Former bank employees yesterday told the Commons finance committee that staff are pressured into signing consumers to unnecessary products without informed consent. Witnesses said regulation by the bank-funded Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is ineffective: ‘There is something called incentive pay.’
Cabinet yesterday shelved a regulation allowing consumers to file $200 compensation claims over computer spam. The law was to come into force July 1. Retailers and marketers anticipated a flood of nuisance lawsuits: “We have listened.”
The Senate energy committee has endorsed a bill to curb landfilling of mercury light bulbs on concerns over piecemeal remedies for environmental toxins. Senators described the bill as inoffensive but narrow: “It’s about health.”
A British Columbia widower pleading poverty has lost a Federal Court appeal for forgiveness of a six-figure tax debt. So-called remission orders are uncommon and must be approved by cabinet: “He said his wife died in 2004 largely because of the stress and financial problems caused by the Canada Revenue Agency.’
The Senate yesterday passed a bill into law that sanctions an RCMP union for the first time in the Mounties’ 97-year history. Senators noted cabinet was forced to amend an original 2016 bill that restricted police bargaining powers: ‘We have a responsibility to pay the RCMP a fair wage.’
Cabinet is repealing an obscure federal law against blasphemous libel. Prosecutors last used the Criminal Code provision to charge distributors of the 1979 Monty Python film Life Of Brian: “Just because people assume it is a dead letter law doesn’t mean it can’t come back.”
Veterans Affairs Canada continues to pay more than $100,000 a month in pension benefits for service in the First World War. The department said 99 years after the Armistice, dozens of widows and orphans of First War infantrymen still draw survivors’ benefits.
There is little chance of federal funding to replace lead water lines supplying older homes across Canada, says the Department of Infrastructure. Members of the Commons transport committee yesterday warned lead-tainted tap water is a national health issue: ‘Most vulnerable are young children in older homes.’
A federal judge has upheld an Environment Canada order that halted development of a subdivision to save a rare frog. The ruling ends three years of litigation over the threatened species: “Unfortunately for the plaintiff, they failed.”
A federal Bank Act enforcer says it’s not mandated to punish banks for breaching consumer rights. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada draws 90 percent of its budget from banks, trust companies and other financial institutions: “I think we could be stricter.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau says a national carbon tax is constitutional and opposed only by ideologues. The remarks came as cabinet introduced a second motion to have the Commons endorse its climate change targets: “I have so little time for the criticisms.”
A tax auditor who waged a long legal battle against her union, the Canada Revenue Agency and courts is a vexatious litigant, a federal labour board has ruled. The dispute over a union’s right to obtain employees’ home contact information dated from 1992: “The complainant is not prepared to leave this matter alone.”
Canada Revenue Agency is seeking a court order to compel disclosure of companies’ use of prepaid credit cards. The Federal Court application follows earlier tax dragnets against eBay and PayPay customers: “It’s a lovely mess.”
Tax Court has struck down a five-figure penalty for late payment after citing ambiguities between English and French-language versions of the Income Tax Act. The Court itself raised the issue in a routine appeal: “The French version is rather different.”
The tourism department is searching for a world-class, distinctive all-Canadian meal. Nothing immediately comes to mind, staff wrote: “No one national cuisine is closely identified with Canada.”
