Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “He set the earthquake – 9.3 on the Richter scale – to hit at precisely 7:59 am…”

Public Works Canada is awarding a $1.25 million contract to a publicist to distribute government-vetted “news” to publishers and radio and TV stations. The budget for handout “news” increased 25% from a previous contract. The department said it wanted to “inform and educate Canadians on public issues”.

Air passenger rights are “uneven” due to a complaints-based system that fails to meet E.U. or American standards, Transport Canada admits in a departmental memo. The document cited public demands for “more prescriptive” regulations that would spell out airlines’ duties to their customers: ‘Air Canada gets 20,000 complaints annually’.

Transport Canada is ordering all major railways to automatically report on traffic, employee training and maintenance worries effective April 1, 2015. The mandate is the latest to follow the Lac-Mégantic wreck that killed 47 people: "Companies are expected to follow the rules".

Federal regulators are citing telecom companies for an odd billing practice – charging fees to lease service poles they don’t own. The ruling followed complaints from local British Columbia cable firms that Telus tried to collect leasing fees on thousands of poles that belonged to somebody else: "They have no cost to recover".

Atlantic Canada’s largest conglomerate is suing an elusive eco-satirist over a copycat website that ridiculed the company. J.D. Irving Ltd. filed a Federal Court claim against “John Doe”, an internet prankster who replicated a corporate publicity campaign with irreverent captions: "Better put out more bird feeders. When we're finished clear-cutting..."

Federal research shows Canadian parents remain ambivalent about teenagers’ marijuana use, despite Health Canada attempts to warn of health risks including lung cancer and lower IQs: 'It's the least of the evils'.

Transport Canada proposes to mandate a five-minute rule to prevent railways from blocking traffic at level crossings. The department was cheered over draft regulations that order railways not to park or switch freight cars at urban crossings for more than five minutes: 'We can document 45-minute delays'.

Industry must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs with the emergency listing of three bat species as endangered. Cabinet ordered that wind turbine operators, mines, tourism firms, forestry and pest control companies operating on Crown land take steps to protect bat habitat under threat of $1 million fines: “Are bats worth the inevitable lawsuits?”

Mounties can be fired for a disability, ordered to undergo counselling or forbidden from speaking to media under long-awaited RCMP Regulations. Cabinet yesterday enacted the sweeping rules retroactive to November 28: "I don't think that's healthy".

Federal investigators are renewing demands for mandatory cab recorders in locomotives after citing human error in another major train wreck, the sixth in seven years. The Transportation Safety Board said a CP crew was responsible for a 2013 Alberta derailment that injured a conductor and started a locomotive fire: 'We need objective data'.

The Senate last night passed a union decertification bill C-525 as one Conservative, the former corporate counsel for Irving Oil Ltd., suggested lawmakers had failed in their duty: "The bill is flawed and defective".

A bill proclaiming a yearly Pope John Paul II Day has passed the Senate after contentious debate over sex scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, and Vatican policies on women and homosexuals: "The Pope, according to doctrine, is infallible".

Canadian negotiators are being faulted again for failing to press trademark claims in a trade pact with the European Union. The Commons agriculture committee said Canada should have sought so-called “geographical indicators” to protect producers. MPs, including a supporter of the pact, said the agreement now appears to be "unravelling".

A bill to compel cabinet to fix greenhouse gas emission targets will be back before the Commons in 2015. It follows Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s claim that cabinet would be “crazy” to regulate petroleum industry emissions with $56 oil: "The provinces are making greater headway".