Government Corruption
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been put on blast for not cooperating with the ongoing investigations into Chinese election interference.
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Read MoreTucker Carlson blasted the establishment’s narrative that American support for the Ukraine war effort is about “democracy,” and claimed that “wars for democracy always cancel democracy in the process,” during the latest installment of his Twitter show.
In an episode titled “Irony Alert: the war for democracy enables dictatorship,” Carlson played several clips of politicians like Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX), who claimed supporting Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine in the fight against Russia is about upholding “democracy.”
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Read MoreDuring the pandemic, governments around the world spent a significant amount of taxpayer money in an effort to support their economies. This was particularly true in Canada, with hundred billion-dollar programs such as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), and in the United States, with nearly trillion-dollar programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Impact Payments, and expanded and extended unemployment programs. Given the significant cost of these programs, it’s important to assess their efficiency or, rather, the degree to which they were excessive, poorly targeted, or simply wasteful.
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Read MoreFashion influencers with big followings on social media came under fire this week for praising the supposedly humane working conditions of a Chinese clothing brand notorious for being a sweatshop after visiting its factory for a documentary.
Dani Carbonari, AuJene Butler, Marina Saavedra, and Destene Sudduth toured several Shein facilities in Guangzhou, China, and recorded happy, healthy employees there for a film.
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Read MoreCanada’s largest newspaper chain is asking suppliers to volunteer for 12 percent price cuts, according to a confidential email from its chief financial officer. The executive did not respond when asked to confirm the urgent appeal. It follows the resignation of the executive chair of Postmedia Network Incorporated.
“What percentage in cost savings are you willing to offer?” asked a Vendor Questionnaire. “Are there any additional incentive programs that you would be willing to offer?”
Postmedia lost $74.7 million last year despite millions in federal subsidies, according to company records. Its current financial year expires August 31.
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Read MoreLess than half of billions paid out under a corporate subsidy program will ever be recovered, says the Department of Industry. The $7 billion Strategic Innovation Fund was launched six years ago by then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains on a false claim it would create 56,000 jobs.
The industry department in a submission to the Senate national finance committee said of billions spent under the program less than half was repayable. “To date of the total Strategic Innovation Fund investments approximately 40 percent are repayable and nearly 60 percent are non-repayable,” it said.
A disproportionate amount of funding went to Québec, figures showed. “Of the 110 agreements so far the Fund is supporting 31 projects in Québec, over a quarter of the program’s portfolio,” wrote the industry department. “Investments have been directed to key sectors such as aerospace where funding is aiding recovery.”
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Read MoreA Muslim charity stripped of its tax status for allegedly hosting radical speakers has regained its registration with the Canada Revenue Agency. Auditors said they “reconsidered” the charitable status of the Ottawa Islamic Centre and Assalam Mosque.
“The notice of intention to revoke was reconsidered and vacated by the Minister of Revenue,” the Agency wrote in a legal notice Saturday. There was no announcement. The decision came almost five years to the day the Mosque was censured.
“Many of the views expressed by the organization’s speakers are misogynistic, homophobic, racist or promote violence,” the Revenue Agency wrote in a notice revoking the charity’s status on July 14, 2018. The Mosque appealed.
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Read MoreNewly-released records reveal that Canadian diplomats stationed overseas have spent $139,000 on circus tickets, concerts, and galas.
In her 2023 Budget, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed a 15% reduction in unnecessary expenditures to demonstrate the cabinet’s commitment to being “fiscally responsible.”
“Savings will come from government operations,” Freeland told reporters on March 28.
“I think those savings are eminently obtainable … really important to be a fiscally responsible government.”
In an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons, the department of Foreign Affairs revealed that diplomats spent $139,114 on circus tickets and various other perks since May 1, 2019.
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Read MoreScandalous incompetence. Profound stupidity. Astounding errors. This is how many analysts – including Dr. Vinay Prasad, Dr. Scott Atlas, and popular Substack commentator Eugyppius – explain how leading public health experts could prescribe so many terrible pandemic response policies.
And it’s true: the so-called experts certainly have made themselves look foolish over the last three years: Public health leaders like Rochelle Walensky and Anthony Fauci make false claims, or contradict themselves repeatedly, on subjects related to the pandemic response, while leading scientists, like Peter Hotez in the U.S. and Christian Drosten in Germany, are equally susceptible to such flip-flops and lies. Then there are the internationally renowned medical researchers, like Eric Topol, who repeatedly commit obvious errors in interpreting Covid-related research studies.
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Read MoreMerck’s best-selling asthma medicine, Singulair, has been linked for years to suicides and psychiatric problems, often in children. But lawsuits over the drug are stymied by one of Corporate America’s most effective liability shields: the doctrine of federal preemption.
By DAN LEVINE, ROBIN RESPAUT, KRISTINA COOKE, MIKE SPECTOR, and BENJAMIN LESSER Filed June 26, 2023, 10 a.m. GMT
Nicholas England, a healthy 22-year-old from Virginia, shot himself in the head in 2017, less than two weeks after he started taking an allergy medicine that had been linked for years to episodes of depression and suicidal thinking.
His parents soon started exploring a lawsuit against Merck, the developer of the blockbuster asthma and allergy drug, Singulair, along with the manufacturer of the generic version their son took. Nicholas had no history of mental-health problems, they said.
The Englands were shocked to learn from legal advisers that they had no case. Like countless other potential plaintiffs, they had run into one of Corporate America’s most effective liability shields: the legal doctrine of preemption, the principle that federal law supersedes state law.
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