MPs warn a bill targeting very drunk drivers that’s already been approved in principle by the Commons contains an inadvertent loophole that defeats its purpose. Members of the House justice committee exposed the flaw in hearings on Bill C-590: “They know all the tricks in the book”.
A plan to speed Canada-U.S. border crossings may be snarled by a dispute over reporting of some truck cargoes, says an industry group. The Canada Border Services Agency proposes to adopt paperless electronic logs of truck shipments beginning July 10: “You’re going to be there for up to 2 hours”.
A new type of malicious software
spreads in the world’s computers.
The ransomware.
It encrypts photos, documents,
rendering them inaccessible.
One must pay to unlock them.
I imagine the warning message
on Senator Wallin’s computer:
“Access to your travel records
is denied.
Please pay to keep it this way.”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Every payday loan company in the country is currently in breach of usury laws, the Senate banking committee has been told. Interest charged payday borrowers would be a fraction of existing rates if Parliament enforced the Criminal Code, an economist says: “Rates violate the current federal criminal rate set at 60%”.
Cabinet has introduced a balanced budget bill, apparently unaware a similar 23-year old law is still on the books. The Mulroney-era Spending Control Act also purported to curb overspending. Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s office did not comment: “It’s like the Loch Ness Monster: it reappears from time to time”.
Cabinet is introducing limited Canada Labour Code protection for interns, with numerous exemptions. The bill comes three weeks after Parliament defeated a private bill offering broader safeguards for unpaid workers: “We have to be careful if we start to tinker with some of these things”.
Federal regulators must answer for lax reporting of a multi-million dollar food subsidy program suspected of benefiting grocers, say MPs. The Commons public accounts committee said managers will be held to account for operations of the Nutrition North program: ‘You have to pay $45 for chicken’.
Legislation introduced in the Commons will extend natural gas export licenses by fifteen years in a measure one MP described as a “gift to industry”. The change yesterday was inserted in a 157-page omnibus budget bill: “25 years is okay but 40 years is better”.
A bill calculated to save more than $47 million a year in paperwork on reporting taxpayers’ deaths to federal agencies has passed Parliament. More than 242,000 Canadians die every year, by official estimate: “It’s compassionate legislation”.
MPs have passed a pipeline liability bill critics charged will leave municipalities and landowners with costly cleanups in case of a catastrophic oil spill. The Conservative bill caps liability for companies at $1 billion except in cases of obvious negligence: “What does ‘negligence’ mean?”
Canada’s largest liquor board has no business collecting the names and addresses of its customers, says a privacy ruling in Ontario Superior Court. A judge upheld a 2012 complaint from a wine club told it must divulge members’ identities to buy at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario: “This is overreach”.
A judge has thrown out a constitutional challenge of the “faint hope” bill, a Conservative law that curbed early parole for prisoners convicted of first-degree murder. An Ottawa-area woman serving a life sentence for killing her husband argued the retroactive bill breached her Charter rights: “We’re not talking about controversial legislation”.
Truckers face maximum $25,000 fines for failing to submit electronic cargo records under a long-promised Canada Border Services Agency program. The Agency said its eManifest system, introduced on a trial basis in 2012, will be mandatory: “This is long overdue”.
Business and consumers’ advocates are praising a $3.5 million fine on U.S. craft retailer Michaels for misrepresentations on pricing. The federal Competition Tribunal cited Michaels’ Canadian subsidiary for claiming “sale” prices that appeared to be regular charges: “Thousands of independent businesses play by the rules”.
A court ruling that narrowly interprets protection for federal whistleblowers sends a “disturbing” message to government employees who fear reprisal in reporting wrongdoing, says an MP. A federal judge dismissed complaints from a Natural Resources Canada scientist after noting he failed to report reprisals within 60 days as required by law: “The message is, keep your mouth shut”.
