Federal inspectors will defer penalties against scofflaws under new truck safety regulations, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said yesterday. Canada for six years has reviewed electronic engine monitors already mandated in the United States since 2017: “Pay attention.”
Lawyers should not make snide Twitter remarks about former clients, the Law Society of Ontario said yesterday. The regulatory guidance came on a complaint filed by Blacklock’s against Mark Bourrie, an Ottawa solicitor who lamented news coverage of the We Charity “non-scandal.”
“Mr. Bourrie appears to consider his comments to be a personal opinion made in the context of a journalist,” wrote a Law Society investigator: “Mr. Bourrie should be careful about any statements he makes about his former clients.”
Bourrie in an unprovoked series of tweets last August 22 called Blacklock’s one of a “rogues’ gallery of fake news” along with the website Canadaland and other publishers. Blacklock’s “started going off the rails five or six years ago,” he said.
Law Society Rules Of Professional Conduct state a solicitor must not “undermine the client’s position on a matter that was central to a previous retainer.” Bourrie in 2018 was retained by Blacklock’s to serve libel notice on yet another tweeting Ontario solicitor, Christopher Ball of Kingston, who published a post claiming Blacklock’s was a front for an Italian crime syndicate.
The Law Society yesterday said Bourrie was issued regulatory guidance “to remind Mr. Bourrie of his professional obligations and to help him comply with the Rules Of Professional Conduct.”
Bourrie, a former Parliamentary Press Gallery member, in Twitter comments blamed numerous media outlets including the Globe & Mail, National Post, Sun Media, Maclean’s and others for criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “The people attacking Trudeau on this are the same folks who claim the free market can solve our economic problems,” he tweeted.
“Opportunistic opposition MPs and a reckless desperate media drummed up the bogus We Charity scandal,” he wrote. Bourrie in other Twitter posts described media as “grotesque,” “flying monkeys,” “puppets,” “the Tories and their media stooges,” newsrooms that “collect scalps” and “put heat on people until they break” and reporters who “can’t speak French.”
“Thanks Justin Trudeau,” tweeted Bourrie. “Justin Trudeau is no Churchill, but I am damned glad he won the 2019 election”; “How many ‘have you stopped beating your wife?’ questions is Trudeau expected to answer?”
“Sociopaths are succeeding in taking him down with the help of Hill media and reckless Opposition MPs,” tweeted Bourrie: “There are quite a few women in media, on the left and on the right, who are just as dishonest and vitriolic about Trudeau. You might be able to show a preponderance of men are hateful, but there’s a substantial number of women, too.”
Bourrie in 2019 announced in a CBC Radio interview he planned to quit social media as a New Year’s resolution. “There’s a lot of crap out there,” he said.
By Staff 
[photo: Tom Sandler, CNW Group/Charles Taylor Prize]
The Commons finance committee yesterday killed a private bill to shut down Canada Revenue Agency operations in Québec. The Bloc Québécois had sought to have the province collect all income tax within its borders and remit the federal share back to Ottawa: “I’ve never had a bill defeated at committee.”
The Department of Health was so poorly prepared for the outbreak of the pandemic it had to send masks to Florida for safety testing, say internal records. And the number of ventilators stored in a $300 million national stockpile was only one percent of what was needed: “It’s an embarrassment to this country.”
Parliament’s Budget Officer yesterday said “as a taxpayer” he hopes the Canada Revenue Agency recovers pandemic cheques claimed by Canadians who didn’t need the money. The Agency has identified 440,000 claims flagged for investigation: “It makes you wonder.”
Canadians are divided on whether the country’s best years are behind it, according to in-house research by the Department of Finance. More than a third of people surveyed said Canada has passed its peak: “Many had low expectations of the government.”
Cabinet quietly shelved a proposal to nationalize a shuttered General Motors plant to produce electric vehicles, internal records show. Proponents had suggested the Department of Industry buy the factory to make all-Canadian electrics: “We seem to have some pretty fundamental differences of opinion about the role of industry and the private sector.”
Chinese-Canadians were alert to the pandemic more than a month before the Public Health Agency, the Commons public safety committee was told yesterday. One MP said he first learned of the coronavirus risk not from any federal agency, but organizers of a Chinese-Canadian fundraiser in his constituency: “We weren’t even calling it Covid-19 at the time.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made inaccurate claims in boasting of cabinet’s pandemic response, according to internal emails. “Oh dear,” wrote one political aide. Staff in the Department of Public Works suggested they “try and talk around it” in case anyone noticed: “Maybe we can say — “
Canadians should be able to vote by phone in a pandemic election, says a Liberal majority on the House affairs committee. The recommendation was met by opposition warnings of a ballot box swindle: “It opens the door to fraud.”
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. was awarded a $150 million federal contract for pandemic field hospitals nobody asked for, according to records. The Department of Public Works five months after signing the sole-sourced contract had not bothered to fix any delivery dates for the mobile health units: “A public call for tenders was not issued due to the urgency.”
We Charity’s former chief lobbyist says she had no idea of Bill Morneau’s personal dealings with the group that prompted his abrupt resignation as finance minister. “That just makes absolutely no sense,” one Conservative MP told the Commons ethics committee: “This could be perceived as an attempted bribe.”
Chinese diplomats threatened they would not tolerate finger-pointing from Canada over the import of shoddy medical goods, internal emails show. The “warning” came from the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa: “They appreciated the Prime Minister’s response would be fact-based and expressed the hope that ‘China-related issues would not be cooked up.'”
Federal agencies continue to make late payments to small contractors despite policies promising prompt settlement of accounts, says Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic. A review found cases where contractors waited months to be paid what they were owed: “We had men in tears here talking about this problem.”
This morning,
along Rockliffe Parkway,
everyone drives the speed limit.
The red pickup truck,
the blue Hyundai,
the silver minivan,
the black Mercedes.
A law-abiding community.
Even the police cruiser
– at the head of the pack –
isn’t speeding.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
