Nearly a century after the Armistice the Department of Veterans Affairs is still paying out pension benefits for service in the First World War, according to Access To Information records. The department counted a total 82 beneficiaries, all widows and orphans. Canada’s last surviving WWI infantryman died eight years ago: ‘It becomes our duty, more than ever, to remember.’
Blacklock’s pauses for the August bank holiday with warmest regards to friends and subscribers. We wish you a safe, happy holiday wherever your travels take you. We’ll be back August 11 — The Editor.
The Department of Justice in a secret memo says it opposes a Senate bill to rewrite federal usury laws for the first time in 40 years. The memo obtained through Access To Information described the consumer protection measure as inappropriate: ‘It would predominantly target credit cards and personal lines of credit.’
Federal agencies last year pocketed a 14 percent profit on a mandatory air travelers’ security fee, according to Access To Information records. One senator described the financing as a “shell game” in which millions collected for security are never spent there: “It has become a cash cow, not a fee for service.”
Senators yesterday described incompetence in the Department of Public Works as deplorable, but said it was not their job to name and blame officials responsible for the Phoenix Pay System failure. The bungled program to streamline federal payroll services has cost taxpayers $1.2 billion to date, three times its original budget: “It is a much larger problem than individuals, right?”
A federal labour board has dismissed complaints from a former Statistics Canada interviewer fired over a survey session that went awry. Eyewitnesses complained of shouting and weeping in the incident at a Kelowna, B.C. high school: “She’s crying in front of the students.”
Most federal prison breaks occur on summer Sunday evenings, typically involving escapees looking for contraband like cigarettes, says Correctional Service research. The prison system banned tobacco in 2008: “Approximately 75% of inmates in federal correctional facilities smoke.”
The Department of Industry gave a multi-million dollar grant to one of Canada’s largest utilities to develop electric vehicle motors, say Access To Information records. The subsidy appeared unnecessary, said one MP: “This government continues to give handouts to companies that don’t need it.”
More than a third of national park ecosystems, 36 percent, are in poor to fair condition due to loss of habitat, says a Parks Canada report. The list of nature preserves in peril includes some of the best-known federal parks: “It is a key measure.”
Parliament Hill’s security service says it has been flooded with so many harassment complaints it must hire private investigators to clear the backlog. The $68.3 million-a year Parliamentary Protective Service yesterday would not detail the workplace claims: “We do not comment.”
Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation is conducting research on so-called “liar’s loans” in which homebuyers misstate income to qualify for bigger mortgages. CMHC in Access To Information records concluded outright fraud is rare, but more study is needed: “Further research in this area is warranted.”
Federal authorities have not yet finalized a national order for roadside marijuana screeners just 11 weeks ahead of cabinet’s October 17 deadline to legalize recreational cannabis. The Department of Justice said it’s still evaluating devices after a pilot project showed screeners failed 13 percent of the time: “Details of those evaluations will remain confidential.”
A British Columbia tribunal has dismissed a human rights complaint on the basis of political belief. Seven provinces have outlawed discrimination on the basis of politics: “What greater freedom can there be?”
Cabinet says it will review a 2015 law that promised to cut federal red tape. Union and business executives have described the law as ineffectual: “It was always a smoke and mirrors kind of thing.”
Lyme disease spreads north.
Favourable conditions
from climate change
open new habitats
for the black-legged ticks.
Their heads
– less than a millimetre –
grasp what some advisors
in the Oval Office
don’t.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
