Cabinet amendments to labour law will “virtually eliminate” the right to strike for 325,000 federal employees, says a national union. The Public Service Alliance of Canada told a Senate committee that changes to labour law are probably unconstitutional: ‘They effectively wipe out years of work’.
A long-promised rail reform bill intended to aid farmers may harm other shippers and industries, says a port official. An executive with B.C.’s Prince Rupert Port Authority said grain shipping quotas mandated by cabinet could simply delay deliveries of other goods: “We are concerned”.
Health Minister Rona Ambrose says she is troubled by Canada’s “normalization” of marijuana use, though her department is the first to privatize cannabis production for medical patients. Ambrose said too many Canadians think marijuana is harmless: ‘It concerns me greatly’.
A federal agency spent more than $100,000 to question jobless Canadians on how they pay their bills. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada hired researchers to interview unemployed people on topics like “making ends meet” and “keeping track of money”.
Authorities should investigate links between groundwater depletion and probabilities of earthquakes, says a Canadian researcher. Evidence suggests human activity including irrigation farming and oil drilling may stress rock formations: “The earth responds by flexing back”.
Parliament for a fifth time in 10 years will consider adding a new statutory holiday to the federal calendar. A private bill to proclaim November 11 a day off with pay was introduced by New Democrat MP Dan Harris in honour of Afghan War veterans, he said: “Of course there will be individuals who will treat it as a day off like any other”.
Copyright law has been around for 300 years and follows the Ten Commandments, yet many Canadians – including government agencies – barely comprehend intellectual property rights. There are no copyright police or courts, and even public agencies steal others’ work. It is no exaggeration that copyright owners enjoy less protection from theft than the night manager eyeing shoplifters at a Quickie Mart.
“Studying copyright, especially if you’re not a lawyer, is akin to stepping into a madhouse where things barely adhere to any internal logic,” writes Prof. Blayne Haggart in Copyfight.
An example: Geophysical Service Incorporated, a Calgary firm that licenses underwater seismic maps for use by oil and gas companies. The company is now in constant litigation after discovering federal agencies were distributing copies of its maps for free. The Department of Natural Resources was even cited for concealing documents in the case. “There are no police to call,” Paul Einarsson, the company chair and COO, said in an earlier interview; “It’s unbelievable to me this is going on in Canada.”
Prof. Haggart of Brock University attempts to make sense of the mess. “Copyright law has a deserved reputation for being ridiculously complex, but at heart it is simply a way in which governments regulate the market in creative works.”
Canada’s copyright tradition is weak; Mexico has more vigorous protection for owners, and Parliament tried and failed three times in ten years to pass a copyright reform bill. Why are we ineffectual? “Canada was, and remains, a net importer of copyrighted works,” writes Haggart. “This state of affairs helps to explain at least partly why stronger copyright traditionally has not been high on the Canadian policy agenda.”
This is key. Since many Canadians do not produce any novel, photo, song, phrase or any other creation worthy of copyright, and don’t know anybody who does, comprehension of creators’ rights is weak even by those who should know better – like the Department of Natural Resources.
Copyfight is an eloquent primer on the whole concept of the capitalist hybrid of “individuality and private property”, as Haggart puts it. The research is fascinating. Readers will learn that copyright law dates from Britain’s 1709 Statute of Anne; and that piano roll companies lobbied for a 1911 amendment to the Copyright Act to halt theft of their works by musical bootleggers.
Copyfight recounts Parliament’s tortured attempts to update the law, and the ridiculous over-reach of some corporate rights holders in limiting theft. Haggart cites the “Rootkit” fiasco of 2005 in which Sony Corporation sold CDs equipped with hidden software that installed itself on user’s Windows operating systems, preventing CD dubs and, oh, contacting Sony every time a customer played a CD and, uh-oh, allowing hackers to access the computers of Sony clients.
“Computers and the internet function by making copies of files,” Copyfight explains. “This poses a challenge for copyright law, which is based on the assumption that copying should be controlled.”
Yet there are times when the issue seems deliberately confused by copyright thieves with a misguided claim to “users’ rights”. The fact remains in 21st century Canada that shoplifting a $4 magazine from Quickie Mart is a prosecutable crime; and stealing a $4 million map from a resource company is an argument.
By Holly Doan
Copyfight: The Global Politics of Digital Copyright Reform, by Blayne Haggart; University of Toronto Press; 348 pages; ISBN 9781-4426-14543; $37.95 
Finance Minister Joe Oliver faces questions after a confused appearance in the Commons that MPs described as “stupefying” and incompetent. In a late evening House session to review Department of Finance estimates, Oliver appeared to confuse “employment” and “unemployment”; could not recall if he’d read a specific report; and was cited three times by the Deputy Speaker for providing lengthy, rambling answers: “Everything was written down on recipe cards”.
Cabinet will permit expansion of truck routes through a national park to a Yukon zinc mine owned by Chinese investors. The legislation was quietly introduced as the Prime Minister announced with fanfare a new National Conservation Plan to promote nature: ‘They introduce these bills in the Senate to move them faster’.
MPs have rejected a bill to promote “buy local” food policies in federal contracting. The Commons killed the New Democrat measure by a 146 to 123 vote amid concerns that regulators could not easily enact the measure: “They would obviously have had difficulty in defining ‘local'”.
An unhappy hydro customer has lost his Supreme Court bid to argue for the right to receive utility bills by courier and not Canada Post. Justices declined to hear the case noting the definition of “mail” was clear: “When individuals read statutes they can often run into trouble”.
The Commons has rejected a proposal to hike the CBC budget amid disastrous revenue losses from its dropping of NHL rights. MPs rejected a New Democrat proposal to reinstate the last of federally-mandated cuts to the network’s budget: “I cannot see any purpose for English TV”.
Heavy Great Lakes ice has slowed shipping through the St. Lawrence Seaway to less than half normal cargo volumes to date. Shippers said ice conditions, the worst since 1979, put the freighting season weeks behind schedule: “It’s been a painful start”.
A Canada Border Services memo urging that guards save time and money by halting random searches for narcotics in shipping containers is an accurate outline of “priorities”, says an official. Authorities for the first time confirmed the memo published by Blacklock’s March 27 and suggested it remains policy: “If you’re one of our trading partners you really have to question where the security is”.
Transport Canada acknowledges for the first time no advance public notice is required of new safety regulations under changes to federal law. The admission came after exhaustive questioning in the Commons transport committee: “We should be very, very clear and honest about what’s going on”.
