Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “The radio brings the news about the resignation of the Honourable Premier. Across the kitchen floor, a fly tries to find its way out through the window’s glass…”

An Ontario man is applying to the Department of Industry to trademark a phrase popularized by sidewalk musicians and talent-night impersonators nationwide.

One of Canada's most successful start-ups says patent fees for first-time applicants are too high and should be reviewed. "When our company was five or 10 people," a Desire2Learn executive told MPs, "there would not have been the $8,000 or $10,000 or $12,000 sitting around to file a patent."

A media think-tank is undertaking a national study of “digital citizenship” in the largest survey of its kind in eight years, after warning MPs a “culture of fear” now blankets internet policy.

Federal agents face a “Herculean challenge” in enforcing Do Not Call regulations on offshore companies charged with multiple violations, a legal analyst says. Two South Asian companies face more than half a million dollars in telemarketing fines, uncollected so far by the CRTC.

The National Gallery of Canada is being summoned to a trade tribunal over complaints of bungled terms in an $8.7 million contract to repair leaks in the art museum's iconic Great Hall skylight. The gallery "is taking this complaint seriously," it told Blacklock's.

Dentistry students pay the highest tuition in the country, an average $16,024 a year, according to federal figures. Students at medical school paid the second-highest rates. "Our tuition fees where they are highest could act as a deterrent," said the Association of Faculties of Medicine.

A federal panel deleted ornamental pumpkins from taxpayers’ subsidies under its $54 million food-to-the-Arctic program, but okayed subsidies for Cheez Whiz, records show.

Security technology at federal airports is now so user-friendly operators can be taught to use sophisticated scanners in less than a half-day, says a federal contractor chaired by a former commissioner of the RCMP.

MPs meeting behind closed doors have voted not to extend hearings on food safety legislation that contemplates a sweeping reorganization of federal inspection practices. Industry groups and opposition MPs had appealed for time to review amendments to the Safe Food For Canadians Act, already approved by the Senate in the midst of the biggest beef recall in Canadian history.

Counterfeit clothing and apparel now account for almost half of all faked goods seized by federal agents, new crime data show. RCMP figures reported to Blacklock’s show bootleg apparel including bogus-label products comprised 48 percent of all confiscated forgeries to date this year.

A Senate committee recommends the government support "development of French-language content on the internet," but cautions it has no intention of subsidizing or regulating web content. "There have to be incentives," said the chair of the committee that reports internet usage by French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec falls below usage rates by anglophones.