The higher home prices go, the faster consumers expect them to rise, according to Bank of Canada research. The Bank based its findings on a survey of 1,000 households that asked, “What would you say is the percent chance that, over the next 12 months, the average home price nationwide will increase or decrease?”
Cabinet’s proposal to legalize marijuana will set back anti-smoking efforts, health advocates yesterday told the Senate social affairs committee. Health Canada has targeted a reduction of 3 million tobacco users nationwide even as it co-sponsored legislation to legalize cannabis: “We’re absolutely concerned about an increase in marijuana consumption.”
A computer error in a cross-border Customs database has prompted a federal lawsuit. A British Columbia trucking company says it was unfairly fined thousands of dollars over an electronic glitch at the Canada Border Services Agency: “Nobody wants to listen to our side of the story.”
The Public Prosecution Service will not disclose the number of Canadians arrested for marijuana possession since cabinet introduced its bill to legalize cannabis. More than 15,000 were arrested in the 18 months prior to the bill’s tabling: “What is really going on?”
More than 420,000 low income Canadians have skipped millions in benefits by failing to file a yearly tax return, says an Access To Information memo from the Canada Revenue Agency. Earlier federal research concluded many poor Canadians find dealing with the Agency to be stressful and unpleasant: “Others are fearful they will get in trouble.”
Air Canada has lost a bid to block disclosure of safety inspections that found the airline in breach of Canadian Aviation Regulations. The Federal Court ruled that, while disclosure “could cause the public to be concerned”, it was no reason to conceal records: “Airlines have had negative disclosures in the past.”
The Department of Finance estimates it takes immigrants about 13 years to work their way up to the Canadian average on employment income. “New immigrants have a more difficult time,” said the memo to Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
A federal judge has issued a $5 million award in a copyright case. The default judgment cited an internet TV operator for ignoring years’ worth of warnings to stop the broadcast of bootlegged programming: “There is no reasonable explanation.”
Like Einstein before him
Newton before him
Galileo before him
Copernicus before him
da Vinci before him
Aristotle before him
he couldn’t find the answer to:
“Does this make me look fat?”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
VIA Rail faces an inquiry by the Canadian Human Rights Commission into alleged discriminatory hiring practices against women, according to Court documents. The railway in its last Annual Report described itself as a “leader in diversity”.
Lobbyists have pressed cabinet not to write fruit juice out of the Canada Food Guide, according to Access To Information records. The industry fears lost sales in the $1.6 billion-a year trade after a 2016 Senate committee report on obesity described 100% fruit juice as “little more than a soft drink without the bubbles.”
Cabinet should disclose any data it has on the financial impact of its national carbon tax, says the former chair of the Senate energy committee. Access To Information files indicate regulators as early as 2016 calculated costs and impacts on jobs, but would not release the information: “Our economy is going to hell if we continue to do this.”
A typical federal employee will now spend as many years in retirement as they do in the workforce, says a pension report. Chief Actuary Jean-Claude Ménard said longer life spans are putting “upward pressure” on public service pensions: “For recent retirees, average working life is less or equal to average retirement life.”
Ten federal agencies last year paid a national broker almost $577,000 to distribute newspaper stories ghostwritten by government employees. The payments came as Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly lamented “fake news” in Canada. Joly’s office yesterday did not comment.
Records show agencies paid $576,623 in seventeen separate contracts to News Canada Inc., a Toronto-based broker that distributes “ready-to-use, timely lifestyle content that is free of charge and copyright”, according to a management statement. Unsigned stories were identified only as “News Canada” content. Blacklock’s found weeklies from Alberta to Québec that republished items without any advisory they were written by communications staff with government departments and agencies.
Examples included Achieve Your Long-Term Financial Goals With Your Home Equity, a story placed by the Financial Consumer Agency advising homeowners on how to apply to banks for lines of credit. The item did not disclose the federal Agency draws 77 percent of its $17.6 million annual budget from banks and other lenders.
Pesticides In Canada, a story written by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, told readers: “When used properly, you can be assured there is no risk to human health or the environment.” The story failed to note ongoing Agency reviews of three common neonicotinoid pesticides regulators have cited as environmentally toxic.
Debunking The Latest Health Fads And Myths, a News Canada item ghostwritten by the health department, said: “If you think cannabis can help relieve symptoms you are experiencing, talk to your doctor about cannabis for medical purposes”. A separate Health Canada story Teaching Your Kids To Make Healthy Choices advised readers to “start having conversations” about cannabis with children as young as 12. Neither story identified Health Canada as the author or co-sponsor of legislation to legalize marijuana.
Watch These Five Real Estate Trends placed by Statistics Canada told readers: “The condo boom continues”. An item written by staff at the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman headlined Taxpayers’ Ombudsman Reveals Top CRA Service Issues read, “You have probably heard of someone getting frustrated with the CRA” and explained how to file a complaint. The story failed to mention the Ombudsman dismissed 3 out of 4 complaints last year.
Minister Joly in a 2017 interview with La Presse described fake news as a “concern”. Other government members publicly expressed similar worries. “What is a journalist? Today with issues like fake news and so forth, there is a great deal of concern about that,” Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North), parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader, told the Commons last September 19.
“Freedom of the press is something we should never take for granted,” said Lamoureux. “We understand it is a fundamental pillar to good governance, to the whole issue of democracy.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage did not comment. Staff in a July 6, 2017 Memorandum To The Minister described fake news – including “state-sponsored” content – as a public policy issue. “Creators of fake news are non-traditional sources, i.e. not journalists; individuals on social media; individuals not preoccupied with facts,” said the memo obtained through Access To Information.
“Characteristics of fake news” include content that writers are “quick to create and share, and are not constrained by research or fact-checking,” wrote Joly’s staff; “The issue is complex and there is not likely one single, easy solution. (There are) limitations to actions that governments can take, e.g. cannot decide what is fake news.”
“Access to accurate information from diverse perspectives underpins our democratic institutions,” said the memo.
Joly’s department did not pay for distribution of ghostwritten stories in 2017. Others that did were Health Canada (spending a total $239,741); Statistics Canada ($61,071); the Department of Public Safety ($47,331); Industry Canada ($41,420); Commissioner of Official Languages ($37,064); Canada Revenue Agency ($35,166); the National Research Council ($30,307); Department of Immigration ($26,600); Commissioner of Privacy ($21,974); and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada ($16,950).
By Tom Korski
Restaurant owners suffer a high rate of tax audits, according to Canada Revenue Agency records obtained through Access To Information. A total 14 percent of all restaurants nationwide have been targeted by auditors since 2013: “Canada Revenue Agency dedicates too much energy to minor issues with small businesses and individuals.”
