Canada Revenue expects to penalize unions millions of dollars under legislation due to pass the Senate this week. The figures were concealed from parliamentarians but detailed in confidential briefing papers obtained by Blacklock’s. Revenue Minister Gail Shea’s department denied the data existed: “This is outrageous.”
Attorney General Rob Nicholson has been sued in Federal Court for the third time in a week for alleged violation of privacy and access to information laws. An Ottawa project manager filed the latest application to force Nicholson’s department to disclose notes kept by a staffer at a confidential pre-trial hearing: “This is harassment of a citizen by the Government of Canada.”
Lawmakers are pondering whether to update the ancient custom that permits citizens to petition their Parliament. MP Kennedy Stewart proposed a motion to recognize online petitions, and require that parliamentarians debate any topic that garners enough signatures – “for example 50,000 or 100,000,” he said. The Commons receives more than 2,000 petitions a year, from language rights to shark finning.
A little-noticed gas pipeline explosion in the British Columbia forest has highlighted a federal probe on sector safety. Investigators determined a gas pipeline that blew up had not been pressure tested since 1961. The report came as senators heard testimony on pipeline safety: “There is no requirement that a pipeline older than a certain number of years needs to be replaced.”
Cattle ranching has been replaced by aquaculture as the world’s largest farm production for the first time in history, according to the Earth Policy Institute. The figures coincide with a Senate proposal to study aquaculture policy: “When you do not have legislation that even defines you, it is not clear what the roles and responsibilities are.”
The Department of Fisheries is condemning Greenland for increasing its wild Atlantic salmon catch. Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield said he was “disappointed” — though analysts noted Canada has not recently taken any precautionary measures to limit its own harvest.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition: “Delicate daffodils emerge in a world of innocence, purity. Golden hearts and fragile build; captured on canvas, immortalized in poetry. Along hidden trails or Parliament Hill, they are here to beautify our public life…”
A union has won a Supreme Court battle over random workplace tests to see if employees have been drinking. In a 6-3 decision, justices ruled that Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd. went too far in trying to force a Saint John mill worker to take a breathalyzer test. The employee was a teetotaller who had not tasted liquor in years, the Court heard.
Frozen Florida orange juice, Vermont maple syrup and Washington State apples will be hit with a 100% surtax in a simmering trade dispute with the U.S. The Department of Finance detailed specific American goods that face retaliatory tariffs in a cross-border war over meat labeling: “They were content to do nothing while we suffered.”
Military commanders are marking the last troop deployments to Afghanistan with assurances the country’s economy is “flourishing”. Yet members of the Commons defence committee said unanswered questions remain, including why the army concealed years of research that showed Afghans rated the mission a failure: “Where are we going?”
A federal bill to regulate rail service will merely cause “service problems”, predicts a rail executive. Managers with CN and CP protested Bill C-52 even as it cleared the Senate transport committee. “This is about jobs,” said Liberal Senator Terry Mercer; “This is very important to Canadians.”
The Commons fisheries committee has quietly killed a proposal for an urgent investigation of Canada’s $1 billion lobster fishery. MPs went in camera to quash a probe of the industry that’s seen thousands of fishermen face losses: “If this was taking place in Toronto or Montreal or Ottawa, they’d call it a crisis.”
Federal inspectors propose new tracking measures to guard against food poisoning. Yet an industry analyst told Blacklock’s the initiative by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is the bare minimum consumers deserve: “What we put into our bodies is rarely traceable to source; why is that?”
Organizers of Canada’s first Olympics, the ’76 Summer Games in Montreal, celebrated aboriginals in sport by hiring 250 professional dancers to dress up as Indians. When the 1988 Winter Games came to Calgary, the local Stampede board proposed the festivities include a mock Indian wagon-burning.
Railways’ biggest customers are resigned to a federal reform bill they say is less than meets the eye. Farmers, forestry companies and fertilizer producers told a Senate committee they foresee conflict over ambiguities in Bill C-52, but acknowledge Parliament’s reluctance to amend the Conservative bill: “We now feel we are out of time.”
