Any carbon tax punishing the coal industry will result in higher electricity prices in 4 of 10 provinces, says a former Alberta treasurer. Cabinet will fix a price on carbon emissions of $10 per tonne beginning in 2018, rising to $50 by 2022: “Shouldn’t it have begun to take climate change seriously 30 years ago?”
MPs have signaled approval of a House motion mandating a national harbour clean-up of abandoned boats. The Liberal motion would see cabinet review measures to hold boat owners responsible for salvage and environmental costs: “Motions are great, but — “
The federal government owes no duty of care to exporters stung by unfair trade practices, a Court has ruled. The judgment came in a lawsuit against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: ‘It’s the least farmers and exporters expect’.
MPs have opened Second Reading debate on a bill to hike Canada Pension Plan premiums 20 percent on the promise of more generous benefits for retirees. Critics described the measure as a federal tax that will fall heaviest on young workers: “This bill will take money from pockets”.
Cabinet may “at some point” have to restrict foreign ownership of farmland, says the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Authorities acknowledge they have no estimate on the amount of foreign investment in prime land: “It’s really hard to go through the figures and find out”.
A human rights tribunal will decide whether religious groups have a legal right to exclude membership to people of the same faith. The investigation follows a complaint by a Muslim who alleged he was barred from attending prayers because of race: “This mosque belongs to any human being”.
Cabinet will soon introduce a program to manage the multi-million dollar salvage and clean-up of abandoned vessels, says Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc. The Canadian Coast Guard has cautioned any program will be costly: “They are on every coast in the country”.
Most Canadians resent immigrants and fear lobbyists have too much influence on Parliament Hill, says federal research. A total 25 percent of Canadians also think working mothers should stay home. The unusual $53,000 polling on social values was commissioned by the Commissioner of Official Languages: “Regular people don’t have any real say in what elected officials in Ottawa do”.
A federal lender has approved a small portion of loans, less than 3 percent, to manufacturing start-ups, the Commons industry committee has been told. MPs questioned lending practices of the Business Development Bank: ‘How can we promote manufacturing when you’re not willing to take risk?’
Canadian mining corporations are seeking a $50 million, five-year government grant to reduce waste. The appeal coincides with federal funding for University of Waterloo research on clean-up of hazardous mine sites: “The industry desperately needs innovation”.
Television viewers who nitpick over news reports have no right to demand retractions, a national media monitor has ruled. The judgment came in the case of two networks cited for use of common nouns like “veteran”.
MPs will review use of Canadians’ personal information by political parties. The chair of the Commons privacy committee said MPs were aware of complaints that campaign organizations are a “Wild West” of alleged privacy breaches: “They have no legal obligation to furnish you with the information they keep”.
MPs last evening voted 205 to 79 to repeal two contentious Conservative union bills. One legislator said only a “miracle” would prevent the repeal from passing the Senate: “The focus on unions in both bills is suspiciously inequitable”.
Newly-released archives show Canadian officials dismissed one of the worst famines in history in approving grain sales to Maoist China. Trade officials found “no evidence” of mass food shortages, though millions starved to death. One visiting Canadian delegation in 1961 marveled that Chinese appeared ‘fairly well-fed’ and shops were full.
“There is no evidence to support a contention that the whole of China is suffering from conditions of starvation,” said a confidential foreign ministry memo The Extent And Impact Of Food Shortages In China. The country was “practically immune from the dangers of drought and flood,” the memo said.
Historians estimate 40 million people died in the period from 1958 to 1962 under a Communist Great Leap Forward campaign of collectivized farming and expropriation of crops by state planners. Reports by diplomats and trade officials who visited the country at the time have now been released by Library & Archives Canada under Access To Information.
The memo Food Shortages concluded while Chinese harvests appeared mediocre, “Under the Communist regime the increased efficiency of the transport system allied to the tight control of distribution has made large-scale famine on the traditional pattern less likely than in the past.”
“There is nothing new in the present scarcity,” the memo said; “The population is probably increasing by about two percent annually, and the ‘average’ harvest needed is therefore rising every year.”
Cabinet in 1961 sold 234 million bushels of Canadian grain to China in the largest export contract of its kind to that time. A Department of Finance memo noted the Chinese “made it very clear they wished to obtain the grain at the earliest possible date,” but discounted the possibility of famine.
“The advantages to Canada accruing from these agreements are obvious,” the finance department wrote. The contract for wheat and barley was valued at $362 million, the equivalent of nearly $3 billion today.
“A reason given by the Chinese to us during negotiations was that the purchase of Canadian wheat would enable China to export more rice, thereby resulting in a net foreign exchange gain because the international price of rice is higher than the price of wheat,” the department wrote. “There is some logic in this type of argument.”
Wheat Harvested By Hand
Modern-day researchers have uncovered evidence famine conditions drove China near collapse, documenting instances of homicide and cannibalism in the hardest-hit rural counties. Chinese state agencies to date have withheld official records detailing the extent of the catastrophe.
Canadian grain executives discounted reports of mass starvation. A confidential 1961 account of a three-week tour by the Board of Grain Commissioners said Chinese “seem fairly well-clothed, shod and fed”; “We ate bread in all five cities we visited,” wrote delegates.
“Building of new factories and apartments seems fairly extensive,” said the report Technical Mission To China 1961; “There is ample evidence of continued production of artistic work: brocades, embroidered silk, beautiful carving in ivory, jade, soapstone and wood; exquisite silver work and excellent jewelry.”
Technical Mission noted the touring Canadians were closely monitored – “two men traveled with us and heard all repeated discussions” – but dismissed evidence of unusual conditions. “In more than 24 hours of travel by train in daylight, we saw thousands of groups of 10 to 100 people or more, working in the fields with hand tools, only the occasional single animal pulling a cultivator between rows, and not a single tractor or farm machine,” Technical Mission said.
“Over a hundred people might be harvesting a field of wheat, handful by handful, with small sickles. Fourteen men were unloading a truckload of sacked grain at a mill elevator.”
“The colossal use of manpower in this operation, as elsewhere in China, was astounding,” the report concluded; “The extent to which manpower and womanpower replaces mechanical power and machines in China is remarkable.”
Other documents acknowledged Canadian delegations were restricted in their travels and invited to elaborate state banquets. One Wheat Board mission “saw virtually nothing of Chinese life”, said a memo. “Their time was completely regimented between negotiations and entertainment which included the Peking Opera, the world ping pong tournament, dinners, etcetera.”
By Tom Korski 
The Senate yesterday took up final debate on a bill mandating independent oversight of border security. It coincided with a federal lawsuit alleging the Canada Border Services Agency falsely imprisoned a resident for 39 days in a case of mistaken identity: “This case is unbelievable”.
