Canada is spending a fortune on its search for terror financing with little justification for budgeting, and no accounting for privacy concerns, a Senate committee has been told. The current dragnet for black market cash is reduced to tracking house payments and wire transfers to family, said a University of Toronto law professor: "We do not have evidence of the benefits".
A landmark quarter-billion dollar settlement in a Nunavut dispute should spur cabinet to fairer resolution of land claims nationwide, says a lead attorney in the case. The Government of Canada will pay $255.5 million to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on complaints it breached terms of an Inuit claim that led to creation of the territory in 1999: "Hopefully this won't be necessary in the future".
First-ever regulation of wholesale wireless roaming charges is being cheered by consumers’ advocates. The CRTC yesterday said it will fix charges levied by big telecom providers on smaller rivals: "It is really great".
A bank proposal to sanction currently-illegal sharing of depositors’ information raises numerous questions, says the chair of the Commons finance committee. Bankers seek amendments to privacy law that would allow them to exchange details on customers: "How do I know they’re not sharing information I don’t want them to share?"
Federal agencies are paying almost $22 million a year in transaction fees for processing credit card payments, documents show. MPs and senators have rejected first-ever regulation of fees, mainly charged by Visa and MasterCard Canada: "We pay".
Lawmakers must adopt “strict measures” to support the seal hunt, says a Liberal senator. A proposal to outlaw photographs of the Atlantic hunt will be discussed today at a closed-door meeting of the Senate fisheries committee: 'We have to check what people are doing'.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission is being cited for unfair treatment of an ex-railway mechanic who complained he lost his job due to poor health. The Commission was mistaken in dismissing the mechanic’s complaint, a federal Appeal Court judge has ruled: 'It was unreasonable'.
New changes to Canada’s drug patent regulations will revive 2006-era rules after Federal Court judgments narrowed patent law. Industry Canada said it feared numerous drug patents would lapse without a change in regulations: "It's back to the future".
Bankers want changes to federal privacy law to allow them to swap information on customers. The demand follows disclosures in an Ontario court that banks already permit a spy agency to scrutinize accounts without a warrant: "How do you ensure you are protecting privacy?"
A federal agency broke the law in awarding a multi-million dollar contract, an Appeal Court judge has ruled. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority was cited for unfair and illegal conduct in its 2010 purchase of airport X-ray screeners. Federal auditors are conducting a special examination of the agency: 'The decision was unreasonable and unlawful'.
A news photographer twice stung by the CBC has lost a bid to take her case to the Supreme Court. Justices declined to hear an appeal from the journalist who sued over the network’s improper use of her copyright images, only to end out-of-pocket over an obscure Federal Court rule: "We have these rules for a reason".
A gloom index has Canadian executives more pessimistic about the economy than at any time since the end of the financial panic. The survey by the Canadian Professional Accountants of Canada found nearly a third of managers see dark days ahead: "We are in the middle of a period of uncertainty".
Each time there is an E.coli outbreak – it is now a triannual event – the beef industry and its apologists explain food poisoning wouldn’t be a problem if only consumers knew how to cook tainted hamburger. It’s the same logic Big Auto used once against mandatory seatbelt laws.
“We are all part of the problem,” Laura Rance, editor of the farm periodical Manitoba Co-operator, wrote in a snide 2012 commentary; “How is it that in Canada, one of the world’s wealthiest and most well-educated countries, we have a population so functionally illiterate when it comes to safe food preparation? Even meat carrying E.coli is edible when properly cooked.”
So it was that General Motors’ director of styling, William Mitchell, told a reporter in 1956: “The seat belt craze isn’t doing anything for the brains of the guy driving the car. Sure, we need thinner pillars and better vision, but this just encourages the nuts. Put belts and shoulder harnesses on them and they think they can do anything.”
The Supreme Court will hear a key challenge on oil and gas fracking. Justices agreed to weigh the case of an Alberta landowner who claimed EnCana Corp. poisoned her well by pumping toxic chemicals into groundwater: "This is a critical issue".
A bid for mandatory audio and video recorders in all rail locomotive cabs will be formally studied by Transport Canada and federal crash investigators. The Teamsters union representing crews has cautioned recorders may be misused to spy on employees: "That is not an argument I find persuasive".
