A British Columbia court has detailed windfall gains for Airbnb vendors. Disclosures of actual receipts from a single property follow appeals by the Hotel Association of Canada for federal taxes on short-term rentals: “It is an illegal business.”
The Public Health Agency yesterday said its Covid-19 Alert tracing app was “never going to be 100 percent perfect”. Few Canadians have downloaded the free app intended to notify smartphone users if they were in contact with a coronavirus carrier: “Has this been a flop?”
The Canada Revenue Agency says it knows of “several serious risk associations” where criminals infiltrated its databases. The disclosure was made by a senior manager at a labour board hearing: “We’ve seen it happen.”
New Bank of Canada research confirms hoarding of hundred-dollar bills in a pattern linked to tax avoidance. Analysts said large numbers of $100 banknotes are issued but never returned for wear and tear like smaller bills: “That’s a proxy for the underground economy.”
An under-subscribed pandemic loan program for small business due to expire at midnight last night is extended to October 31. Cabinet again promised to modify terms of the Canada Emergency Business Account to benefit the smallest operators: “Just send the message up to the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Vandalism of Canadian monuments is unacceptable, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. His remarks followed the August 29 destruction by Montréal protestors of a ten-foot statue honouring John A. Macdonald: “We’re seeing people trying to trigger culture wars.”
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.”
