The Federal Court has thrown out a $347,386 wrongful dismissal award to a truck driver due to a botched Canada Labour Code arbitration hearing. A judge cited the arbitrator for “unjustified remarks” against the employer: “There is no doubt that he failed.”
The Department of Public Works says its property projects run late and over-budget about 40 percent of the time. The internal audit follow claims from the Clerk of the Privy Council that the department is 100 percent on-target on big projects: “We have the most effective public service on the planet.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage says it has no idea how lieutenant governors spend nearly a million a year in federal grants. Staff recommended future audits be dropped due to lack of information: “A few concerns were identified.”
A federal judge has dismissed a free-speech challenge of election law to permit voters to mark “none of the above” on their ballots. More than 100,000 ballots were rejected for such markings in the last federal campaign: “There is no genuine issue.”
A federal judge has thrown out another cash claim by a French-language traveler against Air Canada. The Supreme Court in 2014 ruled the airline was not obliged to pay damages for technical breaches of the Official Languages Act: ‘Harm is minimal.’
MPs will vote extra funding for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that will raise the total cost to $92 million. The notice came at the same Commons budget hearing in which the Transportation Safety Board warned it will cut 10 percent of its workforce by year’s end without $3 million in emergency funding: “We don’t have enough money.”
A legislator has faulted the chair of the Senate banking committee for inviting a registered corporate lobbyist to join in releasing a report advocating corporate tax cuts. The lobbyist was an esteemed colleague, reporters were told: “Avoid reinforcing any preconceived notions that we are beholden to the most powerful.”
Taxpayers face millions in losses on a failed green technology venture once predicted to power every home in Atlantic Canada. The collapse of OpenHydro Technology Canada Ltd., promoters of the nation’s first commercial tidal farm, is detailed in Halifax bankruptcy court: ‘The beauty is — ‘
Auto dealers, art galleries, auctioneers and mortgage insurers face new surveillance of cash dealings under a proposal by the Commons finance committee. MPs recommended Parliament expand a 2001 Act to counter money laundering, and again suggested it include lawyers: ‘Measures could potentially create a burden on the private sector.’
Blacklock’s Reporter pauses for Remembrance Day observances with gratitude to all who honoured our country. Thank you for your service.
A proposed Statistics Canada scoop of bank records of more than a million people is unjustified, unethical and unnecessary, the Senate banking committee was told yesterday. Senators expressed alarm the agency did not disclose the program until it was leaked to media: “Why should we trust Statistics Canada?”
Cabinet is considering all options to end 18 days of rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, officials said yesterday. “Obviously we are preoccupied with the situation at Canada Post,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.
An employers’ group yesterday told the Commons finance committee a “flexibility” clause in cabinet’s Pay Equity Act poses no harm to underpaid women. A coalition of unions has predicted lengthy court battles if Parliament does not delete the reference: “I’m concerned about potentially over-dramatizing this.”
Parliament should proclaim two federal Indigenous holidays instead of one, the Commons heritage committee was told yesterday. A New Democrat MP expressed caution: “What I’ve learned is that better is the enemy of the good.”
The Commons human resources committee yesterday approved a bill to mandate barrier-free access to federally-regulated workplaces including airports, banks and railway stations. Critics noted the bill does not fix firm enforcement deadlines: “They take what they can get.”
