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Two IT staffing companies that worked on the ArriveCan app and received more than $400-million in federal contract work over the past decade, including frequent use of a set-aside program for Indigenous business, have never been audited to determine whether they delivered on the program’s requirements to support Indigenous entrepreneurs.
After receiving questions from The Globe and Mail on the issue late last month, federal procurement officials asked Indigenous Services Canada to audit the two companies.
Coradix and Dalian regularly work together and are connected to contracting misconduct allegations that are under investigation by the RCMP. They, along with a third company called GCStrategies, are temporarily suspended from working for the Canada Border Services Agency while reviews are under way.
Government spending on Coradix and DalianBein, Sierra/The Globe and Mail
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Updates from the Israel-Hamas war
Battles raged across Gaza Monday as Israel indicated it was prepared to fight for as long as it takes to defeat the territory’s Hamas rulers. Israel faces international outrage after its military offensive, with diplomatic support and arms from close ally the United States, has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.
The U.S. has lent vital support in recent days by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution to end the fighting and pushing through an emergency sale of more than US$100- million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. About 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee. The UN General Assembly scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday to vote on a similar draft resolution for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
- Analysis: U.S. campus antisemitism debate reinforces perception universities have become havens for radical thinking
Palestinians stand in their home destroyed in the Israeli bombardment of Al Zawayda, central Gaza Strip, on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023.Hatem Moussa/The Associated Press
New Brunswick’s access regime among the most restrictive in Canada, Globe audit finds
For the past two years, The Globe and Mail has been investigating the country’s freedom of information regime through a project called Secret Canada. Part of that work included a national audit of every ministry and department’s access practices, at the provincial, territorial and federal level. (Alberta was not included in the audit, because the province would not comply with The Globe’s requests.)
That audit showed that New Brunswick is among the least accessible jurisdictions in Canada.
One explanation for the province’s poor performance is that New Brunswick’s access law is weak compared with other jurisdictions, said provincial Ombud Marie-France Pelletier, who investigates access complaints.
Federal consultations on AI regulations heavily skewed toward businesses, industry groups, say critics
Critics of Ottawa’s bill to regulate artificial intelligence and mitigate its potential harms say consultations have been heavily skewed toward businesses and industry groups, even as AI applications could negatively affect wide swaths of society.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) held 216 consultations with businesses and industry representatives on Bill C-27, which contains the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act. In contrast, ISED held 28 meetings with academia and nine with civil society groups such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Some academics and critics have faulted the government for not conducting adequate consultations before introducing AIDA and contend the act lacks crucial details.
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Also on our radar
Health care: The new federal dental insurance plan will be phased in gradually over 2024, with the first claims likely to be processed in May, government officials said ahead of a formal announcement scheduled for Monday morning.
Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky will make a last-ditch appeal in Washington this week as congressional Republicans threaten to cut off military aid for Kyiv in the midst of Russia’s stalemated invasion.
Nobel Prize: The celebration of Canada’s first Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto may well have ranked as one of the most uncomfortable dinners in the history of medicine, based on a meeting of experts revisiting the story a century later.
Tuition: Quebec’s English language universities are now waiting to hear whether the province will consider a new tiered-tuition proposal that will charge out-of-province students different amounts based on the program they attend, and bring fees more in line with programs in other parts of the country.
Hong Kong election analysis: On Sunday, having recently gained the right, I did something I have never done before in Hong Kong. I cast a ballot – in one of the least democratic election’s in the city’s history.
COP28: Negotiators have been urged to narrow down their options so they can agree on how to save Earth from disastrous levels of warming and help vulnerable societies adapt to weather extremes as the clock runs down on United Nations climate talks.
Morning markets
Global shares were largely stalled in a week packed with rich-world central bank meetings and data on U.S. inflation that could make or break market hopes for a rapid-fire round of rate cuts early next year.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.32 per cent, while Europe’s benchmark STOXX index nudged down 0.08 per cent. S&P futures looked set for a similarly muted start to the day, down 0.09 per cent ahead of the U.S. market open.
In early trading in Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.38 per cent, Germany’s DAX index was up 0.07 per cent and France’s CAC 40 was 0.2 per cent higher.
The Canadian dollar traded at 73.56 U.S. cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Canada’s last wild horses must be protected
“It is time for Canadians to speak up and demand protection of our remaining wild horses in British Columbia and Alberta. They face an uncertain future unless strong federal and provincial laws are passed to protect them as an iconic heritage species for both Indigenous and settler cultures.” -Wayne McCrory
Population growth is the housing issue politicians can’t keep ducking
“That’s not the fault of those foreign workers and students. It’s the fault of governments whose planning and policies have failed miserably.” -Campbell Clark
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
Globe 100 books 2023Christie Vuong/The Globe and Mail
Find the perfect gift for the book lover in your life from The Globe’s top 100 of 2023 guide
Happy Globe 100 for all those who celebrate. We offer up our annual guide to the best fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, graphic novels, picture books and cookbooks of the year. Every recommendation on this list has been selected by The Globe and Mail’s contributors and editors.
Moment in time: news photo archive
1930. Toronto. Eaton's Santa Claus Parade.John Boyd/The Globe and Mail
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo editors working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re showcasing parades.
In 1905, the T. Eaton Company came up with an idea to entice customers into its Toronto store: a Santa Claus parade. By 1931, when The Globe published a photo of a large pumpkin in the annual cavalcade, Eaton’s was a retail empire that controlled 60 per cent of department store sales in Canada. The parade didn’t just attract hundreds of spectators in downtown Toronto; it attracted thousands of joyous onlookers. Ever-changing floats, marching bands, happy children, clowns, nursery-rhyme characters and dozens more participants made it one of the largest parades in the world. And when Santa annually disembarked from his parade sleigh, right into the store’s toy department, children knew that Eaton’s, not bitter rival Simpson’s, was where to shop. Eaton’s continued to finance the endeavour – including making all the costumes and floats – until 1982, when the financial burden became overwhelming and a group of Toronto’s civic-minded individuals and corporations saved the parade in perpetuity. Philip King
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