The latest proposal to reform interprovincial trade is drawing a cautious response amid complaints the scheme sets out few details, and hinges on universal agreement from ten provincial cabinets: “They always have excuses”.
Cabinet is urged to avoid all mention of “values” in planning for Canada 150th anniversary in 2017, according to a confidential report. The research appeared to undermine a Heritage Canada proposal to stress military exploits in the sesquicentennial year: “Talking about shared values may do more harm than good”.
The Commons finance committee has vetoed a proposed review of Canada Revenue Agency audits of registered charities. New Democrat MPs accused the agency of targeting specific groups for aggressive audits: “It may be that they’re taking political direction”.
A scientific panel is questioning industry claims of the environmental safety of chemicals used to treat oil spills. The finding follows federal warnings that agencies must improve planning in case of ecological disasters: ‘Many assumptions have been challenged as invalid or untrue’.
Lax regulatory enforcement by Transport Canada and low safety standards at the former Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway created conditions that led to fiery Lac-Mégantic train derailment that left 47 dead, say federal investigators: “Why didn’t you just shut them down?”
Canada’s middle class is more financially stressed and debt-ridden than ever with a “hollowing out” of families once celebrated as the national ideal, says a stark federal report. The confidential research by Employment Canada was released through Access to Information: “The ‘Canadian dream’ is a myth more than a reality”.
Netflix Inc. is appealing a Canadian ruling that would force the company to retroactively pay music royalties on free trials it offered prospective customers over seven years. Attorneys filed an application with the Federal Court of Appeal against the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada: “It’s not anywhere near over”.
Confidential government research is contradicting claims a cabinet initiative to align industry regulations between Canada and the U.S. will lower consumer prices. A consultants’ report says the pact may result in marginal gains amid “false expectations”, and warns harmonization “could cause significant harm to Canadian distributors, retailers and consumers.” The cabinet study was released through Access to Information.
Levels of airborne dioxins are higher in some regions of Canada than they are in Mexico, according to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The research concluded levels are as much as 10 times those in Mexico despite an overall decrease of atmospheric dioxins in Canada: “What is the source?”
Shared Services Canada proposes to merge all toll-free government phone lines into a single, mammoth “cost-effective” automated answering system. The proposal follows earlier complaints of maddening experiences in trying to call federal departments. Shared Services declined an interview: ‘The government is nameless, faceless and difficult to contact’.
The Supreme Court has declined to overturn a 76-year ban on the sale of raw milk. One dairyman named a “crusader” for unpasteurized milk was denied an appeal of his conviction under health regulations: “People who want this product can’t get it”.
Canadians rate the CRTC as too friendly with lobbyists and prone to government “propaganda”, according to the broadcast regulator’s own research. The findings are detailed in a study commissioned by the agency: “There was a certain amount of cynicism”.
The Canadian Medical Association reports millions of people have no supplemental insurance to cover costly prescription drugs and other care past 65. The finding follows a survey commissioned by doctors that found one-third of Canadians must pay for costs not covered by medicare: “You will see unequal care”.
A data management company
offers to securely destroy your documents.
They promise
it will kept sensitive information
out of the wrong
hands.
Officials
involved in the Ontario gas powered plants
find the approach
oddly familiar.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday) 
If Aboriginal Canadians all lived in one place they would be Canada’s sixth largest province with 14 seats in the House of Commons. If they were a nation they would be the 161st member state of the United Nations, larger than Cyprus, Iceland or Fiji.
Aboriginal Populations examines the striking demographics of First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Its scope is encyclopedic and compelling; its findings are often surprising; its commentaries are eloquent. Editors Frank Trovato and Anatole Romaniuk capture a community in transition after centuries of despair: “They have not been on the receiving end of history, from whatever angle the matters are seen.”
First, the numbers.
Authors conclude Canada’s Aboriginal population is probably higher now than at any point in millennia though actual numbers of the pre-Confederation era are historical guesswork – perhaps 200,000, maybe more. By 1900 disease and misfortune decimated the community to some 107,000 people, and then began “a slow journey toward demographic recovery”.
By 2017 aboriginals will number some 1.4 million. Researchers note many Aboriginal languages marked for extinction years ago have in fact survived despite “dire predictions” of assimilation.
“As much as we would like, and should, celebrate Aboriginal people’s demographic revival at this particular point in their history, our view ought to be a much more subdued, to say the least, when we mull over their demographic fortune since the inception of European colonization about four centuries ago,” Aboriginal Populations concludes. “The demographic growth of Aboriginal people over that long drawn out historical period pales in comparison with the growth of the European population”
Second, the people.
Aboriginals are more likely to have shorter lives than other Canadians though even here improvements are found. If the life expectancy of a Status Indian man is 71.4 years – still lower than the national average – it is far better than the life expectancy of 59 years reported in 1975.
Statistically, First Nations members who live on reserves drink less than most Canadians: “This tends to dispel the reputation Aboriginal people have for being given to alcoholism,” authors write. Yet there are other depressing data:
“Remarkably, the very similar ills are to be found among many indigenous peoples across the world,” authors note: “Everywhere they share a similar historic fate of colonization, oppression, marginalization and socio-cultural disruption.”
Aboriginals are also statistically poor, and suffer the troubles that plague poor people everywhere: violence, sickness and unemployment. Yet Aboriginal Populations is not despairing; it profiles a community in recovery. “The overarching theme,” authors write, “is that Canada’s Aboriginal population has reached a critical state of transition.”
By Holly Doan
Aboriginal Populations: Social, Demographic and Epidemiological Perspectives, edited by Frank Trovato and Anatole Romaniuk; University of Alberta Press; 555 pages; ISBN 9780-88864-6255; $60
