A federal agency has suffered a key setback in a first-ever investigation of contracting at Canadian airports. The Federal Court of Appeal cited the Competition Bureau for concealing thousands of documents, its “entire case”, from the Vancouver Airport Authority: “What happened? Who did what? How was it done? Why?”
Cabinet will not meet its own target to improve vaccination rates, according to Public Health Agency data. Actual numbers of Canadians who get a seasonal shot remain far below an 80 percent target set in 2001: “The effectiveness of the vaccine can wear off.”
The Department of Employment complains millions of children are not enrolled in a federal program offering free grants to help pay college or university costs. Parliament has paid out grants since 1998: ‘Promotion is essential.’
Ex-Minister of Sport Kent Hehr in correspondence to the Commons heritage committee said federal initiatives must assist female athletes with “low confidence”, “poor body image” and “fear of judgment”. The letter is to be tabled today in the Commons. Hehr signed it a week before leaving cabinet over allegations he commented on a woman’s breasts, and told another: “You’re yummy.”
“From a psychosocial perspective, sport provides a valuable tool for addressing gender inequity,” read Hehr’s 13-page response to a committee report Women And Girls In Sport. “Women and girls who participate in sport experience increased feelings of self-esteem, self-worth, efficacy, empowerment and personal freedom.”
“Women and girls often lack the necessary social support, encouragement, role models, self-confidence and money to participate fully,” the response continued. “Top issues include the availability of quality programming; access to facilities and equipment; and low confidence or poor body image (fear of judgment).”
Hehr left cabinet January 25 pending an investigation into claims he’d made inappropriate remarks to women at work. The allegations date back several years. “Canadians have a right to live and work in environments free from harassment,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The Commons heritage committee in its report proposed programs to encourage more participation by women and girls in amateur athletics. MPs recommended federally-subsidized clubs and associations hire more women directors and coaches; that the government “eradicate harassment abuse from Canadian sport”; and that telecom regulators “impose broadcast hours with respect to women’s sports as part of the license renewal of public and private television services.”
In his written response on behalf of cabinet, Hehr blamed media for stereotyping female athletes. “Media messages about women, femininity and sport present a major challenge to retaining women and girls in sport,” said the document. “Overall, male athletes receive greater media attention focused on skills and performance than female athletes.”
“For instance, while there has been relatively strong focus on female sport at Olympic and Paralympic Games” – women won 16 of 22 medals for Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics – “there has been little coverage of women and girls in sport otherwise.”
“Furthermore, sports media often report on female athletes in ways that reinforce stereotypes and outdated gender roles instead of prioritizing athletic achievements,” read Hehr’s response.
Sport Canada, a federal granting agency, paid $27.7 million in subsidies to top-level Canadian athletes in 2016, according to financial accounts. Of the total, $13.4 million went to women under the Athlete Assistance Program.
By Staff 
The Senate should not be pressured into meeting cabinet’s July 1 deadline to repeal a ban on recreational cannabis, says a Conservative legislator. The Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee opens hearings Wednesday on the first of two marijuana bills: “We will probably have amendments.”
The Department of National Defence has issued 19 pages of specifications on how to run a chow hall, including a definition of “buffet” and the diameter of cookies. The military has been cited for needlessly complex specs in the past: ‘Buffet is a meal service that consists of the customers picking up their meals from a serving line where the food is served to them.’
CMHC will spend up to $6 million on data for cabinet’s National Housing Strategy, including a country-wide count of homeless. Legislation mandating aid for social housing and rental subsidies is expected this year: ‘Make sure public resources are used to create things that work.’
Obesity in Canada
tripled in 30 years.
Eight million affected.
The federal government
develops an online tool
to promote healthy eating and
encourage physical activity.
The Ontario government
introduces the Healthy Menu Choices Act
so we can know the calories
when ordering food.
And in the City of Ottawa
– in Bells Corners –
the Mayor and the Councillor
help secure a 10-year grant
to allow the return of
KFC.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
An appeal court has ruled companies may fire staff that take marijuana to work. Employers have sought amendments to cabinet’s cannabis legalization bill to permit enforcement of company drug bans: “A person must have their wits about them.”
A federal tribunal has cited South Korean mills for steel dumping in Canada. Liberal MPs this winter propose the Commons industry committee open hearings on unfair practices in the trade: ‘There have been massive layoffs; it’s had a huge impact.’
Federal regulators are giving telecom firms one year to adopt filters to block so-called “spoofing” calls using fake identification. Failure to voluntarily comply will result in regulation, said the CRTC: “There is no silver bullet here.”
A privacy commissioner recommends lawyers secure unattended briefcases with bicycle locks following an incident at a Saskatchewan courthouse. Personal files of a Legal Aid client vanished at court with five lawyers and a clerk in the room: ‘Electronic records would be much easier.’
The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying says it will keep special funding approved by Parliament last year to defend an investigation it never finished. The agency yesterday offered no refund for hundreds of thousands of dollars it appropriated for work it failed to complete: “We really need this funding.”
Cabinet is proposing Canada Post cut daily mail delivery. Savings would average more than $70 million a year if service was reduced to every second day, according to federal consultants: “We really had high hopes.”
Nearly three quarters of senior federal managers, 70 percent, say they’ve thought of quitting, says new research by the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service. A detailed survey of thousands of executives also found 13 percent are problem drinkers, and 19 percent complained they were “verbally harassed or tormented at work”.
