Was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau right to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history as a way to deal with the trucker convoy in Ottawa?
That’s the primary question that needs to be addressed by the public inquiry that the Liberal government was compelled by legislation to convene.
Yet it looks like Trudeau is already trying to get in the way of the question even being asked.
The RCMP considered charging Justin Trudeau with fraud over a family vacation at the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas, but decided against doing so because it was unclear if the Prime Minister had the authority to approve the all-expenses-paid gift for himself.
RCMP documents from 2019, recently released in response to an access-to-information request, outline the force’s investigation into the 2016 Trudeau family Christmas vacation at the Ismaili Muslim leader’s luxurious retreat. The documents reveal the Mounties looked at whether they could charge Mr. Trudeau with breach of trust or fraud based on the findings in a report from the federal Ethics Commissioner.
The December 2017 report, issued by former ethics commissioner Mary Dawson, concluded that Mr. Trudeau had violated four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act by accepting the vacation, because there was ongoing official business between the federal government and the Aga Khan.
So the RCMP weren’t sure that Justin was allowed to authorize personal graft. That’s some loophole, pure Banana Republic standards.
Responses to the Liberal government’s proposed online harms bill from companies including Microsoft, Twitter and Canadian telecoms are among the hundreds of submissions Canadian Heritage refused to release.
Previously withheld feedback includes a document from Twitter that warned the proposed framework involving proactive monitoring of content “sacrifices freedom of expression to the creation of a government run system of surveillance of anyone who uses Twitter.”
I hope Musk buys Twitter and tells Junior to shove it.
Frank Graves, President and founder of EKOS Research Associates, went on the attack against Pierre Poilievre’s populist-tinged bid to become leader of the Conservative party. Unquestionably, Graves has the right to express his opinions, but his online onslaught, as head of a prominent political polling firm, only dumped fuel on the populist fire he loathes.
Stephen Maher: How the racial makeup of Poilievre rallies could be used against him
Last week, when Pierre Poilievre held a huge rally in a show-jumping facility on Calgary’s southern edge, I observed on Twitter that the enthusiastic crowd seemed to be mostly made up of white people, which might pose a problem for Poilievre.
This tweet — part of a long, not very interesting thread about Poilievre’s event — struck some people the wrong way, and I have since then been denounced hundreds of times, most recently in the National Post earlier this week by columnist Rupa Subramanya, who implied my comment constitutes a racist attack on Poilievre and his supporters.
Russian troll farms aiming disinformation war at Canadian anti-vaxxers: Global Affairs expert
Russian-sponsored disinformation is trying to exploit one of Canada’s most divisive issues to shape opinions here about its invasion of Ukraine, says a top Global Affairs Canada expert on the topic.
Using troll farms that post on Facebook and other social media sites, the campaigns often target the minority of Canadians opposed to COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates, and others deeply distrustful of government, said Philippe-André Rodriguez, deputy director of the department’s Centre for International Digital Policy.
Here’s the kicker… Rodriguez also said Russian disinformation is being amplified by social media sites’ algorithms, which may require some kind of government intervention to counter.
This is the same government that had its CBC propaganda mouthpiece lie about “foreign” donations to the Trucker Convoy to justify seizing their donated funds.
I know that with such fast-flowing events as the Conservative leadership race, the Liberal budget, and of course Joe Biden’s matchless press conferences — there will someday be a book called Profiles in Incoherence — that the dark hours of the truckers protest are receding from memory. The Emergencies Act has — I think — been lifted, and people are slowly repairing their spirits from that trying episode. Still, we are not completely out from under its shadow. To borrow a phrase, famous from another context, “it haunts us still.”
OTTAWA —Canada and the U.S. are in detailed security talks to ensure there’s no repeat of trucker blockades led in part by “right-wing extremists” who “wanted to overthrow the government,” says Washington’s envoy to Canada.
Ambassador David L. Cohen said the blockades, particularly at the Windsor-Detroit border in early February, raised “significant concerns” within the Biden administration and among American manufacturers about the reliability of cross-border supply chains.
Cohen strongly condemned the protests and voiced concerns they could happen again. He also said Canada and U.S. government officials are looking at how to eliminate jurisdictional snafus that complicated law enforcement efforts to stop the blockades, along with measures to tackle the disinformation that fuelled the protests in the first place.
A cynic might wonder whether New Democrats are feeling uneasy about their public image
On Wednesday, a little more than a week after the Liberals and New Democrats announced a historic confidence-and-supply agreement, NDP MP Laurel Collins rose in the House of Commons and attacked the government’s new climate plan, saying it lacks “ambition” and offers “massive subsidies to unproven carbon capture technology.”
“The government continues to put the interests of big oil and gas above protecting the workers who are impacted by the climate crisis,” she said.
Maybe Collins would have been even less generous if the Liberal-NDP accord didn’t exist. But her critical read of the Liberal plan might dash any thoughts that the new governing agreement means Liberals and New Democrats will spend the next three years holding hands and singing the old CCF campaign song.
The NDP’s public image wasn’t always complete shiite but they’re Singhing a different tune now.
… When it comes to price fixing, the United States doesn’t fool around. When Congress and the White House have concerns, they act on them. In Canada, not so much.
The bread price-fixing scandal, which came to light in 2017 when Loblaw admitted having participated in an alleged industry-wide operation, opened the door to some public criticism. In 2017, Loblaw’s Ghalen Weston strategically threw everyone in the industry under the bus when admitting Loblaw’s involvement in a 14-year-long bread price-fixing scheme. By admitting guilt and supporting the investigation, Loblaw received immunity from the Competition Bureau.
If you’re going to be a criminal in Canada be a white collar criminal. The Government may even buy you new freezers.
When I was in Israel a few years ago — during one of their many elections — I saw a bus ad featuring a big portrait of then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“SUPPORTING BIBI,” it proclaimed, or words to that effect.
It wasn’t an ad for Netanyahu’s party, Likud, but rather Shas, one of the religious parties on the right.
Go incognito
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault on Tuesday unveiled a $9.1-billion climate change plan he says will achieve Canada’s 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target, despite the fact it shows the Trudeau Liberals failed to meet their 2020 target.
Toronto city workers’ union rocked by president’s resignation after OMERS payments probe
The head of the union representing 20,000 city of Toronto workers has resigned amid allegations he received payments from his second-in-command after helping him get a prime position on an outside board.
The turmoil in Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 79 comes after OMERS, the municipal employees pension fund, probed concerns that one union official had paid another for the local’s spot on its board, which pays $46,000 a year, the Star has learned.
The revelations are the latest in a string of problems for Local 79 — which has been grappling with infighting and other issues, including grievances over members being fired by the city for not being vaccinated against COVID-19 — and for Canada’s labour movement more broadly, as an unrelated scandal rocks the country’s largest private-sector union, Unifor.
Over half of Canadians are now driving less as gas prices skyrocket across the country, a new survey says.
The Leger survey, conducted for BNN Bloomberg and insurance comparison company RATESDOTCA, found 54 percent out of roughly 1,500 Canadians surveyed say that are driving less due to mounting gas prices. Another 15 percent say they are planning to adjust their driving patterns.
Though not a question one normally asks about the leader of an opposition party, it’s hard not to wonder. Since being elected, Singh has accomplished next to nothing and consistently votes in support of any Liberal measure of substance. His tenure as leader has been characterized by pure showmanship and image-polishing.
