A federal labour board has upheld a one-day suspension without pay for a Canada Revenue Agency clerk who called her supervisor a “dictator.” Strong language against management is disrespectful, ruled the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board: "Name-calling in the workplace is never appropriate."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “The clinic is under renovation…”
If the Supreme Court is “one of the country’s most important governing bodies,” as author Emmett Macfarlane notes, it’s also true Canadians know little about it. The irony is noted. It’s the only court in the country to televise hearings, the only one with a chief justice who grants interviews, the only one to hold media lock-ups where complex cases are explained to the public.
Yet not one of the justices is recognizable in a Walmart parking lot. And the inner workings of the Supreme Court remain a riddle wrapped in a mystery.
“People wonder, are they completely isolated?” as retired justice Jack Major once put it. “Do they even read the newspaper? Do they know what’s going in the ‘real world’?”
Professor Macfarlane of the University of Waterloo opens the door to the secret chamber. “The Supreme Court is one of Canada’s most important – and least understood – governing institutions,” he writes.
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge yesterday complained cabinet has “no control” over free expression on the internet. Her remarks came six weeks after cabinet’s latest bill to censor legal content lapsed in Parliament: "Freedom of expression is currently being exploited."
Haphazard reporting of suspicious bank transactions is a concern, says a federal regulator mandated to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Canadian banks had “foundational weaknesses,” said the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre: "Is there a non-compliance issue with Canadian banks?"
A guide for federal managers asks that executives avoid shaking hands with Muslim employees but set aside prayer rooms in government offices. Amira Elghawaby, cabinet’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, endorsed concessions for Muslims as “one of the largest” employee networks in the federal public service: "There is only one god."
Newly-declassified records show Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s cabinet feared a political backlash over 2003 court rulings on same-sex civil marriage. Chretien in one secret meeting warned his cabinet "it would not be helpful to act hastily.”
Natural disasters are good for economic growth but not to excess, Bank of Canada researchers said yesterday. Analysts studied 40 years’ worth of data in concluding earthquakes, droughts, floods and fires boost gross domestic product but only in the short term: "We find a small positive effect on GDP after a disaster."
A 16 percent cut in this year’s immigration quota was not deep enough, Canadians have told the Department of Immigration. In-house research found widespread support for deeper cuts to record-high quotas: "Why do you say that?"
Liberal cabinet ministers worked up a modest retirement gift for Prime Minister Jean Chretien after 10 years in office, according to newly-disclosed cabinet minutes. Chretien was awarded a flag flown that day from the Peace Tower, the same token given to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s widow and a community league in Bognor, Ont.: "The Prime Minister assured ministers that he had no regrets."
The Commissioner of Elections yesterday confirmed another case of an ineligible foreigner casting a federal ballot. It follows in-house data that found a third of returning officers encountered attempts at balloting by people whose names were not on the National Register Of Electors: "Clean up the list."
The Canadian Armed Forces yesterday dropped a standard IQ test for new recruits and promised speedier background checks on volunteers that currently take longer than six months. “Recruitment is my number one priority,” said Chief of Defence Staff General Jennie Carignan.
It will be up to future Parliaments to finance a long-promised high speed rail venture, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Trudeau’s latest pledge of bullet train service from Toronto to Québec City came 58 years after the Department of Transport first studied the concept: "This is real now."
Mark Carney as a federal advisor and prospective prime minister should disclose assets including his stock portfolio, debts and income sources, the Opposition said yesterday. Carney, a multi-millionaire, has to date withheld disclosure of dealings with federally regulated firms: "Carney must come clean."
Cabinet’s electric car program will take longer than expected and “may be adjusted,” says a Department of Industry briefing note. The document was written three days after Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne asked Canadians to rally around the industry: 'There are delays and challenges.'
