Health Canada proposes more study of electronic cigarettes a year after a Commons committee urged marketing bans and restrictions on sales. The Canadian Medical Association protested the delay in any regulations, not expected now till 2017 at the earliest: "E-cigarettes containing nicotine should not be authorized for sale".
Parliament should replace its complaints-based pay equity system with legal mandates, MPs have been told. The advice from the former chair of a Pay Equity Task Force is the same recommended by the panel in 2004: "Everyone agreed this could not go on".
Abandoned mine sites represent opportunities in reclamation, says a mining executive. More than 70 percent of some 10,000 contaminated sites logged in a federal registry are old mines: "They have a lot of value".
A Liberal bill to end a 152-year old dispute over Confederation has been introduced in the Commons for a second time. The private bill would proclaim Charlottetown, not Québec City, as the cradle of the nation: "There is a little controversy".
A taxpayer who spent 30 seconds flipping through a fraudulent return prepared by his insurance agent has been hit with a 50 percent penalty. Tax Court ruled Canadians have no excuse in signing a false return whether they read it or not: "He could not be bothered".
A Senate bill would see cabinet draft a multilingualism policy. Minority language groups outnumber francophones in every province west of the Great Lakes, according to Statistics Canada: "We very much need to speak many languages".
Canada in the First World War with a population of 8 million lost 61,000 dead. The tiny Kingdom of Serbia, half our size, lost 1.1 million. By any measure of modesty or good sense Canadians have some nerve in boasting of our wartime exploits as a defining moment in history. Yet the sheen of reflected military glory even today is irresistible to certain politicians.
Gendered Militarism in Canada examines the contradiction. It is a thoughtful book. Editor Nancy Taber brings street cred to the topic; the Brock University professor is a former Sea King navigator.
“I quite enjoyed serving in the military and was proud to do so,” Taber writes. “Gradually however, I began to question first my place in the military and then the military’s place in society.”
An RCMP staffer fired for smoking marijuana at a police party has won compensation at a federal labour board. The ruling by the Public Service Labour Relations & Employment Board is the first since the panel was named in legislation to adjudicate Mountie disputes: 'He never went to work drunk'.
A Senate bill for independent oversight of the Canada Border Services Agency has “some pieces missing”, says a civil rights group. The bill follows 14 deaths in Agency custody, including two in the past month: "Police should not investigate police".
Industry protests have prompted Health Canada to ease long-delayed regulations on safe drinking water aboard commercial public transport carriers. Rules for testing of E.coli bacteria and other contamination have been under review since 2005: 'The cost is small enough'.
Critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have launched an internet campaign to bypass federal “consultations” on the trade pact. Opponents said parliamentary hearings to date have been dominated by business and institutional groups: 'The more Canadians find out, the less they like it'.
School board polices are to blame for poor French immersion rates that have flat-lined for a generation, says bilingualism commissioner Graham Fraser. The remarks follow new federal research to promote the “economic benefits” of learning French 47 years after Parliament passed the Official Languages Act: "How long is it going to take?"
Policing costs per capita have nearly doubled since 1993 with 80¢ of every police department dollar going to salaries and benefits, says new Statistics Canada data. A former executive director of the federal Police Sector Council described rising costs as unsustainable: "I’m paying a $92,000-a year cop to stand on a corner directing traffic".
The Coast Guard is testing a drone to spot Atlantic “ice conditions”. Officials would not confirm the device is intended to monitor this spring’s seal hunt, the first since Parliament imposed a 1.9-kilometre media quarantine around the annual kill: "You have no business being out there".
Any greenhouse gas tax to offset the “social cost of carbon” would total $38 per tonne, according to federal memos obtained through Access To Information. Canadians each produce 23 tonnes a year on average – the equivalent of $874 worth of emissions -- with driving, home heating and other everyday activities that burn fuel, by federal estimate: "It is inherently uncertain".
