Insurers say an industry code on genetic testing will protect Canadians’ privacy. Legislation restricting use of DNA tests by insurers and employers died with the dissolution of Parliament: “No Canadians will be asked to take a genetic test”.
Telecom regulators have refused an application from Rogers Inc. to bypass a consumer code in its cellphone contracts. Rogers’ request would effectively rewrite part of a 2013 Wireless Code on suspension of service for subscribers over non-payment, said the CRTC: “This decision seems to push back”.
Comments from the weird to the wicked are among some 20,000 online suggestions to Heritage Canada on how to celebrate the nation’s 150th anniversary. Anonymous submissions include proposals for $150 domestic air fares; abolition of the monarchy; and numerous digs at Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “Honestly, this is tedious”.
Federal prosecutors filed only four cases for violation of the Trademarks Act last year, according to newly-released data. There were no prosecutions for trademark theft, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada: “It seems thin”.
Broadcast regulators will no longer give Canadians timely notice of individual license renewal applications for TV and radio companies, according to a federal advisory. The CRTC plans to abandon the longstanding practice intended to draw public comment on local license holders: “This is quite a change from what the Commission has been doing since 1968”.
The Prime Minister’s Office in a secret 2013 memo complained Senate Conservatives failed to follow orders on committee reports, including an all-party study critical of tariff policy. The confidential memo is among documents tabled in Senator Mike Duffy’s fraud and bribery trial in Ottawa: “We speak with senators who do not receive talking points”.
Lawyers’ fees are making access to justice “illusory” for most Canadians, says an Ontario Superior Court judge. The remarks came as the Court knocked 26% off legal expenses claimed by the National Bank in fending off a class action lawsuit: “The legal profession continues to enjoy protection from market forces”.
Executives with Netflix and YouTube have told regulators they will not divulge details of their Canadian operations even if federal agents promise to keep it secret. Management letters to the CRTC were obtained through Access To Information: “Netflix is not in a position to produce this information”.
An unhappy Canada Post customer has lost a Supreme Court bid to claim the right to receive bills by courier. Justices declined to hear the case. The 1981 Canada Post Corporation Act grants the Crown agency the exclusive right to handle mail: “Typically people do anything they can to avoid their hydro bill”.
Federally-funded research is questioning the effectiveness of Canadian hatcheries in raising Coho salmon. Decades of data compiled by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council cited subsidized hatcheries for ‘inferior’ outcomes in preserving fish stock: “There is less clarity that it really improves the number of returning fish”.
Canada’s second-busiest airport is under a federal anti-trust probe. The Competition Bureau disclosed it is investigating contracting at the Vancouver Airport Authority: ‘We are cooperating’.
Certain tax benefits can be claimed back to the womb, says a federal judge. The ruling came in the unusual case of a Québec family trust that claimed a capital gains exemption on behalf of an unborn boy: “An unborn child is taken care of just as much as if it were in existence”.
Federal regulators are investigating complaints a Canadian airline allegedly withheld millions in compensation owed passengers for lost and late luggage. The Canadian Transportation Agency has given Porter Airlines Inc. till September 3 to answer allegations it misled passengers on payments they could rightfully claim for misplaced bags.
Porter Inc. denied the claims in a statement to Blacklock’s. The complaints were filed by Dr. Gábor Lukács, a Halifax-based passenger rights advocate who presented the Agency with transcriptions of tape recordings with Porter agents.
In his submission, Lukács noted Porter was obliged to reimburse passengers for expenses up to $1,800 over lost or delayed luggage following a 2013 order by the Transportation Agency. Porter advised travellers they were entitled only to $25 coupons on future flights, according to Lukács’ records including voice recordings of conversations with Porter staff:
“Porter Airlines shortchanged passengers,” Lukács wrote regulators, noting the $25 a day redemptions were offered to domestic and international travellers aboard Porter flights: “Porter Airlines has been unjustly enriched at the expense of the traveling public by a substantial amount,” Lukács wrote.
Porter said in a statement it has always offered clients compensation they are owed. “Our baggage claims department has consistently applied our policy since it was updated in 2013,” the airline said. “We continue to reimburse reasonable expenses for passengers if they have issues related to baggage delays. At this point in time this is all the information we are able to provide.”
In phone calls and emails submitted as evidence to regulators, Porter agents repeatedly denied clients were entitled to compensation for expenses from lost luggage. “Beyond the delayed voucher of $25 per twenty-four hour period they don’t issue any kind of compensation,” one agent is quoted. “Our general policy is that we don’t actually issue any kind of compensation for those kinds of costs incurred, unfortunately,” said another, who advised Lukács to fill out a complaint form.
Lukács cited industry documents calculating North American airlines on average misplace luggage at the rate of 3 per 1,000 bags, and noted Porter claims to carry 2.5 million passengers a year – the equivalent of up to $9 million in maximum reimbursements, Lukács calculated. He asked regulators to cite Porter for misleading information, and compel the airline to reimburse all passengers since 2013 who were entitled to compensation for misplaced bags.
Lukács earlier won a Federal Court order that the Transportation Agency disclose all documents it cites in regulatory decisions similar to the CRTC and other agencies. The Agency had routinely withheld records it deemed confidential after publishing decisions on its website.
By Staff 
Police cannot use mere suspicion to compel telecom companies to disclose tracking data on cellphone subscribers, an Alberta court has ruled. The judgment is the first of its kind since Parliament passed a new Act broadening the scope of warrantless searches: “Don’t use vague language that implicates everybody in a dragnet”.
Earth moves
– 30 km per second –
around the Sun,
and the Solar System spirals
at 250 km per second
around the centre of the galaxy,
meaning
Ottawa is millions of kilometres away
from where it was
back in 2006
when the Prime Minister first declared
he would reform the Senate,
and if that’s not progress,
what is?
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
