Parliament must make sweeping changes to its Access To Information Act including abolition of arbitrary and costly fees used to discourage Canadians from retrieving public documents, says Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault: 'It has become a shield against transparency'.
Fifty-five years after his death, a foundation created as a “fitting memorial” to one of Ottawa’s longest-serving cabinet ministers is winding up. The C.D. Howe Memorial Foundation surrendered its charity registration and used the last of the funds for scholarships and bursaries: "Directors distributed the money and had a nice dinner".
New hiring has slowed considerably since the 2008 recession, says Statistics Canada. The federal agency used new research methods in concluding job creation is running at 1.5 percent, far below the 2.3 percent rate before the recession: "That's a sign of weakness".
The Commons’ Conservative majority has blocked a private bill that would ban oil tankers off the British Columbia coast. The measure would have impacted the Enbridge Inc. Northern Gateway project to ship Alberta oil to Asian markets: "Even one incident is one too many".
A cabinet bill to create a rail disaster compensation fund would cap relief at $250 million, a fraction of costs from the 2013 Lac-Mégantic wreck. Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said cabinet would reclaim extra money from industry in case of another costly disaster: "It is the taxpayers who have to pay".
Canadian business lacks the gumption to profit from trade pacts signed by cabinet, says Canada’s chief trade commissioner. Of 1.1 million small and medium-sized employers in Canada only 11,000 are exporting to markets other than the U.S.: "Canadian entrepreneurs may lack that level of ambition".
European trademarks including champagne, port and Chablis will be protected under federal law in compliance with a tentative Canada-E.U. trade pact. Wine labeling is already proprietary, meaning champagne must come from the French province of Champagne, as compared to “sparkling wine” produced by Canadian vintners: 'It's culturally important'.
Closure of a single General Motors plant would cost 33,000 jobs and billions in government revenues, warns a Unifor study. GM is mulling closure of a Camaro assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont. and transferring production to the U.S. by 2016: "The numbers are staggering".
Parliament is being urged to stop meddlesome amendments to complex federal laws by piecemeal private members’ bills. It follows disclosures a private Conservative bill on rail safety will be repealed by cabinet amendments to the same law: "I'm questioning why we're discussing it".
Canada Post is quietly shelving a consulting report that forecast staggering losses for the Crown corporation. The post office reported a surprise $194 million profit last year after raising stamp prices 35%: "There are projections, and then there’s what occurs".
The fisheries department for the first time is withholding information on the Atlantic seal hunt, claiming “privacy” concerns. The press gag comes as the Senate takes up a Conservative bill that would ban photographers and animal rights activists from observing the hunt under threat of arrest: 'This is information that was publicly available on a government website'.
Bitcoin should “go through the roof” as a money-making investment, the Senate banking committee has been told. The forecast came despite volatile trading in the pseudo-currency that has seen its value cut in half in the past year: "I’m not suggesting that you buy now, but it’s not a bad idea".
Growers stung by Ontario restrictions on bee-killing pesticides are appealing to MPs for a standardized policy on farm chemicals. Health Canada’s own review will not be completed till 2018: "What does this result in?"
Street Sex Work appears calculated to rattle Middle Canada. It is provocative and edgy. It dives into the deep end on morality, race and prostitution. The result is wantonly shocking.
“The street sex trade has come increasingly to be represented as a particularly urban menace,” Prof. Shawna Ferris of the University of Manitoba writes; even the term “prostitution” carries “pejorative and morally inflected connotations”.
Ferris prefers the term “sex worker”, similar to “transit worker” or “bakery worker”. One provides bread to strangers, another public transportation to strangers, the other sex to strangers: same thing, Ferris implies. Morality is irrelevant. Street Sex Work even badgers Vancouver tourism managers for “trite rhetorical euphemisms” in telling visitors which neighbourhoods to avoid; Gastown makes a nice “daytime stroll” (emphasis added) while streets in Chinatown are “partially located in a more graphic part of the city”.
Senators may hold as little as two days’ worth of pre-election hearings on union bill C-377, says the chair of the Senate legal affairs committee. The contentious Conservative measure would force disclosure of confidential union data: "It's not a sure thing".
