A federal agency is copying a U.S.-invented program Refund To Savings that encourages households to put away a portion of their tax refunds. The electronic initiative follows federal research that most Canadians did not have $5,000 in cash for a family emergency: ‘There’s job loss, unexpected medical expenses or vehicle repairs.’
Canada Post suffered its first loss in five years in 2018 due almost entirely to the cost of a half-billion dollar pay equity order, according to accounts. The post office said profitable parcel revenues increased last year, by 14 percent, despite 35 days of rotating strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers: “This is a vicious circle.”
Easter greetings to our friends and subscribers. Blacklock’s pauses for the federal holiday, and will return April 23 — The Editor
Infrastructure Minister François-Philippe Champagne in a six-month period logged more than 7,000 kilometres driving by car and chauffeur through Québec, including repeated trips from Parliament Hill to his Shawinigan home. Champagne had urged Canadians to lower greenhouse gas emissions for the sake of climate change: “He’s a Minister. He’s very busy.”
A federal agency responsible for food safety appears unprepared for a public health emergency, says an internal audit. The report comes seven years after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was faulted for a lackadaisical response to the biggest poisoned beef recall in the country’s history: “The Agency may not be adequately prepared.”
The Commons heritage committee yesterday served notice it will examine online resales of concert tickets. The investigation follows the 2018 suspension of regulations under Ontario’s Ticket Sales Act that banned the resale of tickets with 50 percent markups under threat of $10,000 fines: “The artists aren’t getting anything from that.”
A judge has thrown out an Air Canada passenger’s claim for damages after he invoked a constitutional right to board a flight with an expired passport. The airline testified its website advisories are clear that travelers should not fly out of the country without valid papers: “The Charter does not apply.”
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.”
