change, documents show. The idea polled badly: ‘Asked whether they had heard these terms before, none had.’
The Chinese Communist Party “enjoyed” a positive relationship with Ottawa until recently, Canada’s deputy foreign minister testified at the China inquiry. David Morrison explained the Party now feels misunderstood: “They are trying.”
Media subsidies buy “social cohesion,” says a report by Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge’s department. The report defended 100 percent payroll rebates under a program the Canadian Association of Journalists praised for saving unemployable reporters from working in hardware stores: “We are hurting emotionally.”
Parliament should not regulate advertising for sports betting, says the NHL. The League in a Senate petition made no mention of its partnership with legal bookies: “We’re simply adapting to the evolving legal landscape.”
Balloting is down in federal prisons, new data show. Elections Canada had no explanation for inmates’ declining interest in government: “It’s still no fun to be in jail.”
