Feb 22 2021 — David Akin — Global News — MPs on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and Security voted Monday to condemn comments made last week by the president of the National Firearms Association, a rare rebuke by a parliamentary committee endorsed by all parties save the Conservatives, whose members on the committee abstained. The vote was sparked by Liberal […]
Feb 21 2021 — David Akin — Global News — A House of Commons committee will be asked Monday to censure the National Firearms Association (NFA) over comments the association’s president made in a recent conference call, Global News has learned. In the meantime, the NFA has been preparing since July to run “custom attack ads” against Liberal members of Parliament it hopes to help […]
Feb 13 2021 — David Akin — Global News — The federal government is considering new measures to improve access to child care in this spring’s federal budget — measures which could include a generous tax credit or direct cash subsidies to parents, Global News has learned. In the same week that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was delivering the Fall Economic […]
Feb 10 2021 — David Akin — Global News — Internal government polling commissioned by the Privy Council Office (PCO) has found strong support in every region of the country for continued financial subsidies to get more Canadians into plug-in electric vehicles.
Feb 8 2021 — David Akin — Global News — Even as it gears up for a potential spring election, the Green Party of Canada is being forced to deal with a controversial internal personnel decision that some party members say could be a distraction that could hurt the party’s election preparations. Green Party Leader Annamie Paul has been prepping policy announcements and discussions, including […]
Feb 4 2021 — David Akin — Global News — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected appeals from the country’s provincial and territorial premiers Thursday to release details of the contracts the federal government has signed with various vaccine manufacturers. Trudeau and the premiers held a First Ministers Meeting (FMM) by teleconference late Thursday afternoon, the 26th such call since the pandemic began.
Feb 4 2021 — David Akin — Global News — The Conservative Party of Canada continued its long dominance of key political fundraising metrics in what were the final months of 2020 but also the first full quarter for the party with Erin O’Toole as leader. For the fourth quarter of 2020, the Conservatives raised more money overall — $7.7 million — and more money […]
Jan 8 2021 — David Akin — Global News — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the country’s provincial and territorial premiers met via teleconference Thursday afternoon for about an hour — and improving vaccine distribution was the top topic. But they also turned their attention to the recent events in Washington, D.C. “(The prime minister) emphasized the need to work together to keep our democracy […]
Dec 21 2020 — David Akin — Global News — Dozens of Elections Canada employees have been working all summer to figure out how it would collect and count millions of the mail-in ballots it expects to have to process if — or when — Canada holds a general election during a time of pandemic. At stake: the very integrity of a Canadian general election […]
Dec 20 2020 — David Akin — Global News — The chief of the First Nation in Northern Ontario that has suffered through the country’s longest continuous boil water advisory is hopeful that water coming out of the taps in the homes of Neskantaga will be safe to drink sometime in early 2021. The question now is: Even if public health and First Nation officials […]
Dec 20 2020 — David Akin — Global News — As the rest of the country was going into its first lockdown in early April, Elections Canada officials were scrambling to figure out how the agency might “deliver” a federal election during a time of pandemic. It was not an academic question. Elections Canada knew full well that a minority government in Ottawa means the […]
Dec 16 2020 — David Akin — Global News — The federal government said it issued one-time payments of $300 to nearly 4.4 million seniors earlier this year, payments the government said at the time were to help those on fixed incomes with extra expenses many seniors were incurring as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
Dec 3 2020 — David Akin — Global News — A senior Canada Post official told a House of Commons committee Thursday that the Crown corporation is confident it could handle moving around millions of mail-in ballots if a federal general election were held during a pandemic. Elections Canada has already testified before the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee that it expects […]
Dec 1 2020 — David Akin — Global News — A controversial decision to give the federal government’s procurement department the power to sole-source contracts worth up to $500 million was — and remains — a core element of the “bold, aggressive action” that procurement minister Anita Anand was encouraged to take earlier this spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, even as she was […]
Nov 17 2020 — David Akin — Global News — Parliament’s information commissioner said Canada’s federal police force needs an “urgent … change of course” when it comes to handling requests made to it under the federal Access to Information Act. Commissioner Caroline Maynard had launched a special investigation of the RCMP for repeated and systemic violations of the Access to Information Act.