The largest arms export contract in Canadian history is apparently no longer an arms deal

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is referring to a $14-billion deal to provide Saudi Arabia with light armoured vehicles as a contract for “transport vehicles.” And he says such equipment can’t be considered arms.

The characterization of the deal comes as Harper defends the contract with the Saudi Arabian regime.

Federal Election 2015: Costly Campaign All About Saving Taxpayers' Money, Harper Says

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says a desire to save taxpayers’ money motivated his decision to call an 11-week campaign that will actually cost taxpayers millions of dollars more.

Outside Rideau Hall on Sunday, Harper said it was “essential” to start the campaign in the first week of August ahead of a vote on Oct. 19. The 78-day campaign will be the longest in more than a century and, almost certainly, the costliest in Canadian history.

Florida Officials Were Barred From Using The Term 'Climate Change' Once Rick Scott Took Power

Officials responsible for making sure Florida is prepared to respond to the earth's changing climate are barred from using the terms "global warming" and "climate change" in official communications, emails and reports, according to new findings from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

"We were told that we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact," said Kristina Trotta, a former Florida Department of Environmental Protection employee.

Tony Clement Argues Lapsed Funds Mean Good Management

OTTAWA - Billions in federal funding left unspent each year is a sign of good financial management, says the minister who controls the government's purse strings.

There's no reason departments need to spend every dollar they're allocated, Treasury Board Tony Clement said in an year-end interview with The Canadian Press.

"When money is passed by Treasury Board, it is up to a certain amount; there is a public policy goal that has to be attained," he said.

Harper Wants Two Classes of Free Speech

Reports surfaced last week that the federal government plans to introduce a new copyright exception for political advertising within a forthcoming budget bill. The provision would allow politicians and political parties to use news content in their political advertising without prior permission.

While the revelations sparked an angry outcry from media organizations and political opponents, the real problem is the potential for copyright to stifle legitimate speech. Political speech -- even noxious attack ads -- surely qualifies as important speech that merits protection. Unfortunately, the government plans to create two classes of rights when it comes to political speech: one for politicians and political parties, and the other for everyone else.

Canadian military intervention in Iraq is 'noble,' Harper says

Stephen Harper has started to lay out the case for going to war in Iraq after cabinet ministers discussed on Tuesday a proposal to deploy Canadian jet fighters against Islamic State militants.

Conservatives are promising a decision before week’s end on whether they will launch a combat mission.

FACT VS. FICTION: RONA AMBROSE'S LAUGHABLE CLAIMS ABOUT CONSERVATIVE 'EVIDENCE BASED POLICY'

In a recent speech to the Canadian Medical Association, Health Minister Rona Ambrose said something no cabinet minister ought to have to say out loud: that her boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and his government are firm believers in evidence-based policy.

Ambrose claimed that “at the end of the day, for policymakers like me, it’s the medical science and data-based evidence that must guide our decisions on health sector regulation and allocation of resources.”

Very little ‘fair’ about how Conservatives are pushing controversial Elections Act

It is coarse to imagine the Conservatives are conspiring to fix the next election, in plain sight of everyone. If you were bent on suppressing the opposition vote, evading spending limits, and otherwise participating in electoral fraud, presumably you would not take the trouble to advertise this in legislation.

On the other hand, if they are not up to no good, they are doing their best to convince people they are. The secrecy surrounding the Fair Elections Act, the failure to consult in advance of its drafting, the curtailment of debate after, the supreme indifference to legitimate criticism, all under the chilling oversight of the Minister for Democratic Reform, Pierre Poilievre, would be enough to make anyone nervous.

Politics and the Canadian Language

The Senate expenses scandal, as the CBC now calls it, continues to grow, while the language used to describe it continues to shrink: we have fewer words to describe the scandal and those involved, and many of them are clichés like "bombshell" and "house of cards."

Without an extensive and nuanced vocabulary, our media provide a narrow and simplistic picture of events. Our own ability to think about those events is similarly narrowed.

Federal librarians fear being ‘muzzled’ under new code of conduct that stresses ‘duty of loyalty’ to the government

Federal librarians and archivists who set foot in classrooms, attend conferences or speak up at public meetings on their own time are engaging in “high risk” activities, according to the new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada.

Given the dangers, the code says the department’s staff must clear such “personal” activities with their managers in advance to ensure there are no conflicts or “other risks to LAC.”

The code, which stresses federal employees’ “duty of loyalty” to the “duly elected government,” also spells out how offenders can be reported.

Alberta Budget 2013 Health Funding Is Actually Cuts In Disguise

The amount the province dishes out for health care is going up, and it plans to borrow money for health infrastructure, but doctors and nurses shouldn't expect any of that money will be going to them, said Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner after tabling the 2013 budget.

The Alberta government delivered a budget on Thursday that promises $15 billion in funding over the next three years, with $2.1 billion of that going to hospitals, family clinics and long-term care facilities.

Ottawa pitches the oil sands as ‘green’

Relying on Canadian crude imports is the best choice for the United States – not just because it’s reliable and secure but because of Canada’s unmatched environmental record, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Tuesday.

Adding green to the attributes of Alberta’s oil sands is the latest twist in Ottawa’s concerted effort to push for U.S. approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline designed to funnel more than 800,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude to Texas Gulf oil refineries next to deep-water export terminals.

Finley says Conservatives have set dollar 'targets' for EI fraud but not quotas

OTTAWA - Service Canada investigators have been given annual "performance objectives" to find $485,000 each in fraudulent or ineligible Employment Insurance claims per year, the Conservative government confirmed Monday.

However, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley vigorously denied that the targets amount to "quotas" — something Finley assured the House of Commons earlier this month do not exist.

Tories set 'targets,' not quotas for EI fraud

The federal government denies it has given civil servants quotas for catching employment insurance fraud — but now says there are performance objectives in place.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley had flatly denied previous reports that EI investigators have been given monthly dollar quotas.

Academics split on Canada's religious freedom ambassador

Prime Minister Stephen Harper calls Canada's new ambassador of religious freedom "a scholar, a man of principle and deep convictions," but the emphasis on Dr. Andrew Bennett's academic qualifications has some scholars of religion scratching their heads.

Harper introduced the government's choice to head up the new $5-million Office of Religious Freedom, which is housed within the department of Foreign Affairs, at a mosque north of Toronto on Tuesday before an audience of about 200 religious leaders and others.

Truly defend freedom

It is practically an axiom of political thought that your rights and freedoms are jeopardized when the government formally attempts to protect those rights and freedoms. Admittedly, this is a cynical attitude, and, we hope, unwarranted when it comes to the Conservatives’ newly established Office of Religious Freedom.

Indeed, there are good reasons to regard this new agency as a necessity. “Religion” is resurgent in the world regardless of the preferences of the secular elites who dominate the upper echelons of the West’s cultural and political institutions. The modern West — the product of Enlightenment thinking and scientific rationalism — seems to be entering a new era of religious awareness, for good and ill.

John Brennan and the “So-Called” Americans

“One of the problems is, once the drone program is so public, and one American is caught up, people don’t know much about this one ‘American citizen’—so called,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, in her questioning of John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee for C.I.A. director, on Thursday. (John Cassidy has more on the hearing.) She was referring to Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone strike in Yemen, in 2011, and was a “so-called” American because he was an American, born in New Mexico. “They don’t know what he’s been doing,” Feinstein continued. “They don’t know the incitement he has stirred up. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about Mr. Awlaki and what he’s been doing.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper boasts of his ‘unprecedented’ investment for Canada’s aboriginals

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper made no apologies Monday for his aboriginal policies, boasting the governing Tories have improved the lives of Canada’s First Nations peoples — from the water they drink and the houses in which they live, to the schools where their children are educated.

But opposition parties, which hammered away at Harper on the issue as the Commons returned for business after a six-week break, said Harper’s record is abysmal.

U.S. Plans Base for Surveillance Drones in Northwest Africa

WASHINGTON — The United States military command in Africa is preparing plans to establish a drone base in northwest Africa to increase unarmed surveillance missions on the local affiliate of Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups that American and other Western officials say pose a growing menace to the region.

Religious Liberty Double Standards Indicated In New Poll

WASHINGTON (RNS) Half of Americans worry that religious freedom in the U.S. is at risk, and many say activist groups -- particularly gays and lesbians -- are trying to remove "traditional Christian values" from the public square.

The findings of a poll published Wednesday (Jan. 23), reveal a "double standard" among a significant portion of evangelicals on the question of religious liberty, said David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, a California think tank that studies American religion and culture.