Federally-regulated employees should not routinely take time off work to walk the dog, says the Department of Labour. Staff issued bulletins explaining scores of new Canada Labour Code regulations that took effect September 1: “It’s an odd way to go about this.”
The Privy Council Office in a declassified 1982 Cold War planning guide predicted all but three major Canadian cities would suffer mass casualties in a Soviet missile attack. All others would see millions dead. “On the subject of nuclear war, public opinion is running high,” wrote staff.
A federal labour board has ordered the Correctional Service of Canada to re-hire a prison guard who fell asleep on duty. The breach was serious but didn’t warrant dismissal, said an adjudicator: “It’s tearing me inside.”
New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench has upheld the election of a member of the legislature by a single vote despite numerous irregularities. The Court cited instances of illegal balloting by non-residents, and one proven case of a man who voted twice: ‘It shows the vitality of our democracy.’
A Canada Border Services Agency intelligence officer obtained top security clearance despite being jailed for smuggling hashish, according to records at a federal labour board. The conviction went undetected by the RCMP for 23 years: “Well, I got myself in a very difficult spot.”
Small business advocates yesterday warned of a “tidal wave” of new regulations under the Canada Labour Code. Amendments inserted in 1,212-page budget bills passed by Parliament in 2017 and 2018 are to take effect September 1: “It’s just a confusing mess of changes.”
Air Canada has received six months’ notice to begin removing English-only exit signs aboard its aircraft. A federal judge also ordered the airline to pay damages to a francophone passenger who complained his seatbelt buckle said “lift”.
A Québec consultant cited for breach of the Canada Elections Act received nearly a million dollars’ worth of federal contracts, records show. The company yesterday agreed to pay $447,876 in penalties and costs for illegal cash donations to Liberal and Conservative Party organizers: “Activities compromised the integrity of the political financing regime.”
Unifor sought restrictions on use of a $595 million federal bailout for “failing print media”, according to Access To Information records. The union told the Department of Finance that funding should neither reward “every basement blogger” nor pay for media executive bonuses, and recommended a retired Supreme Court judge administer payouts: “Canadians will have a natural trepidation about government assistance to news organizations.”
The popularity of tax evasion schemes is prompting the Canada Revenue Agency to ramp up anti-fraud initiatives. A third of taxpayers surveyed by the Agency, 36 percent, said they’d heard of dubious plans to “reduce the amount of federal tax you have to pay”.
Health Canada in Access To Information memos has warned staff working in cannabis regulation to avoid all investments with marijuana companies. “The possibility of post-employment conflict of interest for its employees, whether willful or accidental, is high,” said one memo.
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ordered a hearing into allegations a Muslim tenant and Jewish landlord exchanged insults in breach of the province’s Human Rights Code. The Tribunal noted both sides “have a difference of opinion as to who was the culprit”.
Newspaper publishers hired a Liberal lobbyist to negotiate a $595 million press bailout. Records including Access To Information documents detail the lobbying blitz by Isabel Metcalfe, ex-Liberal candidate for Parliament and campaign organizer for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.
Metcalfe was hired by News Media Canada, a publishers’ trade association. The group yesterday did not comment. Metcalfe held seventy-nine separate meetings with senior officials including staff at the Prime Minister’s Office as cabinet reversed a 2017 pledge not to subsidize money-losing dailies. No news media that are members of the association reported the fact.
Metcalfe in one January 11 email to staff at the Department of Canadian Heritage “attached some background materials” for terms of the bailout that later appeared in a cabinet bill submitted to Parliament, including criteria for applicants and disqualification of start-up media from receiving taxpayers’ aid.
Cabinet two years ago rejected subsidies for newspapers. “Our approach will not be to bail out industry models that are no longer viable,” said then-Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. “Rather, we will focus our efforts in supporting innovation, experimentation and transition to digital.”
Cabinet subsequently reversed the policy in Bill C-97 the Budget Implementation Act passed by Parliament June 20 that awards 25 percent payroll rebates and 15 percent subscription tax credits to federally-approved media. Beneficiaries include Torstar Corporation that reported $31.5 million in losses last year, and Postmedia Network Canada Corp. that lost $33.9 million.
Lobbyist Registry records show Metcalfe met then-Minister Joly and her successor, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, among twelve separate sessions with department staff. Metcalfe also lobbied thirteen deputy and assistant deputy ministers; had five meetings with the Prime Minister’s Office; and lobbied the Department of Finance eight times including repeated meetings with Ben Chin, then-Chief of Staff to Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
“I’m a large-L, hard core Liberal,” Metcalfe earlier told a reporter. The lobbyist was an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for the Commons in 2006 in Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Ont. and Ottawa City Council in 2010. Meetings by the lobbyist on newspapers’ behalf included:
Environment Minister McKenna in an earlier tweet described Metcalfe as “one of our awesome volunteers”. Metcalfe’s husband Herbert was an advisor to then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in 2008 and a longtime Party organizer until 2015, when he pleaded guilty to evading $396,259 in taxes and was sentenced to one year’s house arrest.
By Staff 
Cabinet claims of 100,000 homebuyers benefiting from new equity loans are based on data that “could vary widely”, says CMHC. The federal insurer acknowledged actual take-up of the $1.25 billion program is unknown. Cabinet is to announce details next week: “The numbers just don’t add up.”
The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations has been ordered to pay more than $100,000 for discriminating against an Indigenous employee. A federal labour board called the department’s misconduct a serious breach of the Human Rights Act: “It was all taken away.”
