Parliament will police what Canadians put on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, reversing a decades-old policy against internet regulation. Cabinet in a document said content must be controlled in the name of public safety: 'This is deeply disturbing.'
Cabinet is expanding rebates for electric car buyers though it has no data on whether existing $300 million subsidies have met climate change targets. Rebates will now be offered to buyers of used zero-emission vehicles: "Why do we need this?"
A drug company with a costly treatment for kidney patients is under federal investigation. The Competition Bureau alleges Otsuka Canada Pharmaceutical Inc. of Saint-Laurent, Que. acted to “prevent or delay generic versions of this product from coming to market”.
The Department of Health is declining comment on why it placed newspaper stories claiming health benefits of vaping. The promotions contradict decades of anti-smoking campaigns, said an MP: "You can’t tell people for years that smoking tobacco is bad, and then start encouraging people to smoke something else."
A Québec City judge has upheld municipal zoning against Airbnb. A property owner was fined $1,000 for breach of regulations forbidding the hotel trade in a residential neighbourhood: "The owner chose to make this property a tourist residence."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “Don’t miss!
All-new episodes! Canada is kicking off another season of The Premiers.
The Lake Erie water snake can dive ten feet and swallow its prey head first. The snake is also endangered. Its favoured habitat is private lakefront property where landowners don’t enjoy snakes. “I see no reason why it should be protected,” one Pelee Island landowner told an interviewer. “If it were to go away, I don’t think anyone would miss it.”
This is the most vexing part of endangered species. Rare birds, fish and wildlife belong to all humanity, but the lakefronts and marshlands belong to ratepayers. As the Canadian Cattleman’s Association once told a Commons committee, “Number one: if a species at risk is viewed as a liability to a land manager, it will always be at risk.”
The Department of Public Works yesterday approved a $2.5 million contract to distribute federally-sponsored “news” to publishers and radio stations. Handout stories include one saying its “nice” to fly with cannabis in your luggage, and articles citing a Health Canada endorsement of vaping: "There are short-term general health improvements…"
Senate managers yesterday complained they work too hard after calculating three executives clocked the equivalent of a 52-hour week. “Too much is definitely not good,” said Senator Lucie Moncion (Independent-Ont.), chair of a Senate subcommittee on budgets: "It is not good for their health."
Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer yesterday said he will not contest another national campaign, calling it the "best thing" for the Party. Scheer is only the third federal Conservative chief in 79 years to resign after winning a leadership convention and losing a general election: "Politics is tough."
The Senate yesterday opened debate on a motion to impose sanctions on any Chinese authority responsible for human rights abuses overseas. “The time for appeasement is over,” said Senator Leo Housakos (Conservative-Que.), sponsor of the motion: "Ask yourself, are you a defender of those values?"
Canada’s oldest retired parliamentarian yesterday appealed for a halt to deficit spending. Paul Hellyer, 96, is the last surviving member of the 1949 Parliament: "Bill Morneau doesn’t understand how the system works."
Staff in the Privy Council Office applied for a $508 federal grant for an after-hours workshop featuring liquor and PowerPoint presentations with titles like, Can You Spot The Mistake? The seminar was to provoke “meaningful questions and answers about failure and resilience”.
MPs yesterday clamoured for the text of a free trade pact amid growing opposition over aluminum imports. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters he wanted the latest NAFTA ratified quickly, though Parliament is scheduled to adjourn tomorrow for its Christmas break: "We’re being asked how we are going to vote and we haven’t seen the text."
Provinces have collected two-thirds of a billion dollars in marijuana taxes and profits since Parliament legalized recreational cannabis last year, by official estimate. Statistics Canada said a typical Canadian now lives within a short drive of a licensed narcotics dealer: '45% are within ten kilometres of a cannabis store.'
