Blacklock's Reporter

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."

A federal judge has ordered the Correctional Service to pay $7,500 to a convicted murderer for breach of his Charter rights. Métis inmate Jeffrey Ewert complained prison staff touched his collection of feathers and arrowheads without permission: "Mr. Ewert’s medicine bundle is sacred to him."

The British Columbia Supreme Court has ordered a contractor to pay $1.5 million for “a campaign of defamation” against a business rival. The award is one of the largest of its kind for internet libel in Canada: "People said if it’s written it must be true."

China could have been fined $25,000 for flying a suspected spy balloon over Canada without a federal permit, according to a Department of Transport briefing note. The balloon instead was shot down by U.S. fighter jets last February 4 and recovered in the Atlantic off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: "Any individual that breaks these rules can be subject to fines."

Canadian meteorologists yesterday blamed flood plain construction for higher damages from extreme weather. A federal panel has recommended Parliament withhold disaster aid from municipalities that allow waterfront construction: "There is no plan."

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is exempt from Conflict Of Interest Act disclosures under a separation agreement. Mrs. Trudeau last year registered a new federal corporation to sell communications services: "Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is more than someone’s wife."

A federal lab has confirmed Canada’s first known case of Covid-19 transmission from a deer to a human, says a government memo. The “rare case” occurred at an undisclosed location in Ontario: "The Public Health Agency of Canada has confirmed the human case is most likely a rare example of deer to human transmission."

Cabinet yesterday blacklisted Academy Award-winning filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, star of Burnt By The Sun. Mikhalkov was among 18 Russians censured for supporting the war in Ukraine: "Russia is using its celebrities in the cultural sector to promote the Kremlin’s propaganda."

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department yesterday gave grocers until month’s end to comment on proposed curbs on single-use plastics like meat wrapping and fruit bags. A current ban on plastic six-pack rings and other goods will cost consumers $205 million, by official estimate: "There is a need to do business differently."

China represents a last chance for the commercial viability of the Atlantic seal hunt, says a federal memo. China banned sales of Canadian seal oil and other products in 2011: "Industry views access to China as one of its last opportunities for their industry to again become commercially viable."

As many as half of all federal office buildings are unnecessary and could be sold at a taxpayers' saving says the Department of Public Works, largest landowner in Canada. The selloff would take about 25 years, it said: "We are not going back to the way things used to be."

There is no proof retailers profited from inflation, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh disputed the finding, pointing to contrary data from another federal agency: "We know this is a fact."

Fallout from federal internet regulation is like an Orwell novel, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday told reporters. Facebook began suspending links to Canadian news stories in protest over Parliament’s passage of Bill C-18: "I think it is like 1984."

Taxpayers must apply the “minimal of average intelligence” in filing returns, says a Tax Court judge. The comment came in the case of a tax filer who submitted a false return he claimed he never understood: "He would have discovered such inconvenient truth."