A Public Health Agency of Canada panel recommends municipalities talk to their lawyers before fluoridating the water supply. Mandatory fluoridation “raises ethical concerns” though it’s been commonplace in Canada since 1945, said a report: “The legal validity of such a policy is a distinct question.”
Cabinet in an Access To Information memo has cautioned a $15,000-a week federal panel reviewing the Broadcasting Act to “avoid any real or perceived conflict of interest”. Four of seven panelists are current or former lobbyists.
The Department of Health proposes a breath mint giveaway to lower smoking rates among young Canadians. In-house research described the promotion as appropriate and useful: “Participants suggested a host of additional promotional items including fidget toys.”
The Federal Court of Appeal in a rare 2-1 split decision says Canadian Pacific Railway must compensate a shipper for loss of service due to fire. The amount of compensation was not disclosed: ‘It establishes a level playing field despite the near-monopoly power a railway may exert.’
Cabinet yesterday rejected any blacklisting of the country’s largest engineering firm from bidding on public works. Three former executives with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. have pled guilty to offences in the past six months: “They continue to get huge federal contracts.”
The Department of Industry in an internal memo claims taxpayers turned a 25 percent profit on subsidies to Bombardier Inc. The claim was cribbed word for word from a Bombardier news release. Staff did not comment: “The facts speak for themselves.”
Federal departments have continued to award millions in contracts to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. even as former company executives pled guilty to wrongdoing, including payment of $109,616 in illegal cash contributions to Liberal Party organizers. Smaller contractors have faced blacklisting under a Government-Wide Integrity Regime: “I think this is ridiculous.”
Government agencies last year spent 80 times more ad money with Facebook than daily newspapers in Canada. The Treasury Board defended the practice even as cabinet contemplates a costly bailout of dailies: ‘The picture is not a pretty one.’
The Commons has given Second Reading to a Senate bill banning the capture of live whales for display. Cabinet hasn’t issued a whale license since 1992, when teams captured belugas at Churchill, Man. for display at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. They died: ‘We want to get this passed into law.’
Federal agents have dropped a seven-year battle with a charity falsely accused of misusing donations for political purposes. The collapse of the government case follows a 2018 Ontario Superior Court ruling that prompted amendments to the Income Tax Act: “It’s a huge victory.”
Newly-released accounts detail $375 million spent on a weekend G7 summit in Charlevoix, Que. last year. Costs ranged from nearly a quarter-billion dollars for the RCMP to $20,000 fireworks and $1,300 for chocolates and cigars: “We have done our due diligence.”
Conservatives yesterday appealed for Commons ethics committee hearings on a cabinet proposal for election-year surveillance of foreign Facebook posts, and government-paid fact checking of Canadian digital media news coverage. “Let’s vote on it now,” said MP Peter Kent (Thornhill, Ont.).
Press photo associations yesterday protested the publication of a doctored National Post image appearing to ridicule MP Maxime Bernier. Publishing any altered photo without a prominent advisory to readers is unacceptable, photographers said: “Otherwise it really confuses the reader.”
A cabinet bill to ban bear-baiting should open a “deeper ethical” review of animal rights protection, Attorney General David Lametti yesterday told the Commons justice committee. “That’s a larger question,” he said.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday challenged reporters to “do the math” in dismissing a Parliamentary Budget Office report that cabinet paid top dollar for the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Analysts concluded cabinet overpaid by as much as 20 percent when it nationalized the line last May 29: “What does that mean?”
