Parks Canada spent more than $100,000 on French lessons for a single Saskatchewan employee. The billings disclosed through Access To Information included thousands for travel: "Parks Canada is committed to providing bilingual services."
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien says he should gain new powers to compel private companies to obey federal privacy law. The current Act requires that Therrien sue firms for damages in Federal Court: "We are behind."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “The Prime Minister goes to Davos to persuade the world’s rich to invest in Canada…”
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says cabinet will consider whether to permit random workplace drug testing with legalization of cannabis. Railways and other employers have sought statutory rights to test on the jobsite: "I understand the concerns."
MPs yesterday gave Second Reading to a cabinet bill upholding public employees’ right to strike. The bill follows a 2015 Supreme Court ruling that governments cannot unilaterally designate which employees are forbidden from strike action: "Liberals are on the side of the union bosses."
Payday lenders must be regulated to control a “cycle of debt” for borrowers, the Senate banking committee was told yesterday. A Senate bill would update Canada’s usury law for the first time since 1978: "I encourage the Senate to act quickly."
The Senate will pass into law a private Liberal bill proclaiming November 11 a legal federal holiday. The Legion and small businesses opposed the bill, predicting it will result in Remembrance Day becoming a day off with pay in all ten provinces: "You then have an argument."
A federal judge has rejected prisoners’ claims that 2013 cuts to inmate pay breached the Canada Labour Code. The previous Conservative cabinet cut benefits 30 percent and imposed a 42¢ fee for telephone privileges: "Although not luxurious, the offenders’ needs are met adequately."
Parliament should promote jury reforms including better pay and free counselling for trial participants, witnesses yesterday told the Commons justice committee. Experts said low jury pay and lack of support compromise the justice system: "Jury duty is in itself stressful."
Marketing of bottled water in Canada targets consumers’ “death anxiety”, says new research by the University of Waterloo. Analysts examined commercial messaging used to sell water by the bottle in a country where tap water is typically safe, plentiful and inexpensive: "We like to think we're rational."
The Department of Public Works last year awarded more than $1.7 billion in sole-sourced contracts without any competitive bidding. Awards included millions paid to pollsters and media corporations: "We should look into who’s getting favourable treatment."
The Senate last night passed into law a private Liberal bill to rewrite O Canada. Senators voted to end a filibuster by critics that delayed the bill’s passage for months: "I think it’s not right for a handful of senators to push this through without going to the Canadian public."
The Department of Justice says police need five times the number of specially-trained officers they now have to curb drug impaired driving. “We’re confident we’ll be ready,” Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould yesterday told the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee. Cabinet has set a July 1 deadline to pass a bill legalizing recreational marijuana.
Telecom regulators yesterday cleared the Weather Network of broadcasting inaccurate information. There was no evidence the channel deliberately spread “false news”, said the CRTC: “This complaint is hair-splitting and even verging on the frivolous.”
The Senate banking committee yesterday opened hearings on a usury bill with an appeal to target unscrupulous lenders. Parliament hasn’t updated its law on criminal interest rates since 1978: "There is nothing to protect Canadian consumers."
