The Supreme Court has put an end to a five-year defamation case involving two University of Ottawa professors. Justices declined to hear further appeals over a malicious blog that slurred a faculty member: "This was one of those long and tortured litigation files".
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “If you suffer from moderate to severe boredom when watching Canadian politics…”
In 1959 Alberta approved a berserk scheme to set off an atomic blast at Fort McMurray, liquefying the oil sands and freeing a trillion barrels of riches. Engineers with U.S.-based Richfield Oil Corp. rated it a 50-50 chance of economic success. Then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker killed the idea. “Certainly not,” he said.
Alberta remains unhinged on the subject of oil sands and their elusive promise of fabulous hidden wealth that would turn the province into a Saudi fiefdom. Thwarted plans for A-blasts and pipelines have fueled conspiracy theories: Edmonton would be a Big Oil mecca if not for the intrigues of Dief or Ottawa bureaucrats or National Geographic magazine or environmentalists – especially environmentalists. “Foreign socialist comrades,” former Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver used to call them.
Unsustainable Oil documents the psychosis.
A court has struck down a bequest to fund university bursaries for Caucasian heterosexual students. A Windsor, Ont. doctor left his life savings to reward students deemed “hard working”, so long as they were not gay, “feminist” or non-white: 'We have a different ethical compass'.
Cabinet must be careful in sanctioning a costly expansion of VIA Rail service, says Transport Minister Marc Garneau. The Crown railway is seeking $3 billion from taxpayers and private investors for speedier service on its busiest routes: 'We're looking at the business case'.
Canada should adopt the U.S. greenback as a substitute for the wildly fluctuating loonie, the Senate banking committee has been told. A former Reform MP said using American currency would encourage investment: "It would be a tremendous benefit".
The Supreme Court has sidestepped an appeal to reopen the decades-old debate on private health insurance. Justices declined to hear an Alberta challenge of medicare regulations: "We’re going to have to wait for the Court to be ready to consider that issue".
Environmentalists’ appeals for a national carbon tax have fallen flat at the Commons finance committee. Criticism from MPs follows in-house research by the Department of Natural Resources pointing to public scepticism of any emissions fee: "We need to regroup".
Broadcast regulators are dismissing an appeal to reconsider first-ever rules on wholesale wireless roaming systems. Critics petitioned the CRTC for regulations guaranteeing small companies’ access to wireless networks: "The ball is in the government’s court now".
A federal DNA privacy bill threatens to victimize Canadians with skyrocketing insurance premiums, says an industry lobbyist. A Liberal bill before the Senate would forbid insurers, employers and others from demanding access to individuals’ confidential genetic tests: "This is a matter of flagging people".
Inadequate federal funding is to blame for long airport security lineups, MPs have been told. Spending on security screening has declined since 2010 even as security fees for passengers rose more than 50 percent: "This is more than just a problem of passenger experience".
A Vegas-style sports betting bill is back in the Commons. MPs quickly passed the measure in 2012 but saw it lapse in the Senate over protests from the Toronto Blue Jays: "We have to deal with this".
Cabinet must test a national guaranteed annual income program, says a Liberal legislator. The proposal follows an appeal from the Canadian Medical Association to revisit earlier pilot programs dating from 1974: "There is some momentum".
Delinquency rates are falling at a faster rate than adult crimes, say new data. Statistics Canada confirmed that youth crime has declined steadily since 1991, but pointed to no single reason for the trend: "There is no consensus on it".
Cabinet will not scale back its monitoring of the Atlantic seal hunt though costs to taxpayers are five times the value of the commercial harvest, says Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo. A department memo noted the hunt is so expensive it’s impacted other fisheries programs: “It’s important”.
