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Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “Costly to keep the pandas in Toronto Zoo. $3 million shelter renovation plus $2.6 million annual maintenance, including $150,000 insurance, $238,000 staffing, $550,000 food flown in from Memphis…”
Of all skeletons hidden in the nation’s attic, few are as strange as the Saskatchewan Klan. For a brief period in the 1920s the KKK thrived with rallies and cross-burnings. In no other province did Ku Kluxers achieve such prominence.
Yet the organization was never as influential as mythology suggests, nor as sadistic as its U.S. namesake. Historian James Pitsula does not document a single homicide attributed to the Saskatchewan Klan, where organizers seemed satisfied to wear idiot hoods and tell Catholic jokes.
Cabinet now says it will not object if any First Nation bans legal cannabis under the Indian Act. The same would not apply to ordinary municipalities, said Border Security Minister Bill Blair. Members of the Senate aboriginal peoples committee asked cabinet to put it in writing: "Yes, of course, the ability to ban is something you may want to discuss."
The Senate is named in a federal lawsuit for alleged breach of the Official Languages Act. Members of the languages committee would not comment. A complainant seeks payment and a formal apology over a sign on a water fountain: "You understand the meaning of the sign but you believe it’s a violation of your rights?"
Parliament must reform government hiring practices rife with cronyism, union executives yesterday told the Commons government operations committee. “It is neither transparent nor easy to understand,” said Greg Phillips, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.
Steel and aluminum prices have jumped 30 to 40 percent due to cross-border tariffs, the Department of Industry yesterday told the Commons trade committee. Officials did not detail the impact on consumer costs and factory layoffs: "It’s killing Canadian businesses."
The Commons health committee yesterday agreed to conduct hearings on brain injuries in sport. Minor hockey accounts for three times the number of concussions than school football, data show: "This is a topic of discussion in almost every community."
Cabinet last night had no new proposals to avert the apparent collapse of its signature climate change plan, the national carbon tax. Manitoba yesterday became the third province to oppose the measure. Two other pro-tax provincial governments were defeated in elections in the last 10 days: "Is the federal plan falling apart?"
The labour department has expanded an inspection crackdown on migrant hiring to semi-pro sports. Two Canadian organizations have been fined for breaching the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: "Is this some kind of prank?"
The Canada Revenue Agency will not refund a $1,108 Canada Pension Plan overpayment after a taxpayer missed the deadline for claims by 15 weeks. The system is not “necessarily fair”, said a Tax Court judge: "However, it is the clear intent of Parliament."
Trends in health and mortality rates suggest Canadian newborns by the year 2200 can expect to live to 100, nearly double the average life expectancy in 1930. Chief Actuary Jean-Claude Ménard predicted the number of nonagenarians, people in their 90s, will skyrocket this generation: 'Retirement will become even more expensive.'
Cabinet yesterday issued an order permitting Canada Post to suspend any future dividend payments to the federal treasury. The post office should spend all profits on improving service, it said. Management is also required to publicly disclose its budget plans: "We have had a process with very little real consultation."
The National Energy Board has until February 22 to complete a maritime environmental risk assessment on the Trans Mountain pipeline. Cabinet yesterday stopped short of imposing a similar deadline on talks with First Nations opposed to the megaproject, but said work must proceed: "We are going to do things differently this time."
Taxpayers’ Ombudsman Sherra Profit paid a pollster $68,948 to confirm most Canadians never heard of her. The $2.3 million-a year agency was created in 2008 to answer taxpayers’ complaints: 'The main challenge is actually reaching someone over the phone.'
