Federal regulators will resist any “pressure” to force labeling of genetically engineered foods, says a cabinet memo. Staff in Access To Information records estimate nearly three-quarters of processed foods sold in Canada have engineered ingredients: “Labeling would create increased costs.”
A federal tribute to Indigenous “kindness of spirit” in a historical story is unverified, based on hearsay and contradicted by archival records, says an award-winning filmmaker. The claim reported as fact by the Department of Public Works and CBC is contrary to all documentary evidence regarding the Komagata Maru incident, said the researcher: “The evidence is extremely clear.”
The Department of Social Development is compiling race-based statistics on student loan defaulters. Private consultants will be hired to conduct the unusual survey “outside the realm” of federal research: “The purpose of the survey will be to enrich the information collected from other sources.”
Canada needs a wild pig strategy to combat feral animals that may number in the millions, say Access To Information records at the Department of Agriculture. Biologists blame escaped wild Russian boars: “It is a problem.”
Cabinet has dropped any plans for a national handgun ban. A Liberal-appointed senator said Parliament should introduce a buy-back program for owners of 839,000 licensed handguns nationwide: “I’m really hoping the next Parliament will take some action.”
I see her taking
her last breaths.
Body frail,
she gently grabs my hand
as I pat her.
“Cancer,” the vet said.
She has been with us
for fifteen years,
sitting by my side
when I had my morning coffee,
jumping on the table
to position herself
on the paper I was reading.
No more pulse.
On the news,
Bianca Andreescu
becomes the first Canadian
to reach the singles final
in the US Open.
In Zimbabwe,
Robert Mugabe
died at 95.
And from the Bahamas,
first pictures
show the devastation
left by Hurricane Dorian.
Communities razed,
piles of splintered wood
where houses used to stand.
More than 60,000
need food, water.
Official death toll
30 and rising.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Clowning in blackface at public events shows the depths of systemic racism in Canada, says the chair of the Senate human rights committee. “I didn’t sleep very well last night,” said Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard (Independent-N.S.), an African-Canadian and former professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Social Work. “It weighed heavily on my mind. I felt a sense of hopelessness.”
Consumers paid little attention to political protests over the billion-dollar Canada Food Guide, says in-house research by the Department of Agriculture. Shoppers surveyed in five cities said they look at price, not health claims, at the grocery store: “Few seek any specific attributes when shopping for food.”
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said a Conservative Party hike in tax credits for pensioners would cost more than half a billion next year. The cost of the Age Tax Credit is already projected to top $4 billion for the first time in 2020: “Seniors will benefit.”
The Green Party yesterday proposed to repeal the GST on medical cannabis and lower legal prices for recreational marijuana. Cabinet had grossly overestimated cannabis tax revenues at up to $1 billion a year, according to Access To Information records: “We should be growing cannabis in open fields.”
The Canadian Medical Association yesterday appealed to cabinet for an emergency ban on marketing of vaping products. Cabinet partially regulated vaping in a bill one senator called a “leap of faith”.
Taxpayers have lost nearly $14 million in bad loans to “lonely” borrowers, says an internal audit by the Department of Industry. The Futurpreneur Canada program concealed data confirming as many as 19 percent of borrowers defaulted on easy-term loans at public expense: “Data may not be accurate.”
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer yesterday proposed to cut 27 percent of yearly “corporate welfare handouts” but would not comment if he’d leave a $595 million media bailout untouched. Scheer has yet to detail a promised plan for newspapers.
“Canada’s wealthiest and most politically connected have received billions of dollars from Canadian taxpayers who are working harder than ever and just not getting ahead,” said Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle). “I will put an end to handouts to wealthy executives.”
Scheer proposed a $1.5 billion annual reduction in corporate funding. Current aid for companies including grants, loans and guarantees averages $5.5 billion a year, according to Industry Canada.
“Hard-working Canadians are rightly offended when they see their tax dollars going to further the interests of the wealthy,” said Scheer: “That’s why I’ll get rid of these unfair handouts and use those savings to help Canadians get ahead.”
Scheer’s campaign yesterday did not comment when asked if a media bailout passed by Parliament June 20 would be reviewed or eliminated. “I certainly do support the work that an independent media does in this country,” Scheer earlier told reporters June 10. “Our preference would be to ensure there are market-based solutions.”
“We’re going to have our own plan, our own solutions to this particular issue that will speak more to market-based mechanisms to help the content creators,” he said.
Amendments to the Income Tax Act will see federally-approved news media receive payroll rebates of up to $13,750 per newsroom employee, and fifteen percent tax credits for digital subscribers. Publishers on a federal panel mandated to set criteria for applicants in a July 18 report suggested competitors including start-ups and small, family-owned newspapers be disqualified from receiving subsidies. “There is always self-interest,” said Bob Cox, publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and chair of the panel.
The Free Press would receive $1 million a year in subsidies, by company estimate. Aid to the Toronto Star would average $6 million a year, with “between $8 million and $10 million” for Postmedia Network Canada Corp., according to reports to shareholders.
Federal filings show publishers with the trade group News Media Canada hired a Liberal lobbyist to negotiate terms of the bailout. Isabel Metcalfe of Public Affairs Counsel Ltd. of Ottawa held seventy-nine separate meetings with cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers and senior staff, according to Lobbyist Registry records.
“I’m a large-L, hard core Liberal,” Metcalfe earlier told a reporter. Metcalfe was an unsuccessful 2006 Liberal candidate for Parliament in Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Ont., and a current campaign organizer for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.
By Staff
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said free dental care for low-income families would cost nearly $2 billion next year under a New Democrat plan. The Party estimated 4.3 million Canadians would benefit from the program similar to aid for First Nations and Inuit: “It’s time.”
Cabinet yesterday issued an order threatening large fines or jail for anyone caught harming a subspecies of the iconic Atlantic salmon. One utility protested the order: ‘Many rivers no longer have any salmon.’
