Cellphone manufacturers would be forced to label their devices with health warnings under a private Conservative bill for introduction in the Commons. The sponsor said the bill addresses worries that radiofrequencies cause illness: “This would raise awareness”.
Canada Revenue Agency is launching a mammoth audit of the beer trade. Tax collectors yesterday filed application in Federal Court to obtain 8 years’ worth of sales records from the nation’s largest beer distributor: ‘No comment’.
CMHC is at a loss to explain how it sunk more than a quarter-million dollars into a bad loan secured with a fax and a driver’s license. Authorities would not comment on the case that saw a former bank teller qualify for insurance on property she didn’t own; in a town she didn’t live in; on reported income from a place she never worked: “We rely on the banks”.
An epic seven-year legal battle over political meddling in government contracting is headed to the Court of Appeals in Prince Edward Island. A group of contractors including Liberal organizers allege they were denied compensation due to political bias prohibited by provincial law: ‘What greater freedom can their be than the right to cast your ballot without fear?”
A million Canadians swept up by a far-reaching tax agreement may never know what use or abuse is made of their personal financial information, analysts tell Blacklock’s. The law will see banks report “relevant information” to Canada Revenue for sharing with the U.S.: ‘Don’t tell me it won’t be shared with God knows what’.
The Prime Minister’s Office says confidential research on postal privatization is strictly “routine” and not a prelude to selling the Crown’s 147-year mail monopoly. Authorities dismissed the memo stamped SECRET in which senior staff detailed “successful privatizations” of national postal services. Blacklock’s published the memo through Access to Information: “They are setting us up to fail”.
Research confirming a lack of standards in hard-to-read prescription drug labeling points to “unacceptable” practices, says the chair of the Senate science committee. A report by the University of Waterloo concluded few drug labels comply with guidelines on size, print and readability: “It is inexcusable”.
The federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program has been maligned and unfairly politicized, says Canada’s tech industry. The Information Technology Association of Canada said its member companies could not compete without foreign hires: “It’s really easy to politicize”.
Passage of a bill to weed out orphaned tax amendments will promote greater scrutiny and transparency, says its Conservative sponsor. The bill will see the Department of Finance yearly compile a backlog of tax measures proposed but never passed by Parliament: “It allows you to reflect on a tax measure”.
Atlantic Canada continues to see persistently high cancer rates, according to new federal figures. Cancer researchers contacted by Blacklock’s disagreed whether the data were the result of lifestyle or statistical oddities: “This is what you want to look at when comparing one jurisdiction over another”.
The Department of Canadian Heritage appeared to bend its own rules in funding a war monument to mules and other animals for “giving their lives for our country”. Cabinet subsidized the project under a Commemoration Program intended to honour public figures and national achievement: “Canada might not be what it is today without animal support”.
Cabinet is silent on parliamentary demands that it release the draft text of a far-reaching trade treaty. Industry groups including the Dairy Farmers of Canada earlier complained they, too have been denied actual wording of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact despite having to sign confidentiality agreements: “We’re done”.
The Prime Minister has commissioned confidential research into selling postal services. Senior staff in a memo to Stephen Harper stamped SECRET reported, “There have been other successful privatizations of national post services.” The heavily censored document was obtained through Access to Information: “To privatize something, one has to show investors they will actually get a return”.
First-ever licensing of engineered wheat in Canada would harm exports, says a confidential Department of Agriculture report. The document appeared to undermine work by senior officials in laying out “plausible scenarios” for approving genetically-modified wheat amid public protest: ‘The U.S. and possibly Australia would take away our markets’.
Health Canada safety guidelines for cellphone use are being challenged by twenty-two medical doctors. The petition organized by the group Canadians For Safe Technology urges the health department to restrict microwave radiation in schools and other places “where children are regularly exposed”.
