A South Pacific junket led by Commons Speaker Anthony Rota cost taxpayers more than $150,000, records show. Guests invited to a three-day conference included a Liberal-appointed Commons clerk who resigned after he was accused of sleeping on the job: "Cooperation is a prerequisite for furthering people-to-people contact."
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department closed Arctic weather stations even as it warned of catastrophic climate change, records show. Parliament had voted $384 million to modernize the Meteorological Service of Canada: "Climate change has already altered our reality."
Federal inspectors have stepped up six-figure fines against employers accused of breaching migrant labour regulations, records show. The labour department as late as 2017 conducted no in-person spot inspections under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: "They have had ample opportunity to act on this."
A Nova Scotia judge has ordered students to pay for “shocking” damage to a rental property he called a real life Animal House. “The landlord took the position the house was virtually destroyed,” wrote the Court.
Blacklock's pauses for the August bank holiday with warmest regards to subscribers. We wish you a safe, happy holiday. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “I couldn’t fix the leaking faucet, so I took a hard look at my toolbox, switched the places of the hammer and the pliers, moved the screwdriver from the top deck to the bottom…”
In 1915 the president of the Canadian Bar Association called lawyers “children of light.” In 2015 Justice Edward Belobaba of Ontario Superior Court called lawyering “a self-regulated profession that continues to enjoy the benefits of a monopoly, including monopoly pricing.” Belobaba was angered by cost claims in a National Bank class action lawsuit in which barristers chocked up $1,000 an hour. “Access to justice for most litigants remains illusory mainly because of the high hourly rates charged by lawyers,” he wrote.
Here lies the tension in a profession deemed essential and contemptible all at the same time. If clients rarely hug their lawyers on the courthouse steps, most would agree society would be worse without them. The profession itself is capable of searing self-criticism, which brings us to Lawyers’ Empire by Professor W. Wesley Pue of the University of British Columbia’s law faculty.
Ratepayers will see higher costs for electricity, says a staff memo to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. The Department of Environment would not estimate how much more consumers and industry will pay for “green” electrification: "Expansion of clean electricity supply towards 2050 will increase costs."
A federal judge has ordered the Correctional Service to pay $7,500 to a convicted murderer for breach of his Charter rights. Métis inmate Jeffrey Ewert complained prison staff touched his collection of feathers and arrowheads without permission: "Mr. Ewert’s medicine bundle is sacred to him."
The British Columbia Supreme Court has ordered a contractor to pay $1.5 million for “a campaign of defamation” against a business rival. The award is one of the largest of its kind for internet libel in Canada: "People said if it’s written it must be true."
China could have been fined $25,000 for flying a suspected spy balloon over Canada without a federal permit, according to a Department of Transport briefing note. The balloon instead was shot down by U.S. fighter jets last February 4 and recovered in the Atlantic off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: "Any individual that breaks these rules can be subject to fines."
Canadian meteorologists yesterday blamed flood plain construction for higher damages from extreme weather. A federal panel has recommended Parliament withhold disaster aid from municipalities that allow waterfront construction: "There is no plan."
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is exempt from Conflict Of Interest Act disclosures under a separation agreement. Mrs. Trudeau last year registered a new federal corporation to sell communications services: "Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is more than someone’s wife."
A federal lab has confirmed Canada’s first known case of Covid-19 transmission from a deer to a human, says a government memo. The “rare case” occurred at an undisclosed location in Ontario: "The Public Health Agency of Canada has confirmed the human case is most likely a rare example of deer to human transmission."
Cabinet yesterday blacklisted Academy Award-winning filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, star of Burnt By The Sun. Mikhalkov was among 18 Russians censured for supporting the war in Ukraine: "Russia is using its celebrities in the cultural sector to promote the Kremlin’s propaganda."
