The Commons justice committee has approved a private Conservative bill to aid jurors traumatized by testimony at gruesome trials. A former jury foreman told MPs he suffered nightmares and anxiety attacks long after serving at a murder trial: “I left the courthouse stunned.”
MPs on the Commons ethics committee yesterday questioned the trustworthiness of a cabinet appointee, Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick, on an election security task force. Wernick earlier criticized a Conservative senator for “unacceptable” comments, and said he feared anti-Liberal assassination plots: “I’m not sure that trust exists right now.”
Federal collectors see trouble with nearly a quarter-million student loans, the Department of Employment yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Write-offs of just 30,000 accounts cost $163.5 million this year: “Should we expect write-offs will be higher?”
Former governor general David Johnston says he had “a real concern” about the Senate while in office. Johnston, 77, retired two years ago. His remarks came in wide-ranging testimony at a Senate committee hearing in which Johnston lamented the U.K. Brexit referendum, and pondered peacetime conscription: “During my early years as governor general, I had real concern.”
Only 11 percent of federally-inspected hydroponic retailers supplying the cannabis trade are in compliance with pesticide regulations, says a Health Canada report. The department yesterday did not comment: “It is a relatively new and rapidly growing industry.”
Employers are legally entitled to refuse to hire cannabis users in safety-sensitive work, the Newfoundland & Labrador Supreme Court has ruled. The decision came in the case of a St. John’s labourer denied a job for smoking marijuana off duty: “Impairment of course is a relative term.”
A cabinet bill to appoint an ombudsman for cross-border travelers’ complaints is still being drafted, says Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. Cabinet buried an identical bill that passed the Senate three years ago: “Goodale has been telling us over and over that it’s coming.”
A federal judge has rejected an attempt by Bombardier Inc. to conceal details of subsidies it received from the Department of Industry. The decision follows 10 years of review and litigation: “A careful balance must be struck.”
A total 277 federal whistleblowers have complained of reprisal for reporting misconduct in the past two years, Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Joe Friday yesterday told the Commons government operations committee. “The tone truly is set from the top,” said Friday.
The labour department in a secret Access To Information memo says it is considering a blacklist of federal contractors that do not pay fair wages. It follows Parliament’s 2012 repeal of the Depression-era Fair Wages & Hours Of Labour Act intended to “prevent a downward spiral in wages and benefits”, wrote staff.
The CBC predicts an ongoing collapse in its local TV news viewership. The audience for local suppertime newscasts has fallen 27 percent in two years, and is now a fraction the audience of the CBC’s private competitors: “Canadians are taking their eyeballs and wallets somewhere else.”
Federal payroll systems are so dysfunctional one union yesterday said it wants fixed IOU pay dates written into its next contract. “Crazy things happen,” said Debi Daviau, president of the 60,000-member Professional Institute of the Public Service.
Senators are drafting a confidential harassment policy that would see appointment of a private law firm to hear staff complaints. The initiative follows the 2017 resignation of one senator accused of improper conduct by eight current and former employees: “We can’t have that.”
Countless regulations are enough to make small business gag, the Commons industry committee was told. One tax attorney cited an Alberta-mandated guide instructing employers on how to safely hire a rent-a-car: “It makes me almost throw up.”
An uproar over the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. probe forced an abrupt end to a routine meeting of the Commons finance committee. Liberal MP Wayne Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.), committee chair, gaveled an adjournment after members began arguing over contacts with Lavalin lobbyists: “You can’t silence me.”
