As many as 99 percent of shipping containers that land at Canadian ports are never inspected for narcotics, counterfeit or stolen goods, say federal auditors. The latest investigation follows a 2012 memo that instructed Customs officers to save time and money by ignoring containers suspected of concealing illegal drugs: “Things like that should not be happening in this country.”
The Crown agency that manages airport security screening has released 98 pages of complaints from a single airport, Toronto’s Billy Bishop. Cabinet is privatizing the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority amid complaints nationwide that have run to 815 pages a year: “I was told I could leave anytime if I didn’t like it.”
The Québec Human Rights Commission has lost a bid to have courts take judicial notice of an American phenomenon ANWD – “Any Negro Will Do” – in racial profiling cases. A Tribunal dismissed the motion, ruling social factors are no substitute for facts: ‘The social context in America is different than that of Gatineau.’
Cabinet for a second time has extended the deadline for a final report from the $92 million National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The findings originally due last November 1, then postponed to April 30, are now due May 31: “The final report will signal the dawn of a new day.”
A federal judge has ordered the Commissioner of Lobbying to reopen an investigation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dealings with the Aga Khan. The ruling follows multiple trips by the Trudeau Family to the Aga Khan’s private Bahamian isle.
“The decision is quashed and returned for redetermination,” wrote Justice Patrick Gleeson. The ruling came at the request of the advocacy group Democracy Watch.
Then-Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd in 2017 dismissed a complaint that the Aga Khan violated the Lobbyists’ Code by hosting the Prime Minister and his family at his private island. Shepherd ruled that, since the Aga Khan is not a registered lobbyist, no breach of the Lobbying Act occurred.
Democracy Watch argued the Aga Khan is director of the Aga Khan Foundation, which is a registered lobby, and that federal agencies have contributed nearly $330 million to projects supported by the Foundation. “The Commissioner’s analysis does not consider whether the Aga Khan may have received ‘anything of value’,” wrote Justice Gleeson.
“It begins and ends with the simple question of monetary payment,” wrote the Court. “Restricting the analysis to this narrow question is inconsistent with both the wording of the Act and the objects and purposes of the Lobbyists’ Code.”
“The Commissioner was required to take a broad view of the circumstances in addressing the complaint,” said Justice Gleeson. “Instead, the record before the Court reflects a narrow, technical and targeted analysis that is lacking in transparency, justification, and intelligibility when considered in the context the Commissioner’s duties and functions. The decision is unreasonable.”
The Commissioner of Ethics in a separate 2017 Trudeau Report concluded the Prime Minister’s acceptance of a $215,000 sun holiday was a breach of the Conflict Of Interest Act. Trudeau claimed had a personal friendship with the Aga Khan, an argument dismissed by the Commissioner. Under the Conflict Of Interest Act, legislators do not have to report gifts over $200 “from a relative or friend”.
Then-Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson in a 2018 interview described the friendship clause as an embarrassment. “It’s sort of embarrassing to have to opine on whether you’re a friend of somebody or not,” said Dawson. “It’s unnecessary.”
In the Aga Khan case, the Commissioner said she could find no evidence of any actual friendship with the Prime Minister. The two met once in a thirty-year period, at a 2000 funeral for Pierre Trudeau.
“There were no private interactions between Mr. Trudeau and the Aga Khan until Mr. Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party,” the Commissioner wrote in her Trudeau Report. “This led me to conclude their relationship cannot be described as one of friends for the purposes of this Act.”
By Staff 
Cabinet is introducing first-ever regulations on bitcoin dealers. Rules will mandate disclosure of the names and addresses of traders: ‘There is the ability to place dirty money into the financial system.’
A newly-appointed Senator had a paid contract with a federal department, the Senate Ethics Office yesterday disclosed. Senate rules typically prohibit legislators from doing any business with the Government of Canada, but with broad exemptions. Senator Donna Dasko (Independent-Ont.) was unavailable for comment: “The rules…do not apply.”
Federal regulators yesterday cited Canadian National Railway Co. for breach of shippers’ service obligations with a slowdown at Canada’s largest port. CN argued it had no choice but to restrict traffic after it was swamped with rail cars at British Columbia terminals: “Railways exist to serve the needs of shippers and not the other way around.”
A junior cabinet aide took a free winter junket from a Fortune 500 corporate consultant to spend a week sailing in Florida, according to filings. The special assistant to Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough did not respond to multiple requests for an explanation: “I was invited by two friends.”
An MP has filed a federal lawsuit for disclosure of confidential terms of a Netflix investment agreement with the Department of Canadian Heritage. Cabinet has refused to release the contract under the Investment Canada Act: “Few details are available as the agreement is still subject to secrecy.”
Transport Canada is shelving a recommendation that it restrict new subdivisions within 300 metres of railway tracks following hundreds of casualties. The safety measure has been reviewed for fifteen years: “We need to do more work.”
The Commons has unanimously passed a jurors’ aid bill. The Conservative sponsor urged legislators to speed the bill to the Senate for approval with seven work weeks remaining before Parliament adjourns for a general election campaign: “How is it possible?”
The murder
of Jamal Khashoggi
should not affect the relationship
between the United States
and Saudi Arabia.
On the line,
thousands of jobs
in the American weapon industries
and
billions of dollars in trade deals, including:
laser-guided missiles,
programmable bomb systems,
self-propelled Howitzers.
No responsible government
would risk all that
for one person.
Not even for a journalist.
The tens of thousands of Yemeni children
who died of starvation
(caused by the Saudis)
and in airstrikes
(led by the Saudis)
are not a good reason
either.
Lost lives
are merely statistics,
to quote Stalin.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux yesterday said he expects a hundred requests to analyze parties’ election promises in the October 21 campaign. Taxpayers will see first-ever independent costing of party pledges under a bill passed by Parliament in 2018: “This represents a major change in the political landscape.”
One of the nation’s leading disability advocates says a federal accessibility bill appears “nebulous” and does little for the deaf. Cabinet hailed its legislation as a landmark attempt to remove barriers to accessibility: “You have to have something against which to measure yourself.”
