The Department of Justice in a secret memo says the country faces a shortage of legal marijuana, and expects drug dealers will meet market demand for several years if Parliament passes Bill C-45. “A full transition to the new market will take time,” said a 2017 Memorandum To The Deputy Minister: “Can you confirm there will be sufficient supply on July 1?”
The Conservative chair of the Senate transport committee yesterday said he will seek public hearings on cabinet’s $4.5 billion decision to nationalize the Trans Mountain pipeline. New Democrats have also proposed Commons committee hearings on the deal scheduled to be finalized by August: “Will the feds absorb the extra costs?”
Transport Minister Marc Garneau yesterday said cabinet will detail its delayed electric car plan by year’s end. Analysts including the Department of Industry have cautioned electrics are unlikely to play a significant role in meeting federal emission targets: “There is a lot of work to be done.”
Federal departments and agencies spent more than half a billion dollars on lawyers last year including $72 million in private legal fees to outside counsel, according to records. The spending followed appointment of a cabinet committee to oversee litigation strategy: “I’m just trying to keep the government accountable.”
Criminal lawyers accuse cabinet of skewing crime statistics to justify a new gun bill. Witnesses at the Commons public safety committee said new regulations are unnecessary: “This legislation creates new criminal offences where none were needed.”
New Democrats yesterday proposed full committee hearings on cabinet’s decision to nationalize an interprovincial pipeline. The Commons industry committee must investigate the impact of the Trans Mountain purchase on taxpayers and industry, said one MP: “It’s not much of a plan.”
Free copying has cost 1,000 publishing jobs in the past five years, the Canadian Publishers’ Council yesterday told the Commons industry committee. Publishers of books and newspapers appealed to MPs to tighten the Copyright Act to halt the practice: ‘Our members reduced their workforce five percent each and every year.’
Canada’s music industry has lost billions from unpaid use of songs and outright copyright theft, Music Canada yesterday told the Commons heritage committee. The testimony came as the Department of Industry detailed research indicating 26 percent of Canadian internet users admit to accessing illegal content because “it’s what everyone else does”.
Federal agencies earned 61¢ on the dollar in the sale of used vehicles, equipment and other goods last year, the Auditor General reported yesterday. The investigation concluded most agencies it audited did not bother to determine whether it made sense to auction goods: ‘They might not have made the best decision.’
The most generous charitable donors in Canada are older churchgoers, according to Statistics Canada data submitted to a Senate committee. The proportion of givers overall has remained static for a decade, officials said: ‘The biggest donors are older, but also more likely to participate frequently in religious activities.’
Provinces would gain a legal right to ban home cultivation of marijuana under a vote yesterday by the Senate social affairs committee. Two provinces to date – Manitoba and Québec – have already proposed to outlaw homegrown marijuana: “All of a sudden we’re in an awful hurry.”
Members of the Commons finance committee yesterday criticized a federal bank watchdog for timid protection of consumer rights. “You’re not seen as protecting the little guy,” said Liberal MP Wayne Easter, committee chair: “We have a real problem.”
Geological Survey of Canada research links fracking with minor earthquake activity. The findings echo a 2012 report by the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission: “Is it putting communities at risk?”
Alberta’s highest court has ordered the National Post to pay an uncommonly high $450,000 cost award for publishing a defamatory column a decade ago. The Court of Appeal faulted Post lawyers for failing to promptly disclose evidence involving the article by then-columnist Don Martin.
“The production of records is a key aspect of civil litigation in Alberta,” wrote the Court; “It is no excuse to say this was done to protect a journalist’s source or at the request of the client.”
Courts earlier ordered the publisher to pay $200,000 in damages and $250,000 in costs to Arthur Kent, former foreign correspondent for NBC maligned in a 2008 column. The Court of Appeal increased the cost award to $450,000 after describing the column as a “devastating attack on Mr. Kent” with “scandalous allegations”.
The daily on February 12, 2008 published the article headlined Alberta’s Scud Stud A ‘Dud’ On The Campaign Trail that was critical of Kent’s campaign for a seat in the Alberta legislature. The column referred to Kent as a “problem candidate”, a “campaign bad boy”, “self-absorbed” and a “dud” who once was “television eye-candy for millions of women”: “My how times have changed,” wrote Martin.
The publisher kept the article in its website archives until November 6, 2012, more than four years after Kent sued for defamation.
“Any More Dirt?”
The newspaper failed to speak to the candidate prior to attacking his candidacy, gave Kent only a few hours to respond to a vague email that the article was about to be published – “Could Arthur give me a shout?” wrote Martin – then declined to publish Kent’s rebuttal. Courts ruled the column was based in part on an apparently fabricated quote from an unnamed source, exaggerated negative references, and statements that “do not meet the test for truth or reportage”.
“Mr. Martin was not diligent in trying to verify the allegations contained in the article,” wrote Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf in her original 2016 ruling; “The article was negative, sarcastic in tone and lacked balance”.
Evidence showed the column followed confidential emails between Martin and Kristine Robidoux, legal counsel to Kent’s campaign. Robidoux in 2014 was suspended for four months as a “disgrace” to the legal profession by the Law Society of Alberta for betraying her client’s confidences to the newspaper columnist.
Martin in a February 12, 2008 email to Ms. Robidoux wrote: “I see the death spiral for AK continues. Any more dirt? Column runs tomorrow.” Replied Robidoux: “OMG it’s all bad.”
Judges noted National Post lawyers failed to promptly disclose the emails over the course of the litigation as required under Court rules. “The failure of the respondents to disclose these highly relevant emails, compounded by the opaque redaction of the emails when they were finally produced, represented a fundamental breach of the respondents’ obligations,” wrote the Court of Appeal.
Kent, now a Calgary journalist, lost his election bid by 1,012 votes. Martin left the National Post in 2010 and is host of the CTV News Channel program Power Play.
By Staff 
The Canada Border Services Agency yesterday issued a call to contractors to dismantle the M.V. Sun Sea, a cargo vessel seized after landing in British Columbia in 2010 with refugee claimants from Sri Lanka. The incident provoked lengthy Commons debate and a Canadian novel: ‘”The M.V. Sun Sea must be disposed of.”
