Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s seemingly spontaneous performances in space were the product of a three-year marketing campaign complete with CBC collaboration and occasional tweets ghostwritten by government employees, Blacklock’s has learned. “It was a multi-faceted media campaign – yes, of course it was,” said a former Liberal cabinet aide who directed Hadfield’s stunts.
Grocery price spikes are the highest in a generation, rising 19 percent in the past five years, officials confirmed. Analysts attributed the rise to higher fuel costs, droughts and profit-taking: “Costs have stabilized somewhat but they never go down.”
Trade Minister Ed Fast is refusing comment on the apparent lapse of a China investment agreement. The pact was signed ten months ago but still awaits ratification by cabinet. Fast declined Blacklock’s interview request on the deal, which would fix investment rules for decades: “This is unusual.”
Canadian National Railways has won a Supreme Court fight against its own lawyers in a class-action case over freight rates. The court ruled CN’s counsel, one of the biggest law firms in Saskatchewan, should have asked permission before representing farmers in a lawsuit against CN.
Greenhouse vegetable growers are appealing for federal research aid, saying the billion-dollar business gets paltry support and is “poorly understood by federal officials.” Federal tax credits for scientific research and development, dating from 1963, were reduced to 15% last year.
Authorities are only now confirming a criminal security breach, the theft of a Department of Fisheries-issued laptop on a VIA passenger train. The department would not tell Blacklock’s what type of files were stored on the computer, yet considered the theft serious enough to call the RCMP.
Keeping technical notes on how to build a nuclear bomb will net a $100,000 fine under new penalties from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver declined an interview. The fines were the first details of penalties identified by the Department of Finance as a revenue source.
Health Canada is refusing comment on a report contradicting official findings on pesticides in unusual consumer products. Authorities declined Blacklock’s interview request on research by Greenpeace. It found toxic chemicals in randomly selected Chinese herbal products were nearly eight times in excess of World Health Organization standards: “We were shocked.”
The Department of Health says it is slowly, surely compiling a database on tonnes of pesticides used in Canada almost seven years after manufacturers were ordered to provide sales data. Nearly 4 in 10 companies initially failed to comply with the regulation: “It takes a while.”
The Canadian Transportation Agency is for the first time assigning single members to hear disputes, saying it anticipates so many new complaints it must cut the size of panels to meet its workload. The agency, which once assigned three-member panels to investigate disputes, said even two-member panels are too costly: “A lot of judges sit alone and still make good decisions.”
Only weeks after unveiling a wireless code that “puts consumers first”, Canada’s telecom regulator faces a lawsuit by some of the nation’s biggest wireless providers. The code, to take effect Dec. 2, would limit cellphone contracts to two years without cancellation penalties, and cap roaming charges.
Documents indicating cabinet awarded a large pay raise to the head of a panel studying the contentious Northern Gateway pipeline are not a bonus but a typo, officials say. Cabinet minutes indicated Sheila Leggett received a 15 percent pay hike as vice-chair of the Calgary-based National Energy Board. However, staff said the order was an unusual mistake when contacted by Blacklock’s.
The only lab in Canada to test for so-called fish flu has been stripped of its certification by the World Organization for Animal Health, Blackock’s has learned. Authorities confirmed the only Canadian lab of its kind, the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, lost its certification as a testing facility for infectious salmon anaemia.
Industry Canada has released details of its proposal for transfer of wireless spectrum amid industry complaints of ambiguous wording. One telecom giant complained of “hypothetical” terminology in the proposal.
The Department of Finance is withholding dozens of documents on the question of whether to sell the public insurer, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation. A request for department records under the Access to Information Act concerning any privatization of the insurance business saw 83 of 122 pages censored.
