Cabinet’s climate change plan has Parks Canada considering installation of wind turbines at a national graveyard. The agency yesterday said the only Canadian memorial to refugees of Ireland’s Great Famine is an “evocative place”, but must lower its carbon footprint: “That island is a sacred site.”
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority logged 815 pages of traveler complaints last year, according to Access To Information records. Airport passengers wrote with accounts of rude, sarcastic and abrasive X-ray screeners: “I am not a miracle worker.”
The Department of Finance is withholding financial data from the public, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Analysts said the department ordered that records remain confidential after the Office concluded cabinet failed to account for all its borrowing and spending plans: “We have some numbers in front of us and we can’t release them, and we don’t understand why.”
A Canadian website calling itself a “leader in social news and citizen journalism” is being sued for allegedly copying photos without permission. Digital Journal Inc. yesterday did not comment on the federal lawsuit.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this,” said Larry Minden, president of Minden Pictures Inc. of Aptos, Calif. “Nobody likes to become the enforcer, but it’s my photography business. It’s my fiduciary responsibility to try and protect copyright.”
Minden Inc. in a Federal Court application accused the Toronto-based Digital Journal of republishing five copyright photos for a period of three to five years. The website removed the photos last December 8 only when contacted by the owners, according to Court documents. Images were copied without payment or permission, said Minden.
“Those who use our pictures without authorization run the gamut from companies that are founded on the principle of grabbing what they can online and using it to attract eyeballs, to those who have no idea or understanding of copyright law,” said Minden. “It’s all over the map.”
Minden’s Court application said the stock image supplier typically charges US$500 a year for use of a single photograph. The company seeks $12,701 in damages from Digital Journal Inc.
“The creation of the photographs required an exercise of skill and judgment that necessarily involved intellectual effort,” Minden’s lawyer wrote the Court. “Minden has not been compensated for the unauthorized use of the photographs in which it holds copyright.”
“We’re not out there to beat anybody up,” Minden said in an interview. “It’s much like the issue with music or film. If everybody would license this material, then everything would be hunky-dory.”
Digital Journal in a 2009 feature Experts Advise Citizen Journalists On Copyright Law wrote, “Media law can be confusing”; “One of the more difficult decisions a citizen reporter must make concerns uploading images. What photos are copyright free?”
“According to media law expert Michael Geist, the Canadian law is unclear, so far,” the feature continued. “‘There is no specific rule relating to third-party uploading of content’”; “Based on a number of past suits, the site owner will unlikely be responsible for third-party infractions,” Geist was quoted.
Prof. Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, was appointed to the Digital Journal board in 2010.
By Jason Unrau 
Seven government officials have been fined for breaches of the Conflict Of Interest Act in the past five months, according to records. Scofflaws included three cabinet-level directors of communications and the CEO of the Business Development Bank: “I paid it rather than keep arguing.”
The Canada Revenue Agency in a three-year period fired or suspended 178 employees for snooping through personal tax files, say Access To Information records. A federal labour board has upheld disciplinary measures against employees for reading Canadians’ tax returns: ‘The reality is employee misconduct does occur.’
A payday lender that charged 548 percent interest has seen payments knocked down to 5 percent by a judge. The Court cited payday rates as “harsh and unconscionable”. The ruling comes as the Senate debates Third Reading on a bill to update Canada’s usury law for the first time in 40 years; ‘This constitutes an unfair advantage.’
More than a third of teenagers skip breakfast, says a survey of thousands of students compiled by University of Waterloo researchers. Reasons included weight loss. The typical Canadian child draws a quarter of daily calories from sugar, according to Statistics Canada: ‘It’s quick and easy.’
Cabinet approved an extraordinary $650,000 witness fee to an English law professor to participate in a land claims case, according to newly-released Access To Information records. The fee was so large it exceeded Treasury Board guidelines on payments: “I have a bit of a problem here.”
The judge in a federal bid-rigging trial yesterday rebuked prosecutors for appearing to misrepresent evidence. Prosecutors submitted volumes of Library & Archives Canada emails in claiming to prove a former manager improperly gave inside tips to a contractor: “It brings into question some of the other documents.”
RCMP security checks on transport employees have expanded to include searches on Facebook friends. A federal judge upheld the dismissal of a Vancouver International Airport worker with a clean record who was cited for “friending” a suspected gang member: “The consequences for his employment are very serious.”
The Department of Public Safety will pay a military-style death benefit of up to $300,000 to surviving families of police, paramedics and firefighters under a program to take effect April 1. Cases of suicide or occupational illness will qualify: ‘This includes deaths resulting from psychological impairment.’
The Senate agriculture committee is dismissing any federal regulation of foreign purchases of Canadian farmland. Senators in a report concluded suburban sprawl, not offshore speculation, is to blame for rising land prices: “Does it really matter?”
The Canada Border Services Agency annually confiscates nearly half a tonne of marijuana at land crossings and airport checkpoints, according to Access To Information records. The Agency has not detailed its enforcement plans if Parliament legalizes cannabis: “We only seize a small portion of that drug.”
Crown prosecutors yesterday cited work diary entries by a former Library & Archives Canada manager as evidence of a bid rigging scheme. Prosecutors allege agency staff gave inside information to a favoured contractor in 2009: “There are a lot of coincidences that don’t fit.”
