A longtime sportswriter who lost thousands of dollars publishing a free-to-read hockey blog has won a Tax Court judgment over the Canada Revenue Agency. The tax department had refused to credit the blogger’s losses incurred while travelling with the Toronto Maple Leafs as legitimate business expenses: "It is taking immense internal restraint to not comment on the ongoing Leafs ‘legacy’".
Blacklock’s notes with sadness the passing of Paul Delahanty, 82, an original contributor and longtime reporter. Mr. Delahanty died Sunday of cancer. Found among Mr. Delahanty’s personal effects at his Gallery desk was a prized copy of the Charter Of Rights & Freedoms, and a handwritten quotation from Thomas Jefferson.
An ex-Mountie cashiered on suspicion of drinking off-duty has lost a bid for a Supreme Court hearing. Justices declined to hear the constable’s complaint of wrongful dismissal. The case predated a court order striking down a 1920 ban on unions in the RCMP: "I have no jurisdiction".
Senators today take up Bill C-377 amid warnings that angry disagreement over the union bill is further diminishing the Senate, itself. Final passage of the bill appeared close but likely after Conservatives overruled Speaker Leo Housakos in a bid to throttle a Liberal filibuster: "Changes have to occur in the Senate".
A former Olympian has lost a human rights claim that he suffered discrimination due to cocaine addiction. Ontario Divisional Court dismissed a lawsuit by Paul James, a 2007 soccer Coach Of The Year, against York University: "He succumbed to the vicious grip of an addiction to crack cocaine".
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is considering a legal challenge after scores of newly-unionized workers lost their jobs at mail processing plants in three cities. The cuts came as the post office declined to renew a long-time contract with Adecco Canada, a staffing agency: "We have to take this on".
One of the nation’s longest-serving community charities has formally disbanded. The charity committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress, active from 1934, surrendered its registration under the Income Tax Act: "It is definitely the end of an era".
Government attorneys are in Federal Court tomorrow in a bid to fend off a Vancouver lawsuit to fill Senate vacancies. Twenty seats in the 105-seat chamber sit empty since the Prime Minister suspended appointments in 2014: “He’s either legally required to do it or he’s not”.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “It’s Canada Day in the National Capital. We gather by the Notre-Dame Cathedral…”
Conservative Senators will attempt to break a Liberal filibuster and force a final vote on a bill compelling every union in Canada to disclose confidential data. The Government Leader in the Senate said further delays will kill Bill C-377: "If we leave for the summer this bill will die".
The Government of Canada is hiring stenographers to electronically transcribe every utterance of the Prime Minister and his 38-member cabinet. Authorities said a verbatim account of all remarks is essential “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.”
Health Canada is reviewing nearly thirty years’ worth of pollution data to find the true extent of illness and death caused bad air. The department commissioned a $75,000 study into mortality rates in all major cities in spring and summer months from 1983 to 2009: "Air pollution could make people sick".
The Supreme Court will review a workers' compensation appeal over a baffling incidence of cancer in a British Columbia lab. Justices agreed to hear the case of lab workers who noted a high number of co-workers fell ill though no “causal” link to job conditions was proven: "I'm glad they decided to hear the case".
A mysterious spill of contaminated water near a national park is prompting contradictory statements by federal agencies. The Department of Fisheries reported an Encana Ltd. offshore gas rig near Sable Island, N.S. spilled 250,000 litres of oily water. Environment Canada confirmed the spill. Encana and a Nova Scotia regulator flatly denied the incident: "This spill took place".
MPs are refusing to estimate the extent of the nation’s infrastructure “deficit”. The Commons transport committee reported the cost of needed repairs to roads, bridges and utilities is subjective and incalculable: "There is little agreement".
