Blacklock's Reporter

On Wanfujing Street in Beijing the Xinhua state bookstore promoted a single Western author, Charles Dickens. Many others were banned. Dickens’ depiction of 19th century squalor and capitalist depravity appealed to Chinese censors, as if to say: Who are you foreigners to lecture us about our squalor and our depravity?
Great Expectations was written as popular fiction and not a Workers’ Compensation inquiry. If the Victorian era brought child labour and debtors’ prison, it also gave Canada public education; street lighting; an unlicensed press; multi-party elections; the first consumer protection laws; a Criminal Code that presumes innocence at trial; and Labour Day.

$1.1 billon tariff increase phased in from January 1 appears to have little benefit for Canadian manufacturers, say analysts. The five-year increase will see duties jump $330 million this year alone on goods imported from Canada’s most popular suppliers: 'It's hard to see who benefits'.

Canadians face significant costs to modernize hundreds of obsolete municipal sewage systems nationwide, say analysts. The warning comes as cabinet transferred regulation of wastewater in Yukon to local authorities, where one municipality was already found to violate anti-dumping regulations: "The federal government can't just make up the rules".

A national historic site dubbed the cradle of Confederation is in such poor shape with water damage, toxic asbestos and falling plaster it must close within days to undergo $15 million in repairs. Charlottetown’s Province House, home of the Prince Edward Island legislature, is to be shuttered next month for emergency restoration. It will not reopen for at least five years, according to Parks Canada: "It is sad".

Transport Canada is outlawing bulk shipments of lithium batteries aboard passenger aircraft, effective yesterday. The regulation follows scores of fires linked to malfunctioning batteries, including two unnerving incidents at airports in Toronto and Vancouver: 'There is an increasing risk'.

Solving a single murder costs police more than $342,000 according to the latest federal research on the economics of crime. A study by Public Safety Canada also concludes the vast majority of violent crimes such as robberies and assaults are never reported to police, and result in billions' worth of intangible costs: "I'm not sure what the government's motivation is".

Parliament will consider a bill to federalize all shipwrecks. The Canadian Coast Guard would be permanently designated as receiver of marine flotsam and jetsam under a private New Democrat bill before the Commons: "I'm a sailor".

Nearly forty years after banning the manufacture of PCBs, Environment Canada is conducting new tests on samples of the toxin in Arctic fish and mammals. The analysis is required under a 1977 United Nations pact: "There are still reservoirs of PCBs in the Arctic".

A federal tribunal has upheld a Canada Food Inspection Agency penalty against a trucker who kept a load of hogs 22 hours in a transport truck in 29° heat. The fine was $6,000. Animal rights activists have protested that penalties are inadequate: "It was a hot day".

A deal’s a deal with Canada Revenue Agency as the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a taxpayer unhappy with terms of a tax settlement. A British Columbia developer tried and failed to appeal tax charges after signing a settlement agreement with the agency: "Taxpayers succeeding with appeals like this is just about non-existent".

A multi-million dollar charity endorsed by Canadian sports celebrities faces a federal order to surrender financial records to tax auditors. Canada Revenue Agency has been attempting to scrutinize the books of the 4Life Foundation since May, according to court records. The foundation's "anti-bullying" motivational speakers include former NHL and CFL players: "Please don't use my name".

In a David and Goliath tax dispute, one of the nation’s smallest municipal organizations is suing Canada Revenue Agency over loss of sales tax rebates worth about one-tenth of its annual budget: "All of a sudden they get a letter".

A catastrophic decline in Atlantic salmon stocks is prompting the Department of Fisheries to appoint an expert advisory panel on the issue in 2015. The initiative follows repeated warnings that numbers of salmon are reaching the lowest levels ever recorded: "We are killing too many".

Farm groups say were never told of a last-minute bill introduced by cabinet before Christmas to amend the Canada Grains Act. Bill C-48 expands the powers of the Canadian Grain Commission to conduct paid inspections at eastern elevators on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River: 'It caught us by surprise'.

Prince Edward Island is now the seventh province to regulate payday loans under a federal cabinet order. The island is authorized to define criminal rates on term loans of 62 days or less under a 2007 Act of Parliament: "It's high time".