Legal marijuana does not justify random workplace drug testing, says a labour arbitrator. The Canada Labour Code order struck down a company policy by a St. John’s helicopter operator to randomly test pilots, ground crew and maintenance engineers for cannabis: “Drug testing is invasive.”
Only five percent of small businesses surveyed have stopped taking cash, says a Bank of Canada study. Futuristic forecasts of a cashless society appear overblown, researchers wrote: “Existing concerns are unlikely to materialize.”
A stirring phrase from O Canada has been trademarked by a federal agency. The Canadian Tourism Commission now claims exclusive use of the phrase “for glowing hearts” to promote vacation packages: “This is shocking to me.”
A federal agency acting on a single complaint threatened an animal rights group with regulatory enforcement over a billboard slogan. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency in internal emails acknowledged it has no power to restrict free speech: “It wasn’t obvious where the Agency was getting its authority from.”
The Public Prosecution Service last year filed charges against copyright and trademark counterfeiters for the first time since 2014. It followed industry complaints of weak enforcement of piracy laws: “Canada is not a leader.”
The Department of Social Development in Access To Information research says Indigenous people overall are eleven times more likely to use a homeless shelter than other Canadians. The data “mark the first time this issue has been investigated to this depth”, wrote staff.
The people of Hamilton
look at Ottawa
with envy.
Ottawa has a Light Rail Transit.
Hamilton does not,
and would not have any
in the near future.
The Province promised them
one billion dollars for the project,
then cancelled it.
“That’s a betrayal,”
says Mayor Eisenberger.
Now Hamiltonians
are stuck with buses.
The people of Ottawa
look at Hamilton
with envy.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Cabinet yesterday gave no indication it will quickly recall Parliament from its holiday recess after blaming Iran’s military for killing 63 Canadians. “Just wondering if the government considers this an act of war?” a reporter asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I think it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions like that one,” replied Trudeau.
Library and Archives Canada paid a fifty percent premium for a Hitler book without verifying it was authentic, according to Access To Information records. The same volume was withdrawn from sale at a U.S. auction in 2011: “Fake Hitler ex libris stamps are abundant.”
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ordered a British Columbia First Nation to pay $30,000 after its chief called a woman councilor a “white bastard”. The Tribunal described the incident as outrageous: “Discrimination is not usually committed openly.”
The Bank of Canada has polled public preparedness for rising interest rates. In-house research showed few Canadians lock in rates for terms longer than five years and “could be at risk”, said a report: “Borrowers may be exposed.”
A billion-dollar corporation received the largest grant to date under a federal program to compensate the dairy industry for impacts of free trade, according to Access To Information records. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau had described subsidies as aid to small business: “The fund is helping.”
Cabinet yesterday approved another increase in stamp prices effective January 13. Successive hikes over the past decade have raised the cost of mailing a letter in Canada from 54 to 92¢, a seventy percent increase: “Businesses won’t walk away from Canada Post, they’ll run.”
A Nunavut commissioner is urging an immediate ban on government use of Gmail accounts. It follows the accidental disclosure the head of a territorial board used Gmail instead of a government email server to conduct public business: ‘There are legal obligations with respect to records.’
Federal employees who mistakenly get double their paid vacation days cannot bank the benefit, says a labour board. The ruling came in an appeal by a Coast Guard employee twice credited for the equivalent of three weeks’ holiday: “There was a significant error.”
