The Standards Council of Canada yesterday cited a public outcry over unsafe barbecue brushes. Authorities said they will draft new guidelines for brush manufacturers, though data show injuries are extraordinarily rare: ‘There is an outcry for action to protect the consumer.’
A tax increase on small businesses with large earnings on investment income would impact only the wealthiest, a Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Businesses have protested the change proposed in the February 27 budget: “Conservatives are worrying about the richest of the richest.”
The fisheries department is not shockingly incompetent, its Minister yesterday told the Commons fisheries committee. Conservative MPs complained of long delays by department staff in answering routine requests from municipalities: “How could you let that happen under your watch?”
A federal audit that cites the Department of Fisheries for failing to monitor the environmental impact of coastal salmon farms is disturbing, says an assistant deputy fisheries minister. The audit by the Commissioner of the Environment concluded regulators are not taking steps to protect wild fish stocks from aquaculture pesticides and diseases: ‘Pesticides can harm wild fish.’
A federal rewrite of oil and gas regulations is merely a Band-Aid over industry-friendly amendments introduced six years ago, the Commons environment committee was told yesterday. “If you want backroom deal-making, go with this Act,” said Richard Lindgren, counsel for the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
First Nations say the Department of Environment has yet to comply with a UN request to protect a World Heritage Site. A UNESCO panel in 2017 faulted regulators for failing to monitor the impact of mining and hydroelectric projects at Canada’s largest national park: “Governments have dropped the ball.”
The national carbon tax will slow the economy, the Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday predicted. Analysts forecast the tax at its peak rate of $50 per tonne will cut $10 billion from economic growth by 2022: ‘It will generate a headwind for the Canadian economy.’
Advertisers yesterday told the Commons health committee a bill to curb food and beverage advertising to children may end in a court challenge. Health Canada in Access To Information records obtained in 2017 said it feared a lengthy legal fight over a ban on junk food marketing: “It would easily be challenged.”
The Department of Justice in newly-released data says the number of marijuana charges dropped sharply in Canada in the five years before it introduced its bill to legalize cannabis. Opponents questioned the point of the legislation: “Why are we going through all of this?”
The Department of Employment responsible for benefits says hundreds of thousands of the nation’s poorest seniors are still not receiving cheques they’re owed under the Guaranteed Income Supplement. MPs for the past 17 years have recommended automatic enrollment of all qualified citizens who turn 65: “Seniors do not apply because they often cannot understand.”
A tax dispute has Montréal in Federal Court against one of the city’s leading historical attractions. The municipality claims millions in unpaid taxes from the Old Port of Montréal under an Act of Parliament: “The exemptions they are asking for are ridiculous.”
The Department of Justice threatened Parliamentary Press Gallery reporters with contempt of court in an apparent witness tampering scheme, records disclose. One lawyer representing Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould privately coached Blacklock’s writers to withdraw sworn oaths filed in a federal copyright case.
Blacklock’s has claims against government defendants for copying thousands of works without permission or licensing fee in breach of the Copyright Act. Six journalists who’d written for the electronic daily swore 2017 affidavits before a notary affirming they’d assigned all copyright to Blacklock’s. The affidavits were filed with Federal Court.
Justice Canada staff in confidential emails and letters subsequently threatened reporters. “YOU MAY BE FOUND IN CONTEMPT OF COURT,” department counsel Sarah Sherhols wrote journalists (original emphasis). There was no Court order.
Alexandre Kaufman, senior counsel for the Attorney General, in a series of private emails told journalists they must disclose personal information or consider withdrawing their sworn statements. “I encourage you to seek independent legal advice for information about the consequences of not complying,” Kaufman wrote one journalist.
Another reporter was ordered to submit third-party contracts with other clients for inspection by the Department of Justice, though it was not a legal requirement. “Bring copies of the agreements you have with your other freelance customers,” wrote Kaufman; “Please advise if you wish to withdraw your affidavit.”
“I’m just doing my job,” Kaufman told journalists. Kaufman on September 8 cross-examined three reporters who’d sworn affidavits in the case:
Five of six Blacklock’s reporters resisted the department and affirmed their oaths. The sixth writer, Dale Smith, a Law Times freelancer, withdrew his affidavit after an email exchange with Attorney Kaufman that ran to six pages. The Department of Justice claimed solicitor-client privilege in concealing the records under the Access To Information Act. The emails were obtained in legal proceedings.
The department in an August 3, 2017 email ordered Smith to bring all notes relating to 41 stories published by Blacklock’s with his byline over a two-year period. “This is unwieldy in the extreme,” complained Smith, who’d already testified in a 2015 cross examination that “I signed over copyright of material to them.”
“I am sorry…if it causes you stress,” Kaufman emailed Smith on August 30. “As I believe I mentioned to you before, you are always free to withdraw your affidavit in which case you cannot be cross-examined on it,” Kaufman wrote again on August 31.
Smith withdrew the sworn statement after asking Blacklock’s for $7,681 to pay his tax arrears. The editor refused to make any payment.
Blacklock’s has copyright claims against 13 government departments and agencies for sharing $157 passwords to copy thousands of stories without permission or payment, despite multiple warnings and written denials. Works were copied by federal media monitors without a licensing fee, though records show the Government of Canada paid large fees to other publishers for news clippings.
Payments to other news media included Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. ($2.3 million); The Canadian Press ($645,000); Bloomberg Finance ($465,000); iPolitics ($274,000); Postmedia Networks ($226,000) and the National Observer ($131,000).
The Department of Justice acknowledged copying Blacklock’s works to thousands of federal employees, but claimed a right to do so under a “fair dealing” provision of the Copyright Act that permits discrete copying for research purposes or private study.
By Staff 
A Liberal Senator says legislators will amend cabinet’s marijuana bill with seven weeks left to a cabinet deadline to vote on the measure. The rewrite comes ahead of a June 7 deadline: “We will do it, to put amendments forward.”
A national carbon tax would have to more than double the $50 rate fixed by cabinet if Canada is to meet greenhouse gas emission targets, researchers have told the Senate energy committee. A tax of at least $130 per tonne – the equivalent of an extra 22¢ per litre of gasoline – is likely required, officials said: “Not everybody can afford to just come up with that cash.”
The Canada Revenue Agency paid a pollster more than $47,000 to interview 67 poor people about how to file their taxes, according to records. The respondents were paid $90 to attend two-hour interviews, with the bulk of costs going to researchers: “Many of these individuals said they were not comfortable with numbers.”
