Blacklock's Reporter

Rideau Hall refuses to say how much David Johnston gave to charity last year, though the Governor General is urging all taxpayers to donate more to worthy causes as “the right thing to do”. Johnston’s staff would not say if, when or how much the Governor General claimed in charitable credits on his 2012 tax return: “I will check and get back to you.”

The Canadian Transportation Agency has fined nine companies $117,000 in its first enforcement of regulations on full-fare disclosure. The agency told Blacklock’s it issued scores more warnings over misleading ads, especially on the internet: “They are driving traffic to their websites”.

Transport Canada proposes to follow Europe’s lead in mandating new safety measures aboard offshore helicopters following a fatal crash that drowned 17 people. However the department stopped short of banning chopper flights over stormy seas as recommended by investigators.

A 72-year old B.C. man has lost a final bid for benefits he claims his employer and union denied him because of old age. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a transit employee reduced to working part-time because he was over 65, he said: "Where does this man go from this point?"

Parliament is being urged to turn its employment insurance program into workers' savings accounts. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation proposed the $20.4 billion collected in E.I. premiums be returned to contributors: "Put E.I. taxes back".

Even the Prime Minister’s Office doesn't watch government-friendly Sun News Network, records show. Staff renewing media subscriptions excluded the self-described "plucky upstart" from the PMO's $829,000 cable package: "I don't know anything about this."

Parliament should create intellectual property courts, says a contractor who’s spent years battling Natural Resources Canada and other federal agencies over copyright protection. MPs have not acted to date on appeals for specialized courts for copyright, patent and trademark appeals: "If this is the legal system we have, boy, am I ever worried."

A United Food & Commercial Workers’ win in the first of a series of Supreme Court labour cases is a “strategic decision”, a legal analyst tells Blacklock’s. The Court is hearing a string of appeals on labour and the Constitution: "It's a challenging area."

Transport Canada is facing demands from its own investigators that it update regulations prompted by a fatal train wreck nearly two years ago. The Transportation Safety Board said it is still waiting for a “clear strategy” in mandating locomotive audio and video recorders: "Recordings are the key."

Regulatory measures used to cap prescription costs in the U.S. and Europe won’t work here, a Competition Bureau conference has been told. Canada’s smaller population can only spell less competition between brand name and generic companies, cautioned an economist: "Many companies don't even come to Canada."

Canada Post Corp. is invoking commercial privacy in concealing how much it spends on delivering mail by taxi despite owning one of the biggest vehicle fleets in the country. The post office admits to using cabs though it owns 9600 trucks, vans and autos: "We use taxis to get letter carriers from their depot to their foot routes."

Businesses, unions and other sponsors of community events are not liable for damages beyond their control, judges have concluded. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal for compensation from a soccer player who sued sponsors of an event that left him a paraplegic: "There's no special relationship here."

Lawyers' fees of $400, $600 even $1,000 an hour threaten the future of class action lawsuits intended to benefit Canadian consumers, says a Superior Court judge. The criticism came in the case of cellphone customers pressing a class action claim against Bell Mobility Inc.: 'Lawyers are billing very high, monopoly-based hourly rates'.

Industry Canada is standing its ground over hoarding of wireless spectrum. The department said bandwidth bought but never used by internet providers must be surrendered by March: "They had plenty of time to deploy."

Natural Resources Canada consulted with oil and mining companies it regulates to cast just the right image in government TV ads, according to records. However the department dithered over how many jobs to credit to the industry, and agonized over what actors should depict ordinary, resource-loving Canadians: “A white man, an Inuit woman, a black man and an Asian woman…”