The Supreme Court has ended a farmer's class action lawsuit alleging inflated rail shipping charges. Lower courts had dismissed the case dating from the 1995 collapse of the Crow Rate: "Never ask a judge a stupid question like, 'What's a fair price?'"
The Senate has given quick Second Reading to a bill to expand a truck route through a national park. The vote came after 40 minutes' debate. The road is to service a Chinese-owned zinc mine in the Yukon: "It is a very significant deposit".
Newly-released Cold War files detail wry 1950s-era reports from Ottawa cocktail parties under a federal scheme to keep an eye on Communist diplomats. Accounts of vodka-laced banquets are detailed in declassified records published by Library & Archives Canada: "Russian cigarettes and chocolates were laid out everywhere".
Cabinet will have “more details” soon on possible aid for dairy farmers affected by a Canada-Europe trade pact, says a Department of Agriculture official. Dairy farmers have protested greater market share for transatlantic cheese imports will cost $150 million a year: "We are very focused on this issue".
Airlines in Canada are entitled to cancel discount tickets if they conclude cheap fares were sold by “mistake”, says a national regulator. The Canadian Transportation Agency ruling drew puzzled responses from legislators and a consumer advocate: "This leaves us with no protection at all".
The Department of Fisheries says eco-certification is a reality despite Commons complaints of “craven corporations” and “international activist groups”. Authorities estimated half the country’s wild catch is now certified by the U.K.-based Marine Stewardship Council: "We don't need any outside group telling us how to manage our resources".
Canadians are ‘stumbling’ into a new surveillance era without adequate protection of privacy rights, says Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier. Speaking at a hearing of the Senate Liberal caucus, Bernier said lawmakers must enact reforms to guard against security over-reach: "Look at the state of surveillance".
The Commons by a near-unanimous vote yesterday gave Second Reading to a bill to quarantine the Atlantic seal hunt from photographers and animal rights activists. The bill proceeded amid evidence the Atlantic catch has collapsed under a European ban on seal products: "I think it is shameful".
Canada Border Services Agency proposes to study back issues of Xinhua and TASS under its “risk management” strategy, according to documents. The agency is contracting a news clipping service to provide articles from foreign dailies including Chinese Communist publications “for use in decision-making”, it said.
Trade officials are accused of publishing misleading data on transatlantic auto exports to bolster a tentative Canada-Europe trade pact. Claims of five-figure auto shipments are unverifiable, concludes a report critical of the agreement: 'What vehicles are we selling in Europe? They couldn't tell me'.
Veterans Affairs Canada spent more than a million dollars on TV ads and other marketing only weeks before closing regional offices in a cost-cutting drive, records show. The department approved seven-figure spending on ads, then hired a pollster to ask Canadians if the marketing was effective: "This is inappropriate".
Pharmaceutical executives are being cast as white-collar ‘drug pushers’ as MPs from all parties endorsed a Health Canada bill to expand regulations on unsafe medicines: "That kind of activity should be criminal".
Tax changes since 2005 have mainly benefited middle- and low-income Canadians, says Parliament’s Budget Officer. A GST reduction to 5 percent in 2008 will save taxpayers $13.3 billion this year: 'Some credits are useless'.
The Commons is being asked to declare a moratorium on storage of nuclear plant waste on Lake Huron. Authorities northwest of Toronto petitioned Ontario Power Generation to bury radioactive waste a kilometre from the lake: "Nobody else is proposing anything".
A rail bill promising better service for shippers has cleared a Senate committee amid caution it remains ambiguous and poorly-defined. Senators okayed Bill C-30 with “observations” on its shortcomings: 'This is so it does not go unnoticed in the future'.
