The number of philanthropic foundations in Canada has nearly doubled since 1992, says a University of Regina study. Public and private foundations hold $61.5 billion in assets, by official estimate, a sum equal to one-fifth the federal budget: "Donors are looking to foundations to make informed giving decisions."
The Federal Court is investigating the use of an internal computer to edit Blacklock’s Wikipedia page, says a chief administrator. An unidentified Court staffer made the entry the same day a federal judge ordered Blacklock’s to pay $65,000 in costs in a copyright lawsuit against the Department of Finance: “I had nothing to do with the edits.”
A federal agency dubbed a toothless watchdog for bank customers has issued its first decision in 18 months. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada cited an unnamed bank for illegally failing to disclose credit card fees, but levied no penalty: "It's too cozy."
Canadians have been slow to embrace electronic petitions after the Commons broke with 147 years of tradition in permitting internet signatures. Only 85 e-petitions have been tabled in the House to date, compared to 995 traditional paper versions: "We're getting quality over quantity."
A human rights tribunal has dismissed a complaint alleging Christmas decorations discriminate against non-Christians. The dispute involved a holiday display at a credit union in Parksville, British Columbia: 'There is nothing particularly novel about this complaint.'
Colonial Extractions is an uncomfortable book – the best kind! Unique among 150-year old democracies, Canada prides itself for a clean past on foreign colonialism. Even the Pope has apologized for the great crime of empire-building: “There was sin and it was plentiful,” he said.
Not us. No gunboat diplomacy, no Opium Treaties, no rubber plantations. Then along comes Paula Butler of Trent University with this excruciating account of Canadian mining operations in Africa, and that sound you hear is the reader quietly dismounting from our high horse.
In a decade Canadian mining investment in Africa has grown tenfold, to some $24 billion. Canada is the largest offshore investor in African mines from Ghana to Madagascar. “Is Canada engaged today in colonialist resource appropriation?” Butler asks. In seeking answers, she interviews Canadian mining executives. Butler is white, her interview subjects are white; everybody relaxes. The result is striking. Butler hears “vintage colonial discourse characterized by a racialized world view. At one level, the narrative was cruder and starker than I had expected it to be.”
Cabinet spent more than $112,000 testing focus group reaction to marketing slogans for its national carbon tax, data show. Comparing the fuel charge to cigarette taxes polled well. Likening a carbon tax to snow tires was more confusing, researchers said: "It takes a bit of work."
Cabinet faces a federal lawsuit over fees it charges employers to apply for migrant labour. The $1,000 fee per application is an unconstitutional tax that exceeds the actual cost of processing permits, said a former Toronto lawyer: "They haven't done anything."
Environment Canada is studying the impact of landfill emissions on climate change targets. The department for the second time in two years will examine whether methane-producing waste can be converted to energy: "It doesn't go away."
A pilot has been denied Transport Canada security clearance over anger issues. A federal judge ruled the department was within its rights in citing a history of traffic incidents and a beer tent brawl as grounds for refusal: 'This will have significant negative consequences for the dream of a career in Canadian aviation.'
Few Canadians know of federal planning for the 150th anniversary of Confederation though the Department of Canadian Heritage has been working on it since 2011, data show. Government research indicates 1 in 4 people surveyed couldn’t be bothered watching festivities on TV: "I'm too busy."
Nearly 17 years after schoolchildren drowned in a tour boat disaster, Transport Canada is complying with promised regulatory changes to operators’ liability. The deaths were “the watershed event” that prompted amendments under the Marine Liability Act, an official said: "It has taken some time."
Fewer than 2 percent of Canadian voters have completed a free federal survey on electoral reform, MyDemocracy.ca. One researcher yesterday described the exercise as scientifically pointless: 'It is not a survey or a poll.'
Transport Canada is hiring researchers to gauge the impact of in-car video displays on driver distraction. The findings of the $200,000 research are expected by March 31: "This is an important piece of work."
The defence department is issuing 203 pages of specifications for new sleeping bags for the troops. The exhaustive contract notice surpasses an earlier record of 167 pages of specs for mukluks: "The soldier should be able to understand the function of the system."
