A federal agency is hunting for an employee alleged to have leaked confidential information to media. The investigation is the first of its kind at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, said the agency’s director: “If we find who it is — “
Health Canada admits it mistakenly claimed to have completed risk assessments on a pesticide licensed for sale. The admission comes a year after officials promised to “improve the openness of transparency” in regulating pesticides: “It stinks.”
The Senate by a vote of 43 to 34 yesterday abolished card check union certification for nearly a million Canadians in federally-regulated workplaces. Senators passed a Conservative amendment to a cabinet bill to require that new unions be certified by mandatory secret ballot: ‘To suggest we should just be rubber-stamping legislation does not fly.’
A Crown lender that’s approved billions in taxpayer-funded farm loans must beware of the “tipping point” on debt, the Commons agriculture committee has been told. Farm Credit Canada said one-fifth of its loans involve interest-only payments for up to three years: “You still have to pay the bill.”
Employers are faulting the labour department for failing to spell out new restrictions on the hiring of migrant workers. Cabinet said companies must first make special efforts to hire targeted groups of Canadians, but did not detail any policy or text of regulations: “Why add a new requirement without making it obvious?”
Plain tobacco packaging could double the number of smokers who quit each year, says a University of Waterloo researcher. Witnesses told the Senate social affairs committee that abolishing colourful cigarette packs is proven to work: “The evidence is clear.”
A parliamentary review of pornography is unfocused and unwieldy, says a member of the Commons health committee. MPs have complained the study is now distracting from vital work on pharmacare and other health issues: “We’ve veered off.”
A promised air passenger bill of rights will not be introduced this year, says Transport Minister Marc Garneau. First-ever federal regulations will be tabled in 2018 at the earliest: “When a passenger books a ticket they are entitled to certain rights.”
A bootleg news aggregator has settled a $21,750 copyright claim after republishing articles on a Facebook blog, the largest known settlement of its kind in Canada. The defendants’ lawyer was Professor David Fewer, director of the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic.
Blacklock’s Reporter in 2015 sued the blog operators for $20,000 as well as punitive damages and costs for republishing dozens of password-protected articles. In an unusual settlement, the aggregator One Big Campaign paid $21,750, volunteered a public apology and waived all confidentiality of settlement terms.
“We apologize for republishing Blacklock’s copyright-protected material without permission, payment or licensing agreement,” the bloggers said.
Evidence showed One Big Campaign republished numerous other media works including copyright photos owned by CTV News, Globe & Mail, Reuters, Postmedia and others. Blacklock’s articles were pasted to the users’ Facebook page and subsequently republished by the Moncton Free Press.
One Big Campaign was a registered third-party advertiser with Elections Ontario. The news blog was used to solicit thousands of dollars for political polling. The bloggers paid $157 to access Blacklock’s work.
“It’s Not Okay To Steal”
The Facebook bloggers in 2015 rejected a $5,000 settlement offer from Blacklock’s and dismissed a copyright warning from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, a financial donor to One Big Campaign. “Caution: I think it is still a copyright violation to reprint an entire article unless permission is granted whether or not it is behind a firewall,” a union executive wrote the bloggers. “The analogy might be that of a store having a sidewalk sale.”
“It is not okay to steal stuff because it’s out on the sidewalk,” wrote the OPSEU official; “I think it would be a mistake for One Big Campaign to play the victim here.”
The bloggers instead hired as counsel Professor Fewer, a copyright adviser to the Department of Justice who has repeatedly accused Blacklock’s of unethical practices. Fewer in 2015 published a commentary on the company’s earlier successful copyright litigation with the headline, “Feeding The Trolls”.
An Access To Information return on Fewer’s correspondence with Justice Canada identified 53 pages of redacted files. Department records were withheld under “solicitor-client privilege”, according to Access file A-2016-01935.
Prof. Fewer also issued various media statements on Blacklock’s prompting corrections and apologies including the following notice published February 27 in the Law Times:
“CLARIFICATION: Law Times in a January 30, 2017 article (“Feds must take action on copyright trolls”) quoted David Fewer, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, commenting on copyright litigation by the publication Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Fewer was quoted, ‘If you read between the lines, you can tell there is dissatisfaction with the conduct of Blacklock’s, and I think the case is a clear signal to future copyright trolls that this isn’t going to be tolerated.’
“The article failed to disclose Fewer in 2014 and 2015 acted as counsel for defendants in two separate copyright actions by Blacklock’s, both settled out of court. The most recent Ontario Superior Court action resulted in a settlement in which Fewer’s clients paid $21,750 to Blacklock’s and issued a public apology. Law Times regrets the omission.”
By Staff 
Conservatives and New Democrats are endorsing a bipartisan Senate bill to ban shark fin imports. The Commons came within five votes of passing such a ban in 2013: “We have to close up an obvious loophole in the law.”
MPs yesterday rejected a bill to privatize the CBC. The Conservative sponsor said the vote was unsurprising, but part of a long-term strategy to eliminate $1.1 billion in subsidies for the Crown broadcaster: “Break the taboo around discussing this subject.”
Canadians fear a weak economy is about to worsen, according to in-house research by the Department of Finance. Nearly a third of people surveyed, 29 percent, said they were afraid a friend or relative would lose their job within six months. The bleak prognosis was the worst since the 2008 recession: “Most people felt things would get worse.”
Environment Canada says a secret memo warning of a $300 per tonne carbon tax is hypothetical. Staff testifying at the Senate energy committee said they were unaware of the federal document, published by Blacklock’s March 29: “So, the question is — ?”
A biologist associated with the Vancouver Aquarium says captive whales provide useful cost-effective scientific research, despite critics’ claims. A member of the Senate fisheries committee questioned whether whales enjoy it: “If you take a being out of their family or pod, they will suffer.”
Canadian researchers at the University of Waterloo are joining a transatlantic study on the impact of fertilizer runoff on water quality. Seepage of farm chemicals is blamed for algae bloom, a toxic fish-killing scum: “We are all risk averse.”
