Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday appealed to MPs to stop questioning cabinet’s credibility on debt management. Freeland promised to update budget figures next Monday, a day before Parliament is scheduled to adjourn for a five-week Christmas recess: “It is very important not to cast any doubt on Canada’s financial credibility.”
A GST holiday will cost 80 percent more than claimed by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, the Budget Office said yesterday. Analysts said Freeland failed to account for mandatory compensation owed provinces that harmonized their own sales tax collections with the GST: “Would you agree with that number?”
MPs yesterday by a 180 to 152 vote rejected a non-confidence motion that quoted New Democrat Jagmeet Singh as calling cabinet weak and selfish. Singh himself voted against it: “What has this administration promised the NDP to get them to vote against their leader’s own words?”
The Green Party yesterday blamed inexperienced staff for illegal campaign spending by MP Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, Ont.). The Party won the riding in 2021 after overspending by thousands of dollars, said the Elections Commissioner: “Our first-time official agent made a few small mistakes.”
Deputy Finance Minister Chris Forbes yesterday refused to say who at his department agreed to hire a Brazilian contractor to mismanage a pandemic relief program. Auditors found widespread irregularities including padded timesheets and rates charged at up to $750 per hour: “They really did fail.”
Foreign interference by China is “mostly aimed at improving bilateral relations,” says a Liberal Senate appointee. Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) in a sworn affidavit said he personally overheard a Chinese diplomat advise a Canadian audience on how to vote, but considered it harmless: “While such actions may offend Canadian sensibilities because of antipathy towards China they do not amount to foreign interference.”
Liberal MP Chandra Arya (Nepean) in an extraordinary protest said a member of his own caucus “threatened that I would be f—d up” over a vote he cast in the House. Arya named the MP: “I should be able to express my opinion.”
A retired federal IT consultant has lost a bid for thousands in damages after spotting a “caution wet floor” sign in a government building. English-only warnings cause him “loss of enjoyment of life,” Michel Thibodeau of Ottawa wrote the Federal Court: “My identity as a francophone was threatened and I felt like a second-class citizen.”
Canada should adopt a code of practice on media disinformation, says a Commons ethics committee report. Liberal MP Iqra Khalid (Mississauga-Erin Mills, Ont.), a committee member, called it among “the biggest issues of our time.”
Vancouver’s port and international airport should be on a critical list of federally regulated public works most susceptible to climate change, says a Senate committee report. Senators noted 2021 rainstorms forced a halt to cargo traffic at the Port of Vancouver, largest in the nation: “It is projected the sea level will rise more than one metre.”
Mount Robson broods,
As the fog gains the hand,
And the shadows lay gently,
Upon the passengers.
Discounting the value,
Of familiarity and grappling,
With the deeds and works of the past,
A nation is remade.
The clink of glasses.
Cutlery chimes, soft voices,
Discuss the ghosts of Leicester,
As Saskatchewan rolls by.
Expedients applied.
Solemn and sacred oaths forgotten,
And thousand years of please and thank you’s,
Are undone in a fortnight.
By W.N. Branson 
One path to happiness is figuring out how the world works. Some Canadians are irritated that Catholics have their own school boards and Jonquiere road signs are in French. There is deep-rooted justification for this, upheld by the Supreme Court many, many times. Mention the fact and you’ll draw a last cry of exasperation – “Well I still don’t like it!” – and the first glimmer of awareness that for everything there is a reason.
So authors Greg Poelzer and Ken Coates of the University of Saskatchewan observe that First Nations have rights rooted in law, and the sooner Canadians recognize the fact the better off we will be. From Treaty Peoples To Treaty Nation is a careful, concise account of the “Indian problem” written primarily for non-Indigenous readers. Anybody is better for reading it.
Treaty Peoples is not a recitation of grievances. It seeks the light. “First Nations and Métis people in this country are facing serious, systematic and some would say intractable problems,” authors write. “Canadians hear about them often. But something vitally important is missing: there are profound reasons for optimism.”
The Territory of Nunavut was the world’s largest Indigenous land claim. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is the world’s first broadcaster of its kind. Indigenous art is prized. Forty-eight percent of Indigenous people have post-secondary education.
And yet, when the authors wrote a 2012 Globe & Mail commentary detailing obvious problems with Canada’s treatment of First Nations and Métis “we were taken aback by the vitriolic comments posted online,” write Poelzer and Coates. “Get a job”, wrote Globe readers; “Stop whining”; “Clean up your act, then we’ll talk”; “If I was allowed to live tax-free…yeah, I would feel disadvantaged, uh-huh.”
Treaty Peoples explains how our world works. Indigenous rights are constitutional. The Supreme Court says so. “The learned justices are not making this stuff up!” authors explain.
Secondly, these rights have been breached by successive malicious and misguided governments. Indigenous people as late as 1959 could not vote. In 1927 they were banned from hiring their own lawyers to challenge the Crown. Treaty Peoples condenses the entire history of the Department of Indian Affairs into a single, eloquent paragraph.
“They were segregated from the rest of the Canadian population,” authors write. “This was not intended to be a permanent state of affairs, but rather a holding position until the educational and spiritual efforts of the state and its Christian partners could take full effect. Crucially, the Department of Indian Affairs was not an important government department. It attracted little national attention, save for occasional criticism for spending too much money.”
Treaty Peoples advocates self-government, a workable mechanism for quickly resolving land claims, student exchanges and “a thousand acts of good will,” “spontaneous, individual, creative, heartfelt.”
At the root of 200 years of conflict is an arresting fact. Indigenous people were not supposed to be here. “One of the strongest assumptions governing Aboriginal affairs in Canada and the United States and Australia was that Indigenous people would disappear,” authors write. “The logic seemed unassailable.”
Against all odds, they survived. Statistics Canada calculates within a generation they will number as many as 2.6 million people and comprise more than a fifth of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
They are here, they have rights, they are Canadians. Treaty Peoples is an honest attempt to explain the facts and perhaps point a way to happiness.
By Holly Doan
From Treaty Peoples To Treaty Nation, by Greg Poelzer and Ken S. Coates; University of British Columbia Press; 366 pages; ISBN 9780-7748-3087; $34.95
Attorney General Arif Virani’s department last night said it will not prosecute reporters who disclose federal secrets. The Department of Justice dismissed an internal memo that detailed circumstances in which reporters could face charges for publishing government documents without permission: ‘All hypothetical.’
Cabinet’s GST holiday will save the typical Canadian $4.51, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. Senators endorsed the measure while commenting it appeared pointless: “I think we all understand it is a political measure.”
Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre) yesterday said it is “deeply harmful” when white people claim Indigenous ancestry. Boissonnault told the Commons Indigenous committee he is not Indigenous though he once called himself Strong Eagle Man: “How can anyone believe anything you say?”
