Home prices are unsustainable and have normalized a “massive increase in value” for retirees, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He made the remarks at a private seminar with Canada’s leading advocates of a home equity tax: 'It’s not like your grandparents saying, ‘Ah, bread used to cost me a nickel.'
The Department of Public Works in an internal document acknowledges it knew within months its $700 million pandemic ventilator program was a waste of money. The memo contradicts testimony by then-Public Works Minister Anita Anand that cash was paid to favoured contractors "prior to the information coming forward."
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board put more than $600 million in China’s electric vehicle sector accused by cabinet of unfair trade practices. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland blamed Chinese industry for job-killing schemes, telling Canadian workers: “We are going to protect you.”
The Department of Immigration is granting itself new powers to name and shame colleges and universities that abuse the foreign student program. Administrators caught in “unethical behaviour” face year-long suspensions and public blacklisting: "That is totally unacceptable."
Conflict Of Interest Act investigations at a federal agency dubbed the “green slush fund” will be made public by month’s end, says the Office of the Ethics Commissioner. It follows complaints against Liberal-appointed directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada: "The Office is still working towards the August 1 deadline."
Blacklock's pauses for the 157th anniversary of Confederation to wish all friends and subscribers a happy Canada Day. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Went downtown this Canada Day to join the celebration. A girl wrapped in red-and-white sold three flags for two dollars, five for three. She wanted my money…”
On October 6, 1920 the city of Ottawa prepared for a riot. The mayor dispatched police to ring St. Patrick’s Hall. Inside, 700 Canadian Catholics, Sinn Féiners and sympathizers rallied for Irish nationalism. Eamon de Valera, a founder of the Irish republic, sent a note to delegates: “No enlightened Canadian will be able to stand by and see an unoffending people massacred.” Outside 3,000 Protestants from nearby Carleton County threatened to descend on the hall and crack heads.
Historian Robert McLaughlin captures the moment in Irish Canadian Conflict, a vivid account of a story now strangely erased from the Canadian experience, the clash of Canadian Protestants and Catholics on the Irish question.
Ancient hatreds from the old country were layered over all the raw nerves that jangled in the new homeland: English versus French, monarchist versus republican, wealthy versus poor. Irish independence was among the great political upheavals of the 1920s and there were more than a million Irish in Canada. When an Irish nationalist, Terrence MacSwiney, starved himself to death in a British jail in 1920, sympathy marches were held in Halifax, Montreal and Québec City.
Canadians are “done with Trudeau,” New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday. But Singh said he will stick to terms of a Supply And Confidence Agreement that would keep the Prime Minister in office until June 30, 2025: "We are not trying to plan for an election."
Lawyers and schoolteachers are petitioning Parliament to reject private bills to ban spanking in correcting children’s behaviour. Two separate bills in the Commons and Senate would repeal a corporal punishment provision of the Criminal Code dating from 1892: "It is impossible to imagine how a parent could successfully foster their child’s development without ever applying reasonable and minimal force."
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is still “exploring options” to enforce a ban on thermal coal exports he announced three years ago, says a federal memo. Thermal coal exports went up after the announcement: "This makes Canada the first country in the world to make this commitment to address climate change."
Parliament must allow professional sports to self-regulate gambling promotions, says CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie. The Canadian Football League in a letter to senators said federal controls were unnecessary: "We do not agree."
Building only low cost rentals is not the best way to restore housing affordability, CMHC said yesterday. The federal mortgage insurer in a report said mixed construction including expensive rentals was more effective in lowering costs overall: "I don’t want to be building cheap homes in a bad part of town."
The Canadian Human Rights Commission yesterday did not comment on Chief Commissioner Birju Dattani’s past advocacy for Muslim prayer in schools. Dattani as a Muslim Students' Association activist endorsed Qur'an readings at the University of Calgary campus and a local high school: "It seems clear to us he can no longer carry out his mandate."
Independent MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) has stepped down as co-chair of a Canada-China Legislative Association, records show. Dong as co-chair admitted to at least a dozen phone calls with Chinese Communist Party diplomats under security surveillance: "These conversations were recognized methods of diplomatic communications."
