Bank of Canada analysts yesterday disputed cabinet claims immigration is an immediate net benefit to the country. Immigrants typically drive up rents, are slow to get a job and contribute “to inflationary pressures in some sectors,” said the Bank: “Housing supply has not kept up.”
Cash grants to Ukrainian war refugees have cost taxpayers more than $753 million to date, records show. The Department of Immigration earlier acknowledged a “perception of unfairness regarding the treatment of the Ukrainian population.”
MPs yesterday voted to investigate the purchase of a luxury condominium in Manhattan for Tom Clark, former CTV announcer appointed last year as Canada’s $205,000-a year Consul General in New York. Members of the Commons government operations committee expressed outrage at the $9 million expense for a high-rise penthouse with four bathrooms: “I hope Mr. Clark enjoys it until the day after the next election.”
Liberal appointee Annette Verschuren breached the Conflict Of Interest Act in voting a $217,661 grant to her own company, the Ethics Commissioner ruled yesterday. Verschuren, a Liberal donor, was chair of now-disbanded Sustainable Development Technology Canada at the time: “She was required to recuse herself from those matters and failed to do so.”
Federal regulators should be wary of meeting privately in barrooms with lobbyists, says the Federal Court of Appeal. The reprimand to the CRTC followed a 2019 beer summit between then-CEO Ian Scott and Bell Canada’s chief executive that was photographed by a passerby: “Why were the two together? What was discussed?”
Liberal caucus members yesterday sat quietly for nearly an hour as Conservative MP Larry Brock (Brantford-Brant, Ont.) repeatedly described Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a habitual liar. Speaking at the Commons government operations committee, MP Brock said Trudeau was a “very good liar” with a “penchant for lying.” No Liberal MP objected: “What’s the relevance?”
Fraud charges against a federal contractor accused of stealing $250,000 are only the beginning, a Department of Public Works manager said yesterday. The theft of millions is suspected, MPs were told: “Is it not true at this very minute there are middle men just soaking Canadian taxpayers?”
U.S. protests over the Government of Canada’s poor record on protecting copyright owners is merely a “political tool,” says a staff briefing note to Trade Minister Mary Ng. The United States placed Canada on its 2024 “watch list” over concerns on copyright thievery.
“It serves as a political tool to satisfy domestic U.S. stakeholders,” said the April 25 briefing note. “The United States has strong offensive interests in the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights globally and in this report places countries alleged to have inadequate intellectual property laws in three escalating categories: ‘Watch List,’ ‘Priority Watch List’ and ‘Priority Foreign Country.’”
“Canada is on the ‘Watch List’ for 2024,” said the briefing note Special 301 Report On Intellectual Property Protection. “Canada does not recognize the validity of the report.”
Any complaint that the Government of Canada tolerates copyright theft “relies primarily on industry allegations rather than empirical evidence and objective analysis,” said the note to Minister Ng. “We continue to engage bilaterally and constructively on intellectual property issues with the United States.”
The United States Trade Representative in an April 25 Special 301 Report placed Canada on its “watch list” for numerous shortcomings in protecting copyright. “Levels of online piracy remain very high in Canada,” it said. Court rulings allowing mass copying of literary works had also “significantly damaged the market for educational authors and publishers,” it said.
Canadian authors and publishers have lost more than $200 million in royalties since a 2012 Supreme Court ruling allowed mass photocopying of books under the guise of “personal research.” One institution, York University of Toronto, admitted in Court documents it distributed 29 million photocopies in student course packs without payment or permission.
Department of Justice lawyers weeks after the “watch list” was issued also won a May 31 Federal Court ruling in Blacklock’s Reporter v. Attorney General that expanded copyright theft to include password sharing. The U.S. Trade Representative has not yet commented on the ruling.
Evidence in the Blacklock’s case showed a Parks Canada manager, Genevieve Patenaude, purchased a single password then shared it with anyone who asked, at least nine people. Justice Yvan Roy ruled that while Patenaude made an obvious “mistake” – Blacklock’s terms against password sharing were “plainly visible,” he said – passwords could now be shared by anyone for any “legitimate business reason” where there is “significant public interest in reading articles.”
Neither Minister Ng nor her department publicly discussed the impact of the password ruling. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters June 19 that while she too shared password-protected news articles, “I am a huge believer in the value of the work that all you guys do, the work of professional, salaried journalists.”
By Staff 
Solar panels pose a “significant pollution risk,” the Department of Public Works said yesterday. Landfilling of used panels too costly to recycle will see toxic chemicals leach into groundwater, it warned: “The volume of end of life solar panels will grow which will result in significant pollution risks.”
New Democrats are now election-ready, Jagmeet Singh said yesterday. “We are getting close,” Singh told reporters while touring Northern Ontario where the Party stands to lose a veteran incumbent due to resignation and redistricting: “We are getting close to an election.”
Indian Residential School “denialism” is undermining reconciliation with First Nations, says a federal memo. The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations did not define the term: “We must not deny what happened.”
There are “going to be some issues” with a federal IT project to digitize border collections of Customs duties, says a federal memo. Cost of the program under development since 2016 is more than $526 million: “There are no doubt going to be some issues.”
Canadian National Railways has agreed to pay $8 million for breach of the Fisheries Act, the Department of Environment said yesterday. The fine follows crude oil spills from two Northern Ontario derailments in the winter of 2015: “It was minus 30 degrees at the time.”
Canadians’ Charter right to a speedy trial applies in traffic court, a Justice of the Peace has ruled. A charge of red light running against an Oakville, Ont. driver was dismissed after prosecutors waited too long to bring the case to court: “It is not a complex matter.”
Cabinet was willing to “use all tools at our disposal” under its drug policy including “national decriminalization,” says a federal document. The memo to Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks is dated just five weeks before British Columbia abruptly ended its experiment with decriminalized drug use on complaints of public disorder: ‘Tools include approaches to decriminalization.’
