The Canada Revenue Agency has lost a multi-million dollar Tax Court appeal over narrow definitions of made-in-Canada ingredients under the Excise Act. A British Columbia winemaker argued its cider was still Canadian-made even if it included apple juice pressed from foreign-grown apples: “Vintners want to buy agricultural products at a low price.”
Ottawa’s green spaces
dotted with white clover, yellow dandelions.
The result of budget cuts and a
pesticide ban.
The City also struggles with
marijuana dispensaries.
Police close them down; they reopen
the next day.
Weed management
isn’t our strongest forte.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
More than a third of Canadians, 37 percent, say they’re still wary of surrendering bank data to federal agencies for direct deposit of tax refunds and benefits. Authorities in 2016 abandoned a program for mandatory electronic transfer of cheques following public protest: “Why haven’t you enrolled in direct deposit?”
A New Brunswick judge has sentenced a petty thief to five years in federal prison for stealing $100 and a pack of Players cigarettes. The sentence will be appealed, said a lawyer for the convicted robber: ‘If more resources were given to the court system we would save millions.’
Canadian pharmacists have lost a legal challenge against a generic drug mandate. Druggists in Newfoundland & Labrador claimed the regulation was to blame for drug shortages: “It shows the system is broken.”
The Canada Border Services Agency says it will for the first time publish results of Red Cross inspections of detention centres. The Agency jails more than 6,000 people a year without independent oversight: “All of these reports in the past were strictly confidential.”
A federal judge for the second time in a week has cited Transport Canada for misapplying security checks. The Court ruled a department panel appeared to make up facts in revoking a staffer’s security clearance at Pearson International Airport: ‘It was not reasonable or fair.’
The Transportation Safety Board yesterday recommended federal regulations to compel the nation’s 46,000 commercial fishermen to wear life jackets. The proposal followed the latest investigation of fatal drownings at sea: “Fishermen often underestimate the risk.”
Canada Post reforms are stalled at cabinet. A federal response to recommendations for sweeping changes at the post office was originally promised in April: “There is no timeline.”
The Department of Fisheries says recreational boaters are to blame for the spread of invasive aquatic species. A small, enthusiastic number of Canada’s 1.5 million boaters put lakes at greatest risk, said research: “Predicting these rare events remains a core challenge.”
The Bank of Canada cannot explain why it billed taxpayers for memberships in a gun club. Access To Information records disclosed staff and “non-staff acquaintances” were welcome to shoot at a members-only gun range, so long as they followed essential rules: “Do not shoot at cans or bottles.”
Tax Court has upheld a 50% penalty for gross negligence in the latest unraveling of a cross-Canada fraud. A now-defunct consultancy Fiscal Arbitrators Ltd. coached tax filers to claim cash refunds for non-existent business losses: “There was something seriously wrong.”
Environment Canada says it has yet to levy any fines under Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations that took seven years to draft. The system was designed to avoid costly prosecutions of poachers and polluters: “We’re currently rolling out the regime.”
Canadians expect federal regulators to fine companies that sell customers’ personal data, says in-house research for the Privacy Commissioner. Parliament in 2014 rejected a private bill to levy $500,000 penalties for corporate breaches of individual privacy: ‘Information is being collected and shared without consent.’
The Department of Agriculture killed a “buy local” reference in the Canada Food Guide. Confidential memos and emails obtained through Access To Information detail heavy lobbying on behalf of food processors: ‘It might lend credence to criticisms the process was unduly influenced by the food industry.’
