Air Canada has been ordered to pay $1,000 per passenger as compensation for flight delays that landed a Kelowna, B.C. couple at their destination three days late. The onus is on airlines to justify extraordinary delays, said a British Columbia adjudicator: "Air Canada is in the best position to provide evidence explaining the delay of its own flights."
More than a quarter of Chinese diplomats assigned to a Toronto Consulate have left the country since the last general election, data show. Figures on accredited staff were updated yesterday for the first time since the expulsion of a Chinese spy: "It does make me wonder."
Federal agencies have awarded hundreds of thousands in subsidies to farm geese on Hudson Bay. One government memo called it a climate change initiative: 'It is to promote consumption of light geese that can contribute to restoring Inuit food sovereignty.'
Commons Speaker Anthony Rota’s office yesterday justified a $150,496 junket to Australia as uncommon but necessary. Rota and seven guests including wives spent three days in Canberra: "It provides speakers with an opportunity to discuss procedural and administrative challenges."
A Department of Fisheries report proposes First Nations join the Coast Guard in policing marine traffic in whale habitat including commercial shipping lanes. “Whale species are significant to Indigenous peoples’ cultures,” wrote the department: "There was a desire to have shared responsibility and authority."
Fewer than half of Canadians surveyed consider the RCMP accountable, says in-house research. The findings follow the resignation of Commissioner Brenda Lucki: "They award lower marks when it comes to the calibre of its leadership."
Canadians welcome immigrants but cannot see where they’re supposed to live, says in-house research by the Department of Immigration. Housing worries followed the highest immigration quotas in Canada’s history: "It is too much, too fast."
A South Pacific junket led by Commons Speaker Anthony Rota cost taxpayers more than $150,000, records show. Guests invited to a three-day conference included a Liberal-appointed Commons clerk who resigned after he was accused of sleeping on the job: "Cooperation is a prerequisite for furthering people-to-people contact."
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department closed Arctic weather stations even as it warned of catastrophic climate change, records show. Parliament had voted $384 million to modernize the Meteorological Service of Canada: "Climate change has already altered our reality."
Federal inspectors have stepped up six-figure fines against employers accused of breaching migrant labour regulations, records show. The labour department as late as 2017 conducted no in-person spot inspections under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: "They have had ample opportunity to act on this."
A Nova Scotia judge has ordered students to pay for “shocking” damage to a rental property he called a real life Animal House. “The landlord took the position the house was virtually destroyed,” wrote the Court.
Blacklock's pauses for the August bank holiday with warmest regards to subscribers. We wish you a safe, happy holiday. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “I couldn’t fix the leaking faucet, so I took a hard look at my toolbox, switched the places of the hammer and the pliers, moved the screwdriver from the top deck to the bottom…”
In 1915 the president of the Canadian Bar Association called lawyers “children of light.” In 2015 Justice Edward Belobaba of Ontario Superior Court called lawyering “a self-regulated profession that continues to enjoy the benefits of a monopoly, including monopoly pricing.” Belobaba was angered by cost claims in a National Bank class action lawsuit in which barristers chocked up $1,000 an hour. “Access to justice for most litigants remains illusory mainly because of the high hourly rates charged by lawyers,” he wrote.
Here lies the tension in a profession deemed essential and contemptible all at the same time. If clients rarely hug their lawyers on the courthouse steps, most would agree society would be worse without them. The profession itself is capable of searing self-criticism, which brings us to Lawyers’ Empire by Professor W. Wesley Pue of the University of British Columbia’s law faculty.
Ratepayers will see higher costs for electricity, says a staff memo to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. The Department of Environment would not estimate how much more consumers and industry will pay for “green” electrification: "Expansion of clean electricity supply towards 2050 will increase costs."
