The Competition Bureau assigned a single employee to sorting through thousands of consumer complaints received every year, auditors found. The federal anti-trust agency has 360 staff and a $50 million annual budget: “There are no defined criteria for prioritizing complaints.”
Eleven Conservative and Liberal Senate appointees yesterday formed a new independent, bipartisan caucus on a pledge to counter “sales pitch” legislation, said interim leader Senator Scott Tannas (Alta.). “They will know where we stand,” Tannas said in an interview.
The Bank of Canada in a research paper concludes futuristic forecasts of a cashless society are overblown even if banks phase out human tellers. Data show most Canadians still use bills and coins for transactions under $25: “Will teller-less bank branches encourage a cashless society in Canada?”
MP Elizabeth May yesterday resigned as national Green leader with criticism of media over the Party’s failure to win more than three seats in the Commons. “The media of this country have failed abysmally in understanding climate science well enough to talk about it,” May told reporters. “Sorry.”
Drivers pulled over by police don’t lose their Charter right to free expression, a Québec judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of a Black motorist cited for calling police racist when he was questioned without cause: “Is the use of the word ‘racist’ an insult? That’s the question.”
Inuit groups in Federal Court affidavits say numbers of polar bears are growing despite climate change claims. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and the World Wildlife Fund have pointed to polar bear health as proof of catastrophic change in the Arctic: “It is rare to see a skinny bear.”
Parliament must raise the carbon tax to address climate change, says a coalition of labour and environmental groups. The tax is currently capped under legislation at the equivalent of 12¢ a litre for gasoline: “We need leadership to show where we’re going with these taxes.”
Senate Liberals will lose party status in eighty days with the mandatory retirement of their eldest member. A string of retirements next year will see the dwindling caucus stripped of official status in the Senate for the first time since 1867: “It’s very painful.”
Federal regulators are threatening $15,000 fines against directors of six small telecom companies for alleged technical breaches of the Telecommunications Act. The six were cited for failing to pay a $600 registration fee with a little-known ombudsman mandated to take customer complaints: “That’s a lot of money.”
Alberta
gives a cold shoulder
to Justin Trudeau.
Not a single seat
in 2019 federal elections.
To win their hearts
Trudeau may need
to magically build the pipeline
stop talking against Big Oil
and tone down on climate change.
Toronto
gives a cold shoulder
to Andrew Scheer.
Not a single seat.
To win their hearts
Scheer may need
to distance himself from Doug Ford
change his line on abortion
and show up at a Pride parade.
The entirety of Canada
gives a cold shoulder
to Maxime Bernier.
No hearts to win.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
The Department of Employment in Access To Information memos complains a federal labour board is too liberal in upholding grievances by problem employees. Managers were told to protect themselves when disciplining staff for misconduct from absenteeism to surfing inappropriate internet sites: “Cases we deem as solid can still fail.”
Condo boards may outlaw Airbnb rentals, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. Airbnb accounts for ten percent of hotel room sales in Vancouver and Toronto, according to the Department of Finance: “There is a strong incentive for property owners.”
The Public Prosecution Service yesterday said it will provide free counseling for staff lawyers traumatized by graphic evidence in criminal cases. The Commons justice committee earlier recommended similar aid for jurors exposed to gruesome testimony and crime scene videos: “Vicarious trauma is an ongoing issue.”
The Supreme Court yesterday in a Halloween judgment ruled a “life pension” could not be paid to a dead man. The decision came in the case of $497,333 in payments to the bank account of a retiree who vanished: “Death is an event with important legal significance.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs used an obscure fund to fly Canadian chefs around the world to prepare meals for diplomats, VIPs and foreign media, according to Access To Information records. One manager justified the program as proof Canada is a “progressive nation”.
