Health Canada will ban marketing of processed foods to children and legislate tougher labeling of salt and sugar, according to a Ministerial Mandate letter. The promised initiatives coincide with expected resumption of a Senate probe on rising obesity rates: ‘We’re bringing in tougher regulations’.
A succession of crime bills has left Canada with one of the highest incarceration rates in the industrialized world despite a sharp decline in overall offences, according to new Public Safety Canada data. The national crime rate dropped 33 percent since 1998 at the same time spending on federal prisons rose to $2.69 billion a year: “This represents an increase of 64.7 percent”.
A Canadian firm’s bid to produce a chocolate spread to rival Nutella does not qualify as “scientific research” worthy of subsidies, Tax Court has ruled. A Québec company lost a claim for thousands in federal tax credits for experiments on an all-Canadian toast spread: “No one in the chocolate industry has been able to resolve this issue”.
Cabinet should focus new policies on housing affordability, says a trade association. The appeal coincides with new data showing the average price of a single-family home nationwide is now $455,000: “They are getting more and more expensive”.
Cabinet will repeal two contentious union bills and restore a 1930 Fair Wage policy eliminated by the last Parliament two years ago. No timeline is provided, though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in Ministerial Mandate letters that legislation will be passed this term: “I expect us to deliver”.
A Tommy Douglas-era law intended to protect farmers from bank foreclosure has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Justices ruled in favour of a Naicam, Sask. rancher who faced demands from creditors for repayment of a $10 million mortgage: “I wish it was wrong”.
A Supreme Court judgment upholding the right of bankrupt drivers to avoid onerous fines is being cheered by analysts. The Court ruled on two drivers, from Alberta and Ontario, who were both denied a license for non-payment of old fines even after being discharged from bankruptcy: “It’s nice to see them both come out of the water”.
A federal agency is weighing an appeal to the Supreme Court on whether cuts to CBC French-language programming violate official bilingualism. The Federal Court of Appeal rejected the claim: “We have received a number of complaints”.
Welcome to the Government of Canada’s
Barbaric Cultural Practices Hotline.
If you wish to report on mass killing of seal pups,
press 1.
Waterway pollution in the Athabasca oil sands,
press 2.
Clearcutting of boreal forests,
press 3.
Forcing of First Nations’ children into residential schools,
press 4.
Refusal to accept Jewish refugees,
press 5.
Refusal to accept Syrian refugees,
press 6.
To report a crime in progress, such as
honour-based killing or
female genital mutilation,
please hang up and dial 911.
(Editor’s note: Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Auto production in Mexico will double Canada’s share of the North American market by 2020, says a confidential Industry Canada report. The research cited an “employment-less recovery” in the sector with the loss of 50,000 jobs since 2009: “How best can we align our policy framework in preparation for this future?”
The National Energy Board is hiring consultants to monitor public criticism of the regulator by media, Facebook and Twitter users and bloggers. It follows protests over 2013 disclosures the Board asked police to keep watch on opponents of the Northern Gateway project: “Criticisms of the Board’s processes and reputation have grown significantly”.
The new cabinet should ban asbestos after years of appeals, says a petition from 140 researchers and advocates. Use of asbestos as insulation in residential and commercial buildings ended 25 years ago, though the product remains legal: “Asbestos poses a threat to lives in Canada”.
Forty percent of recent university graduates are under-employed with jobs that don’t require their degrees, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Analysts said the rate was worse than in the 1991 recession: “If you’re an engineer working as a bartender, that’s a clear mismatch”.
The Bank of Montreal is being cited for an “insidious practice” in arbitrarily hiking a debtor’s credit card limit, then suing for unpaid MasterCard balances. “It seems like giving people more of the proverbial rope to hang themselves,” wrote a judge: “Large financial institutions must know the consequences of their practice, but they do it anyway”.
Federal licensing of an Enbridge Inc. pipeline is headed for the Supreme Court on whether regulators followed a “duty to consult” Indigenous people. Lawyers representing the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation say they will ask the high court to review the Line 9 project: “It has to be meaningful consultation with accommodation; it’s not just a phone message”.
