Taking the Lord’s name in vain is not Parliament’s business, says a justice department Access To Information memo. Parliament in 2018 repealed a law on criminal blasphemy last used to prosecute distributors of a 1979 Monty Python film: “It stems from an antiquated perception that an attack on Christianity was an attack on government.”
McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada has won $500 in costs from a customer who claimed he was poisoned by an Egg McMuffin. Evidence included data on McMuffin sales from clients who did not become violently ill: “Symptoms may have been triggered by dehydration related to gastroenteritis or food poisoning.”
People seeking casual sex should avoid bars and consider meeting outdoors, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. Federal epidemiologists made the remarks under questioning by a women’s magazine at a Parliament Hill briefing on the pandemic: “Is there any way for single people hoping to have sex this summer to do so safely?”
A federal prison manager billed more than $50,000 in travel expenses in the past year, according to records. Costs by Deputy Commissioner France Gratton included thousands to stay in a furnished suite on “temporary assignment” in Saskatoon even after cabinet ordered Canadians to stay home: “Enough is enough.”
Black Lives Matter demonstrators are wrongly stereotyping police who are “the finest people you will ever meet”, Senator Bev Busson (B.C.) said yesterday. The former RCMP Commissioner lamented what she called a “wave of hatred” against law enforcement: “I cannot stay silent any longer.”
A federal judge has struck a drug consumers’ protection regulation that was to take effect January 1. Seventeen pharmaceutical companies successfully challenged a cabinet order intended to lower costs of medication through the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board: “The Board does not regulate profits.”
Canada will rely on oil and gas for “years to come”, says the Department of Employment. Staff in a report said the oil industry remains “fundamental” even as cabinet subsidizes electric cars and taxes carbon: “You could try to stop using fossil fuel but that’s impossible.”
The Department of Health yesterday said pandemic funding for children’s counseling will “begin to flow shortly” three months after it was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. No reason was given for the delay: “Kids tell us something they would not have told anyone else.”
A piece of Canadian naval history is being scrapped. HMCS Cormorant forty years ago was the first ship in the fleet with a co-ed crew, and is now designated a pollution risk after rotting at its moorings in Bridgewater, N.S.: “It’s still there.”
A Canadian Pacific Railway claim that it’s exempt from income tax is prompting the Federal Court to review reports on 140 years’ worth of tax records. A judge noted expert testimony will have to do since there are no surviving witnesses to an 1880 contract: “There are no fact witnesses to events that occurred nearly a century and a half ago.”
Federal grant agencies promise to “improve equity, diversity and inclusion” after a Canada Research Chair complained affirmative action discriminates against men. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council called the views of a Brock University professor deplorable: “Preferential treatment of one group leads to disadvantages for another.”
Cabinet’s signature ecological program remains little known though it was launched four years ago with a promised $1.5 billion in funding. “Relatively few Canadians have heard of the Oceans Protection Plan,” researchers wrote in a report for the Department of Transport.
Canada Post lost $66 million in the first quarter of the year despite record spring shipments of parcels. The Crown corporation earlier blamed “fierce” competition from Amazon Canada: “The financial impact of Covid-19 is unknown.”
Blacklock’s pauses for the Canada Day observance to wish all friends and subscribers a happy First of July. We’re back tomorrow — The Editor
First Nations blockades and pandemic travel bans have cost VIA Rail more than a third of a million dollars a day, says management. The Crown railway predicted it could be headed for a record deficit this year: “It’s almost been impossible to get a handle on what is happening.”
