A Jehovah’s Witness reprimanded for leaving her desk at Statistics Canada to avoid a February workplace celebration has lost a federal labour board appeal. Witnesses do not observe Valentine’s Day: ‘The situation did not meet the definition of harassment.’
The CBC is out more than two billion dollars after losing twelve-year rights to Hockey Night In Canada, says an internal federal memo. The Access To Information document contradicts public claims by network executives that the hockey contract was worth only a “few dollars”. The CBC in a confidential report said it remains “the cornerstone of culture and democracy” despite plunging ad revenues.
The Department of Canadian Heritage paid French teachers $1,000 to take Anglo schoolchildren on field trips in what it called a social experiment. Subsidies were paid under a new “micro-funding” program, staff wrote in an Access To Information memo: “This is a test of a policy concept.”
Cabinet’s climate change plan could pose “a significant new risk” to the economy if it costs jobs in the energy sector, transport and utilities, says the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. Jeremy Rudin in remarks to lawyers in Vancouver said Canadians have “very little reliable information” on the impact of any sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions: “The prudent thing to do is to prepare for the possibility that the overall economic impact of the transition will be sharply negative, at least for some time.”
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said it could find no evidence of $1.5 billion in yearly savings promised by cabinet. The cuts are “still unclear at this point”, wrote analysts: “Nobody said it was going to be easy.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage is paying newsrooms to write climate change stories. Subsidies paid to publishers under a $50 million Local Journalism Initiative were intended for strictly local coverage of courts, councils and school boards “where there is nothing at the moment”, the department had claimed.
Most highway departments still have no plans to limit ecological damage from road salt, says the Department of Environment. Regulators for decades have called salt a risk to plants, water and wildlife, but stopped short of restricting it as toxic: “What’s the big deal?”
Municipalities may zone against marijuana stores, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. The decision follows a similar British Columbia decision that allowed cities to restrict cannabis sales or effectively ban the trade altogether: “All regulations in this bylaw shall apply.”
Auditors have uncovered more problems with government-issue credit cards. An investigation at the Department of Employment found less than a third of spending by card users was approved beforehand: “We noted the increased pressure to spend budgets at fiscal year-end.”
A Liberal MP says he has been racially profiled by the Canada Border Services Agency. Gagan Sikand, who was born in Canada, cited “gross misconduct” by Customs officers: “As a South Asian male, there have been many incidents.”
Cabinet for the first time will offer taxpayer-guaranteed lines of credit for small business, says a Department of Industry report. The department did not estimate risks of default under a current program that sees fifteen percent of first-time borrowers fail to repay their loans: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the Canadian economy.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau will not disclose toll revenues from the taxpayer-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline but insists the project is commercially viable. “We’re not taking questions,” said an aide.
The Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld a six-year sentence in federal prison for a crooked accountant who filed more than $2.9 million in false tax returns with the Canada Revenue Agency. The maximum penalty for tax fraud under the Criminal Code is fourteen years: “This case involves a serious multi-million dollar fraud.”
Take this poem,
wrap it around your fist,
smash it in the face of the bully.
If it doesn’t help,
I’ll write you a stronger one.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Canada’s entire submarine fleet spent last year in dry dock at a cost to taxpayers of $325.5 million, according to accounts. The Department of National Defence by 2021 will spend more on refits and repairs than it cost to buy the fleet: “Invaluable.”
