Federal agencies must do more to help small and medium-sized businesses enter export markets, says a Senate report. The recommendation follows data that only 11,000 of some 1.1 million small companies sell to foreign markets outside the U.S.: ‘It would provide a considerable boost’.
Federally-regulated workplaces including small businesses must introduce health and safety committees under revisions to the Canada Labour Code. The requirement also mandates training standards and regular safety audits: ‘Everyone says safety first; in reality it is not’.
Six-figure cash transactions by judges, MPs, senators, their spouses and children will be subject to anti-terror surveillance under a Department of Finance proposal. Regulations would also target senior civil servants and CEOs of Crown corporations: “They are seen to be at higher risk”.
The Department of Labour after fifteen years’ worth of consultation is revising workplace safety regulations for thousands of railway employees threatened with hearing loss. Engineers, brakemen and other workers face unusually high rates of partial deafness, officials said: “Every one of us has hearing loss”.
A Vietnamese-Canadian airline passenger broke federal law in failing to declare five cans of ready-to-eat haggis, a tribunal has ruled. The violation netted an $800 fine by the Canada Border Services Agency, earlier accused of racial profiling in targeting non-Caucasian air travelers: “Look at the names”.
Health Canada is considering gruesome new tobacco labels featuring “medical images” of tumours and diseased organs. The Canadian Cancer Society praised the proposal: “They reach every smoker, every day”.
This company offers
bankruptcy protection services.
They will review your situation,
sell your assets
– you may be able to keep your house and car –
then negotiate with your creditors
to eliminate your debt.
With their help, you’ll make a fresh start.
Meanwhile, on the radio,
Alberta’s new government
faces a problem:
a $7-billion hole
in the budget.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A cabinet bid to save drug patents threatened by a Federal Court ruling is evidence Canada is stuck with a costly and time-wasting intellectual property regime, says a legal analyst. Cabinet proposes to revive 2006-era rules after federal judges narrowed the scope of patents: ‘Scrap the whole thing and start over’.
Federal regulators have the right to cancel licenses for oil and gas companies that fail to meet the terms of permits won at auction, judges have ruled. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case, once hailed as evidence of a Maritime oil boom: ‘Thank you for choosing Nova Scotia’.
Harsh RCMP “gossip” that cost a policeman his promotion is beyond a judge’s scrutiny, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled. The finding ends a two-year lawsuit that saw RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson earlier cited for unfair treatment of a 25-year employee over unproven allegations of wrongdoing: “Harshness is beside the point”.
Playing softball on the Plains of Abraham is no longer a federal crime. Cabinet further clarified new regulations that also decriminalized graffiti, skinny dipping and rollerblading at the site of the famed 1759 battle: “It is mostly dogs that are the problem”.
Bill C-377 faces expected legal challenges after the Senate on a 35 to 22 vote passed the measure compelling all unions to disclose confidential records. Even supporters of the bill said they anticipated the bill’s fate now rests with the courts: ‘Judges will decide if we were right or wrong’.
The Canada Border Services Agency should have independent oversight, says a Senate committee. Lawmakers also proposed an independent panel to review public complaints at the Agency, echoing a private bill sponsored by a Liberal senator: “This is now quite a very large police enterprise”.
Gangs account for only a small fraction of overall crime but a disproportionate number of violent offences, says confidential research by Public Safety Canada. In a report released through Access To Information, the department concluded organized crime remains largely confined to specific cities and certain “ethnic” groups: “Little research has been conducted”.
New regulations granting an oil licensing board the right to conduct environmental assessments is drawing protest. Rules will see the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board manage risk assessments on oil and gas drilling; the same board grants exploration licenses: “There is a question of conflict”.
