Nearly two-thirds of Canadians, 63 percent, skipped Veterans’ Week observances despite millions spent on a federal ad campaign, new data show. A bill awaiting a Third Reading vote in the Commons would designate November 11 a legal holiday: “Why?”
Federal Court for the second time in two months has cited the Department of Employment for poor enforcement of migrant labour rules. The latest judgment follows a critical audit that complained of weak management of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: “The most basic requirements were not met in this case.”
Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal has struck down a contract that saw a First Nation billed $450 an hour with bonuses for negotiating a federal land claim. Courts will “not tolerate any sharp practice” by attorneys, a judge wrote: “A client should not need to verify the truth of what their lawyer is telling them.”
More than a quarter of Canadians, 27 percent, say they’ve driven under the influence of cannabis, according to federal research obtained through Access To Information. The findings should prompt cabinet to delay a bill to legalize marijuana, said an MP: ‘The mixed messages are troubling.’
Environmental groups are rated more trustworthy than pesticide manufacturers or the Minister of Health, says an in-house federal study. Nearly a third of Canadians surveyed, 30 percent, said they had no confidence in the agency responsible for monitoring pesticides: “They tended to focus on the negative.”
The Liberal chair of the Commons finance committee is questioning a budget proposal to perpetually increase user fees by the annual inflation rate. Automatic revenue gains strip incentives for government to become more efficient, said MP Wayne Easter: “That’s one of the problems I have with this approach.”
The Canada Revenue Agency spent the equivalent of more than $400,000 apiece on political audits of the Canadian Council of Churches and other charities, data show. One MP said the costly investigations looked like a witch hunt: “They wanted to put these people out of business.”
Blacklock’s pauses for the Victoria Day holiday with best wishes to subscribers and friends. We’re back tomorrow — The Editor.
It was a fairy tale game.
The Icelandic soccer team
beat England at the
2016 European Championship.
Some speculate
how the Nordic nation celebrated.
Nine months later,
a surge in baby deliveries
is reported by
Reykjavik hospitals.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
An Access To Information memo says federal agencies have simply ignored a 2004 law requiring transparency on user fees. A former MP who wrote the Act said non-compliance was inexplicable: “How can you not comply with an Act of Parliament?”
Canadians will pay more for home heating, driving and air travel under a federal carbon tax, says a Technical Paper. Only “certain farming activities” – not specified – will be exempt from the tax. Environment Canada said details will be spelled out in pending legislation: “Canadians across this country support action on climate change.”
MPs yesterday made short work of a Conservative bill on border regulations prompted by an international incident. The Commons took just 36 minutes to approve the bill in principle at Second Reading and refer it to committee: “Canadians are kind, welcoming and fair; we are not aggressors.”
A former Parks Canada CEO says zoos and aquariums help bring Canadians back to nature. The retired executive appealed to the Senate fisheries committee to be wary of a bill banning the sale and breeding of whales in captivity: “They can ignite that spark and excitement in young Canadians to care for nature.”
In an unprecedented lawsuit, a former Conservative attorney general is challenging a decision of the Ethics Commissioner. Under federal law, the Commissioner is shielded from criminal or civil court action: “We have an ethics czar.”
MPs last evening voted 212 to 79 to restore card checks in certifying new unions in federally-regulated industries. Liberals cut short debate on the motion out of fear of a Conservative filibuster: ‘It would never see the light of day.’
