Tories call for answers on WE contract after reports Trudeau’s family was paid speaking fees
The Conservative Party is calling for Parliament to be “immediately” recalled and for all documents related to a now-cancelled federal contact with the charity be made public, following news that two of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relatives have collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from the WE organization.
Alberta politicians swap charges of bullying, misogyny after member ejected
Alberta’s Opposition NDP tried and failed Thursday to censure the deputy speaker for evicting one of their members from the house in a day that saw both sides accuse each other of belittling and marginalizing women in politics. The governing United Conservatives voted down an NDP motion to discuss whether deputy Speaker Nicholas Milliken should […]
Airlines and aerospace firms call for aid package to help them recover from pandemic
Organizations representing a large portion of Canada’s aerospace manufacturing and service industry are calling on the federal government to implement a strategy that would include a financial aid package to help the sector recover from the pandemic. Aerospace manufacturers and airlines have watched their revenue streams crater due to pandemic-driven restrictions on travel. Many have […]
It is the photograph Ariana Botha didn’t take of her older brother, Michael Kovrig, that bothers her now as she looks through family pictures. Here is Kovrig as a child, cross-legged with a book — he always had a book — in the backyard of their childhood home in Toronto’s west end. There is he, […]
Read MoreAs Canada’s closest intelligence allies move to bar Huawei from their 5G networks due to national security risks, the odds of Canada doing the same are sharply rising, former Canadian officials say. On June 30, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally designated Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE “national security threats.” The “weight of […]
Read MoreIn our last national survey, we asked Canadians to what extent the pandemic has impacted different aspects of their lives. Here’s what we found: Almost as many Canadians report the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health as those who say it has had a negative impact on their financial well-being. 40% […]
Read MoreTikTok, a video-sharing app that has been downloaded two billion times worldwide, has come under fire over privacy concerns that it may share data with the Chinese government. The company has consistently denied these allegations — but not everyone is convinced.
Read MoreThe federal balance sheet is a mathematical exercise that has real fiscal and economic implications. But outside of a debt crisis, the greatest value of a surplus or deficit estimate may be as a political idea. In that respect, the most interesting thing about the $343 billion deficit that Finance Minister Bill Morneau projected on […]
Read MoreJobs meant to start this week on hold as government tries to reorganize grant program. Students slated to start volunteering this week in order to receive the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) have seen their placements grind to halt as the government tries to sort out the troubled program, CBC News has learned. WE Charity […]
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After each ethics violation, Justin Trudeau says he learned his lesson. Then there’s another such incident
Sometime in the next few days, Justin Trudeau will promise to consult the ethics commissioner about any future plans to let charities hand out government money. This is not a leak of the prime minister’s intentions; it is a prediction, based on how he has handled ethics transgressions of the past. The newest one is […]
As Trudeau faces fire over WE, Andrew Scheer’s antics aren’t helping
The savage self-inflicted blows just keep coming for Justin Trudeau and his gang: On Thursday, the digital media outlet Canadaland and the CBC blew apart the story that the Trudeau family’s involvement with Craig and Marc Kielburger’s WE empire had been entirely voluntary, save for reimbursed travel expenses. Turns out Mother Margaret had collected $312,000 […]
We are heading for a ‘Trudeau III’ ethics report
The Ethics Commissioner’s second report on conflict of interest violations by the prime minister in the SNC-Lavalin scandal was titled: “Trudeau II,” so it is fair to assume that his investigation into alleged improprieties over the awarding of a $900 million contract to the WE charity will be labelled “Trudeau III.” One has to admire […]
The Nova Scotia murders: End the farce. Call the inquiry.
Look, I know it’s hard to concentrate on government business with all the Trudeau family conflict-of-interest self-immolation going on, but let’s give it a try. “There is obviously an ongoing RCMP investigation into what actually happened in terms of the shooting,” Justin Trudeau said on June 25, the last time someone—Maclean’s reporter Nick Taylor-Vaisey—asked him […]
Independent candidates must battle fierce headwinds
Local campaigns are understudied in Canada compared with national politics. In particular, we know relatively little about the unique challenges faced by independent candidates — those not endorsed by a registered or eligible political party. In 2019, Jane Philpott (a co-author of this article) was one such candidate. A cabinet minister in the Liberal government, […]
Canada’s Debt: $1 trillion is no cause for panic
The fiscal response to the pandemic is massive but we should remain calm. The federal debt burden is manageable and we have more important things to worry about. The federal government released its Economic and Fiscal Snapshot on July 8. It outlines the price tag up to now and describes how costs will evolve over […]
Federal deficit hits $343.2 billion, but Bill Morneau says it prevented a full-blown economic collapse
The federal government is placing its bets on a beefed-up wage subsidy to take the Canadian economy out of crisis and set it on a steadier footing — even though the program is likely to add $82 billion to the already-giant deficit. Finance Minister Bill Morneau has just released his first full accounting of the […]
What’s wrong with this snapshot?
It was heartening to see a finance minister provide clarity, imagination and hope amid the COVID chaos. He ruled out further extensions to wage subsidies beyond October but made it cheaper for people to buy homes; reduced consumption taxes for food and accommodation; offered restaurant discounts for people who “eat out to help out,” and […]
A Fiscal Snapshot for Unprecedented Times
Government programs and events are famously known by space-saving acronyms such as CERB for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit payments to more than 8 million Canadians, or CEBA for Canadian Emergency Business Account loans to small businesses. Or, more permanently, EI for employment insurance. There’s no abbreviation for a fiscal update — certainly not FU, […]
Trudeau didn’t learn his lesson about conflict of interest
Having admitted he participated in the decision of his cabinet to award a sole-sourced government contract to the WE Charity to which he has close family ties, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suddenly has a big problem with the Conflict of Interest Act. It will be up to Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion to decide if Trudeau […]
Now is the time for bold ideas and initiatives to recover our national and world economies, but that should not mean government picking business winners. Appropriate temporary public measures to help those in most need, such as providing short term relief and opportunities to people who lost everything during the lockdown period are very important, […]
Read MoreThe WE Charity fiasco is a quintessential Trudeau-Liberal mess, involving the same mingling of personal relationships and government contracts as the Aga Khan’s Island fiasco. The only major difference is that, unlike the Trudeaus’ Bahamian vacation, WE Charity’s $19.5-million contract to administer more than $900 million in summer jobs programming has been withdrawn by mutual […]
Read MoreThis week, a letter signed by 150 leading writers and academics was published in Harper’s magazine. Signatories included authors J.K. Rowling and Margaret Atwood, and various other influential figures. While welcoming the current discussion about racial injustice, it condemned “restriction of debate” and “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism.” It was, in effect, about […]
Read MoreInspired by the bravery of the now-infamous Toronto woman who refused to wear a mask in hospital while seeking treatment for a suspected broken finger (You slay queen! But, uh, figuratively, of course) I would like to bring attention to another inconvenience that has similarly sacrificed individual freedoms at the altar of “public good.” I […]
Read MorePeople keep asking Justin Trudeau to do ethically dubious things. Whether it’s requesting he attend private fundraising dinners with Chinese billionaires, or inviting him to vacation on their private Caribbean islands at the same time as they are seeking money from his government, or seeking his help in avoiding prosecution for bribing foreign dictatorships, people […]
Read MoreChina has exploited the fragility created by COVID to accelerate its political annexation in the South China Sea and Hong Kong. Opposition to its belligerence has been met with disdain. After Canada suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, in the wake of China’s radical new security law, the Chinese threatened retaliation. “All consequences shall […]
Read MoreFinance Minister Bill Morneau will be walking a fine line as he presents his first full reckoning of pandemic spending and deficits on Wednesday, trying to convey multiple messages to multiple audiences with limited information. He will need to indicate that the government still cares for those hardest hit by the pandemic while showing that […]
Read MoreThe first six months of this new decade have forced us to reconsider nearly everything: how we work, how we connect with each other and, with increasing urgency, the purposes, functions and futures of the structures and institutions at the core of our social and economic systems. The COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread reckoning with […]
Read MoreIn Shelburne, N.S., water wells are contaminated by an old dumpsite and the Black community suffers from high cancer rates. Sarnia, Ont., known as “Chemical Valley” — Canada’s largest concentration of petrochemical industries — grapples with associated water and air pollution putting the health of the Aamjiwnaang and Walpole Island First Nations at risk. From […]
Read MoreIn this Trump-saturated time, one of the most underreported U.S. stories is that of the growing influence of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, an accelerating trend that is fundamentally re-shaping politics south of the border. Though Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez get a lot of attention, their relatively recent success is part of […]
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‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera missing after possible drowning in California lake
Actress and singer Naya Rivera, best known for her role on the television series Glee, is missing after possibly drowning in a California lake, police said late Wednesday.
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