Filipinos have the lowest poverty rates in the country and Arab Canadians and First Nations the highest, says a Department of Social Development briefing note. Managers calculated poverty rates by race following criticism by an Alberta think tank that depictions of the poor were misleading: "We recognize poverty does not affect everyone equally."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “The Heart and Stroke Foundation is holding its annual lottery. Among the prizes…”
Peter Vronsky made his reputation writing about the psychology of homicidal sociopaths. Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters (2004 Berkley) and Female Serial Killers: How And Why Women Become Monsters (2007 Berkley) were well-received by the gore-loving community and set Vronsky on track to becoming a successful crime writer.
Instead Vronsky enrolled in the University of Toronto’s history department as a PhD candidate. His research focused on the Battle of Ridgeway, the culmination of the 1866 Fenian invasion of Canada.
Vronsky had chosen fertile ground. The battle, the last fought in the Great Lakes basin, was almost forgotten, rating a line or two in Canadian history texts. The battlefield itself was poorly marked, though undisturbed. Yet Ridgeway was an important spur to the Confederation movement.
A federal contractor suspended in fallout from the ArriveCan scandal is suing the Government of Canada for $64 million in damages, Federal Court records show. Coradix Technology Consulting Inc. blamed federal managers and media for costing it millions in fees: 'It was done to deflect or distract from negative publicity.'
Poor federal management is to blame for the hiring of costly consultants, says a Department of Public Works report. The finding follows evidence that a typical government employee now answers to seven levels of management: "Yes, there is room to reduce some levels of executives."
Any future Conservative cabinet will run “a small, competent government,” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday told the Assembly of First Nations. His remarks followed a doubling of spending on Indigenous affairs with no proportional improvement in services, according to the Budget Office: "What does the bureaucracy in Ottawa have to teach you about good management?"
Canadian military members feel disheartened and abandoned, says in-house research by the Privy Council Office. All military surveyed said cabinet was “on the wrong track" in national defence: 'This impacted morale including the sense of pride they once felt.'
University teachers seek an exemption from a new federal law that unmasks friends of foreign agents, claiming a "chilling effect." The appeal follows evidence documenting the reach of Chinese agents on campus: "This recruitment strategy is called ‘feed, trap and kill.'"
Millions’ worth of ventilators bought from a Québec contractor endorsed by then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains were junked as scrap metal, Access To Information records disclose. Fully 99 percent of ventilators delivered under a $282.5 million contract with CAE Inc. went to scrap: "I am glad we were able to support CAE."
The Senate’s leading opponent of fossil fuels in the past year jetted more than 100,000 kilometres to climate conferences from Casablanca to Mumbai, new records show. Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.), a Liberal appointee, called climate change “the greatest challenge of our time.”
Cabinet yesterday would not say how many taxpayer dollars it awarded to subsidize two weekends’ worth of stand-up comedy in Montréal. The undisclosed funding was marked “economic development.”
The Department of Industry in a briefing note says it is monitoring a newly-registered non-profit group that organized anti-Israel street protests. “The government is following this file closely,” said the note: "Complaints regarding illegal activities are referred to the RCMP."
Cabinet yesterday said it’s starting over on equipping a new submarine fleet after spending $3 billion on second-hand vessels that spent more time undergoing repairs than at sea. No budget was detailed: "It should have been evident."
The Commons ethics committee will meet in special session to question Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault’s business partners over the identity of a mysterious executive named "Randy." It follows company texts involving “Randy” that Boissonnault insisted must be someone else: "I do not know who the other Randy was."
Defence Minister Bill Blair inflated numbers on military spending, says a Budget Office report. It follows Department of National Defence in-house polling that found half of Canadians believe the military is underfunded: "Do you feel Canada’s military is underfunded, overfunded or receives about the right amount?"
