Canadians should consider the “possibility of jobless growth” in future years, says a Privy Council think tank. The agency’s director general in a submission to a Singapore symposium cautioned that “jobs might disappear and not come back.”
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna yesterday revised a June 13 promise never to raise the fifty dollar carbon tax. “There are no shortcuts,” McKenna told reporters: “The reality is we’re in a transition.”
The federal media bailout will see taxpayers subsidize at least 32¢ of every dollar spent on news gathering by publishers, according to Access To Information records. Newspaper lobbyists petitioned the Department of Canadian Heritage for even more aid than was promised in the $595 million program: ‘It’s the best way to sustain journalism.’
Vancouver leads in cocaine use while marijuana consumption is higher in Halifax, federal statisticians said yesterday. A first-ever test of drug use in five cities using sewage samples shows promise in calculating the scope of the narcotics trade, said Statistics Canada: “That has never been done before.”
Consumers are wary of buying farmed fish and worry about the industry’s environmental impact, says in-house research by the Department of Fisheries. Nearly a third of Canadians surveyed, 29 percent, said they oppose aquaculture altogether.
“Those opposing aquaculture most often point to two main reasons: because of perceived irresponsible practices by the industry, or because of perceived negative effects aquaculture has on wild fish populations,” said a report Aquaculture In Canada 2019. The fisheries department paid Ekos Research Associates $99,934 for the survey of 2,015 consumers nationwide.
The findings follow a 2018 audit by then-Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand that regulators failed to monitor the use of pesticides in coastal aquaculture salmon pens, and failed to complete nine of ten promised risk assessments of disease in farmed fish. “There is no validation of industry self-reporting,” Gelfand said in November 22 testimony at the Senate fisheries committee.
In the department survey, 54 percent of consumers said they prefer to buy wild fish “because it is more environmentally friendly”, “healthier”, or “because it is seen as being higher quality”. Only five percent said they preferred to eat farmed fish.
Asked, “When you think about fish farming, what is the first thing that comes to mind?” the most common responses were fish grown for food (11 percent); “negative effects” on the environment (7 percent); diseased fish (7 percent); “irresponsible practices” (7 percent); “poor living conditions for fish” (6 percent); and genetic engineering (4 percent).
“Most Canadians, 42 percent, trust a scientist employed by a university to provide accurate, reliable and unbiased information about aquaculture,” wrote Ekos. “In comparison, ten percent of Canadians trust a scientist with the Government of Canada to provide that information.”
A majority, 62 percent, said news and information they’d heard about aquaculture was negative. And fifty percent of respondents said the fisheries department’s most important consideration should be “protecting biodiversity and sustainability of wild fish populations”. Only six percent named support for aquaculture companies as most important.
Commissioner Gelfand in testimony said the department appeared too close to fish farm operators. “Where there’s long-term funding for research, that’s to help promote the industry,” said Gelfand. “So, that just puts the department at risk. One of the big concerns we have is, is the department at risk to be seen to be promoting aquaculture to the detriment of wild salmon?”
“They’re not monitoring the health of wild fish,” said Gelfand. “So, really, if they’re not monitoring the health of wild fish, how can they really know what the impacts are of aquaculture?”
By Staff 
Cabinet proposes to levy thousands of dollars in new fines and name and shame employers for breach of the Canada Labour Code. The labour department complained of widespread noncompliance of workplace safety and wage regulations: “It is important that offenders and violators be publicly named.”
Children as young as 13 are twice as likely to illegally smoke cannabis than tobacco, says a Health Canada study. The research was conducted after Parliament legalized recreational marijuana for adults last October 17: “There is a type of normalization.”
The Department of National Defence in a climate change initiative is spending $200,000 to study replacement of diesel generators in the North with mini-wind turbines. Diesel currently powers 100 percent of electricity in Nunavut, according to the National Energy Board: “There are major hurdles to overcome.”
Cabinet has upheld a CRTC ruling dubbed a $20 million subsidy for Rogers Media Inc. The corporation was awarded a lucrative license to broadcast multilingual news programs despite 2013 cuts to its existing service: “The Commission caved.”
A new species
has emerged
in the United States.
The Base.
Comprises predominantly
white, uneducated males,
who appear heterosexual
but hate females.
They cheer a leader who calls women
dogs, low IQ, disgusting pigs.
They blame the victims
of sexual assaults.
They block access
to safe abortion.
They hate scientists too,
or anyone who speaks about
evolution,
vaccination,
climate change.
They hate Russia
but admire Putin.
Hate North Korea
but adore Jong-un.
They see “some very fine people”
on the side of Alt-Right and KKK.
Their own ancestors
came to America
from foreign countries.
Now they hate those
coming to America
from foreign countries.
In a bid to seal their borders
they reinforce walls,
call in the military,
separate mothers from children
at the ports of entry.
They believe
Mexicans are rapists,
Muslims are terrorists,
and U.S.-born congresswomen
should go back
to where they came from.
The Base
is forever hungry.
It must be fed
twice a day.
A favourite meal is 140 characters
mixed with fake news, manufactured crises
and a dose of bigotry.
Its ideology of
fear, hatred and intolerance
echoes in Europe,
Australia,
Brazil.
Canada watches,
waits.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
The Department of Natural Resources in an internal audit says a billion-dollar climate change program failed to meet all targets. “Lessons learned,” wrote auditors who found subsidies were paid to companies that went bankrupt or “struggled at some point with the profitability of their operations”.
Cabinet yesterday served notice it will eliminate Senate filibusters if re-elected October 21. The “government has withstood procedural obstruction” and proposes to ban the practice, said a report from the Government Representative in the Senate: “Limit purely procedural obstruction.”
The Canada Revenue Agency complains it must “improve the quality” of anonymous tipsters who call a federal snitch line to report tax cheats. Agency research found most taxpayers never heard of the service, and resented the program as an invitation to score-settling by nameless informants: “Don’t rat people out.”
A federal labour board has overturned a suspension given a Customs officer for colourful language on the job. There is no need to “dance daintily around the actual words that were used”, ruled the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board: “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
The Liberal majority on the Commons ethics committee yesterday voted to block any further investigation of lobbying by SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. “You bet they are powerful,” said one MP: “Powerful men have powerful friends.”
