The United Nations is being used by countries that “don’t share our values,” says a Department of Foreign Affairs briefing note. It follows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's public praise for the UN while waging an unsuccessful 2020 campaign for a temporary seat on the Security Council: "Send the message that Canada is back."
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is no help to consumers, say members of the Senate banking committee. The protests follow Access To Information records showing the Agency did not answer a single one of 27,323 consumer complaints it received since 2019: "It was a disaster."
An air passengers’ visa program intended to keep dangerous foreigners out of Canada instead drove up refugee claims to record levels, Budget Office data show. The number of refugee claims by travelers who bought a $7 electronic visa is up 672 percent, said analysts: 'The average cost for each asylum claimant is $16,500.'
School boards nationwide should rewrite curricula to include education on seal hunting, says the Senate fisheries committee. Senators said lessons are needed to revive an industry that is “no longer economically viable.”
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “By the entrance, names of employees and their whereabouts. Andy went for a dental appointment; Shawn is in a conference; Barbara on vacation…”
Otto Boyko of Edmonton recalls the day he enlisted in the army during the Korean War, and went home to tell Mother he’d take basic training at Camp Petawawa, Ont. “Oh, that’s where your dad was held in the internment camp,” she said.
Another oldtimer, Andrew Antoniuk, remembered when his father bought his first car in 1937, he insisted on taking the family to see a clearing in the bush near Jasper, Alta. “He showed us the area where his eldest brother said he had worked clearing the forest in an internment camp,” said Antoniuk: “It didn’t mean that much, but now as I am reviewing the history, I see the place again and I think about it. Oh, my God.”
The Stories Were Not Told documents the First War internment of 8,579 people, most of them Ukrainians. Yes, detainees included women and children. Yes, men were shot trying to escape. Author Sandra Semchuk describes her work as an attempt at “gathering clues that have been emptied of meaning and forgotten.”
The Department of Finance yesterday said it had no choice but to raise the debt ceiling by a trillion dollars in three years. “The increase is a result of the borrowing,” Alexander Bonnyman, director of debt management, told the Commons finance committee.
The Canada Revenue Agency last year fired 177 employees for security breaches, records disclose. The Agency did not explain each firing though past dismissals involved unauthorized snooping through tax files: "All 177 were revocations of reliability status."
Nine independent publishers and commentators yesterday denounced federal newsroom subsidies. The first organized opposition to media bailouts was initiated by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa think tank: “Our media companies will not accept the per employee subsidies.”
Canadians should beware of federal censorship of social media for partisan gain, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill) yesterday told the House affairs committee. Her remarks followed testimony by two Liberal MPs who complained opponents were uniquely hurtful on Twitter: "You aren’t suggesting the Liberal Party hasn’t made statements that agitated people?"
A bill to unmask paid friends of China and other foreign agents will likely not be in place before the next election, the Commons public safety committee was told yesterday. MPs said the lack of such a law contributed to foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 campaigns: "We could be running into that very thing."
Treasury Board President Anita Anand yesterday issued a new directive reminding federal executives to read the Values And Ethics Code For The Public Sector. It follows Anand’s testimony she was unaware of ArriveCan irregularities while responsible for Government of Canada contracting: "They shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic every couple of months."
A federal judge has dismissed an attempt by two ArriveCan executives to quash an investigator’s report that alleged criminal wrongdoing. Antonio Utano and Cameron MacDonald were both suspended without pay January 11 but never charged with any crime: "I understand the applicants’ concern regarding their careers, reputations, dignity and livelihoods."
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday denied federal spending is out of control after she raised the debt ceiling to a record $2.13 trillion. “I love answering questions about fiscal responsibility,” Freeland told the Senate national finance committee.
Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard (N.S.), a Liberal appointee, yesterday said cabinet must apologize for what she called Canada’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. No Canadian Parliament ever legalized slavery. Most Black people arrived here after 1971, according to Statistics Canada: "It would be really good for Black Canadians to know why there is such resistance to issuing an apology."
