Canadians rate the CRTC as too friendly with lobbyists and prone to government “propaganda”, according to the broadcast regulator’s own research. The findings are detailed in a study commissioned by the agency: “There was a certain amount of cynicism”.
The Canadian Medical Association reports millions of people have no supplemental insurance to cover costly prescription drugs and other care past 65. The finding follows a survey commissioned by doctors that found one-third of Canadians must pay for costs not covered by medicare: “You will see unequal care”.
A data management company
offers to securely destroy your documents.
They promise
it will kept sensitive information
out of the wrong
hands.
Officials
involved in the Ontario gas powered plants
find the approach
oddly familiar.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday) 
If Aboriginal Canadians all lived in one place they would be Canada’s sixth largest province with 14 seats in the House of Commons. If they were a nation they would be the 161st member state of the United Nations, larger than Cyprus, Iceland or Fiji.
Aboriginal Populations examines the striking demographics of First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Its scope is encyclopedic and compelling; its findings are often surprising; its commentaries are eloquent. Editors Frank Trovato and Anatole Romaniuk capture a community in transition after centuries of despair: “They have not been on the receiving end of history, from whatever angle the matters are seen.”
First, the numbers.
Authors conclude Canada’s Aboriginal population is probably higher now than at any point in millennia though actual numbers of the pre-Confederation era are historical guesswork – perhaps 200,000, maybe more. By 1900 disease and misfortune decimated the community to some 107,000 people, and then began “a slow journey toward demographic recovery”.
By 2017 aboriginals will number some 1.4 million. Researchers note many Aboriginal languages marked for extinction years ago have in fact survived despite “dire predictions” of assimilation.
“As much as we would like, and should, celebrate Aboriginal people’s demographic revival at this particular point in their history, our view ought to be a much more subdued, to say the least, when we mull over their demographic fortune since the inception of European colonization about four centuries ago,” Aboriginal Populations concludes. “The demographic growth of Aboriginal people over that long drawn out historical period pales in comparison with the growth of the European population”
Second, the people.
Aboriginals are more likely to have shorter lives than other Canadians though even here improvements are found. If the life expectancy of a Status Indian man is 71.4 years – still lower than the national average – it is far better than the life expectancy of 59 years reported in 1975.
Statistically, First Nations members who live on reserves drink less than most Canadians: “This tends to dispel the reputation Aboriginal people have for being given to alcoholism,” authors write. Yet there are other depressing data:
“Remarkably, the very similar ills are to be found among many indigenous peoples across the world,” authors note: “Everywhere they share a similar historic fate of colonization, oppression, marginalization and socio-cultural disruption.”
Aboriginals are also statistically poor, and suffer the troubles that plague poor people everywhere: violence, sickness and unemployment. Yet Aboriginal Populations is not despairing; it profiles a community in recovery. “The overarching theme,” authors write, “is that Canada’s Aboriginal population has reached a critical state of transition.”
By Holly Doan
Aboriginal Populations: Social, Demographic and Epidemiological Perspectives, edited by Frank Trovato and Anatole Romaniuk; University of Alberta Press; 555 pages; ISBN 9780-88864-6255; $60
The underground “de-tax” movement, blamed by Canada Revenue Agency for costing millions, has suffered a lethal blow at the Supreme Court. Justices refused to hear an appeal from a delinquent tax-filer who claimed exemption from federal law: “This scheme is being actively promoted”.
Health Canada proposes to award a $638,000 contract to a food processors’ group for “educational messages” on labeling at supermarkets. The funding follows appeals from consumers’ advocates that cabinet legislate standard nutrition labels on food products: “What is in a ‘fruit cocktail’?”
Federal agencies almost never suffer budget cuts for inefficiency regardless of whether they meet annual targets, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Analysts in a critical report concluded funding was divvied up whether or not individual agencies were proven well-managed: ‘It is like a gong show’.
Environment Canada in an enforcement blitz has cited a leading oil recycler for illegally shipping millions of litres of hazardous waste to the U.S. without a permit. New Brunswick’s Atlantic Industrial Services shipped reclaimed oil to Maine: “It was a hazardous material’.
Air Canada in a landmark ruling is being ordered to divulge confidential records on security complaints by travellers who allege racial profiling. The order is the first public glimpse into secretive federal security blacklists enacted after 9/11. It follows an appeal by a Halifax man who complained he was repeatedly badgered by airline staff and employees of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority: “I am a citizen”.
A rail reform rated the most sweeping in decades is only temporary, cabinet confirms. Transport Canada says interswitching regulations permitting Western shippers to bypass Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Rail Co., will expire in 2016: “Is there going to be emergency legislation every time there’s a commodity stuck out there?”
Cabinet has fixed new grain shipment quotas for railways after lamenting the “inability” of major carriers to keep to delivery schedules. The quotas are mandated under legislation signed into law May 29: ‘Regulations spell it out’.
New data suggest the Government cut its hiring of students despite MPs’ complaints of chronic youth unemployment. The number of student hires by federal agencies has declined an average 23% in the past five years: “The cuts are across the board”.
In a venture one former executive called “depressing”, the Canadian Space Agency is hiring consultants to persuade cabinet of the benefits of investments in science. The initiative follows a 10% budget cut: “Help us talk to the politicians so they will think we do something useful”.
Cabinet proposes to harmonize regulations on workplace chemicals in sync with U.S. rules. Health Canada estimated the measure will cost industry $14 million a year but result in long-term savings on relabeling goods for cross-border shipment: ‘There are real concerns’.
A Saskatchewan businessman has lost a bid to avoid a six-figure tax bill by declaring bankruptcy – twice. Court of Queen’s Bench ruled the delinquent tax-filer must make at least partial payment after going 14 years without paying tax: “Canada Revenue was really pushing to get that money”.
