Inuit carver’s new West Block sculpture ‘part of the healing,’ reconciliation

Sedna, the Arctic sea goddess is the focal point of a new sculpture in West Block, now part of a decades-long line of Indigenous carvings designed specially for Parliament. Inuit master carver Bart Hanna, who is from Igloolik, Nunavut, often depicts Sedna in his work. Though she has a “harsh story,” Mr. Hanna said he […]
Foreign interference in Canada’s upcoming vote ‘very likely,’ spy agency says

PARLIAMENT HILL—Canada will “very likely” be a target of foreign interference, though it’s “improbable” that it will be on the same scale orchestrated by Russia in its 2016 presidential election, warns Canada’s electronic spy agency. In an updated assessment on the likelihood that Canada will encounter covert attempts to interfere in the 2019 election, the […]
‘It shouldn’t be blotting out the sun’: have the media spilled too much ink over SNC-Lavalin?

Weeks of wall-to-wall coverage have been devoted to offering a tick-tock of every twist of the SNC-Lavalin affair, raising questions about whether the media have expended far too much of their resources following this beat at the exclusion of other pressing issues. Since The Globe and Mail first broke its bombshell report eight weeks ago alleging that […]
The Kenney campaign con and the new meaning of narrative

The word “narrative” as a political term of art is by no means new. The concept has been around since long before the days when Hollywood production values migrated to the White House with Ronald Reagan. From “the boy from Baie-Comeau” defining Brian Mulroney’s rise from son of an electrician in a Quebec mill town, […]
How Robert ‘Fife the knife’ broke the SNC-Lavalin story and 40 years of other scoops

Robert Fife, the Globe and Mail Ottawa bureau chief and one of the reporters behind the explosive SNC-Lavalin story that’s rocked politics in Ottawa for a month, has been breaking stories for decades due to his vast network of sources, keen eye for detail, and knack for telling when people aren’t telling the truth, say […]
Bernier passes on taking part in Justice Committee SNC-Lavalin hearings

People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier has been absent from the House of Commons Justice Committee as it delves into the SNC-Lavalin affair, despite all other parties—even those without official party status—showing up to participate. A People’s Party spokesperson told The Hill Times that Mr. Bernier has been given an invitation to attend, but since he […]
SNC-Lavalin scandal expected to ‘overshadow everything else’ for Grits in coming months; it’s time for a Trudeau ‘mea culpa,’ say Liberal insiders and pollsters

It will be a tough slog for the Liberals in the coming months, as the SNC-Lavalin scandal has devastated their post-partisan feminist brand and demotivated their base, say pollsters and Grit insiders. It’s not yet clear how far the scandal will resonate with the general public, but any new revelations—for example, if the government does […]
As CP layoffs hit Parliament Hill, top editor says it’s in no ‘imminent’ danger

Financial woes continue to plague Canada’s national wire service, leading to one layoff on Parliament Hill, but the Canadian Press’ editor-in-chief says the organization as a whole isn’t in any pressing danger. When asked if the company would be around in five years, Stephen Meurice said that “five years is a long time from now, […]
Gerald Butts’ resignation doesn’t do anything to dampen questions in dumpster fire of a scandal
As principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gerald Butts wasn’t known for being a wallflower. If anyone ever wanted to know what he was thinking about a particular issue, or how he responded to personal attacks, they only had to look as far as his personal verified Twitter account. But for some reason, Canadians […]
The great brain robbery: Looking up from the content glut

The New York Times has a weekly feature in its Book Review called By the Book, in which writers answer questions about their relationship with books and reading, one of which is “You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?” Looking around a Montreal subway car recently, it struck me that the three […]