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The leader of the two-person IT staffing firm at the centre of misconduct allegations has told a Commons committee he made a mistake in submitting inflated work experience records to the government, but played down the significance of the decision.
GCStrategies managing partner Kristian Firth faced heavy criticism from MPs for providing contradictory statements during a committee hearing yesterday. He first said he had never met public servants outside of formal work settings and later said he had. He also originally denied knowing anything about a senior procurement officer’s cottage, but later said he did know about his “chalet.”
Mr. Firth told MPs that he personally increased the stated work experience of contractors in government forms without their knowledge, describing it as a rare mistake made in haste to meet a project deadline. He said the changes were aimed at making the information compliant with a government evaluation matrix.
“This regrettable mistake was not intentional and in no way determined the awarding of the contract,” he said.
B.C. clinicians point to limits of safer-supply program in draft report
A fentanyl user displays a "safe supply" of opioid alternatives, provided by the local health unit to combat overdoses due to poisonous additives, in Vancouver in April 2020.JESSE WINTER/Reuters
The potential of a program to provide drug users with pharmaceutical alternatives to deadly street drugs is limited by medication options, a deficient addiction treatment system and a dearth of social supports needed for long-term stability, according to a review by B.C.’s provincial health officer.
The report on the safer-supply program, of which The Globe and Mail has obtained a draft, is the product of a summer’s worth of consultations between Bonnie Henry and physicians, nurse practitioners, researchers, people who use drugs and their families.
It captures the distress felt by clinicians as they navigate the province’s most contentious response to one of its worst public-health crises, and the frustration of drug users who feel their lives hang in the balance.
Many of the review’s themes were echoed in a separate report from the BC Coroners Service, which was released Wednesday.
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Quebec tuition hike could lead to job cuts, enrolment drop, English-language universities warn
After the announcement by the Quebec government that starting next fall, tuition fees for Canadians from other provinces will jump from just under $9,000 to around $17,000 annually, Quebec’s three English-language universities are warning about the consequences of the proposed policy.
McGill University principal Deep Saini said in an e-mail to staff and students yesterday that the policy could mean “devastating consequences” for some faculties, including the potential suspension of sports teams.
Dr. Saini said enrolment at McGill would drop as a result of the new policy. The university projects a range of outcomes that would likely include a decline in the number of students from other Canadian provinces. Some of those seats would be filled by international students, Dr. Saini said, but the university projects between 20 per cent and 80 per cent will go unfilled.
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Also on our radar
Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 2, 2023.STRINGER/Reuters
Israel says Gaza City encircled as Blinken arrives to push for humanitarian ‘pause’: While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists “Nothing will stop us” and the military says it has Gaza City surrounded, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to be in the Middle East today to advocate for a pause in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip so relief groups can help with evacuations and aid.
Ex-crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding FTX customers: In one of history’s biggest cases of financial fraud, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty yesterday of two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
Along the trans-Saharan path, African migrants weigh the risks and rewards of heading to Europe: In the latest part of a year-long project exploring the global migration crisis, Doug Saunders and photographer Goran Tomasevic join West Africans along the desert route that carries hundreds of thousands through deadly perils and ignites political crises in Europe.
Is a $100,000 salary enough for a comfortable life anymore? Earning $100,000 is the threshold to a six-figure income – and an unattainable goal for many Canadians. Yet in some parts of the country, it’s no longer a gateway to affluence. We’ve asked people across the country who earn roughly $100,000 to offer insight into what their lives look like. Some are thriving, while others are struggling to maintain what many would consider a middle-class lifestyle.
Morning markets
World stocks head for winning week: Global stocks were on track for their biggest weekly rise in a year on Friday as investors cheered a pause in U.S. interest rate hikes. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.46 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.42 per cent and 0.30 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.52 per cent. Markets in Japan were closed. New York futures were mixed. The Canadian dollar was down slightly at 72.75 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Andrew Coyne: “Imagine if Parliament were regarded as a vital national institution, and not a pointless relic. Then and only then might ‘Ottawa’ have a fighting chance against the provinces. In time we might begin to see a virtuous circle. A Parliament that was more representative of the nation might begin to act as if it were, asserting its authority over the executive; the more it was seen to represent the nation, moreover, the more it would suggest there was a nation to be so represented.”
Rachel Doran and Trevor Melanson: “Now more than ever, the federal government must show Canadians that climate action and affordability are two sides of the same coin – that, as a government release quietly reminded people last week, households that swap oil heating for cold-climate heat pumps typically save up to $2,500 annually on their energy bills. Instead, Ottawa allowed itself to be consumed by political theatre, which painted this as an admission that Mr. Trudeau’s signature climate policy was making life more expensive for Canadians, just as his Conservative opponents had claimed for years.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
For new Telefilm leader Julie Roy, the future of Canadian film looks bright, with caveats
In the mixed bag of Canadian filmmaking in 2023, Telefilm Canada has some good stories to tell, but also a lot to be wary of. Julie Roy, the federal funding agency’s new executive director, shares her insights in an interview with Barry Hertz on diversity in its filmmaking clients, what success means for Canadian film and the evolution of the agency.
Moment in time: Nov. 3, 1995
Toronto Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia, right, attends a game on Jan. 14, 1998.Randy Velocci/The Globe and Mail
Nav Bhatia – Raptors superfan – attends first game
COVID-19 brought many things to a screeching halt, including Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia’s perfect game attendance. On this day in 1995, he went to the Toronto NBA team’s first home game – and he would not miss a single one for the next 26 years. That is until a COVID-19 exposure in December, 2021, forced him to isolate. “My heart is breaking right now,” Mr. Bhatia, who by then had earned celebrity status, wrote in an Instagram post announcing his absence. But the now-72-year-old’s tenacity dates back even further, to when he first moved to Toronto from India in 1984. Unable to find work as a mechanical engineer, he became a car salesman, selling a record 127 vehicles in three months. Two years later, he bought the dealership – and eventually a second. His business success meant he could purchase courtside season tickets to watch his favourite team – plus tickets for about 3,000 kids every year. When the Raptors won the NBA championships in 2019, Mr. Bhatia scored a win of his own: Team president Masai Ujiri presented him with a championship ring. Two years later, Mr. Bhatia became the first fan ever to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Massachusetts. – Rasha Mourtada
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Mason Wright