Cabinet will closely monitor VIA Rail after the Crown service confirmed passenger trains now have a 30 percent chance of running late. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said on-time service should be corrected: “Passengers want to be on time”.
MPs are protesting an animal rights bill so far-reaching critics fear it would criminalize agricultural practices, transport of livestock, medical research and the Atlantic seal hunt. The bill’s Liberal sponsor appealed to the Commons to modernize animal cruelty laws: “It is wrong”.
Department of Fisheries staff are so stressed management is hiring a dedicated mental health professional for its British Columbia employees. Staff already have access to a 24-hour counselling service run by Health Canada: ‘Even good-natured ribbing may hurt’.
A federal plan to charge employees for parking has survived a labour board challenge. The defence department charged thousands of dollars a year to have Halifax dockyard employees drive to work: “There has been considerable discussion related to parking”.
Canada Post spent more than $76 million on a cancelled mailbox scheme. The reported expenses do not include legal costs to fend off an ongoing legal challenge of the program: “This was an absolute disaster”.
A bill mandating expanded French services in transportation should pass on its fourth attempt, says a Liberal senator. Airport managers have protested the bill is costly and complex: ‘It sounds like a difficult standard to meet’.
A quarter of the nation’s legacy co-operatives see no annual growth, according to new federal data. The industry department said co-ops remain a “democratic business model” though many are unable to expand: “There is a known problem”.
Canada Revenue Agency won’t explain why it took two decades to track down one of the nation’s last GST scofflaws. Auditors won a $71,000 court fine against an Ontario lawyer who had failed to file scores of quarterly sales tax returns since 1995: “Holy wow”.
Saccharine has been certified as a table-top sweetener forty years after the Canadian National Cancer Institute questioned its safety. New health department regulations should not encourage Canadians to eat it, said a Conservative senator: “Frankly I wouldn’t”.
32 killed in
Brussels’ terrorist attack.
The Peace Tower flag is at half-mast.
More than 80 killed by Boko Haram in northern
Nigeria; children burned alive.
More than 600 killed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in
Ecuador; the deadliest to hit South America in 17 years.
The Peace Tower flag is flying high.
At the Prime Minister’s Office,
there must be a smartphone application
where they key-in the country’s name, the
number of casualties, and it tells them
how sympathetic we are
that day.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Federal tax auditors are seeking a court order compelling the nation’s largest bank to divulge 40 years’ worth of records on offshore clients. The Canada Revenue Agency cited newspaper clippings on the Panama Papers scandal in their Federal Court application: “This speaks to management of the Agency”.
Employment Canada has paid out $258 million in retroactive benefits to low-income pensioners who forgot to file their 2015 tax returns. The department stopped short of remitting billions in unclaimed benefits owed retirees who were unaware they could ask for assistance in the first place: “It is morally outrageous”.
The Supreme Court should decide “once and for all” if interprovincial trade barriers are lawful, says a British Columbia senator. The appeal follows an April 29 New Brunswick court ruling that struck down a ban on the cross-border transport of discount beer: “Do you want to fool around here?”
A bill to ban animal testing by cosmetics manufacturers has hit its first parliamentary opposition. The measure appears unnecessary and fails to address consumer safety, said a biochemist in the Senate: “Not all animal testing is cruel”.
Cabinet has struck a $2 million task force on Canada Post without appointing any postal workers or managers to the panel. A final report on “options” to run the Crown corporation is due by December 31: “This one is different”.
