As many as 76 percent of teenagers and adults did not get a flu shot last year, says new Statistics Canada data. One MP said the low rate was unsurprising despite Public Health Agency ad campaigns: “We have a lot of work to do.”
Wholesale spam volumes have increased 350-fold in 20 years, a web security consultant yesterday told a Commons statutory review of anti-spam legislation. Internet spam filters, not regulations, were credited with blocking most unsolicited emails: “Ask yourself, did my spam volume go up that much? No, it didn’t.”
More than a million Canadians have signed electronic petitions since Parliament introduced the system two years ago. Officials yesterday told the Commons committee on House affairs that petitions on issues from Sharia law to electoral reform drew tens of thousands of signatures: “We should be as expansive as possible.”
Cabinet yesterday introduced a bill mandating that all federally-regulated employers, including Parliament, enact anti-harassment policies. Regulations would affect some 895,000 workers nationwide: “There will be laws in place.”
Canada Post is predicting a record 20 percent growth in parcel revenues this year. One executive yesterday told the Commons trade committee that parcel revenues will soon eclipse $2 billion annually: “Wow, there’s a lot of room to grow there.”
The Commons access committee yesterday rejected substantive changes to a bill restricting Access To Information disclosures. Opposition MPs described the bill as so flawed it is beyond improvement: “This bill takes us backward.”
Statistics Canada says it will undertake a national survey on a common household carcinogen, but not until 2020. The last cross-Canada study on radon gas in 2012 found about 7 percent of households are exposed to unsafe levels: “Attention to radon has lagged in this country.”
Cabinet yesterday rejected any revisions to bankruptcy law prompted by the collapse of Sears Canada. A second private bill was introduced in the Commons that would protect employees’ pensions in case of corporate insolvency: “Sears Canada is only the tip of the iceberg.”
MPs yesterday made short work of a bill to bury a historical controversy by proclaiming Charlottetown the birthplace of Confederation. The Commons approved the bill in principle at Second Reading without a dissenting vote after one hour’s debate: “We work together.”
Cabinet promises to consult homeowners on a draft code that would mandate energy refits of existing houses, apartments and commercial buildings. Refits would cost householders an average $35,000, according to the National Research Council: “We want to hear from people.”
The death of PPP Canada marks the first closure of a federal Crown corporation in three years. The agency, intended to attract private investment in public works, will close its doors December 31: “I don’t think Crown corporations should be entitled to a life in perpetuity.”
MPs are debating evidence a plain packaging law will curb smoking. Cabinet proposes Australian-style regulations that would see all tobacco sold in plain, logo-free boxes with gruesome health warnings: “There is a lot to consider.”
Climate change could spur Arctic agriculture including ranching, the Senate agriculture committee has been told. The forecast comes nearly a century after a Royal Commission recommended experimental reindeer and muskox ranches in the North: “Climate change may create opportunities.”
The Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision ruled government lawyers do not have a constitutional right to pay when on call the occasional weekend. The judgment ends a seven-year battle by attorneys who claimed a Charter right: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person.”
The following program
contains details
about the personal fortune
of the Finance Minister,
including graphic images
of his villa in France,
which may be disturbing
to some viewers.
Discretion is advised.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
