A former manager found innocent of wrongdoing at Library & Archives Canada says he was ruined by prosecutors. The longtime executive was acquitted at trial June 11. Prosecutors are not appealing the verdict: “I’ve lost four years of my life.”
The Commons immigration committee yesterday ordered rare summer hearings on illegal immigration. MPs accused cabinet of skewing data to downplay a sharp rise in border crossings: “We’re concerned about the safety of our border.”
About a third of homeless people, 29 percent, do not file yearly tax returns though they could earn thousands in benefits, says the Canada Revenue Agency. The study followed 2017 research that found the poor are so intimidated by the Agency they would forego a federal cheque: “Individuals did not realize they stood to benefit.”
Public servants in Nunavut are among the best paid in Canada despite high local unemployment, according to evidence in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. More than 1 in 4 positions in the territorial service are vacant: “There is no shortage of job opportunities.”
Federal regulators say they have no data on the success or failure of a program to have cable providers offer $25-a month TV packages. One consumers’ group described the 2016 campaign for so-called “skinny basic” cable as a marketing ploy: ‘We do not have statistics.’
The Canada Revenue Agency in an internal audit admits it has no accurate reporting of how long taxpayers must wait in applying for relief from interest and penalties. The Agency receives more than 400,000 applications a year from taxpayers who seek help in hardship cases: “These recurrent problems create increased frustration for individual citizens.”
A stunt pilot has lost a long legal fight with Transport Canada over a fine for reckless flying. Regulators complained a YouTube video depicting a helicopter skidding past a pond hockey game breached Aviation Regulations: “Each of the players was an expert skater.”
A federal food safety ombudsman hasn’t filed an annual report in two years. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the office is still functioning, but simply stopped public reporting of its work: “It continues to provide administrative redress.”
Silver Dancers
of San Antonio Spurs
going home.
Gone
minimally-dressed young women
exciting crowds
and NBA players.
Gone
female bodies
pleasing sponsors
and club executives.
Cheer for that.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A judge has thrown out a bid by the Canada Revenue Agency to search hydro customers’ accounts for evidence of tax avoidance. The Federal Court called it an obvious fishing expedition that breached the “right of everyone to be left alone by the state”.
Canadian diplomats contracted a U.S. video production company to save NAFTA talks with a YouTube video. The Canadian Embassy in Washington paid the equivalent of more than $600 per second to produce a short video promoting the 1994 trade pact as a job creator, according to records: “Good storytelling is becoming harder to find.”
A national radio panel has approved the use of a vulgar term for women. The Canada Broadcast Standards Council noted public acceptance of street language has evolved over the years: “Is this word no longer a censored word?”
Federal agencies have saved about $3,000 under a 2015 program to abolish penny-ante benefit cheques. The cabinet order followed a public outcry over the mailing of a 1¢ cheque to a war widow: “It was an insensitive bureaucratic screw-up.”
Transport Canada yesterday rejected any further research on school bus safety belts. The dismissal followed the accidental death of an Alberta schoolgirl, and a recommendation by U.S. safety investigators that all new buses be equipped with three-point shoulder and lap belts: “We just want all the facts laid out.”
The Department of Finance yesterday said it will not use cash transfers to penalize provinces that refuse to collect the carbon tax. Protests from Saskatchewan were prompted by earlier department memos that described carbon taxes as “an issue” in transfer payments: “If provinces do not collect carbon taxes, will they be penalized under the equalization scheme? No.”
