Chicken farmers have been granted limited status in a court battle targeting Canada’s multi-billion dollar poultry quota system. A Welland, Ont. processor is suing suppliers and the government after it was denied the right to buy specialty chicken for the Chinese-Canadian market: “They are not set up to meet this demand.”
Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he wishes all Canadians emulated the military, but did not comment on rising rates of grievances and harassment complaints within the army, navy and air force. Newly-released documents compiled by MacKay’s department show increasing complaints by military personnel over workplace conditions.
Employees are on notice to stick to contracts after the Supreme Court dismissed one executive’s claims for compensation over a job gone awry. Judges would not hear further testimony in the case: “If we’re working with an employee, we want to make sure they understand what they’re signing.”
A proposal by a federal authority to develop one of Canada’s southernmost natural habitats is raising parliamentary protests. The Windsor, Ont. Port Authority says it intends to dump fill from new road construction into a 32-acre forested area near the Detroit River: “Is a dock more important than some fish or bird-nesting habitat?”
Ailing Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, in his last major cabinet decision, sided with Prince Edward Island fishermen in an inter-provincial dispute in the $1 billion lobster industry. Fishermen in Ashfield’s home province of New Brunswick expressed “extreme and absolute disappointment” in the regulatory ruling.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s seemingly spontaneous performances in space were the product of a three-year marketing campaign complete with CBC collaboration and occasional tweets ghostwritten by government employees, Blacklock’s has learned. “It was a multi-faceted media campaign – yes, of course it was,” said a former Liberal cabinet aide who directed Hadfield’s stunts.
Grocery price spikes are the highest in a generation, rising 19 percent in the past five years, officials confirmed. Analysts attributed the rise to higher fuel costs, droughts and profit-taking: “Costs have stabilized somewhat but they never go down.”
Trade Minister Ed Fast is refusing comment on the apparent lapse of a China investment agreement. The pact was signed ten months ago but still awaits ratification by cabinet. Fast declined Blacklock’s interview request on the deal, which would fix investment rules for decades: “This is unusual.”
Canadian National Railways has won a Supreme Court fight against its own lawyers in a class-action case over freight rates. The court ruled CN’s counsel, one of the biggest law firms in Saskatchewan, should have asked permission before representing farmers in a lawsuit against CN.
Greenhouse vegetable growers are appealing for federal research aid, saying the billion-dollar business gets paltry support and is “poorly understood by federal officials.” Federal tax credits for scientific research and development, dating from 1963, were reduced to 15% last year.
Authorities are only now confirming a criminal security breach, the theft of a Department of Fisheries-issued laptop on a VIA passenger train. The department would not tell Blacklock’s what type of files were stored on the computer, yet considered the theft serious enough to call the RCMP.
Keeping technical notes on how to build a nuclear bomb will net a $100,000 fine under new penalties from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver declined an interview. The fines were the first details of penalties identified by the Department of Finance as a revenue source.
Health Canada is refusing comment on a report contradicting official findings on pesticides in unusual consumer products. Authorities declined Blacklock’s interview request on research by Greenpeace. It found toxic chemicals in randomly selected Chinese herbal products were nearly eight times in excess of World Health Organization standards: “We were shocked.”
The Department of Health says it is slowly, surely compiling a database on tonnes of pesticides used in Canada almost seven years after manufacturers were ordered to provide sales data. Nearly 4 in 10 companies initially failed to comply with the regulation: “It takes a while.”
The Canadian Transportation Agency is for the first time assigning single members to hear disputes, saying it anticipates so many new complaints it must cut the size of panels to meet its workload. The agency, which once assigned three-member panels to investigate disputes, said even two-member panels are too costly: “A lot of judges sit alone and still make good decisions.”
