CBC’s Ombudsman yesterday dismissed viewer complaints of bias over a TV show on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Mormon viewers called it a “hit piece."
Housing Minister Sean Fraser has launched national fundraising but yesterday would not comment on whether he is campaigning to lead the Liberal Party. “Hopeful about the future!” wrote one Fraser fundraiser: "While many are counting the federal Liberals as being dead on arrival in the next election I think the outcome of this is far from clear."
The Department of Public Works has “sufficient suspicion” of wrongdoing in ArriveCan contracting, a manager testified yesterday. Assistant Deputy Minister Catherine Poulin made the admission under questioning at the Commons public accounts committee: "People would be fired for this."
Federal contracting is “lacklustre and faulty,” the Liberal parliamentary secretary for revenue said yesterday. MP Iqra Khalid (Mississauga-Erin Mills, Ont.) said all taxpayers suffered under mismanagement of the $59.5 million ArriveCan program: "We did not take care of taxpayer dollars."
The Commons transport committee yesterday by unanimous 11-0 vote summoned Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault for questioning over his remarks that Canada doesn’t need more roads. Conservative MP Mark Strahl (Chilliwack-Hope, B.C.), sponsor of the motion, called it “a radical policy.”
A labour board has dismissed a complaint against the largest federal employees’ union that it failed to speak up for Jewish members amid ongoing war protests. “Internal affairs” of the Public Service Alliance of Canada were not the board's business, wrote an adjudicator: "Public statements have nothing to do with the Act."
Liberal MPs yesterday blocked committee subpoenas forcing ArriveCan contractors to testify under threat of arrest. “This is putting us all in a rather precarious position,” said MP Charles Sousa (Mississauga-Lakeshore, Ont.), parliamentary secretary for the Department of Public Works that okayed $59.5 million in ArriveCan contracts: "It is important I think that we take a pause."
It is impossible to know whether federal managers destroyed ArriveCan evidence sought by investigators, Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. Hogan and others cited a suspicious lack of records regarding the $59.5 million program that went overbudget on sweetheart contracting: "When documentation doesn’t exist it is either they never existed or they were destroyed."
As many as a fifth of Canadians face “energy poverty” due to high costs, says the Canadian Journal of Public Health. “Depending on the measure, six to 19 percent of Canadian households face energy poverty,” said a peer-reviewed study led by a McGill professor: "In Canada home heating during the winter months is a matter of life and death."
Cabinet is shelving a long-threatened bill to regulate truth and disinformation on the internet. Canadians consider the measure unconstitutional, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc wrote in a letter to MPs: "Policies that restrict or otherwise limit speech based on the veracity of information would undermine freedom of expression."
New figures show federally-subsidized transit operators have yet to regain pre-pandemic ridership. Statistics Canada yesterday confirmed fare revenues nationwide remain below 2019 levels despite historic population growth: "The pandemic’s impact on urban transit was profound."
Two former ArriveCan executives are attempting to quash a "scandalous" investigator’s report alleging criminal wrongdoing, according to Federal Court records. Cameron MacDonald and Antonio Utano, both ex-Canada Border Services Agency managers, were suspended without pay: 'Untested accusations are of such magnitude any reader could only be left to draw the conclusion of potential criminal activity.'
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland by cabinet order has granted herself authority to increase federal borrowing this fiscal year to a record $517 billion. The figure is $73 billion higher than estimated for the year ending March 31: "You’re simply saying, ‘Give me a blank cheque and then trust me.'"
MPs meeting behind closed doors have voted to cross-examine Liberal MP Anthony Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming, Ont.) over his “Canadian hero” tribute to a Nazi collaborator. Rota last September 26 became the first Commons Speaker in 66 years to resign under threat of censure: "It may not be good enough for some of you."
A national daycare program to date has created only a fraction of 276,000 spaces promised under a $30 billion subsidy, says a Department of Social Development briefing note. The department acknowledged the daycare system is short thousands of workers who left for higher paying jobs: "My office is getting calls from parents saying there are no spaces available."
