The Royal Canadian Legion has filed a federal lawsuit against an Alberta retailer over unauthorized use of its famous poppy. The Legion said it must defend itself from improper use of lookalike emblems: “You’re stealing from those who supported this country by laying down their lives.”
The Department of Employment has monitored grant applicants’ Twitter feeds and Facebook posts for comments deemed inappropriate, according to evidence in a Federal Court case. Staff submitted records of social media monitoring in affidavits: “I can’t speak to that.”
Farm groups yesterday urged caution at the Commons fisheries committee over revisions to protection of fish habitat. Advocates complained federal inspectors used the Fisheries Act to hector farmers over minor water projects: “The devil is always in the details.”
Environment Canada managers yesterday declined to release actual costs of the national carbon tax despite being asked 15 times in the Commons finance committee. “I’m afraid we can’t tell you that at this time,” said John Moffet, associate assistant deputy minister.
Federal aid for corporation totals $5.5 billion this year, Industry Minister Navdeep Bains yesterday told the Commons industry committee. Bains said subsidies generally benefit Canadians, but did not detail the number of jobs created: “How can you manage?”
Cabinet’s cannabis bill yesterday hit its first Senate roadblock with a committee report to delay implementation for up to a year. The Senate aboriginal peoples’ committee complained of “an alarming lack of consultation” on the bill to legalize recreational marijuana: “People are entitled to a say.”
Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand yesterday said findings of an aquaculture audit were the worst she’s seen in four years in office. The April 24 audit concluded the Department of Fisheries failed to protect wild fish species from salmon farmers: “I found the most number of gaps in any audit I’ve ever done.”
The Commons health committee yesterday recommended research on the number of hospital deaths in Canada due to antimicrobial resistance. Health Canada has no data on patients who die from illnesses that can’t be treated with antibiotics: “It’s a big deal.”
Environment Canada research obtained through Access To Information anticipates a $75 national carbon tax scenario, equal to an 18¢ rise in the cost of a litre of gas. The department yesterday confirmed for the first time its $50 per tonne tax will not meet emissions targets: “It’s quite clear there is a gap.”
A bill to ban junk food advertising to children yesterday passed the Commons health committee. The private Conservative bill, already approved by the Senate, would outlaw marketing of unhealthy foods or beverages to children under 13 by 2020: “It raises my eyebrow.”
Legal marijuana may run afoul of bank and mortgage insurance rules for homebuyers, the Senate social affairs committee was told yesterday. The Federal Court of Appeal in 2017 cited one bank’s mortgage ban on licensed marijuana users who grow plants at home: “Who knows what is going to happen when it is legal?”
Hoteliers yesterday said they’ve won federal approval for a pilot project to fill labour shortages with new immigrants. Earlier cuts to hiring of temporary foreign workers left the industry with critical shortages, said the Hotel Association of Canada: “It’s very real.”
Top tax rates for high-income earners have become a competitiveness issue, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Seven of ten provinces – all but Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario – now tax top earners at 50 percent or more: ‘It’s the overlooked part.’
The Commons health committee yesterday considered regulatory curbs on the sale of caffeinated alcohol. The debate followed the March 1 death of a Québec schoolgirl: “We’ve been complaining about these products for 6 or 7 years.”
Federal Court managers say they have disciplined an employee for editing a plaintiff’s Wikipedia page amid ongoing legal proceedings. Administrators did not say if the misconduct was directed by a lawyer in Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould’s department.
“Disciplinary measures were taken against the employee,” Daniel Gosselin, chief administrator of the Courts Administration Service, said in a statement. “The measures taken took into consideration the employee’s wrongdoing”; “I would like to confirm the employee is not an officer of the Court” – meaning a judge, court clerk or lawyer, said Gosselin (original emphasis).
The Court would not name the Wikipedia editor, or detail what discipline was taken. Federal employees on duty are restricted from using government computers for anything but official business under a Treasury Board Guideline On Acceptable Network And Device Use.
The Court confirmed on December 21, 2016 a courthouse computer was used to edit a Blacklock’s Reporter Wikipedia page. The edits occurred within 90 minutes of the release of a Federal Court cost award against Blacklock’s in a copyright case. The decision was not publicly accessible at the time.
A judge ordered Blacklock’s to pay $65,000 in costs after unsuccessfully suing the Department of Finance for breach of the Copyright Act. The department had knowingly distributed password-protected news stories without payment or permission.
Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould in a letter to Blacklock’s said Court staff must operate “at arm’s length from the government”, and declined comment on the incident. Access To Information memos indicated Department of Justice staff were puzzled by the Wikipedia edits. “Who could have made the change?” wrote one staffer.
“Christmas Came Early”
Records indicated a Department of Justice lawyer, Alexandre Kaufman, received the cost award at 1:32 pm and within minutes emailed it to 22 people including two Ottawa bloggers, a media columnist for the Globe & Mail, two private law firms, two government communications officers, the University of Western Ontario and several federal attorneys.
“Christmas came early,” Kaufman wrote in his emails; “Please enjoy”; “A most interesting read”; “For your reading pleasure”. The Wikipedia edits occurred in the same time period that Kaufman was blitzing commentators with email messages that continued from 1:51 pm to 7:01 pm that evening, and resumed the next morning.
The Courts Administration Service is exempt from the Access To Information Act and would not release details of the Wikipedia editing. “We strive to be exemplary in everything we do,” the Service wrote in its latest Annual Report; “Judicial independence is a cornerstone of the Canadian judicial system.”
A 2017 Department of Justice memo Judicial Independence And The Courts stressed “courts must be independent”, including routine business matters. Administration is a “pillar of judicial independence”, including “administrative decisions that bear directly and immediately on the exercise of judicial function, e.g….direction of court staff,” said the memo prepared for a Deputy Ministers’ Committee on Governance.
By Staff 
