Blacklock's Reporter

National Energy Board regulators including Sheila Leggett, head of a panel studying the Northern Gateway pipeline, asked the RCMP and anti-terrorist CSIS agency to snoop on opponents of the project. Leggett and other staff sanctioned secret consultations with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Mounties for months, despite police assurances there was no evidence of any law-breaking: “This is outrageous.”

Claims that counterfeiting has ballooned to a multi-billion dollar black market is prompting Public Safety Canada to commission a first-ever study of the trade. It follows one estimate piracy is worth $30 billion a year nationwide: “This is what we face every day.”

The Supreme Court will hear an appeal by an unhappy civil servant who sued to prevent her union from contacting her home. The case involves a Canada Revenue employee who refused to join her union, then invoked privacy: “They are stuck.”

A cross-border bid to harmonize Canadian and U.S. regulations is making paltry progress, say manufacturers. Critics complain work is proceeding too slowly: ‘Some are not interested.’

Fishing groups are cautiously hopeful a Euro trade pact will boost business. Foreign vessels will gain most-favoured nation treatment in Canadian ports, and protection for export fish processors will expire within three years: “We won’t be able to assess it until the tariffs start coming off.”

The Competition Bureau has won a high court case over an anti-trust probe in the appliance trade. The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an application by a supplier of water heaters who challenged a proposed $10 million penalty.

A European trade pact will cost Canadians higher pharmaceutical prices, warns an advocacy group. Critics said the treaty may delay the introduction of low-cost generic drugs: “There’s no give and take; we are giving.”

Consumers as “indirect purchasers” can join class-action lawsuits but only in certain circumstances, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The judgment came in two cases – one involving soda pop sweetener, the other computer software: “The law is supposed to protect people.”

Canada should review administrative tribunals to punish patronage and incompetence, says a former Workers’ Compensation official. An Ottawa conference heard there is little effective oversight of scores of tribunals: “The push for reforms has been there for decades.”

Cabinet is waiving a fuel regulation that would see Maritimers pay more for home heating this winter. The order to take effect Nov. 6 is expected to save millions for consumers in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, where most homes heat with oil.

The labour department is urging passage of a bill to speed decertification of unions in shipping, railways, broadcasting and other federally-regulated industries. The bill also repeals the card-check method used to form unions in the first place. The measure’s Alberta sponsor said federal action is needed to control unions’ “stranglehold on workers”: “I will not be intimidated by union bosses.”

Billions of dollars in public contracting must be opened to transatlantic bidders under a European trade pact, according to a cabinet summary of the treaty. The document failed to explain whether municipalities can be sued for non-compliance: “We want to see the entire text.”

Canada’s 2.7 million self-employed would face simplified tax requirements and improved benefits under a private bill introduced in the Commons. The measure proposes a national task force to assist independent workers, part-timers and contract employees: “It’s something I know quite well.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is being sued by the nation’s largest egg producer over confidentiality of records. Burnbrae Farms Ltd. is asking a federal judge to take extraordinary measures to prevent food inspectors from releasing or even discussing its business in open court.