China inquiry documents confirm accounts by ex-Conservative MP Kenny Chiu (Steveston-Richmond East, B.C.) that he was likely targeted by Communist Party agents in the 2021 campaign. Liberal MPs had ridiculed Chiu’s story as a “Trump-like tactic to question election results.”
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc in testimony at the China Inquiry would not commit to full disclosure of illegal conduct by foreign agents. “We are not going to publicly confirm the veracity of what appeared in some media articles,” said LeBlanc.
A federal homeless relief program paid millions to consultants, documents show. Overall spending on consultants jumped 13 percent last year despite cabinet's promise to cut spending on consultants: "This is not about doing more with less."
The Department of Immigration issued study permits to 982,880 foreign students last year, new records show. The department for the first time listed Canadian universities and colleges with the highest number of foreign students ahead of looming cuts to permits: "There are clearly some institutions that shouldn’t exist."
MPs are demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau detail a financial crime-busting program he promised three years ago. Creation of the Canada Financial Crimes Agency was first proposed in the Liberals’ 2021 re-election platform: 'It is Canada’s first ever nationwide Agency to investigate these highly complex crimes.'
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “The Canadian Space Agency presents pictures from above in celebration of Canada Day. I look closely. They resemble views of Earth offered for free by satellite-imaging services…”
In spring 1999 a paramilitary group called the Scorpions descended on Podujevo, Kosovo, a mid-sized city the size of Medicine Hat. Albanians were rounded up. It was a cold morning and one small boy named Shpetim, age 9, jammed his hands in his pockets to keep warm. The gesture seemed to irritate the gunmen.
They ordered Shpetim to empty his pockets and out tumbled the boy’s collection of marbles – plunk, plunk, plunk. The boy’s mother, unsure of what to do, bent down and tried to gather them up as they scattered, writes Eliott Behar. Later they shot Shpetim in the head.
Behar is a former Ontario Crown prosecutor who recounts his two years’ work as a war crimes attorney at The Hague. Behar was raised in Toronto, the son of an architect. His family numbered Holocaust survivors. He is a skillful writer with a police reporter’s eye for detail.
Health Minister Mark Holland approved a multi-million dollar “wellness” program for department employees stressed by their job. Holland disclosed the in-house health care expenditure in a report to Parliament: "Topics covered during sessions include how to prevent burnout."
The $8 million cost of a solar-powered warehouse at Rideau Hall included nearly a half million in architects’ fees, according to documents. The Commons public accounts committee has ordered an audit: "It looks like a 1960s garage."
The Bank of Canada “may still need to raise rates,” Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday told the Commons finance committee. The Bank’s next rate announcement is March 6: "When can we cut them?"
Canada likely permitted “significant numbers” of Nazi collaborators and war criminals to enter the country after 1945, says a newly-declassified report. Cabinet still refuses to release a secret blacklist of named fugitives: "There can be little doubt that war criminals could have and are likely to have come to Canada in significant numbers."
A 33 percent increase in mandatory security fees will cost air passengers millions more than originally estimated, says an Access To Information memo. The finance department claims the Air Travelers Security Charge merely recovers costs though data show it generates a profit for the federal treasury: "I wish I could say these increases in fees would lead to better service."
Then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains named a Liberal Party donor to a federal post knowing the appointee was in a conflict of interest, the Commons industry committee was told last night. One witness testified Bains’ office was repeatedly warned the appointment was improper and may have breached an Act of Parliament: 'The Minister was personally aware of serious problems but did it anyway?'
The Canada Border Services Agency has misled and “even lied” to Parliament over sweetheart contracting for the ArriveCan program, Conservative MP Kelly Block (Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek, Sask.) last night told the Commons government operations committee. Witnesses testified contracting was so irregular the $54 million program cost much more than it should have: "We have I think been misled and perhaps even lied to."
Canada has more than tripled coal exports since claiming to ban coal exports under its climate plan, new records show. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault had threatened to use criminal sanctions against provinces that continue running coal-fired power plants: "Canada is driving the international phase-out of emissions from coal power."
