British Columbia’s highest court has upheld certification of a class action lawsuit over a corporate customers’ data breach. Hackers in China in 2013 staged a cyberattack on Peoples Trust Company of Vancouver that prompted a federal investigation: “Today, personal data has assumed a critical role in people’s lives.”
CBC-TV advertising revenues collapsed by a fifth in the first quarter. The Crown broadcaster warned of ongoing “economic pressures” for the next two years: “It is anticipated the effects of Covid-19 will persist.”
Only one in six Canadians want closer trade ties with China, says research by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Cabinet in 2016 proposed a free trade pact with the People’s Republic but dropped the idea following China’s arbitrary arrest of Canadian citizens: “Which countries do you believe Canada should be trying to tie itself to more?”
The RCMP for years kept watch on a Saskatchewan MP with secret membership in the Communist Party, according to newly-declassified files. Surveillance records show police from Toronto to Regina followed Dorise Nielsen, the only woman elected to the 1940 Parliament: “She emphasized the ideal conditions of the Russian factory worker.”
Canada’s chief public health officer is urging people to “change the way you speak” about drug addiction. Dr. Theresa Tam added cabinet had no current plans to decriminalize heroin: “Treat people who use drugs with compassion.”
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a Statistics Canada analyst who claimed discrimination as a white woman. White women are the largest identifiable group in the public service, according to the Treasury Board: “As far as I am concerned, I am one of the best employees here.”
Ottawa needs a new
central library.
The existing facility
– home to 2.3 million items –
isn’t enough.
I remember visiting
the New York Public Library.
An all-marble architectural masterpiece,
stretching across two city blocks
on Fifth Avenue.
Over 100 km of book shelves.
The Rose Reading Room was largely empty.
Tourists were taking pictures.
I recall the bronze reading lamps,
the paintings on the 52-foot-high
ceiling.
By one of the oak tables,
a man reading from his
laptop.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
The Senate has hired a psychologist. Administrators yesterday had little comment on the $10,000 consulting fee paid to a Montréal doctor: “It is in relation to a litigation file.”
Cabinet has approved demolition of another heritage building, Canadian National Railways’ century-old Hornepayne Station near Sudbury, Ont. Once a landmark at the halfway point for passengers riding the transcontinental line from Ottawa to Winnipeg, the station is to be razed: “You look at what we’ve lost and you almost want to cry.”
Statistics Canada in a report says it must become more customer-focused in its sale of information. The agency’s commercial business earlier prompted protest when StatsCan attempted to scoop banking data on some 1.5 million Canadians: ‘Clients want fast service at a reasonable cost.’
Small businesses from restaurants to retailers face ruin if cabinet doesn’t reopen federal buildings, says the mayor of Charlottetown. Mayor Philip Brown petitioned cabinet to open the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in his city that accounts for millions in tax revenue: “There is an economic crisis coming and I’m concerned.”
Another Royal Canadian Navy tradition has gone the way of Morse Code and the rum ration. Commanders yesterday said designation of junior ranks as seamen will be abolished after Labour Day: “The Canadian Armed Forces will welcome anybody.”
A federal mask supplier AMD Medicom Inc. yesterday said it never shipped any goods made by Chinese prison labour to Canada. Communist Party authorities in Shanghai had directed prisoners to work at a Medicom plant in Shanghai, according to the local Party press: “The town government called for volunteers to help mask maker Medicom.”
We Charity paid the Prime Minister’s brother Alexandre more than $67,000 in talent fees and expenses in a six-month period. The payments were among a total $481,751 paid to the Trudeau family, it said: “Many groups do this.”
A federal audit has found contracting irregularities at the Department of the Environment, including one case where a favoured contractor started untendered work before competitors were even given notice. The audit covered a two-year period when $176.6 million in contracts were awarded under then-Minister Catherine McKenna: “This practice is explicitly prohibited.”
