Pre-election polling by cabinet shows Canadians share a gnawing fear of recession with a large number, one-third, predicting a “significant downturn” in the economy by winter. Government focus groups rated the economy fragile, “weak” and unreliable: “This was a major source of worry”.
Regulators must act against “dangerous” unlicensed online payday lenders operating beyond the scope of federal or provincial law, says the Consumers Council of Canada. The group in federally-funded research cautioned up to a third of payday loans may now be issued by website operators: “You don’t know who you are dealing with”.
In a further sign of a slowing economy, urban housing starts in July declined 3.4 percent year over year, says the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. New home construction for the month – traditionally one of the busiest for starts – totaled the fewest since January: “There are legitimate fears”.
Parliament is instructing tour guides to ban all mention of the Ottawa attack that prompted passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Guides escorting thousands of daily visitors past the Centre Block spot where a gunman was fatally shot by police must not speak of the event even if questioned, officials confirmed: “We don’t talk about that!”
Major changes to air regulations are being postponed due to the general election. Advocates yesterday expressed frustration with the delay in amending flight crew rules for the first time since 1996: “There are a lot of good excuses — I get that”.
A federal board is claiming the right to void copyright on protected works after five years. The claim is made in court documents filed in a multi-million dollar Alberta lawsuit: “They are creating a precedent here”.
The Department of Canadian Heritage proposes a marketing study of the music business amid complaints of inadequate support for the industry. The department seeks “insight into current marketing trends, practices and challenges of artists and entrepreneurs”, it said: “How do you get exposure?”
The Department of Finance in a confidential 2015 memo contemplates a collapse of Alberta’s economy. The memo says a repeat of a devastating 1982 recession complete with bank failures “should not occur”, but cautioned that modern circumstances “only partially mitigate the negative impacts of declining oil prices”.
Citizenship Canada in defiance of the digital age is buying microfilm to store millions of old immigration files. One analyst described the purchase as “unusual”, though a film distributor said the pre-war technology remains the cheapest way to store archival data: “Most organizations assume they will somehow figure it out”.
A single mother who pleaded for jail rather than pay an $800 customs fine she couldn’t afford has won sympathy but no relief at a federal panel. An adjudicator noted “frustration and injustice” with the harshness of the Canada Border Services Agency penalty: “This regime provides tough justice”.
Intended as a place
of solemn reflection on the
meaning of oppression,
the Memorial to the Victims of Communism
has already claimed
a growing list of casualties:
the citizens of Ottawa;
the Mayor;
the NCC;
the Supreme Court.
Even before construction begins.
If this trend continues,
they will soon be eligible
for a Memorial to the Victims of “Democracy”.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Blacklock’s newsroom pauses this week for our annual August holiday. We bid all our friends and subscribers a happy summer break and safe journey on your travels. Blacklock’s returns August 8 — The Editor.
A pledge from Canada Border Services Agency to fix long-standing problems with a costly information technology system is drawing skepticism from MPs. The Agency since 2013 has been cited for failing to streamline computer databases that cost taxpayers millions: “They never get to where they need to go”.
The longest-running pension dispute at Veterans Affairs Canada has ended unhappily for a British Columbia family. A federal judge expressed sorrow but dismissed compensation for 1954 injuries suffered by an RCAF officer.
“I say to people, you must never give up,” said Carol Nicol, widow of pension claimant Flying Officer Robert Nicol of Qualicum Beach, B.C. “The judge seemed sympathetic and I had my spirits lifted, and then when I read the decision, he just recited arguments the government has made all along. Oh, I can’t even tell you the disappointment.”
Federal Judge Yves de Montigny rejected a claim for benefits that saw six decades’ worth of lost appeals over a narrow definition of whether Nicol was on duty when he suffered injuries. The fighter pilot left the air force in 1957 to become a realtor; he died of cancer in 2003. “In the last year of his life he was still calling the appeal office in Charlottetown,” Mrs. Nicol said. “He felt he had been wronged and was entitled to his pension. Bob always felt they did not honour what happened to him.”
Nicol was hurt in an auto accident near Zweibrücken, Germany after driving home with his commanding officer and other colleagues from a July 1 squadron picnic. Nicol, a passenger, was thrown from the car after the driver fell asleep and veered into a tree. “He was in a full body cast for almost a year,” said Mrs. Nicol; “He had seven major surgeries.”
Mrs. Nicol said numerous broken bones left her husband with lifelong complications. “He had extreme pain for years,” she said. “Walking was difficult for him. He would come home from work and just look grey.”
Nicol unsuccessfully appealed for benefits before various federal boards and tribunals in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1978. Government attorneys argued each time his injuries were “not pensionable” by claiming he was technically off duty at the time of the accident.
“It just seemed like it was rubber stamped,” Mrs. Nicol said. “It was really bad. After Bob died I just couldn’t handle it, to be honest. The thought of pursuing this was too much; but I only took it up because the Royal Canadian Legion and the newspapers said if you had an outstanding case, it was worthwhile to ask for reconsideration.”
Fell In A “Grey Zone”
Judge Montigny agreed the Nicol case fell in a “grey zone” but added: “A line has to be drawn”; “There is no dispute between the parties that the severe medical disabilities that afflicted the applicant’s husband flowed from his injuries sustained in the car accident that occurred on July 1, 1954. The only real issue is whether these injuries ‘arose out of or were directly connected’ with military service”, the judge wrote.
“The fact he had the misfortune to hitch a ride with fellow officers in a car whose driver dozed off and had an accident does not make up for this lack of connection,” wrote Montigny. “The Armed Forces played no role in Mr. Nicol’s choice to come to the picnic as a passenger in another officer’s car.”
The Court would not accept as evidence a letter from a former vice marshal of the 413th squadron that Nicol was on duty at the time; and dismissed an official history of the squadron that noted the 1954 picnic, suggesting attendance was compulsory.
Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent would not comment on specifics of the Nicol case, but said the lengthy appeals pointed to a common difficulty in pension disputes. “The complications in these types of cases is the determination of being ‘on duty’,” Parent said. “Fortunately we have come a long way in defining on-duty and off-duty.”
“Today personnel on a mission are considered on-duty 24 hours a day,” Parent said. “I just hope today with more liberal interpretations people will not go through this again.”
Mrs. Nicol described the decades of appeals as exhausting but expressed no regrets for pursuing the case. “People give up because it takes up so much energy to take this on,” she said. “I went to this extent in memory of my husband, and to see justice for all those veterans who are in the same position.”
“I feel our veterans should get the benefit of the doubt,” said Mrs. Nicol. “If everybody did what Bob did, hopefully we would all make a difference.”
Mrs. Nicol noted the original determination of her husband’s status was made three days after the accident, as the then-20 year old lay in a hospital bed at Landsthul, Germany. “They questioned him when he was still sedated,” she said. Federal Court acknowledged Nicol “may still have been in a state of shock” when he was interviewed and “may not have fully grasped the consequences of his statement”; “His testimony and that of his fellow passengers is nevertheless very relevant in determining whether attendance was compulsory,” the judge said. The Nicols had appealed for a pension worth some $1,000 a month.
By Tom Korski
Decades of data are being reviewed by Health Canada investigators to find links between ozone pollution and urban death rates. The study is the latest commissioned by regulators amid growing evidence that city air causes illness and mortality: “There is no safe threshold”.
