A former Olympian has lost a human rights claim that he suffered discrimination due to cocaine addiction. Ontario Divisional Court dismissed a lawsuit by Paul James, a 2007 soccer Coach Of The Year, against York University: “He succumbed to the vicious grip of an addiction to crack cocaine”.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is considering a legal challenge after scores of newly-unionized workers lost their jobs at mail processing plants in three cities. The cuts came as the post office declined to renew a long-time contract with Adecco Canada, a staffing agency: “We have to take this on”.
One of the nation’s longest-serving community charities has formally disbanded. The charity committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress, active from 1934, surrendered its registration under the Income Tax Act: “It is definitely the end of an era”.
Government attorneys are in Federal Court tomorrow in a bid to fend off a Vancouver lawsuit to fill Senate vacancies. Twenty seats in the 105-seat chamber sit empty since the Prime Minister suspended appointments in 2014.
“He’s either legally required to do it or he’s not, and it’s the court’s role to enforce the constitution,” said Aniz Alani, a British Columbia lawyer who filed the claim; “We should have the benefit of the court’s guidance before the next election.”
The Prime Minister halted all new Senate appointments last August 23 after three Conservative members were suspended in an expense scandal. Two – Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau – face criminal charges, still unproven in court.
Alani noted under the wording of section 32 of the 1867 Constitution Act the Prime Minister has no choice but to immediately fill Senate vacancies as they occur: “When a vacancy happens in the Senate by resignation, death or otherwise, the Governor General shall by summons to a fit and qualified person fill the vacancy,” the section reads.
Alani earlier won a Federal Court judgment that the lawsuit could proceed over government objections. The Department of Justice is appealing the ruling, arguing the lawsuit is frivolous.
“Depending on how quickly the government is moving on the appeal – they haven’t taken any steps to expedite it so far – the appeal may or may not be heard before the application is,” Alani said. “In the meantime, I have to be preparing arguments for the main application.”
Under Senate rules a minimum 15 members are needed for quorum. “Certainly at some stage senators have to be appointed,” Judge Sean Harrington wrote in rejecting a government bid to dismiss the lawsuit out of hand; “If there were to be no quorum, Parliament could not function as it is composed of both the House of Commons and Senate.”
Another five senators will leave by 2016 as they reach the mandatory retirement age of 75. With current vacancies Ontario and Québec are short eleven members, followed by Manitoba (three vacancies); New Brunswick (two); Nova Scotia (2) and British Columbia (one vacancy).
The Prime Minister became the first in Canadian history to announce a Senate appointment on his first day in office, and the only government leader to name eleven senators on a single day: January 2, 2009.
By Dale Smith 
It’s Canada Day
in the National Capital.
We gather by the Notre-Dame Cathedral
to watch the exploding sky.
Behind the hydro pole,
a couple in their 20s;
eyes closed,
lips locked,
hands in gentle explorations.
They came for the
fireworks.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Conservative Senators will attempt to break a Liberal filibuster and force a final vote on a bill compelling every union in Canada to disclose confidential data. The Government Leader in the Senate said further delays will kill Bill C-377: “If we leave for the summer this bill will die”.
The Government of Canada is hiring stenographers to electronically transcribe every utterance of the Prime Minister and his 38-member cabinet. Authorities said a verbatim account of all remarks is essential “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.”
Health Canada is reviewing nearly thirty years’ worth of pollution data to find the true extent of illness and death caused bad air. The department commissioned a $75,000 study into mortality rates in all major cities in spring and summer months from 1983 to 2009: “Air pollution could make people sick”.
The Supreme Court will review a workers’ compensation appeal over a baffling incidence of cancer in a British Columbia lab. Justices agreed to hear the case of lab workers who noted a high number of co-workers fell ill though no “causal” link to job conditions was proven: “I’m glad they decided to hear the case”.
A mysterious spill of contaminated water near a national park is prompting contradictory statements by federal agencies. The Department of Fisheries reported an Encana Ltd. offshore gas rig near Sable Island, N.S. spilled 250,000 litres of oily water. Environment Canada confirmed the spill. Encana and a Nova Scotia regulator flatly denied the incident: “This spill took place”.
MPs are refusing to estimate the extent of the nation’s infrastructure “deficit”. The Commons transport committee reported the cost of needed repairs to roads, bridges and utilities is subjective and incalculable: “There is little agreement”.
RCMP would see appointment of an independent ombudsman and third-party oversight panel under a Liberal bill introduced in the Senate. The measure comes ahead of a 2016 deadline to unionize the national police force by order of the Supreme Court: “We need somebody”.
Canada proposes first-ever standards on basic training for ground search and rescue teams. The national standard follows three years of review by operators: “With a GPS in hand Canadians may be more willing to trek into increasingly remote areas”.
Senate Liberals are launching a last-ditch filibuster on Bill C-377 to delay for days or weeks a final vote on the measure compelling disclosure of confidential union data. Lawmakers yesterday slowed Senate proceedings on a procedural vote, and began reading into the record letters and emails from constituents opposed to the bill: “We could be here till August”.
The Senate has passed into law a bill on marine conservation of the North Shore of Lake Superior, world’s largest freshwater lake. The bill allows existing permit holders to draw water from Superior, including one pulp mill, a golf course and three Ontario municipalities: “I won’t hold it up any further”.
