Canadians must police themselves to protect their privacy on the internet, says Canada’s industry minister. James Moore told the Senate communications committee that internet users should not be surprised when service providers mine personal data for marketing purposes: ‘We push personal information online and are surprised when it comes back’.
Canada could create a growth industry by diverting garbage from municipal landfills, say analysts. The Conference Board of Canada predicted thousands of new jobs can be seen in waste management: “The report doesn’t surprise me”.
The Supreme Court has ended a farmer’s class action lawsuit alleging inflated rail shipping charges. Lower courts had dismissed the case dating from the 1995 collapse of the Crow Rate: “Never ask a judge a stupid question like, ‘What’s a fair price?'”
The Senate has given quick Second Reading to a bill to expand a truck route through a national park. The vote came after 40 minutes’ debate. The road is to service a Chinese-owned zinc mine in the Yukon: “It is a very significant deposit”.
Newly-released Cold War files detail wry 1950s-era reports from Ottawa cocktail parties under a federal scheme to keep an eye on Communist diplomats. Accounts of vodka-laced banquets are detailed in declassified records published by Library & Archives Canada: “Russian cigarettes and chocolates were laid out everywhere”.
Cabinet will have “more details” soon on possible aid for dairy farmers affected by a Canada-Europe trade pact, says a Department of Agriculture official. Dairy farmers have protested greater market share for transatlantic cheese imports will cost $150 million a year: “We are very focused on this issue”.
Airlines in Canada are entitled to cancel discount tickets if they conclude cheap fares were sold by “mistake”, says a national regulator. The Canadian Transportation Agency ruling drew puzzled responses from legislators and a consumer advocate: “This leaves us with no protection at all”.
The Department of Fisheries says eco-certification is a reality despite Commons complaints of “craven corporations” and “international activist groups”. Authorities estimated half the country’s wild catch is now certified by the U.K.-based Marine Stewardship Council: “We don’t need any outside group telling us how to manage our resources”.
Canadians are ‘stumbling’ into a new surveillance era without adequate protection of privacy rights, says Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier. Speaking at a hearing of the Senate Liberal caucus, Bernier said lawmakers must enact reforms to guard against security over-reach: “Look at the state of surveillance”.
The Commons by a near-unanimous vote yesterday gave Second Reading to a bill to quarantine the Atlantic seal hunt from photographers and animal rights activists. The bill proceeded amid evidence the Atlantic catch has collapsed under a European ban on seal products: “I think it is shameful”.
Canada Border Services Agency proposes to study back issues of Xinhua and TASS under its “risk management” strategy, according to documents. The agency is contracting a news clipping service to provide articles from foreign dailies including Chinese Communist publications “for use in decision-making”, it said.
Trade officials are accused of publishing misleading data on transatlantic auto exports to bolster a tentative Canada-Europe trade pact. Claims of five-figure auto shipments are unverifiable, concludes a report critical of the agreement: ‘What vehicles are we selling in Europe? They couldn’t tell me’.
Veterans Affairs Canada spent more than a million dollars on TV ads and other marketing only weeks before closing regional offices in a cost-cutting drive, records show. The department approved seven-figure spending on ads, then hired a pollster to ask Canadians if the marketing was effective: “This is inappropriate”.
Pharmaceutical executives are being cast as white-collar ‘drug pushers’ as MPs from all parties endorsed a Health Canada bill to expand regulations on unsafe medicines: “That kind of activity should be criminal”.
Tax changes since 2005 have mainly benefited middle- and low-income Canadians, says Parliament’s Budget Officer. A GST reduction to 5 percent in 2008 will save taxpayers $13.3 billion this year: ‘Some credits are useless’.
