More than a third of teenagers skip breakfast, says a survey of thousands of students compiled by University of Waterloo researchers. Reasons included weight loss. The typical Canadian child draws a quarter of daily calories from sugar, according to Statistics Canada: ‘It’s quick and easy.’
Cabinet approved an extraordinary $650,000 witness fee to an English law professor to participate in a land claims case, according to newly-released Access To Information records. The fee was so large it exceeded Treasury Board guidelines on payments: “I have a bit of a problem here.”
The judge in a federal bid-rigging trial yesterday rebuked prosecutors for appearing to misrepresent evidence. Prosecutors submitted volumes of Library & Archives Canada emails in claiming to prove a former manager improperly gave inside tips to a contractor: “It brings into question some of the other documents.”
RCMP security checks on transport employees have expanded to include searches on Facebook friends. A federal judge upheld the dismissal of a Vancouver International Airport worker with a clean record who was cited for “friending” a suspected gang member: “The consequences for his employment are very serious.”
The Department of Public Safety will pay a military-style death benefit of up to $300,000 to surviving families of police, paramedics and firefighters under a program to take effect April 1. Cases of suicide or occupational illness will qualify: ‘This includes deaths resulting from psychological impairment.’
The Senate agriculture committee is dismissing any federal regulation of foreign purchases of Canadian farmland. Senators in a report concluded suburban sprawl, not offshore speculation, is to blame for rising land prices: “Does it really matter?”
The Canada Border Services Agency annually confiscates nearly half a tonne of marijuana at land crossings and airport checkpoints, according to Access To Information records. The Agency has not detailed its enforcement plans if Parliament legalizes cannabis: “We only seize a small portion of that drug.”
Crown prosecutors yesterday cited work diary entries by a former Library & Archives Canada manager as evidence of a bid rigging scheme. Prosecutors allege agency staff gave inside information to a favoured contractor in 2009: “There are a lot of coincidences that don’t fit.”
Federal planners propose to downsize living quarters for the Governor General. Vice-regal appointees currently live in the palatial 95,000-square foot Rideau Hall, the biggest official residence in Canada: ‘It is a less than private space.’
The Department of Canadian Heritage in a confidential memo counts 10,000 media job cuts nationwide in the past twelve years. Canadians should be resigned to less news coverage, the memo said: “Trusted media outlets are shrinking.”
The judge in a federal $3.5 million bid rigging trial questioned the point of prosecutor’s questioning of casual 2009 meetings between contractors and Library & Archives Canada managers. Prosecutors allege three archives employees gave inside tips to a favoured consultant in breach of federal law: “Why do you say that?”
Costs to clean up contaminated federal lands across Canada are now estimated at $6.3 billion, the highest figure to date. Environment Canada said only a fraction of more than 23,000 abandoned military bases, factory yards and other sites have been assessed: “If a site has not been assessed they don’t have to include it.”
A judge has dismissed a legal challenge of millions in subsidies for Canada’s last federally-owned marine shipper. Grants to cover yearly losses by Marine Atlantic Inc. are a political decision, the Federal Court ruled: ‘The core of the complaint is subsidization is anti-competitive.’
In early February 2018
Ottawa marked its own
Groundhog Day.
The 2 billion dollar LRT project
– “On time and on budget” –
officially delayed.
Six more months of digging,
said the Mayor who, apparently,
saw his shadow.
(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 Public Works has fired two employees for using marijuana on the jobsite. Staff yesterday did not comment. Cabinet has no guidelines for enforcement of workplace drug bans under its bill to legalize recreational cannabis: “Employees had consumed marijuana within working hours.”
