The federal cabinet yesterday approved $103.7 million in subsidies for homeowners who switch from natural gas furnaces to electric heat pumps, but only in British Columbia. The province’s NDP government faces a general election October 19: "Thanks to the work of the British Columbia NDP."
United Nations investigators yesterday began a tour of Canadian jails to investigate complaints of arbitrary detention. It follows a cabinet proposal to use federal prisons to temporarily house deportees suspected of criminality: "The experts will gather information from places where people are deprived of their liberty."
A Senate committee has landed in the midst of a threatened lawsuit after it distributed links to a video alleging sadistic abuse of animals at a Canadian theme park. The Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee released the video as part of its study of a bill to restrict breeding of elephants in captivity: "We are currently seeking legal counsel."
Access To Information records uncovered by Conservative MP Arnold Viersen (Peace River-Westlock, Alta.) show cabinet waited until after it invoked emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy to seek advice from Crown prosecutors. MPs for years have sought proof of cabinet’s claim it was told by lawyers beforehand that the action was lawful: "We will never know because Justin Trudeau censored it."
New Democrats petitioned the Prime Minister for a Royal Commission into “the rise in the deep distrust some Canadians have of our media,” Access To Information records show. Catherine McKenney, a Party organizer and then City Councillor, privately complained after the Freedom Convoy that some Canadians no longer believed the news: "What is the reason?"
The lone New Democrat on the Commons public accounts committee complains MPs are having too many meetings investigating the $59.5 million ArriveCan program. “I am getting more concerned about the cost to taxpayers that these surprise meetings are having,” said MP Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach): "Stop spending on a bunch of meetings. We have all these meetings."
The Senate two years after it legalized bookmaking will reopen committee hearings on the harms of online gambling. “It is clear where this is going,” said one proponent of repeal of an 1892 ban on single event sports betting: "We can still correct our course."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Slowing down for a red light in a city intersection. Cars in front of me. The sign on my left says, ‘Panhandling Not Permitted’…”
All religions have customs scorned by tactless unbelievers, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are no exception. The fact the earth orbits the sun and oceans still flow may be disappointing to Witnesses who’d predicted our world would end 24 years ago.
Few produce their own eloquent critics, which brings us to Marvin James Penton, a Witness and professor emeritus of history at the University of Lethbridge. Penton’s Apocalypse Delayed, a crisp examination of the church, has been in print for decades.
“When the first edition came out,” Penton writes, “Jehovah’s Witnesses still believed that by the year 2000 the apocalypse would have destroyed the present world system and that they, the survivors of the battle of Armageddon, would be dwelling in a revitalized paradise earth under the millennial rule of Christ Jesus. Of course that did not happen.”
Apocalypse remains a compelling account of the faith, meticulously researched. If church leaders have “failed dismally” in their prophecies of impending doom and salvation, believers have also suffered persecution and ridicule. Jehovah’s Witnesses remain one of the few groups outlawed by Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany and liberal Canada all at the same time.
John Ossowski, former $273,000-a year executive responsible for the ArriveCan program, yesterday was summoned for questioning by MPs after he declined to appear voluntarily. Members of the Commons public accounts committee vowed to follow all leads in uncovering sweetheart contracting for the $59.5 million app: "These are unruly witnesses."
Housing Minister Sean Fraser yesterday said he will “be the person who actually goes and does” fix the national housing crisis. Testifying at the Commons human resources committee, Fraser complained his predecessors did not do enough to restore affordability: "I am going to be the person."
Certain politicians have “made it more dangerous to be a Jew in this country,” Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.) yesterday told the Commons justice committee. Lantsman identified no MP by name but pointed to a photograph of one cabinet minister holding hands with a Holocaust denier: "Do not be fooled."
A New Democrat MP yesterday said nobody wants to visit his hometown’s central district due to opioid use and homelessness. “It is as bad or worse” in other cities, said MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.): "Nobody wants to go into the downtown anymore."
A GST holiday for apartment builders will cost taxpayers at least a billion more than cabinet claimed, the Budget Office said yesterday. The $5.8 billion cost, the highest estimate to date, compares to a Department of Finance figure of $4.5 billion: "There is a large amount of uncertainty."
The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations yesterday confirmed it spent millions to uncover the “heartbreaking truth” of unmarked Indian Residential School graves in Kamloops, B.C. No remains have been recovered to date and no accounting of what became of the $7.9 million has been disclosed: "The community had received $7.9 million for field work."
