The Canadian Transportation Agency is already conducting closed-door talks with airlines on a passenger bill of rights, a consumer advocate yesterday told the Senate transport committee. Senators were cautioned the Agency should not be trusted to balance traveler protection with airline obligations: “I wouldn’t trust them with a cup of water.”
A French-language rights advocate has won a $1,250 Federal Court cost award in a lawsuit over an airport help desk. The Halifax International Airport Authority apologized that most volunteer helpers cannot understand French: “This gentleman sounds very litigious.”
A hot-tempered federal manager has been cited for high-decibel breaches of the Values & Ethics Code For The Public Sector. Brigitte de Blois, a director at the Correctional Service, yesterday declined comment on complaints she slammed doors, pounded desks and berated employees as morons: “Shut your mouth, we aren’t allowed to laugh around here.”
Parks Canada proposes new regulations to protect war graves at sea. More than 150 wrecks are in Canadian waters, authorities told the Commons transport committee: “For our sailors there are no pristine, manicured cemeteries.”
You can’t transport a handgun without a federal permit under a cabinet bill introduced yesterday in the Commons. Canadians own about 839,000 handguns, by RCMP estimate. Parliament has regulated handguns for 84 years: “That’s just common sense.”
The Canada Border Services Agency will question all travelers on marijuana if Parliament passes a legalization bill, a manager yesterday told the Senate national security committee. Senators were also told Canadians who admit to previous drug use should expect a lifetime ban from the United States: “It’s all very well to pass a bill, but we have to be able to tell Canadians exactly what the consequences are.”
Railway executives yesterday apologized to the Commons agriculture committee for poor service, but cautioned federal penalties are unnecessary. MPs summoned managers to explain shortfalls in winter deliveries: ‘This time railroaders have probably learned a lesson.’
A small businessman who successfully sued the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre for arbitrary enforcement of federal law yesterday urged the Commons finance committee to watch the watchdog. FINTRAC suspended its enforcement program after losing multiple Federal Court judgments: “You have the power to destroy my business.”
Islamophobia is lowest in British Columbia and highest in Québec, says new research by the University of Waterloo. Muslims nationwide are more likely to be the target of intolerance than other religious groups, the study said: “Negative attitudes toward Muslims do definitely exist across Canadian regions.”
The Commons health committee yesterday approved a bill mandating Australian-style plain packaging of tobacco products. MPs rejected a Conservative proposal to give cigarette makers more time to comply: “The evidence is overwhelming.”
Most people skipped Canada 150 celebrations despite federal claims of widespread enthusiasm, according to in-house research by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Surveys showed most Canadians neither volunteered nor participated at any local events, or bothered to watch TV programs marking the sesquicentennial: “I’m not interested.”
The Privy Council Office under an equity program hired two women to travel 6,000 kilometres to federal jobs in Vancouver. Authorities did not explain why no British Columbia women were qualified: “It’s a bit complicated.”
Cabinet has approved the dismantling one of Canada’s last bungalow-style Grand Trunk Pacific Railway stations. The Commons heritage committee estimates 20 percent of the nation’s existing heritage buildings are lost to demolition or neglect: “Fifty years from now the kids will ask: Where did all the heritage buildings go?”
The Transportation Safety Board faces a rare federal lawsuit over an investigation of a minor boating accident. Operators of a Great Lakes paddle wheeler accuse the Board of over-reach in its probe of a 2017 incident: “Hearsay, double-hearsay, triple-hearsay and worse.”
The Liberals
unveil their strategy
for national defence.
Consider every threat,
they conclude that one supply vessel
without guns to defend itself
(converted from a civilian cargo ship),
few second-hand fighter jets
to be purchased from Australia,
and four Sally-Ann-class submarines
(seaworthy at times)
would be sufficient to carry the Party
to the next election.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
