The Department of Fisheries has logged 58 reports of harassment of whales by tour boats, sailors and jet skiers off the British Columbia coast in a two-year period. The incidents are detailed in reports released through Access To Information: "I witnessed an appalling act".
Construction of new single family homes will fall in all provinces but British Columbia by 2017, forecasts the federal mortgage insurer. CMHC also predicted five-year mortgages will cost as much as 6.5 percent: "We're not anticipating a complete collapse".
A shopper who claimed Loblaw Companies Ltd. offered gifts as a ruse to obtain personal information in a credit card application has seen his case thrown out of court. Evidence showed consumers were offered $40 in gift cards and a free bag of cookies to apply for a President’s Choice Financial MasterCard: "We need tools in place that can weed out cases".
Migrant workers permitted to stay in Canada as permanent residents earn up to $56,000 more per year than immigrants freshly arrived from abroad, says Statistics Canada. Employers said the research proves the value of a Temporary Foreign Worker Program curbed by cabinet in 2014: "This confirms what we have said".
Genteel Home & Garden Television is being cited for salty language by a national regulator. The cable programmer breached an ethics code by broadcasting cussing contractors before 9 o’clock at night, including one builder who used an expletive while grappling with a backhoe: "Workers conveyed their surprise or frustrations at difficult aspects of the construction".
The new 42nd Parliament will be the first in Canadian history to accept electronic petitioning on public complaints and advocacy issues. The initiative follows a year of study by MPs: "It seems like a no-brainer".
A federal judge has ruled Texas Hold ’em requires mathematical skill and is not a mindless game of chance per se. The Court finding came in a poker player’s challenge of the Department of Citizenship: "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em..."
A Fukushima-style nuclear meltdown in Canada would likely see limited health effects but could result in far-reaching psychological scarring, says a federal report. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission conducted the research following the 2011 Japanese disaster: "The likelihood of this type of accident in Canada is low".
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “In a televised leaders’ debate, the niqab becomes a hot-button issue…”
Why do civilized governments reach for the bottom shelf on tolerance? Canadians this week put an end to the Niqab Election in which a prime minister literally made a federal case over how somebody’s mother dressed at a citizenship ceremony. That came after cabinet June 18 passed the most embarrassing legislation introduced in a postwar Canadian Parliament, Bill S-7 The Zero Tolerance For Barbaric Cultural Practices Act.
Bill S-7 banned honour killings, forced marriage of 12-year olds and polygamy – practices already outlawed in Canada since at least 1890. The bill amounted to gratuitous needling of Muslims. “We are at a historical watershed,” said then-Immigration Minister Chris Alexander; “If we were to open the door to inaction or paralysis, we would look much like the Afghan government”; “Our policy will remain to ensure that citizenship ceremonies take place among people who have removed their face coverings. That is one of the practices in this country that protects women, protects girls, and protects Canadian values and traditions.”
Canadian Pacific Railway is accused of using selective statistics in depicting freight rates as a bargain for shippers. A railway lobbyist said total farm production costs are nearly triple the expense of freighting by rail: 'Using rail is in ever-decreasing proportion to costs'.
A justice department report cites “military training” as a risk factor in family violence. The reference is based in part on interviews with 62 U.S. servicemen by a university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Authorities noted the findings, obtained through Access To Information, “do not necessarily reflect those of the department”.
Federal regulators have dismissed an air passenger’s claim for compensation despite acknowledging his luggage vanished aboard a Jet Airways India flight. An advocate said the case underlined Byzantine regulations confronting travellers who seek help from the Canadian Transportation Agency: "It really shows how careful passengers should be".
Cellphones have eclipsed landlines as the telephone of choice for the first time in Canada, say telecom regulators. The CRTC in an industry review also cited rising consumer fees for service, and declining TV viewing by young Canadians: "It's a trend".
Citizenship Canada polled immigrant communities on the “niqab issue” in the weeks before the federal election, documents show. Researchers were hired to “prompt” ethnic groups on whether they agreed with a 2011 department order that face coverings be removed at citizenship ceremonies: "This was not a top of mind issue".
