Opposition MPs accuse PCO Clerk Wouters of ‘protecting PMO’

PCO Clerk Wayne Wouters is “protecting the PMO” in refusing to hand over detailed information on budget cuts to the Parliamentary Budge Officer, say opposition MPs.

“I think there is a little defence going on here, protecting the PMO,” NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.) told The Hill Times last week. “I think it’s unfortunate that Mr. Wouters is doing that. I think it’s incumbent on the government and the Prime Minister to provide that information. They could do it in a heart beat and they’ve chosen not to.”

No justice, no peace

On Friday, George Horton became the only person convicted of assaulting an officer during the chaotic weekend of the G20 in Toronto.

A judge determined that he should spend 10 months in jail.

The victim? A police cruiser’s door.

While the cruiser was unable to deliver a victim impact statement, an officer who was inside of the car said he felt his life was in danger. He had been hit on the head, through Horton was not accused of that attack.

If it's Alberta, it ain't going across the border: Time to connect the dots on XL Foods

Do you remember that brilliant advertising campaign, "If it ain't Alberta, it ain't beef”?

Well, nowadays -- as the continental recall of beef products from the sprawling XL Foods meatpacking plant in Brooks, Alberta, the largest slaughterhouse in Canada, keeps growing and growing and growing -- a lot of people are starting to substitute the last word in that slogan for something else.

If it ain't Alberta, at least a few folks are concluding, it's less likely to be …

Quebec's Maple Spring shows grassroots movements can force social and environmental change

Usually it takes social movements years, even decades, to significantly affect public policy. The movement unleashed by Quebec students last spring has had a much quicker impact.

Beyond politicizing a generation, it has spurred a more socially and ecologically progressive political climate. It is within this context that Pauline Marois' government has adopted more progressive reforms in its first days in office than any other provincial government in recent Canadian history.

Bramalea Secondary School students stage Queen's Park protest against Bill 115

By the time I arrived at Queen’s Park, the metal barricades were set up around the front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario building.

In less than half an hour, students from Bramalea Secondary School would stage a protest against Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act, that freezes teachers’ wages for two years and prevents them from striking.

In response, teachers cancelled all extracurricular activities at Bramalea Secondary and some other schools around the province.

Embassy-sharing agreement ‘anglicizes’ Canada’s image abroad: some experts

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird flatly denied the government’s recent announcement that Canada and the U.K. would merge diplomatic resources in certain countries would influence Canadian foreign policy, and while foreign policy observers say the new initiative is more about image, they predict that future foreign policy will be more aligned with Britain and other members of the so-called “anglosphere.”

“We’re not talking about merging foreign policies, but we are talking about merging images once we start putting ourselves together with the British,” retired Canadian diplomat Paul Heinbecker said last week in an interview with The Hill Times. “I think the motivation was to add a little anglicization.”

Why can’t Mark Carney convince corporate Canada to spend its cash?

Mark Carney has never been more powerful. Canada’s Mensa central banker seems to gain influence every month; last year, he became head of the G20’s Financial Stability Board, and if you believed the British press this summer, he may have been a candidate to run the Bank of England. The financial world oozes respect for him. In Global Finance magazine’s latest report card, Carney was one of only six central bankers to merit an “A.” Take that, Ben Bernanke—yes, you, the one with the “B.”

Nexen deal divides Canada’s top executives

The spreading unease about the proposed takeover of Nexen Inc. by Chinese energy explorer CNOOC Ltd. extends deeply into Canada’s corner offices.

In the most recent C-Suite survey of corporate executives, 50 per cent of respondents said they somewhat or strongly oppose the deal if it has no special conditions, while 42 per cent support it.

The survey also underscores a deep geographic divide among those at the top of Canada’s corporate world. Fifty-six per cent of executives in the West support the deal without conditions, while only 35 per cent of those in Ontario are onside.

Omar Khadr’s mother Maha Elsamnah both ‘happy and sad’ after son returns to Canada from Guantanamo Bay

Visibly emotional, the mother of Omar Khadr said the fact her son has returned to Canada a convicted war criminal doesn’t make her happy and Canada needs to do more to give him his rights back.

“If he’s treated as a criminal, a convicted war criminal, I’m not happy,” Maha Elsamnah told the Star on Sunday. “I want him to come back as a person who has been abused and misunderstood. I want Canada to give him his right.”

Khadr, 26, landed at the Trenton military airbase early Saturday after a flight from Guantanamo Bay. American officials formally transferred Khadr into Canada’s care, bringing to an end U.S. involvement in the decade-long case.

Ontario restraint bill much more than two-year wage freeze

The Ontario government is selling its new public restraint bill as a simple, two-year wage freeze.

A close reading shows the proposed law is much, much broader.

Unveiled on Wednesday by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, it would give the provincial cabinet wartime-style powers over public sector compensation for at least six years.

If approved by the legislature, the Protecting Public Services bill would allow the government to not just freeze the wages it pays to unionized employees — ranging from nurses to home care workers to hydro linemen — but roll them back.