Canada Border Services Agency promises to improve security assessments following a critical audit. Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said border guards and RCMP will do better after being faulted for a lookout system that saw some 15% of fugitives and high-risk travelers evade scrutiny: "It's a little late".
One of the largest professional organizations in the country is being cited for unfair treatment of an applicant taking a management exam. Ontario Divisional Court upheld a complaint from a hopeful accountant who protested he was denied due process by the professional standards group: 'Where livelihood is at stake a high standard of justice is required'.
One in six Canadians has replaced a credit or debit card in the past year due to fraud, according to new research. A study by a debt counselling agency identified 17% of Canadians surveyed said they’d had to destroy a card due to a security breach: "All of a sudden they have your data".
The Supreme Court may have to weigh if cuts at the hockey-less CBC breach federal law, says Canada’s languages commissioner. Graham Fraser said the Crown broadcaster is mandated by the Official Languages Act to maintain French-language programming: 'The CBC has responsibilities'.
Canadians remain sharply divided over cabinet’s promotion of oil pipeline expansion, according to in-house research by the Department of Natural Resources. Authorities spent nearly $300,000 on polling and focus group research on the topic in the past six months: "The main concerns about pipelines tended to be oil spills".
RCMP kept secret Cold War surveillance on Canadians who visited Cuba, Germany and other destinations deemed suspicious in the 1950s and ‘60s, according to newly-released Ottawa archives. The files detail a spy network of informants and police operatives who kept tabs on a La Presse editor, a CBC producer and a committee led by a future Canadian premier: “What was the purpose of it?”
Canada should introduce more rigorous standards on drinking water to monitor chemicals and industrial releases, says an environmental group. Ecojustice reported Canada fails to regulate scores of contaminants deemed a health risk in other countries: "It's the municipalities that will have to fork over the money".
Naturopaths have lost a Federal Court bid to strike down Health Canada regulations on natural food products that make medicinal claims. Advocates asked a judge to find that federal rules on vitamins and dietary food supplements are unconstitutional: "You're going to need a prescription to buy vitamin C -- that's where we're headed".
A B.C. importer has lost a bid for compensation from the Canada Border Services Agency for seizing a shipping container carrying Asian bug larvae. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case that saw the agency fumigate the shipment and order it out of the country: "It reinforces the necessarily Draconian nature of the Customs Act".
The National Research Council has bristled after being faulted by engineers including an ex-cabinet minister for a costly mishap. It followed an incident in which a $300,000 telescopic dish likened to a giant Frisbee was damaged in a wind gust while being airlifted over a mountain range: "Surely the NRC has the brain power to figure this out".
The Supreme Court in a 7-0 decision has rejected an attempt by two Québec unions to challenge cabinet's use of funds earmarked for Employment Insurance. The lawsuit followed a 2010 budget provision that saw cabinet transfer a $57 billion balance from an EI account into general government revenues: "It should be pretty damn well sure".
The Canadian Coast Guard plans tests this year on shippers' internet alerts on marine hazards. The initiative comes as regulators forecast a four-fold increase in West Coast oil tanker traffic. The Pacific coast has not seen a major marine oil spill since 1988: "The data will be all that industry needs".
Student aid programs nationwide are now so complicated borrowers are unlikely to understand their terms and obligations, says new research. A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives concludes aid programs are “inherently complex” with “appalling inequities” depending on where students live: 'Is this the best we can come up with?'
Federal inspectors are gaining new powers to levy fines on meat processors amid industry complaints of ad hoc policy and “pretty shallow” consultations. The regulations follow a pledge by Health Minister Rona Ambrose to penalize processors that withhold information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: "We have nothing to hide".
Decades after it was banned in household paint and gasoline, lead continues to pose a “modest” risk to Canadians prone to hypertension, new Statistics Canada research shows. Authorities said sampling of thousands of Canadians found all individuals tested, 100 percent, had blood lead levels: "It's still there".
