A trucking company that contracted for expensive fuel only days before the pandemic sent gas prices in a nosedive has been ordered to pay up. The British Columbia Supreme Court ruling hinged on a four-word email to operators of the Flying J chain of gas stations: “The customer takes the risk.”
Men
twice as likely to die
than women
when subjected to nagging.
Members of the opposition,
take note;
His Honourable the Minister
finds your questions
irritating.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
The Department of Employment considered introduction of an electronic national ID system for all Canadians but quietly dropped the idea, says a report. Canada has never mandated a national identification card: ‘The prospect is police being able to stop people on the street and demand proof of their identity.’
A Liberal-appointed senator worked as a federal contractor for the finance department at the same time he voted in the Upper Chamber and drew six-figure directors’ fees from corporations, records show. The business affairs of Senator Sarabjit Marwah (Ont.) did not breach any ethics rules, a spokesperson said: “It’s a shocking thing to me that the conflict of interest guidelines for senators remain so weak.”
Elections Canada in another sign of an impending campaign has placed rush orders for tens of thousands of candidates’ lists in braille for the blind. And the Green Party yesterday became the first to open a leader’s campaign office: “We already launched.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs successfully lobbied California legislators to rewrite a climate change bill deemed a threat to Canadian forestry exports. Diplomats feared the California bill if adopted would be taken up by other states and hurt sales: “Canada is concerned.”
Federal regulators have licensed a commercial drone operator for only the second time in Canada. The one-year conditional license was given to a drone courier at Edmonton International Airport: “Drones are profoundly transforming the transportation sector.”
David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, paid a courtesy call on the Chinese Embassy six weeks after MPs censured China for genocide and voted to petition Olympics organizers to relocate the 2022 Winter Games from Beijing. Chinese diplomats “asked to stay in touch.”
A half-billion newspaper bailout did not create jobs as promised, admits the Department of Canadian Heritage. Staff counted a continued net loss of thousands of jobs though publishers claimed increased readership through the pandemic: “This crowd knows very little about the business of operating a newspaper.”
New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday pledged support for urgent passage of an unprecedented internet censorship bill. “This is serious,” Singh told reporters: “We’ve got elected officials and we can bring in legislation.”
New federal data confirm school, playground and rink closures negatively affected more Canadian schoolchildren than the pandemic. The Public Health Agency cited “significant disruptions” to daily life for the 99.9 percent of children who were never hospitalized with Covid: “Children generally experience mild symptoms if they do become infected.”
Statistics Canada yesterday added the cost of pizza delivery and gaming consoles to its benchmark inflation calculator, but downgraded soda crackers and plastic forks. It is part of the first major revision to the Consumer Price Index in four years: ‘Products may become obsolete.’
Canadian diplomats in a briefing note praised Cuba’s Communist Party for embracing “social rights” and freer speech, and blamed human rights abuses on the pandemic. The note predates mass arrests and internet censorship by Cuban authorities: “Under President Diaz-Canel, there has been some modest improvements in freedom of movement and expression.”
Canada sent more than 28,000 people into quarantine hotels at public and personal expense, according to Department of Public Safety figures. Cabinet to date has not detailed the cost of the program, though Supplementary Estimates tabled in Parliament put the expense of border measures at $225,556,596: “We have made the best decisions we can.”
Federal agencies will spend $110,000 producing a pre-election YouTube video on slavery with commentary by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Video participants include a Liberal-appointed senator who “felt a sense of hopelessness” after seeing images of Trudeau clowning in blackface: “It epitomizes how deeply rooted racism is in our country, how deeply rooted privilege and power is in our country.”
