Cleanup of a 2015 spill in Vancouver cost public agencies more than $3 million, say Federal Court records. The incident prompted the reopening of a British Columbia Coast Guard station: “These costs provide good insight into what the impact of a larger spill would be.”
The chair of the Senate transport committee says internet-based privacy breaches and monitoring of everyday Canadians has become a “threat to our way of life”. The remarks followed disclosures that federal agencies committed 5,998 separate privacy breaches last year involving personal information belong to nearly a quarter-million Canadians: “I’m worried.”
The stewardess bends
to serve passengers
across the aisle.
Her backside
rubs against my shoulder.
Skin to skin,
if not for my shirt,
her skirt.
When she turns to me
I notice her ring.
“Coffee or tea, Sir?”
Her lover
thousands of kilometres away.
Closer than I will ever be.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Environment Canada will not detail the impact of its $50 per tonne national carbon tax on greenhouse gas emissions. “I don’t have that number offhand,” Deputy Minister Stephen Lucas yesterday told the Commons environment committee. MPs asked the question 16 times: “Give us the number. I’m looking for a number.”
Cannabis trafficking by federal mail is a worry under cabinet’s bill to legalize marijuana, RCMP yesterday told the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee. The Canada Post Corporation Act forbids police from intercepting mail in transit, and the Canada Border Services Agency cannot inspect mail under 30 grams: “It’s a very significant challenge, I admit. The volume is huge.”
Senators yesterday warned of international consequences if Parliament legalizes marijuana. The Department of Foreign Affairs acknowledges the bill breaches three United Nations conventions, but calls it a minor violation: “Whether it is in your opinion minor or major is not the issue.”
The Senate last evening gave Second Reading to a bill repealing a 95-year ban on recreational marijuana. The 44 to 29 vote sends the bill to ongoing hearings of five separate committees: “It’s not over till it’s over.”
The Canada Revenue Agency since 2011 has cut by 10 percent the number of staff assigned to tracking serious tax evasion, records show. The Agency says it now targets only the “most egregious” tax dodgers: “The cuts make no sense.”
A Commons motion asks that MPs strike a committee to revive postal banks disbanded in 1968. Cabinet has rejected the proposal to date, instead suggesting Canada Post consider cutting mail delivery to save costs: “Why on earth would we abandon something that’s very clearly needed?”
Health Canada spent $60,000 on a marijuana warning label mandated for use on legal cannabis products. The symbol looks strikingly similar to the Team Canada hockey logos at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, one legislator yesterday told the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee: “The leaf looks like the maple leaf.”
Hiring of investigators to probe harassment complaints within the federal public service has cost more than $3 million since 2016, according to newly-released data. A single department spent nearly a million on investigations: “The problem is deep.”
Federal agencies last year committed thousands of privacy breaches exposing personal information of nearly a quarter-million Canadians, say records. The worst offender, VIA Rail, broadcast the names, addresses and email accounts of more than 128,000 passengers: “The government is still very cavalier about this.”
Federal research confirms paramedics have the most stressful job in the country. Employees are four times more likely to suffer workplace injuries and four times likelier to suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder than other workers, said Defence Research and Development Canada: “I am stunned at these numbers.”
Cabinet says it will restore “balance” to federal advertising after MPs protested cuts to spending at Canadian newspapers. Members of the Commons government operations committee said overspending on U.S.-owned Google, Facebook and YouTube ads made no sense: “It’s taking revenue out of struggling Canadian media outlets.”
The Federation of Law Societies yesterday rejected claims the profession is susceptible to unregulated cash dealings involving suspicious customers. The Supreme Court in 2015 ruled federal agencies could not compel lawyers to breach solicitor-client privilege by reporting cash dealings: “They are looking for things that don’t look right.”
