Health Canada is being urged to include natural health products in the scope of new legislation fixing large penalties on distributors of unsafe medicines. An advocacy group Bad Science Watch urged that authorities amend a bill that targets dangerous prescriptions but exempts “natural” items: “This leaves users of natural health products out in the cold.”
The Department of Fisheries is being cited for failing to act on a worrying decline in the Arctic walrus population. The department acknowledged after five years it’s been unable to document walrus numbers amid concerns over a falling population: “We have woefully inadequate coverage”.
Parks Canada is being sued by a Rocky Mountain ski operator in a dispute over a parking lot deemed an avalanche risk.
Sunshine Village Corporation, operator of a well-known ski resort near Banff, Alta., is asking that a federal judge quash a government parking ban imposed due to hazard of falling snow.
“Clearly if skiers can’t park there it has a commercial impact,” said Kent Anderson, counsel for Sunshine Village.
The ski company has operated a resort on Crown-leased land in Banff National Park since 1981. Operators noted as many as 35 days every winter, often at Christmas and holidays, skiers fill overflow curb parking along a 7-km access road leading to the hill off the Trans-Canada Highway.
“On high-traffic days the parking lot at the gondola base does not have sufficient capacity to accommodate all skiers,” the resort owner submitted in court documents; “When the Sunshine parking lots are full Sunshine staff has directed the public to make a U-turn and park on the access road.”
The ski resort maintains regular parking for 1700 vehicles; the access road holds another 400 cars.
However the Banff Park superintendent last year banned parking on the road and installed “Avalanche Zone” signs.
Sunshine Village Corp. asks that a judge quash the road parking ban, claiming the park superintendent had “incorrectly inflated the calculated avalanche risk”; “acted beyond his jurisdiction”; “failed to observe the principle of natural justice”; and “based his decision on erroneous findings”.
Counsel for the Government of Canada did not comment.
The Banff ski season runs some 190 days a year from November till spring.
By Paul Delahanty 
Food prices are forecast to rise again in 2014, but modestly following sharp spikes that saw the cost of groceries nearly double inflation in other household items. Seafood and oranges are up, beef and nuts are moderating: “You never know what is going to happen with the value of the Canadian dollar.”
The Canadian Transportation Agency is promising improvements amid growing complaints over its efficiency and perceived fairness. Pollsters hired by the agency rated overall customer satisfaction as “high”, but cautioned fewer than 6 in 10 Canadians consider the regulator impartial: “The agency is striving”.
Regulation of fish and seafood labeling needs “immediate improvement” according to a Conference Board of Canada study. The board identified a high frequency of mislabeling in the seafood trade: “The risk is that you are paying for a lower level product.”
A Senate committee is to investigate the health of the nation’s bees amid concerns “highly toxic” insecticides are killing colonies. The Canadian Honey Council told senators that “some beekeepers may lose their operations as a result of factors that are out of their control”.
MPs have quietly agreed to shrink the size of Commons committees, though the measure will not result in any savings. The change was endorsed in private and then approved by Parliament without a word of debate: “It’s less work for more MPs.”
The National Parole Board has won a court’s OK to release documents to media. A federal judge dismissed a claim for $50,000 in damages from a Kingston Penitentiary inmate who said he was “terrified” after his criminal record was published on the internet: ‘It’s a matter of public record.’
Parliament is stumbling onto “unstable ground” with a bill to rename a museum, the Senate has been told. In a pointed debate, lawmakers prepared for a final vote to rename the Canadian Museum of Civilization: “History is not an exact science.”
Canada’s telecom regulator says it’s concerned by program cuts in 7 cities that prompted protests at Rogers Ltd. However the CRTC dismissed a petition by Unifor, representing media workers, that the cuts violated terms of license: “We succeeded in shining a light on the problem.”
The Supreme Court is to decide whether a Parks Canada employee is entitled to benefits for job stress that a provincial panel dismissed as all in a day’s work. The case involves a Banff Park warden who argues he was unfairly denied a claim under Alberta law: “It is an important case.”
Public Safety Canada is at a loss to account for its contradictory cost claims on a gun control measure.
The department yesterday had no reply to charges it misrepresented a proposal to indelibly stamp all firearms under a United Nations protocol.
Public Safety said compliance was virtually free for industry, “from zero to $25”.
However one MP and a manufacturers’ association said actual costs were so prohibitive it’s the reason regulations have been under review for a decade: “These people do not know what they are talking about.”
A marijuana paraphernalia dealer has been hit with a $55,000 judgment in Federal Court in a case over counter-culture trademarks. Justice Michael Manson, a former patent agent, sided with the U.S. publisher of High Times magazine in a dispute over rights to the words “high” and “times”: ‘Is a casual consumer somewhat in a hurry likely to be confused’?
Railways’ use of company recorders in locomotives would be a violation of train crews’ privacy, says a union representing industry workers. Canadian Pacific, CN and VIA Rail are examining cab recorders. The Transport Safety Board proposed government-mandated recorders following a fatal 2012 derailment.
