Rigid enforcement of trivial rules on migrant labour has earned Employment Canada a reprimand from a federal judge. The court struck down a department ruling that disqualified the hiring of a temporary foreign worker due to a misplaced address: “It was a little bit unfair”.
A new Parliament should enact a limited pharmacare program to subsidize families that spend more than $1,500 a year on medication, says the Canadian Medical Association. Physicians also proposed billions in extra grants to provinces with older populations: ‘A new government could do it right away’.
Cabinet has failed to hold mining companies accountable for overseas conduct in the name of “national interest”, says an advocates’ report. The Mining Association and Natural Resources Canada declined comment: “What is happening in the courts is very hopeful”.
The defence department, cited for inept contracting, has issued 107 pages of specifications for new mittens. The department cautioned that palms and thumbs of government-issue mitts “must be flush”, as well as “soft” and “smooth”. Authorities earlier issued 167-pages of specs for mukluks for the troops: “A colour match under north-sky daylight is most important”.
Few Canadians, only 1 in 10, have heard of a national agreement to lower interprovincial trade barriers, says a federally-sponsored report. A majority say consumers’ advocates, labour and business should be allowed formal input to revive the process: “Something needs to be done”.
A longtime employee fired for snooping in a colleague’s file has lost a bid to test her wrongful dismissal claim at the Supreme Court. Justices declined to hear an appeal from the woman fired after 21 years on the job: “This area of law is quite unpredictable”.
A U.S. multinational is accusing Canadian Tire Corp. of violating patents over its sale of vacuum cleaners. Emerson Electric Co. filed documents in Federal Court alleging Canadian Tire sold copycat vacuums without a licensing agreement: “Their issued patents have a presumption of validity”.
In the Conservatives’ School of Economics,
Canada is not in a recession;
it’s only going through a contraction
of the energy sector.
In their Faculty of Environmental Science,
climate change and Kyoto
aren’t on the curriculum.
Our planet is fine,
despite contractions of the polar ice caps
and the disappearance of the world’s glaciers.
And in their School of Medicine – I suppose –
women don’t go into labour.
They merely experience 60-second long
contractions,
sometime around the due date.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Statistics Canada for the first time is including hi-rise condos in a confidential survey of new housing prices. The agency said excluding apartment sales may have skewed figures on the true cost of housing nationwide: ‘Data will not be publicly released’.
Aboriginals within 20 years will account for a leading bloc of electors in two provinces and at least five cities, new data show. A first-ever federal study projected the number of First Nations, Inuit and Métis nationwide may nearly double by 2036: ‘It is a phenomenon’.
Canadians have a right to know the identities of plaintiffs in court regardless of whether lawyers seek a publication ban, says a longtime judge. Only three provinces currently issue notices on requests for secret court proceedings: “It is a fundamental principle”.
Canadians are five times more likely to read a weekly newspaper than use Twitter, according to in-house research by the Department of National Defence. The military commissioned the media poll to gauge the effectiveness of its recruitment drives.
Data showed television, internet and radio remain the most popular media, according to interviews nationwide by Environics Research Group. Pollsters billed $81,625 for the research. Of Canadians asked what medium they’d used at least once in the last two weeks:
Albertans and Ontarians were most likely to go to the movies, according to the Environics report Testing Recall Of Recruitment Advertising 2015. Québecers were least likely to use Twitter, only 5 percent. Atlantic Canadians were the least likely to use public transit, only 1 in 10.
Recruitment Advertising noted residents of Manitoba and Saskatchewan were the least likely to use Facebook, at 43 percent, while more British Columbians – 66 percent – read community newspapers.
Typical YouTube users are young men, under 24, with a college education, Environics said. Only 38 percent of students nationwide read a daily newspaper.
The military’s 2015 recruitment drive Ready When You Are used video game techniques in depicting guerrilla warfare and leaping paratroopers with quick edits and “heavy breathing” sound effects. Focus groups found the ads “dark” and “aggressive”.
“The ads were generally considered thought-provoking, emotional, realistic and attractive despite the unsettling nature of the combat scenes,” concluded a report Recruitment Advertising Pre-Testing by Corporate Research Associates of Halifax; “The ads’ high energy creatively communicated by the music, rapidly changing images and unusual work environments grabbed viewers’ attention and reminded many of a video game.”
“The tone was described as ‘aggressive’, ‘dark’, ‘extreme’, ‘high energy’, ‘positive’, ‘exciting’, ‘adventurous’, ‘dynamic’, ‘harsh’, ‘exhilarating’ and ‘rough’,” said Pre-Testing. The consultant noted the ads had little appeal for “niche audiences including women, visible minorities and Aboriginal peoples.”
By Staff
The military is spending the equivalent of $9,000 a day on Enterprise Rent-A-Cars, taxis and other rentals despite owning one of the largest vehicle fleets in the country, records show. The Department of National Defence said the spending complied with all cabinet policies: ‘For passengers, mail and merchandise transportation’.
Tylenol labels are under review by the Department of Health over fears of accidental overdoses that sends thousands of Canadians to hospital each year. Over the counter acetaminophen is found in more than 400 medications from back pain relievers to cough medicine: “People aren’t even aware”.
A majority of Canadians, 54 percent, want an end to federal subsidies for the Atlantic seal hunt, says an Environics Research Group survey. The poll findings follow cabinet’s approval of millions in new aid for the industry, hard hit by a European ban on seal exports: “It’s not economically viable”.
