Canadian researchers say municipalities can save millions in climate change-related flood damage by doing nothing – to wetlands. A University of Waterloo study said loss of wetlands to agriculture and urban sprawl has exposed property owners to more severe flooding: “We still have pressure from developers.”
Cabinet yesterday said it will refund payments from residents of Fort McMurray, Alta. to replace thousands of federal documents burned in a spectacular 2016 wildfire. Charging evacuees was unfair, said the Treasury Board: “People often had to flee quickly.”
The Department of Justice for 11 years maintained a secretly-funded censorship committee, according to Access To Information records. Staff said the department provided “good cover” for the committee, mandated to censor media and intercept mail at a moment’s notice by cabinet order: “The broad policy aim was for 100 percent control of all communications.”
Environment Canada has won a six-year legal battle with one of the nation’s largest tire manufacturers over a toxic additive. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld a 2016 ruling against Goodyear Canada Inc. under the Environmental Protection Act: “The Court is reluctant to second-guess decisions of this nature.”
Canada Post has fired a manager who billed the Crown corporation to send personal mail. The longtime supervisor told an arbitration hearing he assumed free postage was a perk of the job: “Nobody told him he could not do what he was doing.”
Department of Fisheries data show the number of commercial sealing licenses in Atlantic Canada has declined 58 percent in the past decade. The regional seal hunt collapsed under a 2009 European Union ban on Canadian exports: ‘Critics have dealt a significant blow to this industry.’
The finance department in a series of confidential 2016 memos warned of costly “exposure to a housing crisis”. Federally-insured mortgages by CMHC are worth $1 trillion, by official estimate: “Rapid expansion of credit is one of the best predictors of financial crises.”
Newly-declassified documents show cabinet feared an attack on the Queen at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal. Access To Information memos indicate the RCMP investigated four threats against Her Majesty, and prepared for a terrorist strike: ‘The threat potential for a terrorist attack is considered significant.’
Canadian Tire Corporation Ltd. is embroiled in a $2 million patent dispute with a backyard inventor. The hockey retailer is accused of copying a 1999 device to flood home rinks: “If the court finds that it’s obvious, then the patent is invalid.”
Compensation for police, paramedics and firefighters injured on the job can vary more than 80 percent depending on the province, says a Public Safety Canada review. The department said the wide range of benefits is troubling: ‘Not only does the definition of ‘permanent disability’ differ across jurisdictions, so too does the terminology used.’
A federal agency warns air passengers can expect longer security lineups for years to come. Transport Canada consultants have appealed for some minimum service standards for passengers queued at X-ray scanners: ‘Millions of passengers screened last year waited 15 minutes to an hour.’
Confidential Department of Fisheries memos say cabinet could be challenged under federal law after approving a $6.8 billion pipeline project. Staff questioned whether increased Pacific tanker traffic would breach the Species At Risk Act: “Will the activity jeopardize the survival or recovery of killer whales?”
A taxpayer-funded foundation lost the equivalent of nearly half its annual operating budget last year on poor stock market investments. It was not the largest yearly loss reported by the Canada Race Relations Foundation: “Don’t worry about the downturn because the market always goes up.”
Long-promised air safety regulations on crew fatigue are drawing protest from industry. Transport Canada proposes to rewrite rules on working hours for the first time since 1996: “We’re not scheduled airlines.”
People of colour
more likely to be stopped
for traffic violation.
More likely to be followed
by store security.
More likely to get caught
in lethal encounters with police.
Today is Tulip Festival.
Come celebrate the colours.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
