Judges have upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a ringleader in the biggest maple syrup heist in Canadian history. Sixteen people were found guilty in the 2011 theft of $17.8 million worth of syrup from a Québec warehouse: “The absence of a link with organized crime is not a mitigating factor.”
Cabinet’s plan to tax Google, Amazon and Facebook ad revenues is unworkable under current law and would breach a 1984 tax treaty with the U.S., says a federal report. The Liberal Party in its election platform promised to tax tech giants headquartered outside Canada.: “It’s a lot easier to say you’re going to tax them than it is to do it.”
A cabinet appointee attended a farewell Liberal Party fundraiser for defeated cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, records show. Cabinet guidelines forbid appointees from attending party fundraisers: “It’s not like I belong to the Liberal Party.”
The minority Parliament must pass legislation declaring climate change mitigation a human right, the 24-member New Democrat caucus said yesterday. The proposal coincides with a lawsuit by Québec environmentalists claiming failure to meet emissions targets breaches the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: “There is a risk the debate is only theoretical.”
Two New Brunswick exporters that unsuccessfully challenged federal food inspectors over a paperwork “disaster” have been ordered to pay $77,285 in legal costs. A Saint John judge at trial described Canadian Food Inspection Agency management as “very bureaucratic”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs used Filipino disaster aid to finance karaoke machines, says a federal report. Staff yesterday did not comment. Auditors said a 2013 typhoon relief fund was left with such a large surplus, money was used to subsidize local storekeepers: “There were inefficiencies.”
A British Columbia senator in a 2019 speech said all Canadians should be “praying every night” for the People’s Republic of China. Senator Yuen Pau Woo of Vancouver made his remarks to alumni of a Communist-sanctioned university: “We should be humble.”
In-house Privy Council Office research says more than a quarter of Canadians surveyed, 28 percent, say “I am just getting by with no savings”. The polling data was released through Access To Information: “We know we still have work to do.”
Federal lawyers have tried to deny the Canadian Taxpayers Federation intervenor status in a court challenge of an oil and gas bill. An Alberta judge upheld the Federation’s right to speak: “In my view the Court would be assisted by a submission from the perspective of the taxpayer.”
A hastily-scrawled note on a McDonald’s napkin is a valid will, says the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench. The ruling came in the case of a Yorkton widower who reached for a pen after complaining of chest pains while having coffee: ‘He thought he was having a heart attack, a time when one’s mind would reasonably turn to estate planning.’
The National Research Council will introduce an anonymous tip line for informants after auditors found lackadaisical monitoring of conflicts of interest. The Council spends $1.2 billion a year, most of it in grants and subsidies paid to corporations and universities: ‘We identified several instances where there was a conflict.’
The Liberal sponsor of a private bill to decriminalize heroin and cocaine yesterday said the measure did not represent views of cabinet. The Commons health committee in 2019 similarly proposed Parliament work with provinces to make possession of narcotics a ticketing offence: “Canadians are rightly concerned.”
The National Pensioners Federation yesterday vowed to fight a federal ruling permitting a Vancouver-based telecom company to end paper billing. The decision came five years after Parliament banned telecom firms from charging customers up to $70 a year for paper invoices: “I don’t see a commitment to the consumer here.”
An Edmonton judge in an unusual order has forbidden a small business blogger from posting internet commentary on Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench proceedings. The blogger was an unsuccessful defendant in a defamation suit brought by her former landlord, West Edmonton Mall: “Revenge is among the least admired of human motivations.”
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson yesterday said climate change may be to blame for Canada’s low birth rate. Data show the rate is the same as it was thirty-five years ago: “It is no wonder that youth around the world are fed up with our generation.”
