News

SOURCE: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Mia Rabson

OTTAWA -- Industry Minister Tony Clement apparently missed the memo that these are supposed to be the lazy, hazy days of summer.

His mug has graced the front pages of most major newspapers for most of July, ever since the government made public its plans to pull the plug on the mandatory long-form census.

On the weekend, even Tom Flanagan, one-time chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, questioned the move, not only the logic of it, but that it was sprung on Canadians with little explanation and no consultation.

SOURCE: THE GAZETTE
MICHELLE LALONDE

Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc admits it's a "compromise," but says he will not oppose his government's intention to increase its production and export of asbestos, despite growing outrage from medical and scientific organizations in his own province, across Canada and around the world.

"The government has taken a position in favour of the safe use (of asbestos)," Bolduc said yesterday in Montreal.

SOURCE: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Mia Rabson and Dan Lett

SOURCE: THE HILL TIMES
Murray Dobbin

Asbestos kills more people worldwide by far, than any other
industrial material. And that includes Quebec, where 55 per
cent of all worker fatalities in 2009 were caused by asbestos,
according to la Confederation des syndicates nationaux.

SOURCE: TORONTO SUN
Brian Lilley, Parliamentary Bureau

OTTAWA – New Democrats are laughing at the hypocrisy but also asking what the Conservatives were thinking when they chose to run government ads in video games that promote street racing.

“I almost sprayed my coffee across the table,” said New Democrat MP Pat Martin upon learning about ads in games such as Need for Speed ProStreet.

Martin says the Harper government advertising in video games that promote street racing is rich in irony because the Tories have been so vocal in denouncing what has grown into a dangerous subculture.

SOURCE: TORONTO SUN
ALTHIA RAJ, Parliamentary Bureau

OTTAWA - One Conservative budget vote has cost Canadian taxpayers $63,500, the opposition charged Friday.

Former Conservative Party candidate Salma Ataullahjan was appointed to the red chamber by Prime Minister Stephen Harper Friday, just in time for her to vote in favour of the Tories’ controversial budget next week.

Conservatives now have 52 senators, Liberals have 49 and there are 4 independents, although at least three senators are on sick leave.

SOURCE: THE HILL TIMES
TIM NAUMETZ

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent appointment of two former MPs to top government posts is rekindling criticism of his failure to keep a 2006 campaign promise to curb patronage.

SOURCE: TORONTO SUN
Althia Raj, Parliamentary Bureau

OTTAWA — Unelected senators should not be allowed to trot the globe at taxpayers' expense, says an NDP MP.

Winnipeg MP Pat Martin questions the extensive use of parliamentary travel and says the perk should be reserved for MPs only.

“All those senators don’t miss many opportunities… Some of the gadflies do nothing but circumnavigate the globe,” he said. “I really do wonder why we tolerate that.”

SOURCE: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
NICK MARTIN

Pat Martin really, truly admires Stephen Harper's sense of humour. No, seriously.

If that's not enough of a major true fact you never knew before, try these: Former Winnipeg mayor Susan Thompson wanted to be a race car driver when she was a kid, Manitoba Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen thinks he has a 50/50 chance of becoming premier, Mayor Sam Katz was good at math in school, and radio's Ace Burpee would like to visit Madagascar.

SOURCE: CBC News
The Canadian Press

"The Canadian Cancer Society will not be quiet and will talk to whomever we have to talk to"—Paul Lapierre, Canadian Cancer Society

The Canadian Cancer Society is urging the Quebec government not to revive one of the country's last asbestos mines.

The organization wrote a letter to Premier Jean Charest asking him to refrain from backing a $58-million bank loan that would extend the life of the Jeffrey asbestos mine for 25 years.