Blacklock's Reporter

A retired federal IT consultant has won $19,900 in Federal Court costs and damages after successfully searching the internet for technical breaches of bilingualism regulations. A judge upheld one complaint against the St. John’s Airport Authority for wishing travelers “a happy St. Patrick’s Day” in English only: “The older I get the more I realize federal institutions continue to violate my rights.”

A federal mask mandate for air travelers now in its third year should not be repealed, says Dr. Theresa Tam. The chief public health officer called masks inconvenient but necessary: ‘If everybody’s going to be wearing a mask, why not?’

Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre), parliamentary secretary for emergency preparedness, was director of an insolvent marijuana company that owed millions in unpaid federal tax, records show. Naqvi did not comment: “I recognize my duty every single day to seek out the truth.”

CMHC quietly approved a $200,000 grant to promoters of a home equity tax, according to Access To Information records yesterday disclosed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Culture change is hard,” read one email by a tax promoter to CMHC managers: “We work to make the politically impossible (now) possible (sooner than later).”

Internal whistleblower emails and memos disclosing allegations of misconduct by senior Canada Revenue Agency executives yesterday were removed from public access by federal lawyers. The documents were mistakenly filed in Federal Court: “The Court has ordered that the documents be removed from the public record.”

The risk of a sharp downturn in the housing market is plausible, Canada’s banking superintendent said yesterday. Regulators said they were prepared to adjust a so-called “stress test” to ensure homebuyers can stand higher mortgage rates: “The severe but plausible risk of a housing market downturn remains.”

Data breaches of federal IT systems average one per work day, according to Treasury Board figures. The most serious “incidents” are separate from thousands of attempted hacks that occur every minute of every hour, an official said: “We do take it very seriously.”

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem is to testify before MPs after missing another inflation target. Macklem only a week ago predicted a rise in the cost of living would average under six percent. It is now running near seven: ‘What is the Bank going to do to close that credibility gap?’

Foreign labour may cost Canadians jobs and wages in specific trades, the Department of Employment said yesterday. The impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program “may be significant” in some markets, said a department report: “Wage suppression might be occurring.”

Longstanding poultry and dairy quotas are to blame in part for spiralling food costs, a candidate for the Conservative Party’s September 10 leadership vote said yesterday. MP Scott Aitchison (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) called the quotas a “price fixing system” that must be repealed: “What’s the end result? Your food costs more, much more.”

A Liberal donor, Edmonton lawyer Bob Aloneissi, yesterday was named a Court of Queen’s Bench judge. The Department of Justice praised Aloneissi’s “humble roots” without mentioning his contributions to the Party: “His experience of working at his family’s inner city grocery store allowed him to appreciate many different cultures.”

Canada’s second largest airline faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit on allegations it tolerated “frat boy” harassment of women flight attendants by male coworkers. Lawyers for WestJet Airlines Ltd. had for years fought certification of the class action suit: “This litigation has been reasonably hard fought.”

Canada Post earned only “marginal” profits on a cash transfer service introduced two years ago, according to a management report to MPs. The post office has proposed expanding financial services to raise revenue: “We must innovate to find solutions.”

Piecemeal payouts for compensation from the Phoenix Pay System failure continue to cost taxpayers millions. The Treasury Board detailed ongoing damages paid to former federal employees whose paycheques were garbled by computer software: “We have been dealing with the Phoenix system for six years.”