Few homeowners test for radon poisoning even in 17 cities targeted by Health Canada as high-risk, says federal research. The odourless gas is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers: ‘An important objective is to understand attitudes of residents of radon-prone areas.’
A proposed class action lawsuit is challenging insurers’ collection of credit scores from policyholders. Lawyers alleged customers were pressured into agreeing to credit checks when filing auto claims: “It will be interesting to see how this plays out.”
Statistics Canada has begun a three-year analysis of sewage to gauge the nation’s cannabis consumption before and after legalization. The monthly analysis of wastewater samples from cities nationwide should have been undertaken long ago, said one legislator: “It’s been performed in various countries for over a decade.”
We no longer masturbate
in Ontario.
That part of our sex-ed
flew out the window.
Let them touch themselves
in Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg.
Even in Whitehorse
– what else is there to do
on long wintry nights?
Just not in Toronto,
Kingston,
Sudbury.
Here we fast-track our boys
to real manhood.
“Me Tarzan, you Jane”
more proper
than seeking consent.
And we teach healthy relationships,
ones that exclude
man to man,
woman to woman,
or anything LGBTQ.
That part crossed out too.
In Ontario
we remember our past.
In fact, we’re bringing it back
to the days before Google, Twitter, Snapchat,
with a 20-year old curriculum and a rotary phone,
trusting our new Leader
to take us down the path
where not knowing is knowledge,
division is unity,
news is fake,
and darkness and ignorance
trump.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
In a national census 409,065 Canadians identify themselves as Métis. They represent the 18th largest “ethnic” group in the country after Portuguese, Norwegians and Filipinos. Of course the Métis are unique, with centuries-old roots that define much of the nation’s history.
And yet –
Métis are iconic figures of Canadiana famed as self-reliant hunters, but they have spent the past forty years in court determining their aboriginal rights. Métis are a nation, but for centuries had no constitution or identifiable self-government.
As people of aboriginal and European descent, Métis rely on self-identification to count their numbers. Yet “a person can identify as Métis and not be legally entitled to exercise the Métis Aboriginal right to hunt for food,” note editors of Métis in Canada; “Furthermore, being legally entitled to exercise the Métis right to hunt for food does not necessarily indicate that such a person is also a member of a Métis political organization.”
Still, there is a uniquely Canadian logic to it. Everyone knows what is meant by the term Métis, and the people themselves are defined exactly by what they are not. The editors put it succinctly: “About the only elements that tie this diversity together are the facts of the Métis peoples’ distinctiveness – from other Indigenous peoples and from the settlers – and their constitutional recognition as rights-bearing, indigenous peoples in Canada.”
This University of Alberta press selection chronicles the unique Métis contribution to the Canadian story. The late Helen Bradley, former senator of the Georgian Bay Métis Council, recalled her childhood in the 1930s as the daughter of an Ojibwe-speaking father from Drummond Island and a French-speaking mother from Québec: “Mom would always say she didn’t have any native blood. Remember the Indian List? They couldn’t go into hotels. The Indians were getting bad names because of that; that’s why, I think, they didn’t want us to let on that we had native blood in us.”
Underscoring the story of the Métis is the vulgar term “half-breed”, still popular till recent times. As late as 1958 the parliamentary bureau of The Canadian Press referred to “half-breeds” in everyday coverage of federal bills affecting aboriginal land rights; as late as 1972 history schoolbooks approved for use by Ontario’s Ministry of Education approved history texts that cited “half-breeds” as a fixture of pioneer life.
In 1885 John A. Macdonald said, “If they are half-breed they are white.” Well, not exactly; Métis in Canada recounts an 1869 traveller’s telling observance that “half-breeds are a sort of half-and-half specimen of humanity, hardly entitled to the privilege of being called rational beings”; “The word ‘half-breed’ merely signifies where there is a tinge more or less of Indian blood – but whoever started the term ‘breed’ ought to have been choked before he had time to apply it to human beings.”
By Holly Doan
Metis in Canada: History, Identity, Law & Politics edited by Christopher Adams, Gregg Dahl & Ian Peach; University of Alberta Press; ISBN 9780-8886-48112; $52
A federal agency has cited an unnamed bank for misleading more than 300,000 customers over mortgage payments. The breach of Cost Of Borrowing Regulations occurred over a seven-year period before it was reported: ‘The bank argues its customers did not suffer harm; I do not agree.’
Taxpayers have only a limited right to know how much government lawyers spend on contentious cases, says the British Columbia Information & Privacy Commission. The ruling contradicted federal decisions allowing disclosure of fees in ongoing or high-profile litigation including the Omar Khadr case: “There is no doubt a significant public interest.”
Hoteliers yesterday appealed to the Canada Revenue Agency for a tax sweep of Airbnb vendors. The Agency since 2004 has targeted similar audits against eBay sellers and PayPal account holders in Canada: “Home-sharing is one thing; it’s the commercial operations we’re looking at.”
A charity that won a landmark July 17 court ruling on free expression yesterday accused the Canada Revenue Agency of duplicity in appealing the judgment while promising reforms. The Ontario Superior Court struck down a 1985 policy that limits charities’ participation in policy debates; “I don’t see any silver lining here.”
An employer breached human rights law in laying off migrant workers ahead of Canadians, an Alberta Department of Labour adjudicator has ruled. ATCO Electric Co. said it feared it would violate federal regulations by keeping Jamaicans on staff while cutting its Canadian workforce: “There is no issue about ATCO’s good faith.”
The Department of Citizenship says immigrants are more entrepreneurial than Canadians. “This helps create jobs,” staff wrote. The department yesterday did not comment on the claim based on a 2016 analysis that included business-class immigrants.
The Federal Court of Appeal has faulted the military over a routine workplace grievance that stretched into a nine-year legal battle. Judges ordered reconsideration of a claim that a medically-released veteran be allowed to sue the army for $400,000 in damages: “He did not have the opportunity to be heard.”
Health Canada yesterday proposed to ban farm use of two of the nation’s most commonly used pesticide seed treatments by 2024. A manufacturers’ group described the proposal as disappointing: ‘It is a serious matter.’
In-house federal research points to a growing public backlash against illegal immigrants, especially by foreign-born residents who came here lawfully. “It’s unfair,” a Department of Citizenship pollster quoted one immigrant questioned in government focus groups.
A federal ombudsman yesterday launched a review of how the Canada Revenue Agency treats taxpayers. The examination comes five months after the British Columbia Supreme Court faulted auditors for malicious prosecution of a small, family-owned business: “This examination will seek to identify gaps that may exist.”
