Health Canada is endorsing a Commons report citing the perils of marijuana use though critics dubbed the study a “sham”, and the government’s own surveys show many Canadians are ambivalent about cannabis use: “It was a set up”.
Cabinet once bitten is twice shy of rewriting the national anthem to insert gender-neutral lyrics. Conservatives yesterday said they will not support the change following public protest when cabinet made an identical proposal five years ago: “This is an issue for the Ottawa bubble”.
Transport Canada is objecting to a bill mandating minimum service and Crown funding for VIA Rail passenger service. MP Jeff Watson, parliamentary secretary for transport, said the legislation would place “a greater burden on the taxpayer”. VIA had estimated a loss of $321 million on operations last year: “We see the sad result”.
RCMP are underpaid, overworked and face difficulties in recruitment without reforms, reports an internal board. The finding follows a Supreme Court judgment revoking a 95-year ban on a Mounties’ union: “They’re underpaying us significantly”.
Canada’s food processors and restaurateurs have been likened to cigarette manufacturers at Senate obesity hearings. Lawmakers accused the industry of being slow to accept responsibility for the nation’s weight gain: “It’s not rocket science”.
The Government of Canada has no way of tracing bitcoin transactions, says the federal agency mandated to track money-launderers. The admission came as regulators attempt to draft rules on trading of the pseudo-currency: “That will be a challenge for sure”.
Canada Post is being sued by a homeowner who accuses the Crown agency of garbling his address. Post office executives admit to selecting a non-legal name for the community due to the “consternation” of neighbours, according to Federal Court documents: “They will decide where I live”.
The Canada Revenue Agency is conducting a sweep of cheque-cashing companies. Authorities filed Federal Court applications seeking the identities of customers at four companies in three provinces: “Members have not made us aware of any Canada Revenue Agency campaign against them”.
Smaller Canadian railways face steeper insurance costs under new liability regulations prompted by the Lac-Mégantic disaster. Transport Canada said minimum liability insurance will rise as much as five-fold for short line rail companies: “What needs to be done, will be done”.
Ottawa reporters, photographers and cameramen face expulsion from Parliament Hill on the complaint of any politician or federal employee, with grievances to be heard at closed-door disciplinary hearings. The unprecedented measures are proposed by the Parliamentary Press Gallery, a volunteer group representing media.
“We thought we’d bring the proposal,” said Laura Payton, Gallery president, a CBC writer; “We’re leaving it quite open because the executive needs some discretion.”
The Gallery proposed to amend its own constitution to suspend or banish media from Parliament Hill for a range of new offences including “harassment” and “intimidation”. The amendment must be approved by Industry Minister James Moore as cabinet officer responsible for the Canada Corporations Act, according to the Gallery constitution. Payton acknowledged Ottawa members were not told of the code till Friday evening. The gallery executive did not consult any general members in drafting the code, Payton said: “Nobody.”
“We have been working on it for a while and just finalized it this week,” Payton said; “We could always discuss the wording.” Payton, asked if any government official had requested the change, replied: “Absolutely not.”
Under current rules dating from 1885, the only Gallery members who face expulsion are those moonlighting as lobbyists, speechwriters or political activists. Under proposed amendments, members may be expelled for a range of new offences including:
Reporters would be expelled on the recommendation of a “confidential” meeting of the Gallery executive ratified by 10% of the membership – some 40 people. Expulsion for most members would mean the loss of livelihoods.
“Parasites”
Journalists could face complaints from any source including rival media; government employees; lawmakers; lobbyists; campaign workers; corporations and unions; advocacy groups; agents of foreign governments; or the general public.
“The press should be held to account, but is this the instrument?” said Prof. Sean Holman, of Mount Royal University’s school of journalism. “I think it’s open to abuse.” Holman, a former member of the British Columbia Press Gallery, said he was unaware of any Canadian gallery with such an enforcement code.
“Reporters covering legislatures are often treated like parasites and barely tolerated by the administration,” Holman said. “The administration has enormous power. We should really think about that. How is it that this space that is supposed to be a public space is so often treated as anything but? That is troubling.”
Prof. Holman said the Gallery plan to create “a tribunal of sorts” appeared ill-defined. “On the surface it may seem reasonable, but the challenge is: when does that interfere with freedom of expression? When does it become an opportunity for people who don’t like media criticism?”
The amendment also states the Gallery may defer to “House administration” if complaints against a journalist are deemed a “security concern”. The head of House administration is Conservative MP Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle), Speaker of the House of Commons.
In the past, parliamentary journalists never deferred to the Speaker and operated as a self-regulating association in a custom dating from 1867, noted Mark Bourrie, a 21-year gallery member and author of the bestseller Kill The Messenger: Stephen Harper’s Assault On Your Right To Know.
“Bonanza For Lawyers”
“They are really endangering press freedoms,” Bourrie said. “If the government told the Gallery to do this, the press would go berserk. This is all part of the failure of the Gallery to stand up for our press freedoms in the face of continuous assault.”
Bourrie said purported offences like “intimidation” or “harassment” were too broad, and would attract partisan or score-settling complaints against media. “The idea that anyone who feels aggrieved – an MP, political staffer, lobbyist, security guard or offended reader – can launch some sort of action in a secret committee is both a violation of long-established press rights, and basic concepts of fundamental justice.”
Bourrie described the new offence of summary conviction as “bizarre”, noting reporters could be subject to banishment for doing their job. “A reporter could easily end up charged and convicted of obstructing police while covering a protest under section 129.a of the Criminal Code,” Bourrie said; “In that case a reporter could be expelled. I find it troubling.”
Reporters summoned to in-camera disciplinary hearings would be permitted to bring attorneys, though the Gallery said it would not provide any legal assistance to journalists unable to afford legal counsel.
“The Gallery will be litigated into the ground,” said Bourrie. “This is a bonanza for lawyers. You can see the cost and the stress that would be involved, not only for the journalist but also for the Gallery, which would definitely need a lawyer at hand through this process. In the end, I would expect this process to end up in court, and I think the Gallery would lose.”
The press association did not identify any specific complaint against any member that prompted the amendment. The proposal is to go to a membership vote February 27, a legal requirement under the Canada Corporations Act.
By Tom Korski 
Samara, a well-meaning charity based in Toronto, wanted to gauge the state of Canadian democracy. They commissioned a poll. This is not useful. It’s like surveying Canadians on the capital gains tax or municipal fire code. These are complex, technical systems that cannot be repaired by poll when they malfunction.
The fact of democracy is tolerance of dissent and a citizen’s ability to correct a wrong; the form of democracy is the hubbub of elections, vague perceptions and colourful Twitter messages. Samara confuses the two.
The result is Canadian Democracy From The Ground Up, a mother’s little helper guide in which academics use Samara surveys and other data to scrutinize the least relevant aspects of our system. An example: political scientist Quinn Albaugh of McGill, and journalism professor Christopher Waddell of Carleton University, examined use of the hashtag #cdnpoli over a six-week period in 2011.
“Twitter has a much stronger impact than other social media on news media,” they wrote; “Television news often displays Twitter posts during broadcasts.” Authors found 18,594 Tweets. A majority, 54 percent, were written by fewer than 3 percent of users. One single user accounted for more than 4,000 Tweets.
Authors acknowledged Twitter “is the most feasible social media site to study.” Perhaps they might have examined AM radio talk-shows, foreign-language weeklies or notes posted on laundromat bulletin boards, but that would have been work.
Here is where we stand. The 41st Parliament has broken the law many times, enacting bills it knew to be unconstitutional. The 41st Parliament does not even have any mechanism to block speedy passage of a bill MPs have not read; last December Bill C-47 The Miscellaneous Statute Amendment Act passed in four minutes. Nor does Parliament tolerate dissent; when a bill commemorating the fall of Saigon went to Senate hearings, lawmakers refused to hear testimony from a single witness opposed to the measure.
How’s this for democracy: in the past five weeks the Supreme Court has struck down three cabinet initiatives as illegal. They were a ban on RCMP unions, a limit on public employees’ right to strike, and an Act forcing 27,000 law firms to snoop on clients for the Department of Finance. In all three cases plaintiffs fought exhausting, costly court battles to correct a wrong. The lawyers’ case spent 14 years in litigation. If you do not have 14 years to spend in court, tough luck Charlie.
Samara might have asked, what kind of democracy rests on the fitness of individuals willing to devote years in proving the Government of Canada violated the Constitution? Canadian Democracy does not ask the question. It focuses instead on the margins.
So, readers learn that 57 percent of Canadians surveyed are “satisfied with the way that democracy works”; it’s better than Mexico (45 percent) but lower than Poland (68 percent). Asked for reasons why they are dissatisfied, 25 percent said they didn’t know.
Contributors chew over voter turnout figures, and count the number of foreign-born Canadians in the House of Commons, and ask focus groups in Mississauga what words come to mind when they think of politics: “The Canadians with whom we spoke held an almost universally dim view,” Canadian Democracy reported. “When asked to describe what politics meant to them, both non-engaged and engaged participants gravitated towards negative descriptors”; “boring”; “greedy”; “untrustworthy”.
If Canadian democracy is mediocre – and the 41st Parliament appears to be a low-water mark – surely academia can document the fact by digging a little deeper.
By Tom Korski
Canadian Democracy From The Ground Up: Perceptions and Performance, edited by Elisabeth Gidengil & Heather Bastedo; University of British Columbia Press; 320 pages; ISBN 9780-7748-28253; $32.95
A bill to create first-ever federal privacy protection for genetic testing has been effectively killed by a Senate committee. Conservative lawmakers said the measure, opposed by insurance companies, amounted to government over-reach: “Insurance companies will have to pay; they’re not going to do that”.
Parliament should mandate plain labeling on processed foods in a bid to curb obesity, a Senate committee has been told. A bill currently before the Commons would require disclosure of sugar content in drinks, snacks and other foods: “This is what kids are eating”.
Research suggests a link between toxic chemicals used in shale gas drilling and health effects on farm livestock, says the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. The group said new data confirming the phenomenon will be published later this month. It coincides with a Natural Resources Canada study on groundwater quality: “Contaminants may get into crops”.
The Government of Canada has ten times more meat inspectors than drug safety inspectors, according to accounts tabled in Parliament. And the number of pharmaceutical company inspections has actually declined in the past ten years: “They know the lay of the land”.
