Ironing my wrinkle-free shirt,
I follow the puddle left behind
by the drip-free steam iron.
In the sink, the non-stick frying pan
soaks in warm water
to remove the burnt omelette
fused to its bottom.
And I still haven’t figured out
how to clean the rust
from the stainless steel BBQ grill.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A federal dragnet for data on foreign real estate buyers has seen CMHC check Chinese names on property rolls, examine tax records and notaries’ deeds for offshore addresses, and call the RCMP, records show. Details are disclosed in Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. memos obtained through Access To Information: “Be careful about classifying based on last names.”
Piecemeal Criminal Code changes to drunk driving laws are so complex they make enforcement difficult, says an Access To Information memo from the Department of Justice. MPs this year will take up a Senate bill against marijuana-impaired drivers: “It is difficult in some cases to understand.”
Upgrades to one city’s wastewater plant altered the reproductive traits of fish, says new University of Waterloo research. Environment Canada has acknowledged many municipal plants nationwide are in breach of the Fisheries Act: “Wastewater systems have to deposit somewhere.”
VIA Rail faces a federal lawsuit in an unusual dispute over intellectual property rights. Two passengers claim the Crown railway used their idea in developing research on passenger safety: “VIA has not been very attentive.”
Illegal drug use is no more harmful than downhill skiing or eating fast food, says a Department of Justice report obtained through Access To Information. Cabinet is introducing a bill to legalize marijuana for the first time since 1923: ‘There are many other harmful practices that are not criminalized.’
Canada is a step closer to ratifying a United Nations pact on toxic mercury. Cabinet yesterday banned mercury exports after naming Chinese mines and mills as the largest source of airborne mercury pollution over Canada: “Ratification would encourage reductions in global mercury emissions.”
Cabinet faces sailors’ protests over a European Union trade pact. A union coalition today is rallying in Victoria, Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Toronto and Montréal against trade terms called a threat to Canadian maritime shipping: “This has the potential to cost 12,000 jobs immediately.”
Contamination from hydro-electric projects can linger for decades in fish populations, says new University of Saskatchewan research. Scientists examined mercury levels in a waterway dammed in 1963: “Previously we thought it took 10 to 30 years.”
Mistakes in benefits claims are “unacceptably high”, says the Department of Veterans Affairs. Staff in a 2016 Access To Information memo noted error rates run up to 62 percent on some claims: “The report is not a public document.”
The number of serious workplace injuries at federally-regulated job sites increased seven percent in a single year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Authorities gave no reason for the increase, the largest since 2011: ‘We need to look at the location of an injury or death as a crime scene.’
Canada faces “cautionary” risk of a bank failure for the first time since 1985, says the federal agency that insures deposits. The Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. in a $2.7 million public awareness campaign trademarked a logo of a rain cloud: “Readiness is vital.”
The federal government for the first time in 12 years is auditing its employee dental plan after costs topped a quarter-billion dollars a year. The plan is the largest in the country: “Is the process working properly?”
A welding company has lost a federal lawsuit for the right to hire a temporary foreign worker. The Department of Employment rejected the application as unreasonable after citing Canada’s unemployment rate in trades: “There have been layoffs.”
Charging $350 an hour for lawyering time is too steep in Halifax, a Small Claims Court has ruled. Judges in other provinces have complained legal fees now approach $1,000 an hour for the costliest corporate litigators: “Vulnerable clients will often sign whatever is put before them.”
