The Senate legal affairs committee yesterday urged election reforms to prohibit foreign lobbyists from financing campaign-related activity. Senators detailed no evidence of foreign interference in past elections: “There are suspicions galore.”
A Senate panel has endorsed a bill to proclaim Charlottetown a birthplace of Confederation, but only after mentioning Québec City, too. The Senate legal affairs committee yesterday struck a compromise on wording in a bid to settle ancient rivalries over the origins of Canada: “I’m not for historical revision.”
Canada Post reforms are overdue. Cabinet had promised to detail recommendations to overhaul the post office by June: “It’s important Canadians have a say in the type of service they need and deserve.”
Senators will amend a bill to ban children’s food ads over fears of legal challenges by the food and beverage industry. The Senate social affairs committee yesterday heard the bill is vulnerable to lawsuits: “We know we can do this.”
Former bank employees yesterday told the Commons finance committee that staff are pressured into signing consumers to unnecessary products without informed consent. Witnesses said regulation by the bank-funded Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is ineffective: ‘There is something called incentive pay.’
Cabinet yesterday shelved a regulation allowing consumers to file $200 compensation claims over computer spam. The law was to come into force July 1. Retailers and marketers anticipated a flood of nuisance lawsuits: “We have listened.”
The Senate energy committee has endorsed a bill to curb landfilling of mercury light bulbs on concerns over piecemeal remedies for environmental toxins. Senators described the bill as inoffensive but narrow: “It’s about health.”
A British Columbia widower pleading poverty has lost a Federal Court appeal for forgiveness of a six-figure tax debt. So-called remission orders are uncommon and must be approved by cabinet: “He said his wife died in 2004 largely because of the stress and financial problems caused by the Canada Revenue Agency.’
The Senate yesterday passed a bill into law that sanctions an RCMP union for the first time in the Mounties’ 97-year history. Senators noted cabinet was forced to amend an original 2016 bill that restricted police bargaining powers: ‘We have a responsibility to pay the RCMP a fair wage.’
Cabinet is repealing an obscure federal law against blasphemous libel. Prosecutors last used the Criminal Code provision to charge distributors of the 1979 Monty Python film Life Of Brian: “Just because people assume it is a dead letter law doesn’t mean it can’t come back.”
Veterans Affairs Canada continues to pay more than $100,000 a month in pension benefits for service in the First World War. The department said 99 years after the Armistice, dozens of widows and orphans of First War infantrymen still draw survivors’ benefits.
There is little chance of federal funding to replace lead water lines supplying older homes across Canada, says the Department of Infrastructure. Members of the Commons transport committee yesterday warned lead-tainted tap water is a national health issue: ‘Most vulnerable are young children in older homes.’
A federal judge has upheld an Environment Canada order that halted development of a subdivision to save a rare frog. The ruling ends three years of litigation over the threatened species: “Unfortunately for the plaintiff, they failed.”
A federal Bank Act enforcer says it’s not mandated to punish banks for breaching consumer rights. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada draws 90 percent of its budget from banks, trust companies and other financial institutions: “I think we could be stricter.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau says a national carbon tax is constitutional and opposed only by ideologues. The remarks came as cabinet introduced a second motion to have the Commons endorse its climate change targets: “I have so little time for the criticisms.”
