A bill mandating jail time for tobacco smugglers comes into force Friday. First Nations leaders have warned of “political unrest” over the legislation: "Now we're being criminalized".
A millionaire inventor has won a Tax Court claim against the Canada Revenue Agency over credits for developing the world’s tiniest printer. The agency had disqualified $153,316 in tax credits for Raja Singh Tuli after concluding his invention was routine engineering: 'I give him the benefit of the doubt'.
European Union lawmakers responsible for a ban on Canadian seal products are “nature’s worst enemies”, says a Conservative Senator. The remarks came in debate on a Liberal bill to proclaim a national day in support of the Atlantic seal hunt: 'These pseudo-ecologists give Canadians a reputation of being knife and club-wielding animal killers'.
Canada’s privacy commissioner is urging that Bell Canada limit its monitoring of subscriber habits for targeted advertising. The company agreed to reforms, but claimed privacy worries were a “minimal concern” for customers: "A lot of industry relies on consumer ignorance".
An unusual crime bill that would deny Canada Pension Plan survivor benefits to Canadians who kill would affect “one to two” people, says Employment Canada. The Conservative bill earlier passed the Commons by unanimous vote: "There really doesn’t appear to be much need for this bill".
Conservative MPs have flooded cabinet with constituency complaints over management of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Cabinet correspondence obtained through Access To Information detail caucus protests against restrictions on the hiring of migrant labour: "Some Canadians are quite happy to not work, and that’s not right".
Canada should consider compulsory voting if turnout does not improve in the 2015 campaign, says a former chief electoral officer. Jean-Pierre Kingsley praised an Australian law that’s resulted in minimum 90 percent turnouts since 1925: 'Don't give up on democracy'.
One of Canada’s largest public unions is dismissing claims of self-interest in opposing a cabinet bill to repeal federal regulations. The 170,000-member Public Service Alliance of Canada told the Senate national finance committee the bill appears pointless and unenforceable: "Everything that it claims to do can already be done".
Another “toxic” lawsuit has failed at the Supreme Court. Justices declined to hear an appeal from a Saskatchewan company that claimed poisons leaching from an abandoned city dump contaminated its property: "It's making it hard to establish case law in this area".
Easter greetings to our friends and subscribers. Blacklock’s pauses for today’s federal holiday, and will return tomorrow — The Editor
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “If you suspect a terrorist is living in your neighbourhood, you’d be relieved to know he’s moving overseas…”
A bill to cap merchants’ credit card fees earning billions in revenues for Visa and MasterCard Canada has been defeated in the Senate banking committee. The measure had been endorsed by retailers and restaurateurs: "It's a shame".
Canada Revenue Agency would be compelled to publish a yearly blacklist of convicted tax evaders under a private bill introduced in the Senate. The agency must account for its record in tracking tax dodgers including Canadians with offshore accounts, the sponsor said: "There's something wrong with the department".
The Senate is expected to give final passage to a bill simplifying the reporting of deaths to federal agencies using social insurance numbers. The legislation follows an auditors’ report that complained of needless bureaucracy for grieving families: "Canadians deserve better".
Federal regulators are declining comment on another outbreak of fish flu in an Atlantic salmon farm. The New Brunswick fisheries department confirmed the case at an undisclosed aquaculture operation in the province: "No one would know what is happening".
