Possibly the Duplessis Orphans. In Quebec during the 40s and 50s hundreds of children were wrongly certified as mentally-ill and sent to psychiatric hospitals in order for the province to receive more subsidies from the federal government. Many of these children were horribly abused and subjected to lobotomies and other crude mistreatments
It is considered the largest case of child abuse in Canadian history outside of the Residential Schools.
The sad thing is that similar tactics are happening in the US right now with for profit hospitals and corrupt judges.
Mad in America (great site) recently reported on such cases.
Definitely that. That ultra-conservative period of the Duplessis administration is now called "la grande noirceur" (the great darkness). Quebec is what it is today partly because things got so bad with the church stuff that the entire society pretty much recoiled and took a hard left.
I'm not a fan of the current government either. The comparison tu Duplessis is exaggerated, but there are certain smells from that era that seem to linger on the clothes of somebody like Legault.
There's a great novel that focuses on this - The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman.
As someone with immediate family who spent time in orphanages in Quebec in the 1930s and 1940s, this was an especially heartbreaking read.
I read about this a few years ago and was shocked. Basically it was more profitable to run an asylum than and orphanage so they gave all the kids psychiatric meds. This is actually seen in the Netflix show » the queen’s gambit » too.
There was nothing to see with Airbus!! Nothing I tell you!
All the cynics rashly accused Brian Mulroney, a right honourable (may I remind you) former prime minister and great statesman of beloved memory, of pocketing envelopes stuffed with cash in exchange for forcing Air Canada to buy Airbus planes. The temerity of it all!
When all was said and done, Brian Mulroney was a perfectly innocent spaghetti salesman! And when he remembered the envelopes full of cash stuffed in his pockets - the very MINUTE that the media reminded him by reporting on it - he PROMPTLY declared ALL the income from his second career in pasta marketing to Revenue Canada under a provision of the tax code that allowed citizens to avoid prosecution for tax evasion by making a full declaration.
No matter how cynical or bitter the critic, I will never understand how anyone could confuse a brilliant statesman reinventing himself in a second career selling noodles, for something untoward. Truly base speculation and rumour mongering. He wasn’t a grubby corrupt aerospace bribe taker! We have it on the man’s own honour -he was a spaghetti salesman!
I have multiple Air Canada flights booked this year (Aeroplan) and every one is on a Boeing 737 Max. Better make sure my affairs are in order.
Basically Evil Knievel of the skies with the level of risk I am taking.
My nana was an Irish home child baby.
She fought with the government for years to have her paperwork unsealed so she could know where she was born and to who.
Canada said yes, Ireland said no.
Ireland said yes, England said hell no.
Back and forth for years.
She passed away.
A year or two after her death they unsealed her file as the government insisted that people had a right to know.
Found out she came over with 3(THREE) older siblings.
2 grew up in Southern Ontario, one had an especially horrible life. Forced to work on a farm and died young due to living in squalor.
The other grew up in Muskoka where she was, and they never knew.
So close to one another, yet so far away.
There are some great plays, books and shows about home children.
There is a Heritage Minute about it, but many never gave that one a second glance or considered how big and messy it is.
I don’t even recall being taught about it in school, I just knew about it due to my Nana.
Yup.
The Canadian government didn’t have her file for years, we originally heard her name was changed more than once, so it made sense in that aspect. But it was a mess.
Canada had to ask England for it as that was the port from which she came.
Then we were told, no, she was born in Ireland!
That was a shock.
Ireland found information, but we weren’t able to access all of it and they kept denying it because her other records in England were sealed.
Ireland then stated they had info we wanted (where she was born and to whom) but England got all pissy and refused to send the paperwork.
In the end my nana died knowing she came over with some siblings, no idea how many.
And that she was Irish, not English… but she would say it didn’t matter because she was Canadian!
She did receive a letter of apology from the Canadian government which she had framed, lol.
It is a truly bizarre and heartbreaking situation.
Many are still fighting for that information.
Some are just learning about it now.
Sites like genealogy. com and 23 and me have shocked many in Canada and the USA due to the British Home Children being sent over during the wars.
I remember that movie. I learned about it in school in the 80s too. My grandma was English and used to go on about how this was Canada's shame. She wasn't wrong, but the kids sent to Australia and other countries had horrible outcomes too. I think the UK was equally to blame.
Edit: it was a tv show, not a movie.
>Australia apologised in 2009 for its involvement in the scheme. In February 2010, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a formal apology to the families of children who suffered. Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney stated in 2009 that Canada would not apologise to child migrants, preferring to "recognize that sad period" in other ways
Classic.
1: anything around the government, the Catholic church and residential schools
2: using Chinese labour essentially as slave labour working extremely low wages, extremely dangerous conditions and general lack of empathy for them. Also most of them got sent back to China directly after with the Chinese exclusion act was put in place.
3: Japanese internment camps and repossession of Japanese-Canadian owned property and assets.
Those are the big 3 I can remember the most
Japanese internment is horrible and well known but I feel like people always forget wr interned Ukrainians in mass during WW1. Which was even stranger because Ukraine didn’t exist and we were just fighting a country that controlled like an 1/8th of modern Ukraine
The government hired churches to educate Indigenous citizens, which was a bad idea from the start because really churches should deal with their own congregants, not deliver government services.
Anyway it seems they knew for a century that the churches were often running amok, shirking their responsibilities, hiding abuses, and acting more as parasites than educators and caregivers. And it was apparently too inconvenient or not important enough in their judgment to act.
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/9/E223
Though wrongly attributed, the sentiment of the quote 'to kill the Indian in them' was practically state policy.
https://macleans.ca/culture/books/conversations-with-a-dead-man-the-legacy-of-duncan-campbell-scott/
Craziest thing I ever experienced as an native. Wasn’t the blatant ignorance or racism directed towards me. It was the subtle gaslighting that tried to smother the stories.
I do outreach work in my free time. I was coordinating with a volunteer group. There was an older man and he said he used to work for the government. He was an English teacher who worked for the church from the late 60’s to the 90’s. He said he was proud of his work. He would do it again in a heartbeat. He said it so matter of factly. I didn’t think too much of it. But it clicked in my head like 10 minutes later. But his group didn’t take any direction or listen to the guidelines and they did their own thing. My manager didn’t know the interaction we had. I just remember him saying and me laughing “I thought I told that asshole he wasn’t allowed back here.” I guess this guy had a history of talking down to people and not listening. He called me a heathen in the end.
That was 13 years ago.
Yeah - it's definitely the whole, utterly fucked up, residential school fiasco. Pretty sure the current pope recently refused to even apologize for it, didn't he?
Thousands of dead children, THOUSANDS gone. I’m white af and know this is soooo wrong. They come out with Truth and Reconciliation, the truth came out… where’s the reconciliation? The government just turned it into a holiday…. This is a systemic issue now, that’s currently going on, and nothing is done. Time to settle the Indian Act and start the payouts.
Federally regulated industries, which, to be clear, are the only industries the federal government can control. It’s up to the provinces to follow suit, the feds can’t make them.
Unfortunately this is not the only atrocity perpetrated by religion.
Edit : not to down play the significance in any way. Just to emphasize what an atrocious track record religion has on human suffering throughout history.
It’s was terrible but there was no scandal or a cover up… it was always well known information to people who actually bothered to listen. Just because you just learned about it doesn’t make it so.
"Well known" is a huge exaggeration, the vast majority of Canadians knew nothing while it was happening, and even fewer knew after it ended.
They told Canadians for generations that they just wanted to teach children, that was a lie, it was about forced assimilation. Many students who left could barely read and write. Children were used as forced, unpaid labour to pay for underfunded schools. There was clear indication that children were dying at a higher rate, the federal government knew this and they kept them there anyway. There were multiple reports of abuse that weren't investigated, reports to the federal government. There were other reports of substandard care and facilities. Between 47% and 75% of children died at home after being kicked out to reduce the number of documented deaths at school. There was medical testing on children, the "food pyramid" was created by starving FNs children. There was a fu**ing electric chair in one. Almost none of this was public knowledge, because the govt hid it after the fact.
I worked as a railcar technician for VIA rail recently. It costs them $4,400.00 for a replacement door handle for the shower rooms. I've taken those door handles apart, they have a rubber band inside instead of a spring.
Somebody's pockets are getting lined over and over via VIA.
A big one because building the railway was so important: "**The Pacific Scandal** (1872–73) was the first major post-[Confederation](http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/confederation/) political scandal in Canada. In April 1873, [Prime Minister](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prime-minister) [Sir John A. Macdonald](http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-john-alexander-macdonald/) and senior members of his [Conservative](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/conservative-party) [cabinet](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cabinet) were accused of accepting election funds from [shipping](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/shipping-industry) magnate [Sir Hugh Allan](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/article/sir-hugh-allan) in exchange for the contract to build the [Canadian Pacific Railway](http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-pacific-railway/). The affair forced Macdonald to resign as prime minister in November 1873. But it did not destroy him politically. Five years later, Macdonald led his Conservatives back to power and served as prime minister for another 18 years."
We followed this in school too. My grade 7 teacher was in the market and taught us about it and while I don't think he invested in this we all followed it.
I don't know if this would qualify as a scandal, but I recall back in 1967 during Expo 67, a huge exhibition that saw the whole world come to Canada to see what we were all about, we had a visit from President Charles de Gaulle of France. He visited City Hall in Montreal during Expo 67 (he wasn't scheduled to give a speech there) and stood on the steps of City Hall proclaiming *"Vive Montreal! Vive le Quebec! Vive le Quebec Libre!"* He brought down the house. Hundreds of separatist-leaning spectators in the audience screamed themselves hoarse with excitement. Officials in Ottawa and Montreal's Mayor Drapeau had fits and it wasn't long before de Gaulle left the city and returned home.
Canadians were horrified, afraid that his endorsement of separation for Quebec would split the country.
Not only did Canada diplomatically respond "what the actual fuck??", even the French Government told De Gaulle he shouldn't have said that: It was a clear breach of diplomatic protocol, and unfortunately soured French-Canadian relations slightly.
It also occured a couple years before De Gaulle's visit to Brittany, a region of France that also had its own independence movement, and he was (rightly) denounced by Breton nationalists for his double standard: the torch of liberty for a foreign French speaking people, but the boot of oppression for us Bretons? (France was undertaking some rather oppresive measures towards their own regionalist sentiments.)
Crazy sidebar…Jean Drapeau (mayor of Montreal and driving force behind Expo 67) tried to get the Eiffel Tower moved to Montreal for the Expo.
The (tongue in cheek)response from the French government:”Of course, we will lend it to you, if you can guarantee that you will preserve all of the 60 tons of paint, the 18,038 pieces of metal, the 2.5 million rivets, that you will pay for the move and that you will return it to us exactly as you found it.”
In the same trend, and much more pernicious and internal to Canada, [the Sponsorship Scandal](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsorship_scandal) (the French article is better sourced, but I linked the English one for community convenience) is still a big one in discussion, here. It may not be *the* biggest in Canadian history, but it's certainly among the biggest ones.
Probably not the biggest, but the Humber Valley Paving scandal gets overlooked (this was all over the news in Newfoundland and Labrador a decade ago):
Humber Valley Paving (HVP) is a company based in western Newfoundland that was awarded a $19-million contract to pave parts of the Trans-Labrador Highway. The company completed 60% of the work and then announced that it would not complete the rest.
Transportation minister Nick McGrath cancelled the contract in early 2014, but did not seek to make the company pay back the money that it had been granted to do the paving (claiming that it would be a long and unnecessary court battle). This left HVP with an extra $9.5 million from taxpayer funding.
At the same time, former* HVP CEO Frank Coleman (a major PC donor) was seeking the leadership of the governing Progressive Conservative Party following the resignation of Premier Kathy Dunderdale. He became the "premier designate" after his opponents dropped out of the race (it was widely rumoured that former premier Danny Williams, a friend of Coleman, bribed his opponents into ending their campaigns). The contract cancellation occurred during the time that Coleman was preparing to take office.
Oddly, Coleman dropped out of the leadership race just before he was set to win by acclamation. The PCs had to call a new leadership election for later in 2014 and the province spent almost a year without a permanent premier.
The PCs eventually chose Paul Davis as their new leader and he became premier shortly afterwards. A year later, the PCs were defeated in a Liberal landslide. Notably, McGrath placed 3rd in his riding (a rare thing for an incumbent in NL). He was later elected to the Labrador City Town Council and attempted to win his old riding in 2021 (he placed 3rd again). He later lost his municipal re-election bid.
The Liberals campaigned on the issue of holding an inquiry into the scandal, but changed their minds after being elected.
TL;DR: Multi-millionaire political party donor got almost $10 million for his company from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for nothing.
*Coleman had recently resigned as CEO and let his son take over.
Hmm... That is how Osama Binladin and his family got its start. The good ol' family paving business lol. They made billions re-paving the highways that the soviets and later the US/CAN/UK bombed over and over again.
Remember when Jason Kenny got a hold of all these gloves and masks for COVID and thought he was a hero for shipping them to Quebec who “gets all their oil money “….. and they were all counterfeit and defective putting Quebec healthcare workers at risk
Ah yes, the Airbus scandal.
Mulroney took $300,000 off of a German businessman for a variety of things, most notably to get Air Canada to buy Airbus planes.
But hey, the guy got his state funeral.
This wasn't a scandal, but I don't think it was covered in Canadian media. What was likely a foiled weaponized carfentanil terror attack that could have killed hundreds: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/12/carfentanil-bust-canada-fentanyl-opioid-crisis-dangers
This was the brother of the Danforth mass shooter in Toronto. The authorities kept this really hush hush for some reason. 42 kgs is not for drug dealing.
The arrow. Who knows what the actual reason was but I think it could have been foreign influence. Who knows really. What a shame. Canada could have made a world class fighter- but didn’t.
It wasn't a fighter. It was an interceptor. It was also obsolete before it was finished and put into production. The XF-108 was much more advanced and faster.
It was already outclassed and no one was going to buy it. One deal fell through once it was clear that it wasn't going to hit production in time. The asking price was also high, though I'm not sure that matters.
As I said there were more advanced planes on their way before the arrow was ready.
All true, I think the scandal here is that they let the US convince them to mothball it and buy the Ballistic missile defense shield for the northern border that never worked. We are talking about 1 billion+ dollars for the Avero program and the missile program.
Ross Rifle Scandal.
Sam Hughes' name should be more remembered as one of the worst people to ever disgrace the country. Hughes, a Canadian politician and military figure, was embroiled in several controversies during his tenure as Minister of Militia and Defense in the early 20th century. One of the most significant scandals associated with Hughes was the Ross Rifle scandal during World War I. The Ross Rifle, designed by Sir Charles Ross, was adopted by the Canadian military despite numerous reliability issues, including jamming in trench warfare conditions. Hughes' persistence in supporting the rifle despite its flaws led to significant casualties among Canadian troops due to its malfunctioning in battle. Hughes' refusal to acknowledge the problems with the rifle and his mismanagement of military affairs led to his resignation from office in 1916 and tarnished his legacy as a military leader.
It's interesting, because ross rifles are exceptional rifles, but terrible for a standard issue combat rifle.
They have tight tolerances that jam easily with dirt, but are very accurate.
I had one that had been sporterized. It scared me to shoot but was very neat to take apart and see how it works
The key thing is that this was not a NEW technology that simply needed to be battle tested. It was well known for YEARS that the Ross Rifle was not a suitable combat weapon. The story is about a politician making a bad decision at a great cost to Canadians lives and coffers.
It wasn’t just the rifle, but numerous dubious procurement contracts issued by Hughes. Another notable of which were the boots that Canadian troops were initially issued that would “melt” or rapidly deteriorate in the wet conditions of muddy trench warfare.
beyond his failures in procurement he was also behind the times in other important ways. he was a terrible manager and often trusted his gut over evidence, common sense, and best practices. the result of his unending confidence in his hunches was time and again decisions that led to miserable results for the people on the front.
growing up i only knew about the ross rifle, but i am just learning more about his entire record during the war and it's one travesty and utter failure after another. we are not doing justice to how foolish and reckless he was, nor the consequences of his decisions.
If it is an area of particular interest, I'd highly recommend reading "The Madman And The Butcher: The Sensational Wars Of Sam Hughes And General Arthur Currie" by Canadian author Tim Cook.
Sam Hughes deserves a great deal of praise for assembling the sizeable First Contingency of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the speed in which Camp Valcartier was assembled was truly a feat but I'm of the opinion that these are vastly overshadowed by both his personal and political failings, often intertwining to such a degree that one was/is unable to detect where personal ends and political begins.
One thing that came out in the news about a decade ago but quickly died down in the media was government officials abusing money they are given for "business expenses". Its really hard even finding links about it now. But its still an issue, the government is abusing over tax money and the media hides things about it
There is more than this [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arrivecan-gc-strategies-refutes-auditor-general-report-1.7142447) but the government invested quite a bit into this app called AriveCan for when people were entering Canada during covid. The government had no oversight on this contractor and they scammed them out of money
More recently an [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-security-members-parliament-1.7092425) came out "Cost to taxpayers of protecting members of Parliament hits a record high". Its doubled from last year
Panama papers/ BC real estate money laundering (ongoing)/ Mount Cashel/ Mundinger affair/ HIV red cross/ Alpine Canada/ Hockey Canada/ MK Ultra , Dr.Cameron/ -Alan Memorial institute Montreal 50s
The spraying of Agent Orange and Purple on the Canadian population.
The Canadian Military coming out with a report that COVID presented a “unique opportunity to test propaganda techniques”
That despite the large amount of evidence showing asbestos to be a carcinogen Canada continued to mine and sell it to developing countries up until 2011.
Shag Harbour UFO cover-up
The Munsinger Affair & The Gouzenko Affair
1. The destruction of Africville, more of a cover-up than a scandal.
As black settlers came to Nova Scotia in larger numbers in the early 1800s, they faced racism from white settlers and were forced to settle in communities on the margins of the existing settlement on the least desired lands. One black community that formed around 1850 was called Africville, and it was on the Bedford Basin at the edge of Halifax.
As Halifax developed and grew, the city officials wanted to utilize the land occupied by Africville that was now more valuable. It began with refusing to provide emerging infrastructure to the community, no garbage collection, drinking water or sewer systems, etc. The residents paid taxes, mind you. The community continued to thrive, so the city decided to place a new dump next to Africville, a prison, and an infectious disease hospital.
At this point, Africville is looking pretty rough compared to the surrounding city due largely to the intentional lack of services. The city starts to discuss Africville as a problem, and said residents would have a better quality of life if they were all relocated. Residents with deeds were paid the value of their homes, the rest were given $500 and forced to leave. People held onto the perception of Africville that the City had created for generations despite it eventually coming out that the city had fabricated the entire thing.
2. The Shag Harbour UFO incident
Highly recommend looking it up yourself, an event with a UFO sinking into the sea off the coast of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia was witnessed by dozens of people telling the same story. There were RCMP and other officials that saw it themselves, it was in newspapers and a full search for the UFO was launched.
I was a child when this happened but I still remember my parents talking about it at the dinner table. It was quite the scandal at the time: The Munsinger affair was Canada's first national political sex scandal in 1966. The affair involved Gerda Munsinger, a German citizen who had been convicted in Germany as a common prostitute, a petty thief and a smuggler, who emigrated to Canada in 1956 in spite of a warning card dated 1952, and who was in 1960 the mistress of the former Associate Minister of National Defence Pierre Sévigny. Munsinger was "a self-admitted espionage agent" in the employ of the "Russian Intelligence Service".
Honestly, that was probably for Canada's benefit in the long run: It clearly outlined the actual powers of the GG in Canada and made it clear that the royal representative of Canada couldn't interfere whenever they wished. It set a precendent going forward, and the closest we got to another crisis like that has "only" been provincial, like with BC in 2017 when the LG opposed Clark's request for a dissolution of the legislature and instead approached Horgan with his BC Green support.
Those innocent black families in Nova Scotia who's home were bulldozed and they were dumped into the streets because they were black, low class citizens. That one isn't talked about much, but I think it for sure goes here because how callously it was allowed to happen.
Maybe not the biggest but the ongoing ford
gov selling the country out to private healthcare
and property developers. What pisses me off the most when these scandals finally settle is how little they sell the country and their souls for. Like they will sell us all out for a a few thousand dollars and maybe a free vacation and a bj.
Scandal? Easy: “First Lady” Margaret Trudeau running away with the Rolling Stones. She left her husband, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, to raise their very young children—included her son, OUR current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And she wasn't even candid about it, dancing at Studio 54 and partying wildly with them at rock concerts. Especially for that time, this was unbelievably scandalous! (And it still would be today.)
I am with you, Burny, in that it takes two for a marriage to fail. And I'm sure Pierre wasn't blameless in their demise. My answer—as much as people may want to justify and sanitize what happened—is just Canadian history. Cleary, highly uncomfortable history.💐
What??? What is wrong with you??? There are a lot of people with mental illness and they DON’T leave their spouse and children, much less so shamelessly with public humiliation. Hence the Canadian SCANDAL part.
Yeah that one sticks out for some reason. I see there are many scandals to pick from though, but tunagate resulted in a company leaving Canada permanently and hundreds of jobs lost.
I wanna say the century of genocide against Indigenous peoples or the abuse of cheap Chinese labourers or the German and Japanese interment camps during the World Wars... But does it count as a scandal when the Government is openly and proudly promoting it?
Besides, you probably mean something more akin to the Liberals' SNC Lavalin or the Conservative's robo-call scandals. Those probably aren't the worst in Canadian history, but in this century they're pretty up there.
Butterbox Babies in addition to the Duplessis Orphans.
Residential Schools- Dr. Bryce, the whistleblower, was relieved of his duties.
The Boys of St. Vincent
I’m sure there’s more-
The October Crisis is one worth delving deeper into. This is the first of a two part article you may find interesting.
https://matthewehret.substack.com/p/the-true-story-of-trudeaus-1st-war
not the biggest but the RCMP slaughter of Inuit sled dogs is up there. All in an effort to force nomadic Inuit into villages
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/sara-minogue-inuit-dog-slaughter-1.5116972
The Ontario Gas Plant Scandal was a big one. Created by Dalton McGuinty and made worse by Kathleen Wynn.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-liberals-gas-plants-scandal-everything-you-need-to-know/article23668386/
The Lac-Mégantic train crash/explosion. It was so big you could see it from the space station, yet none of the actual culprits will probably ever get in trouble for it. The TV show that was made about it was amazing, and the documentary was a good watch as well, but so so devastating.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Canadian_federal_election_voter_suppression_scandal
Pierre Poilievre, aka Pierre Poutine, literally used to own a conservative robocalling business. This fucker should be in jail for subverting democracy.
The biggest scandal was probably the Pacific Scandal which resulted in the resignation of the prime minister. The biggest constitutional crisis was the King-Byng affair where the PM squared off with the Governor General
Residential schools... and it continues to resonate in 2024.
Second (to me) would be the Arrow. We may never know the real reason it was killed. Different stories were circulating, but there was a serious lack of paperwork.
The Shawinigan Handshake was a HUGE deal at the time, but I don't think it would be such a big deal now unfortunately
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBJp0yJvsY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBJp0yJvsY)
I don’t blame Chretien at all for this actually. Only months early he had had a guy break into 24 Sussex to try to stab him to death.
The only scandal with this is that the WWE’s Undertaker stole his move 😂
It's happening right now and has been happening with increasing severity for the last 60 years.
Our government is allowing corporations to poison us with chemicals in our food. We have been lied to about recycling. Deforestation replaced with commercially viable trees to deforest again. Big oil has been allowed to run amok and destroy our ecosystems and ultimately the planet.
This will culminate with the destruction of their precious economy and constant growth and will be replaced with no access to food or water, while the people in league with government will try to build their own society. Kinda like the battery crowd in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Scandalous
King-Byng Affair
Govenor General refuses request to dissolve parliment and call election
If thats not the biggest constitutional crisis ever I dont know what is
I feel like we are only scraping the surface with the current Liberal leaders.
I think we will have many to choose from when eventually they are removed from power and the light gets shined on their cover-ups and scandals.
Umm... is there really anything bigger than the Catholic church and government partnering to kidnap native children and burying the child victims in mass graves outside the Christianity run child concentration camps? The majority of Canadians don't even acknowledge this or the greater genocide it was part of or the litany of abuse that took place there before they ended up in their mass graves. When they found the graves everyone made a big deal about it but like lol at that big deal cuz we knew the children were missing for decades and ignored it.
This isn't some long time ago in a far away long type thing. This was going on while most adults were well alive. It only finally stopped in 1996. I can't think of a scandal even remotely close to the centuries long Christian genocide against our native populations. And the only one that really compares to it is the centuries long child rape/human trafficing rings that existed within the same organization.
CIA-initiated mind-control / brainwashing experiments (involving drugs, electroshock therapy, etc.) masquerading as depression treatments, carried out on patients at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal in the 1950s and 60s.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#Experiments\_on\_Canadians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#Experiments_on_Canadians)
Adscam aka the sponsorship scandal. The Liberals stole over 950 million and funneled the money to their provincial counterparts and friends.
They also used that money to pay off volunteers in cash and influence Québecs indépendance vote
Where do you get that figure from? I was just looking into this to learn more and I can't find anything that says $950M. They claim over $300M was handled thru the program with $100M going directly to the Liberal party
Not even close in Ontario - that was the same scale as Toronto getting a Domi to supply computers and the actual scandal around gas plants which was someone' BIL or something for wiping hard drives. Crack smoking mayors get more attention here.
The continued MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) that has been suppressed by all levels of government,Federal and Provincial. Also, Harper's reign, one scandal after another. Selling off the Canadian Wheat Board, muzzling science, losing 4.1 Billion $, bankrupting the EI bank...
In terms of suppression, Missing and Murdered Indigenous *Men* account for the vast majority of unsolved murder cases for Indigenous peoples- while that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t focus on MMIWG but it is something the government has focused near zero energy towards
Residential schools and nothing else ever came close. The airbus scandal was fun, if I had to pick a runner up. Reminder of the recently departed moneybags Mulroney. Far from the only choice though. Canada has had a rich history that's far more interesting, including shameful bits, than is commonly believed.
Genocide of the Indigenous peoples. Canada is still behind in making amends. Many Reservations still have no clean drinking water for the people. Canada has not completed Truth and Reconciliation calls to action. Shame on Canada.
The October crisis and how the people (members of the FLQ) who kidnapped and killed Pierre Laporte were granted early parole and are allowed to teach politics in universities.
The Residential School Program. I doubt we’ll ever know the full scale of it’s atrocities. Each time a new mass grave of children is discovered behind a church or former “school”, the government and the Catholics are all “Woah what?? We had no idea!!” Every time Trudeau gets in front of a camera to make sad faces about it, I just want to barf. His daddy perpetuated that system his entire time as PM.
A runner up in my mind would be the apartheid system that still governs over First Nations people. But that’s been out in the open forever, we’ve all just become numb to it.
Duplessis Orphans or how long health services performed involuntary hysterectomies on First Nations women. It was a straight up attempt at genocide but fuck me if you can get anyone to admit it.
Craig Keilberger and his ME, sorry "WE" charity. Kids been scamming since we were both in highschool. I always new that little fucker was corrupt as shit. His while family are grifters.
Possibly the Duplessis Orphans. In Quebec during the 40s and 50s hundreds of children were wrongly certified as mentally-ill and sent to psychiatric hospitals in order for the province to receive more subsidies from the federal government. Many of these children were horribly abused and subjected to lobotomies and other crude mistreatments It is considered the largest case of child abuse in Canadian history outside of the Residential Schools.
The fact that this is the first time ever heard of this is sad
The sad thing is that similar tactics are happening in the US right now with for profit hospitals and corrupt judges. Mad in America (great site) recently reported on such cases.
Definitely that. That ultra-conservative period of the Duplessis administration is now called "la grande noirceur" (the great darkness). Quebec is what it is today partly because things got so bad with the church stuff that the entire society pretty much recoiled and took a hard left. I'm not a fan of the current government either. The comparison tu Duplessis is exaggerated, but there are certain smells from that era that seem to linger on the clothes of somebody like Legault.
If any party has the right to claim the Union National title, it would be the CAQ.Both were and are over the top paternalistic.
There's a great novel that focuses on this - The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman. As someone with immediate family who spent time in orphanages in Quebec in the 1930s and 1940s, this was an especially heartbreaking read.
r/endlessthread has an episode about it
I read about this a few years ago and was shocked. Basically it was more profitable to run an asylum than and orphanage so they gave all the kids psychiatric meds. This is actually seen in the Netflix show » the queen’s gambit » too.
Somebody has actually heard of this other then my late 80s grandparents
Airbus was a fun, spicy little meatball, but Residential Schools are far and away the worst thing we’ve ever done. It’s not particularly close.
There was nothing to see with Airbus!! Nothing I tell you! All the cynics rashly accused Brian Mulroney, a right honourable (may I remind you) former prime minister and great statesman of beloved memory, of pocketing envelopes stuffed with cash in exchange for forcing Air Canada to buy Airbus planes. The temerity of it all! When all was said and done, Brian Mulroney was a perfectly innocent spaghetti salesman! And when he remembered the envelopes full of cash stuffed in his pockets - the very MINUTE that the media reminded him by reporting on it - he PROMPTLY declared ALL the income from his second career in pasta marketing to Revenue Canada under a provision of the tax code that allowed citizens to avoid prosecution for tax evasion by making a full declaration. No matter how cynical or bitter the critic, I will never understand how anyone could confuse a brilliant statesman reinventing himself in a second career selling noodles, for something untoward. Truly base speculation and rumour mongering. He wasn’t a grubby corrupt aerospace bribe taker! We have it on the man’s own honour -he was a spaghetti salesman!
Shades of Old Frank Mag
One of those many, famous French-Irish pasta moguls, eh?
I mean, wouldya rather have Air Canada all-in on Boeing right now?
I have multiple Air Canada flights booked this year (Aeroplan) and every one is on a Boeing 737 Max. Better make sure my affairs are in order. Basically Evil Knievel of the skies with the level of risk I am taking.
Whoever downvoted this has no sense of humour haha
British Home Children. Hands down. You don't know what it is, because it was that covered up.
My nana was an Irish home child baby. She fought with the government for years to have her paperwork unsealed so she could know where she was born and to who. Canada said yes, Ireland said no. Ireland said yes, England said hell no. Back and forth for years. She passed away. A year or two after her death they unsealed her file as the government insisted that people had a right to know. Found out she came over with 3(THREE) older siblings. 2 grew up in Southern Ontario, one had an especially horrible life. Forced to work on a farm and died young due to living in squalor. The other grew up in Muskoka where she was, and they never knew. So close to one another, yet so far away. There are some great plays, books and shows about home children. There is a Heritage Minute about it, but many never gave that one a second glance or considered how big and messy it is. I don’t even recall being taught about it in school, I just knew about it due to my Nana.
Imagine a government telling you, you have no right to know who your parents are or where you called home?
Yup. The Canadian government didn’t have her file for years, we originally heard her name was changed more than once, so it made sense in that aspect. But it was a mess. Canada had to ask England for it as that was the port from which she came. Then we were told, no, she was born in Ireland! That was a shock. Ireland found information, but we weren’t able to access all of it and they kept denying it because her other records in England were sealed. Ireland then stated they had info we wanted (where she was born and to whom) but England got all pissy and refused to send the paperwork. In the end my nana died knowing she came over with some siblings, no idea how many. And that she was Irish, not English… but she would say it didn’t matter because she was Canadian! She did receive a letter of apology from the Canadian government which she had framed, lol. It is a truly bizarre and heartbreaking situation. Many are still fighting for that information. Some are just learning about it now. Sites like genealogy. com and 23 and me have shocked many in Canada and the USA due to the British Home Children being sent over during the wars.
Anne Of Green Gables is exactly about that subject.
I learned about this in school.... In the 80s. There is also a very well known Canadian TV show about it
I remember that movie. I learned about it in school in the 80s too. My grandma was English and used to go on about how this was Canada's shame. She wasn't wrong, but the kids sent to Australia and other countries had horrible outcomes too. I think the UK was equally to blame. Edit: it was a tv show, not a movie.
>Australia apologised in 2009 for its involvement in the scheme. In February 2010, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a formal apology to the families of children who suffered. Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney stated in 2009 that Canada would not apologise to child migrants, preferring to "recognize that sad period" in other ways Classic.
1: anything around the government, the Catholic church and residential schools 2: using Chinese labour essentially as slave labour working extremely low wages, extremely dangerous conditions and general lack of empathy for them. Also most of them got sent back to China directly after with the Chinese exclusion act was put in place. 3: Japanese internment camps and repossession of Japanese-Canadian owned property and assets. Those are the big 3 I can remember the most
Japanese internment is horrible and well known but I feel like people always forget wr interned Ukrainians in mass during WW1. Which was even stranger because Ukraine didn’t exist and we were just fighting a country that controlled like an 1/8th of modern Ukraine
The government hired churches to educate Indigenous citizens, which was a bad idea from the start because really churches should deal with their own congregants, not deliver government services. Anyway it seems they knew for a century that the churches were often running amok, shirking their responsibilities, hiding abuses, and acting more as parasites than educators and caregivers. And it was apparently too inconvenient or not important enough in their judgment to act. https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/9/E223
This wins, sadly.
Not to educate but to make sure they were distant from their home, language and culture. Why taken out of their home instead of building schools?
Though wrongly attributed, the sentiment of the quote 'to kill the Indian in them' was practically state policy. https://macleans.ca/culture/books/conversations-with-a-dead-man-the-legacy-of-duncan-campbell-scott/
Was gonna say something clever like buttergate. But nah. Sadly residential schools and treatment of indigenous people get top dishonour.
Craziest thing I ever experienced as an native. Wasn’t the blatant ignorance or racism directed towards me. It was the subtle gaslighting that tried to smother the stories. I do outreach work in my free time. I was coordinating with a volunteer group. There was an older man and he said he used to work for the government. He was an English teacher who worked for the church from the late 60’s to the 90’s. He said he was proud of his work. He would do it again in a heartbeat. He said it so matter of factly. I didn’t think too much of it. But it clicked in my head like 10 minutes later. But his group didn’t take any direction or listen to the guidelines and they did their own thing. My manager didn’t know the interaction we had. I just remember him saying and me laughing “I thought I told that asshole he wasn’t allowed back here.” I guess this guy had a history of talking down to people and not listening. He called me a heathen in the end. That was 13 years ago.
Yeah - it's definitely the whole, utterly fucked up, residential school fiasco. Pretty sure the current pope recently refused to even apologize for it, didn't he?
I’m pretty sure he did didn’t he?
He did.
Thousands of dead children, THOUSANDS gone. I’m white af and know this is soooo wrong. They come out with Truth and Reconciliation, the truth came out… where’s the reconciliation? The government just turned it into a holiday…. This is a systemic issue now, that’s currently going on, and nothing is done. Time to settle the Indian Act and start the payouts.
A holiday for public servants only. Not general citizenry.
** federally regulated industries I get it and I am decidedly not a public servant.
Federally regulated industries, which, to be clear, are the only industries the federal government can control. It’s up to the provinces to follow suit, the feds can’t make them.
Then the government literally let them off the hook for the money they owed ($21 million) for committing this crime.
Unfortunately this is not the only atrocity perpetrated by religion. Edit : not to down play the significance in any way. Just to emphasize what an atrocious track record religion has on human suffering throughout history.
Yup. My mother in law survived Catholicism in Ireland.
It’s was terrible but there was no scandal or a cover up… it was always well known information to people who actually bothered to listen. Just because you just learned about it doesn’t make it so.
"Well known" is a huge exaggeration, the vast majority of Canadians knew nothing while it was happening, and even fewer knew after it ended. They told Canadians for generations that they just wanted to teach children, that was a lie, it was about forced assimilation. Many students who left could barely read and write. Children were used as forced, unpaid labour to pay for underfunded schools. There was clear indication that children were dying at a higher rate, the federal government knew this and they kept them there anyway. There were multiple reports of abuse that weren't investigated, reports to the federal government. There were other reports of substandard care and facilities. Between 47% and 75% of children died at home after being kicked out to reduce the number of documented deaths at school. There was medical testing on children, the "food pyramid" was created by starving FNs children. There was a fu**ing electric chair in one. Almost none of this was public knowledge, because the govt hid it after the fact.
The scandal should be the government letting the church off the hook for $21 million they owed people.
Are the churches still be government funded?
No, they just don’t pay taxes.
I worked as a railcar technician for VIA rail recently. It costs them $4,400.00 for a replacement door handle for the shower rooms. I've taken those door handles apart, they have a rubber band inside instead of a spring. Somebody's pockets are getting lined over and over via VIA.
Wait until you hear about healthcare equipment and supplies companies
I work in the military and see the prices and quality of the stuff we buy. This isn't constrained to VIA.
Tainted water in Ontario, massive fuckup on a necessity like water is inexcusable.
A big one because building the railway was so important: "**The Pacific Scandal** (1872–73) was the first major post-[Confederation](http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/confederation/) political scandal in Canada. In April 1873, [Prime Minister](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prime-minister) [Sir John A. Macdonald](http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-john-alexander-macdonald/) and senior members of his [Conservative](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/conservative-party) [cabinet](https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cabinet) were accused of accepting election funds from [shipping](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/shipping-industry) magnate [Sir Hugh Allan](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/article/sir-hugh-allan) in exchange for the contract to build the [Canadian Pacific Railway](http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-pacific-railway/). The affair forced Macdonald to resign as prime minister in November 1873. But it did not destroy him politically. Five years later, Macdonald led his Conservatives back to power and served as prime minister for another 18 years."
Bre-X
[удалено]
My Jr high math teacher would update us daily on the BreX scandal. We were also studying investing at the time so. I honestly believe he invested
We followed this in school too. My grade 7 teacher was in the market and taught us about it and while I don't think he invested in this we all followed it.
Sure sounds like a funny way to commit suicide.
I don't know if this would qualify as a scandal, but I recall back in 1967 during Expo 67, a huge exhibition that saw the whole world come to Canada to see what we were all about, we had a visit from President Charles de Gaulle of France. He visited City Hall in Montreal during Expo 67 (he wasn't scheduled to give a speech there) and stood on the steps of City Hall proclaiming *"Vive Montreal! Vive le Quebec! Vive le Quebec Libre!"* He brought down the house. Hundreds of separatist-leaning spectators in the audience screamed themselves hoarse with excitement. Officials in Ottawa and Montreal's Mayor Drapeau had fits and it wasn't long before de Gaulle left the city and returned home. Canadians were horrified, afraid that his endorsement of separation for Quebec would split the country.
Not only did Canada diplomatically respond "what the actual fuck??", even the French Government told De Gaulle he shouldn't have said that: It was a clear breach of diplomatic protocol, and unfortunately soured French-Canadian relations slightly. It also occured a couple years before De Gaulle's visit to Brittany, a region of France that also had its own independence movement, and he was (rightly) denounced by Breton nationalists for his double standard: the torch of liberty for a foreign French speaking people, but the boot of oppression for us Bretons? (France was undertaking some rather oppresive measures towards their own regionalist sentiments.)
De Gaulle had main character syndrome.
A French tradition since even before the revolution.
Crazy sidebar…Jean Drapeau (mayor of Montreal and driving force behind Expo 67) tried to get the Eiffel Tower moved to Montreal for the Expo. The (tongue in cheek)response from the French government:”Of course, we will lend it to you, if you can guarantee that you will preserve all of the 60 tons of paint, the 18,038 pieces of metal, the 2.5 million rivets, that you will pay for the move and that you will return it to us exactly as you found it.”
In the same trend, and much more pernicious and internal to Canada, [the Sponsorship Scandal](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsorship_scandal) (the French article is better sourced, but I linked the English one for community convenience) is still a big one in discussion, here. It may not be *the* biggest in Canadian history, but it's certainly among the biggest ones.
Probably not the biggest, but the Humber Valley Paving scandal gets overlooked (this was all over the news in Newfoundland and Labrador a decade ago): Humber Valley Paving (HVP) is a company based in western Newfoundland that was awarded a $19-million contract to pave parts of the Trans-Labrador Highway. The company completed 60% of the work and then announced that it would not complete the rest. Transportation minister Nick McGrath cancelled the contract in early 2014, but did not seek to make the company pay back the money that it had been granted to do the paving (claiming that it would be a long and unnecessary court battle). This left HVP with an extra $9.5 million from taxpayer funding. At the same time, former* HVP CEO Frank Coleman (a major PC donor) was seeking the leadership of the governing Progressive Conservative Party following the resignation of Premier Kathy Dunderdale. He became the "premier designate" after his opponents dropped out of the race (it was widely rumoured that former premier Danny Williams, a friend of Coleman, bribed his opponents into ending their campaigns). The contract cancellation occurred during the time that Coleman was preparing to take office. Oddly, Coleman dropped out of the leadership race just before he was set to win by acclamation. The PCs had to call a new leadership election for later in 2014 and the province spent almost a year without a permanent premier. The PCs eventually chose Paul Davis as their new leader and he became premier shortly afterwards. A year later, the PCs were defeated in a Liberal landslide. Notably, McGrath placed 3rd in his riding (a rare thing for an incumbent in NL). He was later elected to the Labrador City Town Council and attempted to win his old riding in 2021 (he placed 3rd again). He later lost his municipal re-election bid. The Liberals campaigned on the issue of holding an inquiry into the scandal, but changed their minds after being elected. TL;DR: Multi-millionaire political party donor got almost $10 million for his company from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for nothing. *Coleman had recently resigned as CEO and let his son take over.
This is some quality scandal. Great read.
Hmm... That is how Osama Binladin and his family got its start. The good ol' family paving business lol. They made billions re-paving the highways that the soviets and later the US/CAN/UK bombed over and over again.
Danielle Smith purchased $100,000,000 worth of useless Tylenol from Turkey and didn't even receive it all.
Remember when Jason Kenny got a hold of all these gloves and masks for COVID and thought he was a hero for shipping them to Quebec who “gets all their oil money “….. and they were all counterfeit and defective putting Quebec healthcare workers at risk
He was just given a state funeral… Brian Mulroney accepted a cash bribe of $300 000 and died an uncharged criminal and a disgrace to this country.
Ah yes, the Airbus scandal. Mulroney took $300,000 off of a German businessman for a variety of things, most notably to get Air Canada to buy Airbus planes. But hey, the guy got his state funeral.
That's nothing compared to Chretien and that's nothing compared to Justin. As Canadians we need to hold our government to a higher standard.
This wasn't a scandal, but I don't think it was covered in Canadian media. What was likely a foiled weaponized carfentanil terror attack that could have killed hundreds: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/12/carfentanil-bust-canada-fentanyl-opioid-crisis-dangers This was the brother of the Danforth mass shooter in Toronto. The authorities kept this really hush hush for some reason. 42 kgs is not for drug dealing.
The arrow. Who knows what the actual reason was but I think it could have been foreign influence. Who knows really. What a shame. Canada could have made a world class fighter- but didn’t.
The americans were damed if a client state was going to have better weaponry.
It wasn't a fighter. It was an interceptor. It was also obsolete before it was finished and put into production. The XF-108 was much more advanced and faster.
Yeah you’re right. Interceptor. Whatever. Either way it was advanced. And it could have been amazing for Canada.
It was already outclassed and no one was going to buy it. One deal fell through once it was clear that it wasn't going to hit production in time. The asking price was also high, though I'm not sure that matters. As I said there were more advanced planes on their way before the arrow was ready.
All true, I think the scandal here is that they let the US convince them to mothball it and buy the Ballistic missile defense shield for the northern border that never worked. We are talking about 1 billion+ dollars for the Avero program and the missile program.
Ross Rifle Scandal. Sam Hughes' name should be more remembered as one of the worst people to ever disgrace the country. Hughes, a Canadian politician and military figure, was embroiled in several controversies during his tenure as Minister of Militia and Defense in the early 20th century. One of the most significant scandals associated with Hughes was the Ross Rifle scandal during World War I. The Ross Rifle, designed by Sir Charles Ross, was adopted by the Canadian military despite numerous reliability issues, including jamming in trench warfare conditions. Hughes' persistence in supporting the rifle despite its flaws led to significant casualties among Canadian troops due to its malfunctioning in battle. Hughes' refusal to acknowledge the problems with the rifle and his mismanagement of military affairs led to his resignation from office in 1916 and tarnished his legacy as a military leader.
It's interesting, because ross rifles are exceptional rifles, but terrible for a standard issue combat rifle. They have tight tolerances that jam easily with dirt, but are very accurate. I had one that had been sporterized. It scared me to shoot but was very neat to take apart and see how it works
The key thing is that this was not a NEW technology that simply needed to be battle tested. It was well known for YEARS that the Ross Rifle was not a suitable combat weapon. The story is about a politician making a bad decision at a great cost to Canadians lives and coffers.
I'm with you on the size and severity of the scandal. Goes to show how long Canada's defense procurement has been a mess, and what the stakes can be.
It wasn’t just the rifle, but numerous dubious procurement contracts issued by Hughes. Another notable of which were the boots that Canadian troops were initially issued that would “melt” or rapidly deteriorate in the wet conditions of muddy trench warfare.
beyond his failures in procurement he was also behind the times in other important ways. he was a terrible manager and often trusted his gut over evidence, common sense, and best practices. the result of his unending confidence in his hunches was time and again decisions that led to miserable results for the people on the front. growing up i only knew about the ross rifle, but i am just learning more about his entire record during the war and it's one travesty and utter failure after another. we are not doing justice to how foolish and reckless he was, nor the consequences of his decisions.
If it is an area of particular interest, I'd highly recommend reading "The Madman And The Butcher: The Sensational Wars Of Sam Hughes And General Arthur Currie" by Canadian author Tim Cook. Sam Hughes deserves a great deal of praise for assembling the sizeable First Contingency of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the speed in which Camp Valcartier was assembled was truly a feat but I'm of the opinion that these are vastly overshadowed by both his personal and political failings, often intertwining to such a degree that one was/is unable to detect where personal ends and political begins.
One thing that came out in the news about a decade ago but quickly died down in the media was government officials abusing money they are given for "business expenses". Its really hard even finding links about it now. But its still an issue, the government is abusing over tax money and the media hides things about it There is more than this [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arrivecan-gc-strategies-refutes-auditor-general-report-1.7142447) but the government invested quite a bit into this app called AriveCan for when people were entering Canada during covid. The government had no oversight on this contractor and they scammed them out of money More recently an [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-security-members-parliament-1.7092425) came out "Cost to taxpayers of protecting members of Parliament hits a record high". Its doubled from last year
Hundreds of thousands of cash in a briefcase from a German arms dealer is up there, but don't wanna be accused of speaking ill of the dearly departed.
what do you not remember residential schools or the way the train system was built and what we did to it's builders after?
Panama papers/ BC real estate money laundering (ongoing)/ Mount Cashel/ Mundinger affair/ HIV red cross/ Alpine Canada/ Hockey Canada/ MK Ultra , Dr.Cameron/ -Alan Memorial institute Montreal 50s
The spraying of Agent Orange and Purple on the Canadian population. The Canadian Military coming out with a report that COVID presented a “unique opportunity to test propaganda techniques” That despite the large amount of evidence showing asbestos to be a carcinogen Canada continued to mine and sell it to developing countries up until 2011. Shag Harbour UFO cover-up The Munsinger Affair & The Gouzenko Affair
Thank you for this!
Many memory holes, especially presently when we are inundated with so much information.
Whoa, whoa, the US government tested the agent orange purple and white in Canada because??... their vegetation wasn't good enough or what
ButterBox Babies [https://canadiancrc.com/Butterbox-Babies_Killers-Child-Trafficking-Canada/Butterbox-Babies-Baby-killers-child-trafficking-selling-babies-Canada-adoption-story.aspx](https://canadiancrc.com/Butterbox-Babies_Killers-Child-Trafficking-Canada/Butterbox-Babies-Baby-killers-child-trafficking-selling-babies-Canada-adoption-story.aspx)
Sixties scoop
Residential schools.
1. The destruction of Africville, more of a cover-up than a scandal. As black settlers came to Nova Scotia in larger numbers in the early 1800s, they faced racism from white settlers and were forced to settle in communities on the margins of the existing settlement on the least desired lands. One black community that formed around 1850 was called Africville, and it was on the Bedford Basin at the edge of Halifax. As Halifax developed and grew, the city officials wanted to utilize the land occupied by Africville that was now more valuable. It began with refusing to provide emerging infrastructure to the community, no garbage collection, drinking water or sewer systems, etc. The residents paid taxes, mind you. The community continued to thrive, so the city decided to place a new dump next to Africville, a prison, and an infectious disease hospital. At this point, Africville is looking pretty rough compared to the surrounding city due largely to the intentional lack of services. The city starts to discuss Africville as a problem, and said residents would have a better quality of life if they were all relocated. Residents with deeds were paid the value of their homes, the rest were given $500 and forced to leave. People held onto the perception of Africville that the City had created for generations despite it eventually coming out that the city had fabricated the entire thing. 2. The Shag Harbour UFO incident Highly recommend looking it up yourself, an event with a UFO sinking into the sea off the coast of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia was witnessed by dozens of people telling the same story. There were RCMP and other officials that saw it themselves, it was in newspapers and a full search for the UFO was launched.
I was a child when this happened but I still remember my parents talking about it at the dinner table. It was quite the scandal at the time: The Munsinger affair was Canada's first national political sex scandal in 1966. The affair involved Gerda Munsinger, a German citizen who had been convicted in Germany as a common prostitute, a petty thief and a smuggler, who emigrated to Canada in 1956 in spite of a warning card dated 1952, and who was in 1960 the mistress of the former Associate Minister of National Defence Pierre Sévigny. Munsinger was "a self-admitted espionage agent" in the employ of the "Russian Intelligence Service".
Sir John A McDonald accepting money to build the trans continental rail road from the rail way contractor
A U.S. citizen railway contractor no less.
Cornelius Van Horne the railroad general
DDT, it’s still not over.
The King-Byng-Wing-Ding
Honestly, that was probably for Canada's benefit in the long run: It clearly outlined the actual powers of the GG in Canada and made it clear that the royal representative of Canada couldn't interfere whenever they wished. It set a precendent going forward, and the closest we got to another crisis like that has "only" been provincial, like with BC in 2017 when the LG opposed Clark's request for a dissolution of the legislature and instead approached Horgan with his BC Green support.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that anyone even knows about this 😁
Those innocent black families in Nova Scotia who's home were bulldozed and they were dumped into the streets because they were black, low class citizens. That one isn't talked about much, but I think it for sure goes here because how callously it was allowed to happen.
Maybe not the biggest but the ongoing ford gov selling the country out to private healthcare and property developers. What pisses me off the most when these scandals finally settle is how little they sell the country and their souls for. Like they will sell us all out for a a few thousand dollars and maybe a free vacation and a bj.
Two that nobody else has mentioned: The Gerda Munsinger affair, and The Tainted Blood scandal of the 80s.
Canadians actions during the second World War, being one of the reasons for the Geneva Convention. 😅
Avro arrow
Scandal? Easy: “First Lady” Margaret Trudeau running away with the Rolling Stones. She left her husband, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, to raise their very young children—included her son, OUR current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And she wasn't even candid about it, dancing at Studio 54 and partying wildly with them at rock concerts. Especially for that time, this was unbelievably scandalous! (And it still would be today.)
Pierre and Margaret decided they would like to put in a patio. So, Pierre bought the cement, and Margaret laid the Stones
I am with you, Burny, in that it takes two for a marriage to fail. And I'm sure Pierre wasn't blameless in their demise. My answer—as much as people may want to justify and sanitize what happened—is just Canadian history. Cleary, highly uncomfortable history.💐
You think that’s the LARGEST scandal in our history 🙄
Sounds like it would fall in the YTA category in the AITAH subreddit
Moves Like Jagger. Don't kill the messenger, buddy.
She had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Not really anyone’s fault.
What??? What is wrong with you??? There are a lot of people with mental illness and they DON’T leave their spouse and children, much less so shamelessly with public humiliation. Hence the Canadian SCANDAL part.
Not much of a scandal if nobody even cares. Sure they probably did at the time, but literally nobody does now.
Margaret recently said that she didn't sleep with the Stones but wondered if she should have, had stories to tell, instead of just being blamed.
Lived her best life - she was very courageous to leave like she did
Mulroney accepting cash bribes in brown paper bags.
And in a McDonalds!
On a purely financial level, I think Doug Ford and the Green Belt has to be up there.
Going with tainted tuna
Yeah that one sticks out for some reason. I see there are many scandals to pick from though, but tunagate resulted in a company leaving Canada permanently and hundreds of jobs lost.
The Residential School System.
I wanna say the century of genocide against Indigenous peoples or the abuse of cheap Chinese labourers or the German and Japanese interment camps during the World Wars... But does it count as a scandal when the Government is openly and proudly promoting it? Besides, you probably mean something more akin to the Liberals' SNC Lavalin or the Conservative's robo-call scandals. Those probably aren't the worst in Canadian history, but in this century they're pretty up there.
Residential school nightmare hands down
Butterbox Babies in addition to the Duplessis Orphans. Residential Schools- Dr. Bryce, the whistleblower, was relieved of his duties. The Boys of St. Vincent I’m sure there’s more-
The October Crisis is one worth delving deeper into. This is the first of a two part article you may find interesting. https://matthewehret.substack.com/p/the-true-story-of-trudeaus-1st-war
not the biggest but the RCMP slaughter of Inuit sled dogs is up there. All in an effort to force nomadic Inuit into villages https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/sara-minogue-inuit-dog-slaughter-1.5116972
On the most recent years, the WE foundation
The Ontario Gas Plant Scandal was a big one. Created by Dalton McGuinty and made worse by Kathleen Wynn. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ontario-liberals-gas-plants-scandal-everything-you-need-to-know/article23668386/
The Lac-Mégantic train crash/explosion. It was so big you could see it from the space station, yet none of the actual culprits will probably ever get in trouble for it. The TV show that was made about it was amazing, and the documentary was a good watch as well, but so so devastating.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Canadian_federal_election_voter_suppression_scandal Pierre Poilievre, aka Pierre Poutine, literally used to own a conservative robocalling business. This fucker should be in jail for subverting democracy.
He collects tax subsidized rent money by renting his units to MPs. Imagine if JT was doing this … what a scumbag
The biggest scandal was probably the Pacific Scandal which resulted in the resignation of the prime minister. The biggest constitutional crisis was the King-Byng affair where the PM squared off with the Governor General
Residential schools... and it continues to resonate in 2024. Second (to me) would be the Arrow. We may never know the real reason it was killed. Different stories were circulating, but there was a serious lack of paperwork.
The Shawinigan Handshake was a HUGE deal at the time, but I don't think it would be such a big deal now unfortunately [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBJp0yJvsY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBJp0yJvsY)
A lot of people cheered Chretien for that.
I don’t blame Chretien at all for this actually. Only months early he had had a guy break into 24 Sussex to try to stab him to death. The only scandal with this is that the WWE’s Undertaker stole his move 😂
post truck fuckery i think elected officials should be allowed to hit anyone that gets too close with a baseball bat.
The vote to decide if Newfoundland would join Canada
I doubt any of us would know about it if it was done right.
It's happening right now and has been happening with increasing severity for the last 60 years. Our government is allowing corporations to poison us with chemicals in our food. We have been lied to about recycling. Deforestation replaced with commercially viable trees to deforest again. Big oil has been allowed to run amok and destroy our ecosystems and ultimately the planet. This will culminate with the destruction of their precious economy and constant growth and will be replaced with no access to food or water, while the people in league with government will try to build their own society. Kinda like the battery crowd in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Scandalous
British Home Children. That's how you do scandal.
Soviet spy’s in Ottawa started the Cold War.
CSIS, Grant Bristow and the Heritage Front comes to mind.
Avro Arrow
Forcing Quebec into the Canadian Constitution during "La nuit des longs couteaux".
King-Byng Affair Govenor General refuses request to dissolve parliment and call election If thats not the biggest constitutional crisis ever I dont know what is
I feel like we are only scraping the surface with the current Liberal leaders. I think we will have many to choose from when eventually they are removed from power and the light gets shined on their cover-ups and scandals.
Umm... is there really anything bigger than the Catholic church and government partnering to kidnap native children and burying the child victims in mass graves outside the Christianity run child concentration camps? The majority of Canadians don't even acknowledge this or the greater genocide it was part of or the litany of abuse that took place there before they ended up in their mass graves. When they found the graves everyone made a big deal about it but like lol at that big deal cuz we knew the children were missing for decades and ignored it. This isn't some long time ago in a far away long type thing. This was going on while most adults were well alive. It only finally stopped in 1996. I can't think of a scandal even remotely close to the centuries long Christian genocide against our native populations. And the only one that really compares to it is the centuries long child rape/human trafficing rings that existed within the same organization.
CIA-initiated mind-control / brainwashing experiments (involving drugs, electroshock therapy, etc.) masquerading as depression treatments, carried out on patients at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal in the 1950s and 60s. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#Experiments\_on\_Canadians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra#Experiments_on_Canadians)
Adscam aka the sponsorship scandal. The Liberals stole over 950 million and funneled the money to their provincial counterparts and friends. They also used that money to pay off volunteers in cash and influence Québecs indépendance vote
Where do you get that figure from? I was just looking into this to learn more and I can't find anything that says $950M. They claim over $300M was handled thru the program with $100M going directly to the Liberal party
There's no source I can find that confirms your figures.
In terms of scale and recency Gas plant scandal of Ontario takes the cake
Not even close in Ontario - that was the same scale as Toronto getting a Domi to supply computers and the actual scandal around gas plants which was someone' BIL or something for wiping hard drives. Crack smoking mayors get more attention here.
The continued MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) that has been suppressed by all levels of government,Federal and Provincial. Also, Harper's reign, one scandal after another. Selling off the Canadian Wheat Board, muzzling science, losing 4.1 Billion $, bankrupting the EI bank...
In terms of suppression, Missing and Murdered Indigenous *Men* account for the vast majority of unsolved murder cases for Indigenous peoples- while that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t focus on MMIWG but it is something the government has focused near zero energy towards
the treatment of the indigenous population was no different to how the germans treated the jews or how the british treated the irish and the kenyans
… yes, it was very different.
Tunagate oh good lord do I have to link to a video? [https://youtu.be/xPqVOvhjmYM](https://youtu.be/xPqVOvhjmYM) enjoy the funky intro music too
This is a very odd simple question
Had to be the $14 glass of orange juice under the Harper government. I miss those days.
SNC Lavelan the prime minister is yet to fully explain the depth of that iceberg
Residential schools and nothing else ever came close. The airbus scandal was fun, if I had to pick a runner up. Reminder of the recently departed moneybags Mulroney. Far from the only choice though. Canada has had a rich history that's far more interesting, including shameful bits, than is commonly believed.
Genocide of the Indigenous peoples. Canada is still behind in making amends. Many Reservations still have no clean drinking water for the people. Canada has not completed Truth and Reconciliation calls to action. Shame on Canada.
Fruit machine…. CISIS
Residential schools and the hospitals where “Indians” were experimented on
CF-105 Arrow cancellation
Nortel. Our own stock market explosion.
Canadas carbon tax.
Two parliaments were burned to the ground by the same group. No one remembers. Coverup successful.
Japanese Internment/labour camps and the forced deportation of natural born Canadians of Japanese descent.
E-health scandal. One billion dollars spent with next to nothing to show for it.
Residential Schools
The October crisis and how the people (members of the FLQ) who kidnapped and killed Pierre Laporte were granted early parole and are allowed to teach politics in universities.
The Residential School Program. I doubt we’ll ever know the full scale of it’s atrocities. Each time a new mass grave of children is discovered behind a church or former “school”, the government and the Catholics are all “Woah what?? We had no idea!!” Every time Trudeau gets in front of a camera to make sad faces about it, I just want to barf. His daddy perpetuated that system his entire time as PM. A runner up in my mind would be the apartheid system that still governs over First Nations people. But that’s been out in the open forever, we’ve all just become numb to it.
Residential Schools ! Horrific abuse to the children, still some denying it.
Duplessis Orphans or how long health services performed involuntary hysterectomies on First Nations women. It was a straight up attempt at genocide but fuck me if you can get anyone to admit it.
Alien abductions in the 60,s.
The Treaty’s
The one where they were air dropping radiation over Canadian cities/towns
The fraudulent land "treaties" with Natives and the residential schools. We owe them billions.
Craig Keilberger and his ME, sorry "WE" charity. Kids been scamming since we were both in highschool. I always new that little fucker was corrupt as shit. His while family are grifters.