The Department of Labour has indefinitely shelved a 2015 Liberal campaign promise to revive a fair wages program for federal contractors. “We are reflecting carefully,” wrote staff.
VIA Rail is running later, says the Crown railway. Only 7 in 10 trains arrived on time last year compared to 85 percent on-time performance in 2001: “Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent and they are no further ahead than they were years ago.”
A proposed class action lawsuit on climate change has been dismissed by Québec Superior Court. A judge ruled forecasts of catastrophic impacts were not persuasive: “If some of the alleged infringements have not yet occurred but they could someday, there is a risk the debate is only theoretical.”
Say “Canada” and most people in France think of wildlife, Céline Dion and maple syrup, says research by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Focus groups also cited darker perceptions of the country as a place where police take away Indigenous people to “make way for pipeline projects”.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc used a federal contractor’s private plane to attend medical check-ups. LeBlanc in a filing with the Commissioner of Ethics said he traveled with his wife, a New Brunswick judge, aboard a J.D. Irving Ltd. corporate jet: “I was accompanied by my spouse.”
A mammoth privacy breach at one of the nation’s largest credit unions could happen anytime, anywhere, Desjardins Group CEO Guy Cormier yesterday told the Commons public safety committee. The leak of personal information on 2.7 million clients is blamed on a single employee: ‘It could happen again.’
Taxpayers have lost millions in the privatization of a Crown corporation, data show. A Prince Rupert, B.C. coal terminal valued at nearly a half-billion dollars in 2018 was sold for $350 million to American investors: “It would not be prudent.”
Actual jobs created under a new billion-dollar Industry Canada corporate loan program are a fraction of federal claims, according to Access To Information data. Records show the plan announced as “an investment in jobs” created about a tenth the number claimed by cabinet: “Recipients are not required to report on the number of jobs.”
Average telecom fees have climbed by more than twice the rate of inflation since 2014, according to the CRTC. Newly-released data follow a cabinet order to shield consumers from increasing charges: “I’m not convinced the CRTC has the fortitude.”
A multi-million dollar green energy hoax has been detailed in Ontario Superior Court. Shareholders poured a fortune into a Canadian patented pollution-free generator supposedly fueled by kinetic energy: “Investors were lining up.”
Plastics manufacturers are cheering a British Columbia Court of Appeal ruling that struck down a City of Victoria ban on single-use plastic bags. Some 55 other municipalities nationwide have introduced similar restrictions: “Victoria definitely demonized the product.”
It was one of ancient Rome’s
greatest spectacles.
The military commander
who had led his forces to victory
received a hero’s welcome.
In front of him,
his chained captives
and the spoils of war.
Behind him, his armies.
Crowned with laurels,
the triumphal general
wore a purple and gold-embroidered regalia
that raised him to near-divinity.
Riding a four-horse chariot,
he held an ivory sceptre
with an eagle at the top
as the procession moved
thorough the cheering crowd.
Gold and silver coins
minted in his honour,
circulated throughout the empire.
I turn on the TV,
watch the Toronto Raptors’
homecoming parade.
Wonder if much has changed.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalon, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A federal panel that includes corporate publishers of the Winnipeg Free Press and Le Droit is recommending cabinet’s $595 million press bailout exclude start-ups and small family-run publications from getting federal aid. A panelist yesterday said executives seeking subsidies should have disqualified themselves from denying aid to competitors: “I do believe it is a conflict.”
MP Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada is limited to less paid TV ad time than the Marxist-Leninists under a federal order issued yesterday. An arbitrator acknowledged the Canada Elections Act discriminates against new parties that did not run candidates in a previous campaign: “Everybody deserves a shot.”
Cabinet has approved regulations mandating French services at airports in all provincial capitals effective July 10, 2020. The proposal earlier drew protests from airport managers who questioned where they would find bilingual staff in cities like Charlottetown or Regina: “That is a big concern.”
