Newly-released documents expose the sinister side of public life with the publication of an entire file of death threats against Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The hate-filled notes and emails total 108 — the equivalent of one every three weeks since the Prime Minister took office: “Disturbing.”
Canada should use its pending foreign investment agreement with China as leverage on human rights abuses, including the fate of a former McGill student imprisoned on trumped-up charges, says an MP. Cabinet has yet to ratify its 2012 investment protection pact with the People’s Republic: “A standing insult.”
War and hockey play prominent themes in Department of Canadian Heritage plans for the nation’s 150th anniversary. Documents detailing cabinet planning note the “over-arching theme” is of a “strong and free” country forged in war, without mention of achievements in science, engineering, business, labour or federal legislation: “The picture is incomplete.”
Canadian attempts to promote seal exports remain “a priority in our dealings with China” despite a continued ban on the trade, according to cabinet-level documents. China has failed to ratify a 2011 agreement with the Department of Fisheries to lift the ban: “They are pitching it as the last hope to keep the industry alive.”
The Department of Agriculture has won a multi-million dollar dispute over farm subsidies paid to Hutterite colonies. The judgment turned on a narrow definition of eligibility under a grant program, AgriInvest. The Federal Court ruling saved the department $3.42 million in payments: “Such an outcome cannot be said to be unreasonable.”
The Correctional Service says a computer-generated system of tracking substance abuse has been effective in curbing contraband in federal prisons, though more than 1 in 10 inmates test positive for drugs or alcohol: “People try to get around the rules outside of prison, too.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage is silent on why it cut funding for the country’s only independent labour periodical while paying millions to media corporations under the same program.
Newly-released Access to Information documents confirm subsidies to the periodical Our Times were cut 65 percent to some $10,000 a year as larger five-figure grants were paid to Sun Media Corp., Torstar Corp., Black Press Group and Transcontinental Media Group Ltd.
“We never got a good answer as to why we were turned down,” said Liz Ukrainetz, Our Times business manager. “We’ve been told it ‘was not in the best interest of Canadians.’”
The department told Blacklock’s questions the magazine failed to meet “eligible” circulation requirements, but provided no details.
Heritage Canada pays out grants under a Canadian Periodical Fund intended to assist small publications to “overcome market disadvantages,” according to its mission statement.
Our Times was founded in Toronto in 1981 as a “unique forum in Canadian media for the voice of Canadian working people,” according to its funding applications. After receiving $29,790 in 2007, the periodical saw its funding eliminated altogether in 2008, then partially restored in subsequent grant periods to $10,505 last year.
“They turned us down though we met all criteria,” said Ukrainetz.
Access documents contained no explanation for the funding cut.
The same Periodical Fund paid Sun Media Corp. $809,301 over two years for a chain of 25 company weeklies in Québec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Black Press Group, the largest newspaper publisher in British Columbia, received $565,988 for twenty-three weeklies in British Columbia and Alberta. Transcontinental Media Group Ltd., listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, received $376,754 in grants for seventeen weeklies in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador. And another publicly-traded media conglomerate, Torstar Corporation, received $245,866 for nine Ontario weeklies published by its Metroland Media Group subsidiary.
“Often big media ignore labour coverage,” said Ukrainetz. “Conservative media do not think unions are necessary. Hopefully the internet will change that.”
By Tom Korski 
A media union, the Communications Energy & Paperworkers, is trademarking a campaign to promote local TV news coverage amid declining industry revenue and shrinking audience. Federal data show most Canadians now watch less television than they did three years ago: “The audience has shrunk as corporately-owned stations moved away from journalism…”
The sale of locally-grown food remains a marginal trade in most provinces despite government promotion, according to a Conference Board of Canada report. And research shows that buying local is a “priority” for only the most affluent consumers: “Market failures…have not been identified.”
Police commissioners are expressing wariness over hidden expenses of internet surveillance in Public Safety cybercrime legislation. Directors of the Canadian Association of Police Boards said authorities must account for the expense of email wiretaps, and whether cabinet is considering a proposed internet tax to pay the cost: “It is unfair”
Tens of thousands of petitioners have submitted comments on one of the most closely-watched regulations in the country: a draft Code of Practice on humane treatment of pigs. The National Farm Animal Care Council said it heard from so many Canadians it’s delayed the development of new standards.
Federal crash investigators are warning Transport Canada and flyers of an error now linked to three fatal mid-air collisions, including a Saskatchewan accident that killed five people. The Transportation Safety Board emphasized the limits of “visual flight rules” to avoid collisions: “We don’t have a magic solution.”
A Crown corporation is studying the feasibility of toll roads and bridges. PPP Canada, an agency mandated to promote private investment in public works, announced it will examine tolls in its bid to “help shape” the country. “The public always winds up holding the bag.”
Canada Revenue Agency has won a landmark court judgment that narrowly defines religious congregations under federal tax law. The $1.8 million ruling came in a case that exposed the finances of a polygamist group in B.C., where children as young as 12 were put to work and families held “famine calls” to pay taxes: “This is an unusual tax case.”
The Department of Aboriginal Affairs is struggling to determine what to do with employees who became redundant under a pact with the Northwest Territories. Notices are expected in October following a Devolution Agreement that made hundreds of staff “surplus”, according to confidential documents.
