A federal judge yesterday approved payment of one of the largest legal bills in Canadian history, a total $62 million in an out-of-court settlement with former Indian Day School students. “This was always a risky case,” wrote Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan: ‘Risk should be rewarded.’
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien is months late in completing a promised review of federal plans to scoop bank records on some 1.5 million Canadians. Therrien’s office would not explain why it missed a June 21 deadline to report to the public: “Do you think there’s a problem there?”
An Information Commissioner in the harshest verdict to date has cited a public agency for wholesale violations of Access To Information law. Nova Scotia Commissioner Catherine Tully faulted the province’s Department of Energy for overcharging fees, hiding records and stalling disclosure of documents for years at a time.
“It has been unbelievable,” said Paul Einarsson, chair of Geophysical Service Inc. of Calgary, the complainant in the case. “These people were only out to protect the government. The Commissioner’s language is descriptive of what was going on here. It is outrageous.”
Commissioner Tully in her Review Report 19-06 ruled the Department’s misconduct was so egregious it must repay the fees it charged, and reprocess the entire search for records it started five years ago. It was not for the Department to “make the applicant jump through further administrative hoops”, wrote Tully.
Geophysical Service had asked the Department for records regarding use of the company’s copyright underwater seismic maps sold to oil and gas companies. Einarsson said the firm discovered numerous federal and provincial agencies in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador resold or gave away its data without payment or permission.
Geophysical’s request under the Nova Scotia Freedom Of Information And Protection Of Privacy Act was filed in 2015. Commissioner Cullen found the Department of Energy responded by overcharging the company 32 percent on search fees. “The Department’s math doesn’t add up,” she wrote.
The Commissioner also cited staff for concealing data as personal information when it was “clearly not”; improperly withholding 832 pages of records it deemed “no longer relevant” though most were “clearly relevant”; hiding documents “for no apparent reason under the law”; and delaying the release of files four-and-a-half years.
“In one case it simply restarted the clock for itself,” wrote the Commissioner: “This is without question a case where the Department has made so many errors and was so late in response to this applicant that one obvious remedy is that the Department refund any fees paid.”
“The Department took a number of steps that convinced the applicant the Department was actively hiding information and using the access to information process to thwart the applicant’s right to know,” said the report.
Geophysical’s Einarsson was charged $990 for his initial request for documents. Under the Act fees must reflect actual costs of retrieving records. “The Department did not keep track of the actual cost,” said the report.
Einarsson said he doubted the refund would serve as any deterrent to public agencies that flout Access To Information laws. “Money is not an issue for these people,” said Einarsson. “They are out to withhold information. That is the value they get out of it.”
“The Access To Information system is basically broken,” said Einarsson. “It is a joke.”
The Department of Energy has thirty days to file any appeal of the ruling with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
By Staff 
Canadian drivers are suspicious of robot cars, says in-house research by the Department of Transportation. Only 33 percent of motorists surveyed said they would be comfortable as a passenger in a fully automated vehicle: “My driving is good.”
A federally-regulated trucking company has been ordered to pay $7,000 in damages after a manager uttered a racial slur against an Indigenous driver. The incident was despicable, ruled the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal: “These types of racial insults are highly reprehensible.”
A public employee in Alberta has lost a bid to divert union dues to a local charity. The Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled there was no evidence the applicant was sincere: “They said I was vexatious and just trying to stir up trouble.”
The Canada Revenue Agency in an Offshore Compliance Audit Manual recommends auditors use Google and Facebook searches to find tax scofflaws. “The internet is a wonderful resource,” said the manual obtained through Access To Information: “Auditors should use their judgment.”
Conservative MPs yesterday petitioned the Commons ethics committee to reopen televised hearings on SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. The committee’s Liberal majority last March 26 vetoed any investigation of complaints the Prime Minister and senior aides went to extraordinary lengths to quash a criminal prosecution of the company: “Canadians deserve fulsome answers.”
More than a quarter of passengers surveyed are unaware airlines are obliged to pay for lost or damaged luggage. The research at airports nationwide was conducted by the Canadian Transportation Agency prior to the July introduction of a passenger rights’ code: “Did you know airlines can be held liable?”
A British Columbia judge has explained a seven-figure corporate fine for an offshore spill that breached three Acts of Parliament. The $2.9 million penalty over the sinking of the tug Nathan E. Stewart is equivalent to less than one percent of the operator’s revenues: “The offence was not intentional.”
Senior Liberals including the Prime Minister and aides arranged at least 49 separate meetings and phone calls to discuss SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. legal troubles, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion yesterday disclosed. The full extent of attempts to save the company from criminal prosecution is not known since officials concealed documents from investigators, wrote Dion: “The focus is on the Prime Minister.”
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has continued to receive millions in federal contracts even as it sued the Government of Canada in an unsuccessful bid to avoid trial on bribery and fraud charges. Contracts totaling more than $15 million were awarded in six months, accounts show: “Why was SNC-Lavalin brought in?”
Canadians typically spend more on generic drugs than patients in Australia or the U.K., a federal agency said yesterday. Generics account for about 25 percent of drug sales, said the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board: “Canadians spent more on generic medicines than residents of any other OECD country except the U.S.”
More Canadians drown in swimming pools than lakes or ponds, says the Public Health Agency of Canada. Analysis of years’ worth of hospital records confirmed June, July and August are the worst months for swimming fatalities: “The majority occurred in swimming pools.”
There is no evidence climate change caused Canada’s costliest flood, says a Department of Environment report. Researchers said incidents of heavy rainfall are “rather random” with no detectable trends, though Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has cited extreme weather events as proof “climate change is happening now”.
