Parents of a schoolboy with disabilities have lost a human rights challenge of standardized testing. The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a claim that a zero mark on an incomplete test was discriminatory: “This is not an endorsement of standardized testing.”
The Transportation Safety Board says its investigation of a 2016 train wreck was stymied by the lack of cockpit-style recorders in locomotives. MPs will conduct hearings this fall on a cabinet bill mandating video and voice recorders aboard all trains: “Were all signals correctly identified?”
The Department of Justice in an Access To Information memo is complaining of cost pressures though the crime rate has declined for more than a decade. Staff also noted they have no national data on rates of recidivism: “Chronic repeat offenders are responsible.”
Detailed analysis of high school questionnaires shows English-speaking students scored higher on financial literacy than francophones, according to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Authorities cautioned the results were not definitive: “The study did not include such national analysis per se.”
Veterans who leave the Canadian Armed Forces are typically happy, healthy and employed – except for military who saw combat in Afghanistan, says Veterans Affairs Canada research. Soldiers who returned from the Afghan war suffered “a higher rate of difficult adjustment,” wrote staff.
RCMP eat cheese by the tonne, according to accounts. The Depot, the Mounties’ Regina police academy, detailed a mammoth cheese order for recruits and staff: “I met with the chef and we’re looking at the numbers right now.”
Justice Canada says it is awaiting a provincial court ruling on the legality of Parliament’s first DNA anti-discrimination bill. Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould opposed the bill, claiming it is unconstitutional.
A Canadian brewer faces a trademark lawsuit over its use of a “B-side” label. Federal Court battles over beer trademarks are commonplace: “I am of the view that the ordinary beer drinker is sensitive to the names of beers and to what they know and like.”
Health Canada will not force food processors to cut the salt though it would save billions in medicare costs, according to Access To Information documents. The department said it wanted to “nudge” processors to meet voluntary targets in place for a decade: “Much of the effort to lower sodium intake must focus on the food supply.”
The Canada Revenue Agency has lost a multi-million dollar Tax Court appeal over narrow definitions of made-in-Canada ingredients under the Excise Act. A British Columbia winemaker argued its cider was still Canadian-made even if it included apple juice pressed from foreign-grown apples: “Vintners want to buy agricultural products at a low price.”
Ottawa’s green spaces
dotted with white clover, yellow dandelions.
The result of budget cuts and a
pesticide ban.
The City also struggles with
marijuana dispensaries.
Police close them down; they reopen
the next day.
Weed management
isn’t our strongest forte.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
More than a third of Canadians, 37 percent, say they’re still wary of surrendering bank data to federal agencies for direct deposit of tax refunds and benefits. Authorities in 2016 abandoned a program for mandatory electronic transfer of cheques following public protest: “Why haven’t you enrolled in direct deposit?”
A New Brunswick judge has sentenced a petty thief to five years in federal prison for stealing $100 and a pack of Players cigarettes. The sentence will be appealed, said a lawyer for the convicted robber: ‘If more resources were given to the court system we would save millions.’
Canadian pharmacists have lost a legal challenge against a generic drug mandate. Druggists in Newfoundland & Labrador claimed the regulation was to blame for drug shortages: “It shows the system is broken.”
The Canada Border Services Agency says it will for the first time publish results of Red Cross inspections of detention centres. The Agency jails more than 6,000 people a year without independent oversight: “All of these reports in the past were strictly confidential.”
