12 Jan. 21, 2013 - Blacklock`s Reporter

Issue No. 012, MONDAY, January 21, 2013, 15 Pgs.
Feds Ease Anti-Spam Rules
recipients had “consented”; referral
messages or bank notices; software
upgrades by internet service providers; messages regarding warranties;
legal notices; or responses to emailed
inquiries.
Exemptions are also proposed for any
message that is “sent in a commercial
context but does not fall within the
definition of a commercial electronic
message.”
Businesses have successfully pressed
for broad exemptions to federal antispam regulations that are still under
revision more than two years after
legislation passed Parliament.
I n d u st r y C a n a d a p ro p o s e s m o re
exemptions after receiving scores of
submissions from marketers, banks,
realtors and other firms seeking “clarity” under bill C-28, passed in 2010.
“This is much friendlier for marketers,”
said Derek Lackey, of the Direct Marketing Association of Toronto. “Under
the original regulations I could be in
breach of the law by sending an email
to a friend that happened to have commercial content.”
Regulations first drafted last year set
out blanket prohibitions on most unsolicited electronic contacts, prompting petitions from 55 industry groups
and individuals. One lobby group, the
Direct Sellers Association of Canada,
met with the Prime Minister’s Office
fourteen times after the bill passed.
“Those first draft regulations were so
vague, marketing promotions were getting killed by the lawyers,” said Lackey,
president of digital marketing with the
Toronto association. “Legitimate marketers simply want to understand what
they can and cannot do.”
Industry Minister Christian Paradis
was unavailable for comment.
Regulators said in a statement they
wanted to “encourage the growth of
electronic commerce by ensuring confidence and trust in the online marketplace.”
Rules require that marketers provide
an “unsubscribe” feature in messages.
Under a long list of proposed exemptions, anti-spam penalties would not
apply to commercial messages sent
to individuals in an existing “business
relationship”; or messages to which
And Industry Canada proposes to exempt messages from any marketer located outside Canada selling a foreignmade product or service that “could
not reasonably have expected to know
their messages would be accessed in
Canada.”
Regulators did not specify the content
or format of permissible e-marketing,
beyond prohibiting “deceptive” messages containing spyware, malicious code
or other “network threats.”
“We also have questions about how this
applies to social media,” Lackey said
in an interview. “Is it legal or illegal to
post a commercial message on a Facebook account? If I post an ad I happen
to like, am I breaking the law?”
Industry Canada will accept public submissions on its revised regulations until
February 4.
Lawmakers have grappled with antispam regulation for nearly a decade,
from the creation of a 2004 task force
to a failed 2008 Senate bill that reContinued on Pg. 2
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
2
Anti-Spam: “It’s Complicated”
From Pg. 1
quired marketers to provide
contact information under
threat of imprisonment; and
a 2009 Electronic Commerce
Protection Act that died without a final vote.
“ Te c h n o l o g y h a s s o l v e d
three-quarters of the problems legislation was supposed to remedy,” said Lackey.
“In terms of spam, what
your service provider doesn’t
catch, your junk folder will.”
Some 80 percent of Canadians make daily use of the
internet, with the value of ecommerce estimated at $15.3
billion a year, according to a
Statistics Canada report Individual Internet Use and ECommerce published last Oct.
12.
Tom Korski
Lobbyists have watered down
anti-spam regulations with
exemptions, says an internet
legal analyst.
“These are big loopholes,”
said Professor Michael Geist,
chair of e-commerce law at
the University of Ottawa.
“Canadians should not be receiving any electronic messages without their consent
– period.”
Geist attributed new antispam exemptions to “intense
lobbying by business groups
to water down the legislation passed in 2010,” adding that Canadians may not
benefit from the law for years
to come.
“Despite fear mongering
about the anti-spam legislation, current customer lists
will be exempted from any
new consent requirements
for three years after the
regulations take effect,” Geist
said.
An industry group, the Canadian Marketing Association,
said Geist was “overly critical” and made no allowance
for legitimate exemptions to
the original regulations.
“Anti-spam legislation that
protects consumers but
doesn’t unduly hamper legitimate economic activity is
complicated,” said Wally Hill,
association vice-president of
public affairs; “I don’t think
the government has opened
the barn door by any stretch.”
Hill said the original regulations “sideswiped” electronic
messages like bank and warranty notices, or security upgrades by internet service
providers.
“These are important customer service messages,” Hill
said. “What we will end up
with is a bill that works.”
The marketing group said
rev i s e d re g u l a t i o n s m a y
still have consequences unintended by Parliament, such
as outlawing messages between suppliers and clients
in the United States via a
Canadian service provider.
staff
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BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
3
Still Looking For The Fine Print In Those Pacific Trade Talks
Canada’s first official participation in contentious TransPacific Partnership trade negotiations won’t be remembered
for any accomplishments, say
two experienced analysts.
The sessions in Auckland
touched on peripheral issues
and left key considerations
– “including pharmaceutical
patents, state-owned enterprises” and others – until later
this year, said Ottawa trade
analysts Peter Clark and Gordon Campbell.
Writing in the New Zealand
periodical Scoop, the two concluded recent talks mostly
laid bare the divisions among
eleven countries at the table.
“The best you could say is that
the Auckland talks may have
helped to clarify the points
that will require risk-taking
by the political leaders, if any
substantial results are ever to
be achieved,” wrote Campbell.
“The slate of issues being
driven by US business lobbies
are simply unacceptable in
their current form to far too
many participants, who are
not being offered enough in
return to justify the political
cost,” Campbell continued.
The talks are an attempt to
liberalize trade, tariffs and
market access for Pacific nations. Current participants in
the TPP talks are Canada, the
United States, Mexico, New
Zealand, Australia, Malaysia,
Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam,
Chile and Peru.
Clark noted differences between participants in recent
negotiations include Malaysian concerns over stateowned enterprises and financial services; Australian and
New Zealand access to American markets for sugar, dairy
and beef products; and Mexican concerns with “cumulative rules of origin.”
Borrowing Triples At Port
C a n a d a’s D e p a r t m e n t o f
International Trade did not
express interest in the trade
talks until last year. As late as
2008 an advisor in the Prime
Minister’s Office told reporters that “Ottawa doesn’t think
this so-called Trans-Pacific
Partnership is worth the
trouble.”
Promoters of a Pacific freetrade zone described the success of the TPP talks as crucial.
umbia have been raised from
$22 million to $75 million, a
record sum equivalent to the
deficit for the entire province
of Prince Edward Island.
Borrowing limits on the federally-regulated Prince Rupert
Port Authority in British Col-
“This is about growth and expansion,” said Michael Gurney
of the Port Authority. “It allows
“When completed, the TPP
will become a precedent for
all future trade deals in the
Asia-Pacific region,” Sullivan
said in a statement.
Alex Binkley
“Establishing a high standard at the beginning ensures
[photo: Library & Archives
Canada PA-171709]
us to be more agile in the projects we undertake.”
most westerly deep-water harbour, also operates one of the
largest grain-cleaning elevators, and terminals for yachts
and cruise ships.
Transport Canada declined
comment.
Cabinet has more than tripled
the borrowing limit set on
Canada’s westernmost container port to fund improvements.
there is no room for future
entrants into the TPP to water
the deal down,” said Kathleen
Sullivan, executive director
of the Canadian Agri-Food
Trade Alliance.
New infrastructure includes
an improved road and railway
corridor to Ridley Terminals, a
Crown-owned facility that is to
double its coal-loading capacity
to 24,000,000 tonnes annually.
Cabinet is currently attempting to sell the coal terminal to
private investors through the
Canada Development Investment Corporation.
Prince Rupert, the nation’s
Revenues at the port totaled
$26,219,152 in 2011.
Cabinet also raised borrowing
limits for Quebec’s Saguenay
Port Authority from $3 million
to $14 million to fund improvements.
staff
[photo: Prince Rupert Port
Authority]
Guest Commentary
Roland Penner
The Heart of the Continent
Winnipeg: “Of thee I sing/summer, autumn, winter, spring” (Gershwin).
Tom Hyland Blacklock
A pioneer publisher and war correspondent,
confidante of three prime ministers and 1922
president of the Ottawa Press Gallery, Tom Blacklock
was mourned at his passing in 1934 as “a keen
observer blessed with a sense of proportion.” Born
in Halton County, Ont. in 1873, he became a frontier
editor and first mayor of Weyburn, Sask. in 1903.
Assigned to Parliament Hill by the Winnipeg Telegram
in 1912 he remained a gallery man for life with
columns published from Victoria to Halifax: “As Tom
Blacklock used to say, ‘That ain’t the way I heard it.’”
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Tom Korski, Editor
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EDITORIAL BOARD:
Alex Binkley
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Kaven Baker-Voakes
613-992-4511
[email protected]
Mark Bourrie
613-992-4511
[email protected]
I was born here in 1924. The city then
carried the red badge of the 1919 General
Strike “when the state trembled,” in the
words of historians Reinhold Kramer and
Tom Mitchell. Winnipeg to this day remains politically very much left of centre.
Since 1969 the city has elected a majority
of the NDP caucus in the legislature, sufficient to make it the governing party of
Manitoba for 33 of the past 43 years.
I belonged to the Young Pioneers from age
five. We were provided with red kerchiefs
and blue forage caps, which we proudly
wore in May Day parades. My boyhood
home on Lansdowne Avenue was Winnipeg North party headquarters in the 1935
election. There was a huge banner across
the front of our house, ‘Vote Communist,
Vote Tim Buck.’ This being the height of
tomato season, the banner got its share
of missiles – as did our neighbour’s porch,
when the tomatoes misfired.
That’s Winnipeg.
My father Jacob was one of the founders
of the Communist Party of Canada. He
served 25 years on City Council. When
he was released from wartime internment in 1942 simply for belonging to
a banned organization, he was greeted
at the CPR station by a crowd of 5,000
well-wishers – including every member
of City Council, some of whom voted to
expel him at the time of his arrest.
My city is geographically, culturally, sociologically, politically, the heart of the continent. It is uniquely a “prairie metropolis,” as
historians Gerald Friesen and Ed Rae put it.
Home still, as it has been for all its 140-year
history, to immigrants and refugees from
every continent, Winnipeg is a friendly,
tolerant place, though all too much racism
and discrimination still exists.
There is an ethnic and cultural richness
in the folk festivals, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, symphony and theatre companies.
Novelist Margaret Laurence spent five
years in Winnipeg. In 1948 she wrote a
long poetic essay about the city, North
Main Car, following the streetcar as stop
by stop it picked up workers wending their
way to downtown shops and factories. The
work was never published in her lifetime
but discovered in an archive at York University after her death (Winnipeg Connection 2006, editor Birk Sproxton).
The last stanza says a great deal of what
lies strong in the class culture of Winnipeg, the heart of the continent:
“Oh all of us have been separated long
enough/By the cruel-crushing wall of
race and creed/Looming between us.
“Let us take these old grey outworn
blocks/heave them apart, turn them
around to the sun, and see revealed the
richness of our diversity,the colors of
speech and songs splendor.
“Let us build of the sea new structure, a
fortress/Founded on common creed, our
bond as Workingmen: A base against oppression, our first bastion of Tomorrow.”
(Editor’s note: The author is former attorney general of Manitoba, a 2000
recipient of the Order of Canada and
WWII combat veteran of the Normandy
campaign).
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
5
Polluters Pay - Sometimes
A federal department is waiving mandatory penalties for
polluters, proposing instead
a system of tickets and warnings in cases of minor “noncompliance” with environmental law.
“We are concerned this appears to be backtracking,” said
Will Amos, counsel with the
group Ecojustice. “Canadians
expect this government to
deter polluters.”
The 2009 Environment Enforcement Act proposed a
schedule of “mandatory minimum” penalties for polluters. The Department of the
Environment in a newly-published schedule proposes to
set minimum fines at $5,000
for individuals, $25,000 for
small firms and $100,000 for
large corporations.
However, in a footnote to its
regulations, Environment
Canada also proposed unspecified polluters be exempt
from mandatory minimum
fines “in cases involving minor situations of non-compliance,” noting that lesser penalties could involve a simple
warning, compliance order, or
ticketing.
The department told Blacklock’s that lesser penalties will
be enacted in 2014.
“We support mandatory minimum penalties,” said Amos,
director of the Ecojustice
Environmental Law Clinic
at the University of Ottawa.
“How will they define ‘minor’ non-compliance? Waiving fines for ‘minor’ offences
does seem to send a message
that contradicts the purpose
of the Act.”
Ecojustice in a 2011 report,
Getting Tough on Environmental Crime?, noted successful
federal prosecutions of polluters have averaged twenty
per year, with fines averaging
$10,524 per conviction since
the passage of the Environment Enforcement Act three
years ago: “Ecojustice finds
that small fines, small contributions to environmental
funds and community service
are the most common sanctions.”
Environment Canada declined to provide a legal definition of minor polluting, explaining in a statement that
“enforcement officers evaluate each situation of noncompliance on a case-by-case
basis.”
The Canadian Environmental Law Association said waiver of mandatory minimum
penalties on polluters would
provide courts with greater discretion in sentencing,
but expressed alarm that enforcement of new regulations
will be postponed for another
year.
“In the context of enforcement the courts should have
some kind of flexibility in
d e t e r m i n i n g f i n e s,” s a i d
Ramani Nadarajah, counsel
with the Toronto-based association. “Imposing a minimum fine may cause undue
hardship in some circumstances.”
“The bigger issue really is,
environmental law is only as
good as a government’s capacity to enforce it,” Nadarajah
said in an interview; “We see a
significant time lapse here. It
is not clear why this was not
passed with the Act.”
Environment Minister Peter
Kent did not take Blacklock’s
questions.
Tom Korski
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
6
MPs Told Bill “Tips Balance”
of Aboriginal Affairs and
Northern Development said
it does not welcome changes
to its legislation.
“Ultimately, the department
does not share NTI’s concerns that its recommended
amendments are required to
allay any confusion on the
day to day operation or to
maintain consistency with
the Nunavut land claims
treaty” said Stephen Traynor,
the department’s director of
resource policy.
Negotiations on the bill took
some nine years between
Nunavut groups, resource
companies and territorial
and federal staff.
A complex bill involving
Canada’s Northern Territories that has seen years of
tri-party consultations must
now be amended before becoming law or risk “confusion and uncertainty,” says a
participating group.
Bill C-47, An Act to Enact the
Nunavut Planning and Project
Assessment Act and the Northwest Territories Surface Rights
Board Act, introduced in the
House last Nov. 6, sets out
policy guides to “improve
regulatory processes” in licensing resource projects.
Yet the bill, initially supported by stakeholders and
opposition parties, is now
the subject of concerns by
an organization mandated
to oversee territorial land
claims, Nunavut Tunngavik
Incorporated (NTI).
“The wording of the bill is
different from the wording
in the Nunavut land claims
agreement,” said James Eetoolook, NTI vice president.
“The Nunavut agreement
contains a careful balance
between development and
the protection of the environment,” Eetoolook said
in an interview. “The bill tips
the balance a bit in favour of
development.”
NTI took the unusual step of
submitting amendments to
the Commons’ aboriginal affairs committee, which is to
conduct hearings on C-47 after Parliament returns from
its mid-winter recess Jan. 28.
“Generally NTI supports the
bill,” Eetoolook said. “The
amendments are going to
have to be required if the bill
goes through.”
The group’s proposals seek
clarification on jurisdictional
boundaries and ministerial
powers in licensing new resource projects.
However, the Department
“They’ve seen the language
all along,” said Traynor. “NTI
will continue to push and
leverage and use the system
to their advantage and continually push those amendments.”
The Government of Nunavut said it is reviewing NTI’s
proposals.
“Our government is supportive of this bill,” Deputy Environment Minister David
Akeeagok told Blacklock’s.
“Our initial review looks like
there are not any significant changes that could be
gained.”
KAVEN BAKER-VOAKES
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
7
Behind Every Burger Is A
Thousand Pages Of Regulations
regulations of equal importance that we haven’t see yet
that will cover the imports.”
are bound to be caught up in
US efforts to modernize the
American food supply system.
Under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement,
Canada and the US pledged
to set uniform standards on
products from either country.
Christopher Kyte, president of
the processors’ organization,
said US regulators continue
to impose checks and other
requirements on Canadian
exporters despite the NAFTA
agreement.
Chambers said American
regulators appeared to favour
different rules for food products certified under thirdparty inspection programs for
domestic and imported foods.
Washington estimates the
overhaul of food safety regulations will cost American
business half-a-trillion dollars in compliance expenses.
While Canadian industry
studies what the US Food and
Drug Administration expects
from foreign suppliers, regulators are also gauging how
the new rules will impact the
Canadian Food Inspection
Agency as it prepares to enforce Parliament’s Safe Food
for Canadians Act signed into
law last Nov. 22
The Canadian food industry,
from manufacturers to growers, is sifting through new
American safety regulations
for impact on the nation’s
$120 billion-a year exports to
the United States.
The US Government after
years of study published some
1,300 pages of regulations
under its Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011.
Review of the fine print may
take weeks due to complexity of the new rules, said an
industry group, the Canadian
Supply Chain Food Safety Coalition.
“This is packed with explanations, nuances and justifications,” said Albert Chambers,
executive director.
Chambers noted “there are still
Canadian regulators are “reviewing the proposed FDA
food safety changes,” said
Maria Kubacki, CFIA spokesperson. “Given that the draft
rules are extensive, it will take
some time to analyze what the
US is proposing and assess the
impacts.”
T h e Fo o d P ro c e s s o r s o f
Canada, an industry advocate, warned that suppliers
This is packed
with explanations, nuances
and justifications
“That costs us money,” said
Kyte, who estimated that expenses from needless US inspections amount to some 10
percent of Canadian processors’ gross margin on crossborder sales.
“We should be exempt because our food quality and
inspection is better,” Kyte said.
“Some of their food plants
only get inspected every six
years. Our record is much better than that.”
Food processing and beverage
manufacturing employ more
than 280,000 Canadians, by
official estimate.
ALEX BINKLEY
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
8
CBC Sells Assets, Cuts Jobs
S.E. in Calgary. The CBC told
Blacklock’s the property was
originally purchased for radio
transmission towers but never
used: “Both are outright sales
of land.”
In addition, the CBC reduced
the number of its full- and
part-time staff in the fourth
quarter of last year to 10,560
employees, compared to
11,519 for the same period in
2011 – a reduction of 959 jobs.
The corporation last April
estimated its job cuts would
number 650 due to budget
cuts.
The Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation has sold millions
of dollars in real estate and cut
more than eight percent of its
payroll in the weeks leading
to the next federal budget.
The CBC recently sold more
than $8 million in Alberta real
estate. And documents show
the corporation cut more jobs
than it originally forecast in
absorbing reductions in its
federal funding.
Cabinet last year mandated
a $115 million cut over three
years in the CBC’s annual
Parliamentary grant, worth
$1.13 billion. Members of the
Conservative caucus have privately speculated additional
cuts are pending in the 2013
budget, expected next month.
The public broadcaster recently finalized the sale of
two lots to developers at more
than $4,000,000 apiece at
3245 170th Street in Edmonton, and 12725 52nd Street
The finance department has
declined comment on speculation that additional cutbacks are pending.
Document show the payroll
reductions affected every
regional service of the CBC,
which maintained 4,202 employees in Quebec; 4,099 in
Ontario; 527 in British Columbia; 373 in Alberta; 282 in
New Brunswick; 254 in Manitoba; 253 in Nova Scotia; 188
in Saskatchewan; 147 in Newfoundland & Labrador; 73 in
the Northwest Territories; 68
in Prince Edward Island; 31 in
Yukon and 30 in Nunavut.
The corporation has 33 employees in bureaus outside
Canada, according to payroll
records.
Hubert Lacroix, the CBC’s
$364,000- a year president,
was reappointed to a new
term this month.
staff
LogiCS
A Poem by Shai Ben-Shalom
“Plastic does not conduct electricity”
explained my Physics teacher.
“After all, we use it for insulation.”
It sounded logical.
And yet,
can soap get dirty
if we use it for cleaning?
Can a freedom fighter hold hostages?
Can a pro-life activist kill?
Can a polygraph lie?
Can a Black lead?
(Editor’s note: the author, an Israeli-born biologist, published
his first collection of poems Martians Among Us in 2012 with In/
Words Press).
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
9
Another Load of Empties
stage.”
Shipping lines are appealing for a change in federal
“red tape” to ease the costs av i n g s h u t t l e o f e m p t y
containers among Atlantic
ports.
The Shipping Federation of
Canada is asking regulators
to a rewrite a provision of
the Coasting Trade Act to allow members to shift available cargo containers to
meet export demand.
“The cost of repositioning
the containers by road or
rail is substantial,” said Michael Broad, president of the
Montreal-based federation
representing some 70 international shipping lines that
call on Canadian ports.
Under the Coasting Trade
Act, foreign-flagged vessels
are forbidden from carrying cargo between Canadian
ports. The provision was
intended by Parliament to
protect Canadian shippers.
Yet domestic firms have supported the Shipping Federa-
tion’s request, noting that
Canadian vessels typically
transport cargo in bulk, not
containers.
Broad estimated as many as
70,000 empty shipping containers must be trucked or
carried by rail each year between the ports of Montreal,
Halifax and Saint John.
“The government is looking
to cut red tape that burdens
businesses with unnecessary
costs,” Broad said in an interview. “Well, here’s an easy
one to fix.”
The Department of Transport said it is reviewing the
shippers’ request.
“At this time the department
is still assessing the merits of
certain aspects of this proposal in consultation with
other government departments and agencies as well
as with other stakeholders,”
the department told Blacklock’s in a statement. “No decision has been made at this
Broad noted federal lawyers with Transport Canada
classify empty containers
as cargo, not conveyances:
“Therefore, to get empty
c o n t a i n e r s i n t o At l a n t i c
Canada, our members have
to reposition them from
outside of Canada, like the
United States or Europe. A
change in this legislation
could make exports from
Atlantic Canada more competitive.”
Empty containers are frequently in oversupply in
Ontario and Quebec due to
higher volumes of imports
over exported finished
goods.
“We would be a lot more
competitive if we could reposition the empty containers here rather than bringing them in from overseas,”
Broad said.
Alex Binkley
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
10
An “All Canadian” Invention
Industry Canada has awarded a patent to a Quebec
manufacturer for a snowboard invention, a buckle
lock that can be adjusted by
hand without first removing
your mittens.
Patent # 2759930, “Locking
Device For A Buckle,” details a plastic ratchet-type
buckle for snowboard bindings simpler to use than
other locks with “complex”
mechanisms “easily damaged or fouled by ice,” according to inventors’ claims
filed with the patent office.
“ We st i l l s e e s n ow b o a rd
buckles with a quick-release
system,” said Alex Maher,
technical advisor with GV
Snowshoes, a Québec Cityarea equipment maker that
patented the locking buckle.
“These quick-release sys-
tems have issues with icing;
and when you are in heavy
bush, they can catch on
branches and spring open,”
Maher said.
The improved ratchet
buckle permits a “tight
yet comfortable fit of the
strap” that can be locked on
snowboard gear, the firm
wrote in its patent application: “This type of buckle
is especially useful for cold
weather because it allows
a user to quickly loosen
and tighten the strap whilst
wearing gloves or when the
user’s fingers are cold.”
“This invention is all-Canadian, with all- Canadian
p a r t s,” s a i d Ma h e r, w h o
estimated the firm annually sells more than 30,000
pairs of snowboards with
the locking buckle.
Best of Sheree
staff
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
11
Ottawa Math: 60 - 1 = 0
“It usually results in better chances to
find a job,” the department told Blacklock’s in a statement. “As well, it helps to
make these longer duration programs
more affordable for students by lowering
their student debt.”
Grants total a maximum $3,000 a year
for qualified low-income applicants and
$1,500 a year for middle-income students.
“Ninety-seven percent of our students
get jobs in their field of study,” Buy said in
an interview. “The same cannot be said of
many university graduates.”
“Our students also tend to be more mature – the average age is 29,” Buy continued. “These are people with families,
seeking retraining with skills the market
needs, but cannot apply for grants because career college programs under 60
weeks are not eligible.”
Educators are pressing the Prime Minister’s Office to approve first-ever federal grants to college students currently
disqualified from funding under a 2009
formula.
“It’s a matter of getting people to work,”
said Serge Buy, of the National Association of Career Colleges. “The government is aware there is a skills shortage.”
Under the federal Canada Students
Grants Program, funding to low and
middle-income applicants are limited to
full-time students enrolled in a minimum
60-week program.
“Career colleges deliver condensed programs,” said Buy, association CEO. “We
have programs for pipefitting, plumbing,
electrical – any number of trades where
workers are needed with programs that
run under 59 weeks.”
The association represents some 500
career colleges with more than 160,000
students.
Documents show the association lobbied
Meredith Lilly, a PMO policy advisor;
and Samuel VanderVeer, a policy advisor with the Department of Finance; to
amend terms of the grants program.
Human Resources, the federal department administering grants, declined
comment when asked why it disqualified
college students, but maintained the 60week requirement improved graduates’
job opportunities.
More than 320,000 students nationwide
received federal grants last year, by government estimate, with payments totalling $630,000,000.
Limited grants are available to college
or part-time students under specific programs for applicants with disabilities or
dependants.
“I think Canadians would like to see
changes in the next budget,” said Buy.
The finance department declined comment. The 2013 budget is expected to be
introduced next month.
Tom Korski
[photo: Canada Postal Archives Access.
#1989-565]
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
12
Landmarks Ottawa Destroyed:
John Slept Here
John A. Macdonald was a vagabondish
fellow who never stayed in one place for
long, and occasionally had trouble paying the mortgage. Our founding prime
minister had at least five homes in Ottawa; few survive.
In 1865 he bought his first bachelor pad,
a stone row house at 63 Daly Street, near
what is now a youth hostel. “I don’t know
what you have got in the way of furniture
that you can spare me,” he wrote his sister. Macdonald took in three boarders to
help pay the bills.
He married his first wife, Agnes, in 1867,
and she set out to improve the place. In
her diary Lady Macdonald complained
the family home had become a caucus
hangout: “Here – in this place – the
atmosphere is so awfully political that
sometimes I think the very flies hold
parliaments on the table.”
Indeed, there would have been a lot of
flies. Daly Street had an open sewer that
reeked in summer and left a residue of
human waste mixed with snow and mud
in winter. This first home is gone forever,
destroyed in an 1873 fire. A second home,
on Chapel Street, was demolished after
the First World War and is today a parking lot.
In 1870 the Prime Minister again went
house-hunting. He found a place at
O’Connor and Nepean Streets, seven
blocks south of Parliament Hill. It was
a sturdy three-story brick home with
gingerbread veranda. A single photograph of the place exists, a grainy image
published in a 1904 Ottawa travelogue
The Hub and Spokes, by Anson Gard.
The house on O’Connor was demolished.
Today it is replaced by an economical grey, mid-century apartment tower
across the street from a convenience
store that peddles cigarettes and lotto
tickets.
Macdonald would have appreciated the
affordability of the neighbourhood. In
April 1875, on being expelled from the
House for election fraud, he was reduced
to auctioning his furniture and light
fixtures to pay creditors. From the sales
catalogue: “one large bronze hanging
lamp and burners with porcelain shade”;
“large oak book case in two parts”; “one
oval oak extension table.” Bidders were
free to cart away the household treasures
of this Father of Confederation. Macdonald took off to Toronto to await the resurrection of his fortunes.
With his re-election in 1878 Macdonald
returned to the capital and a new address: Stadacona Hall, a large gated home
on what is now Laurier Avenue, built by
a lumber baron and fit for a prime min-
ister. Macdonald lived here through his
second term as leader. The place is still
there, now home to the High Commission of Brunei.
In 1883 Macdonald purchased for
$10,400 his last and most famous address, Earnscliffe, a gothic Revival manor
overlooking the Ottawa River. Here Macdonald spent his final years, and died in
an upstairs bedroom in 1891.
Not for another sixty years would Parliament provide an official residence,
forever ending the era when a prime
minister might have lived next door.
ANDREW ELLIOtT
[photo: Library & Archives Canada
C-009267]
(Editor’s note: the author is a federal archivist who chronicles historic architecture at glebeheritageblog.wordpress.
com, and in 2012 wrote The Glorious
Years: Peterborough’s Golden Age of Architecture 1840-1940, Borealis Press)
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
13
book review
Moscow on the North Shore
It was no joke on the north
shore, in what is now Thunder
Bay.
In 1919 there were so many
Bolsheviks in Port Arthur, Ont.
the local MP called it one of
Canada’s worst “breeding places
of revolution.” The mayor calculated three-quarters of local Finnish immigrants were
socialists. In neighbouring Fort
William they held a memorial
for Lenin in 1924 and sang the
Internationale.
The twin cities on the north
shore of Lake Superior were
“storm centres in Canadian
working-class history,” writes
Michel Beaulieu, associate professor of history at Lakehead
University.
It is popular now to dismiss
Canadian communism as an
historical curiosity peopled by
colourful idealists. In its day it
was serious business. Churchill
scorned fifth columnists like
the Lakehead Leninists as Moscow “missionaries,” he called
them: “Obscure people awaiting
the day when they hope to be
the absolute masters of their
fellow countrymen and pay off
old scores.”
“The RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police flooded the region
with undercover officers in an
attempt to infiltrate the movement,” Prof. Beaulieu recounts
in Labour at the Lakehead. The
twin cities were “a metropole
for a resource-rich hinterland,”
a choke point for cross-Canada railways that monopolized
shipments of Western grain and
Eastern factory goods. Beaulieu
notes the 1917 Russian revolution inspired a “spirit of revolt”
so palpable in Fort William, a local elevator company petitioned
city council to lay on extra police for fear that Reds would
seize the works. As late as 1930
a local candidate for alderman
campaigned on a platform of
“sharper class struggles.”
paperman Eugene Lyons, who
documented their plight in his
1937 classic Assignment In Utopia: “The period of disillusionment ranged from two weeks
to a year, and the embittered
regrets were in direct proportion to the fervor of the original
renunciation. It was the finality
of their act, the realization that
they were trapped and held and
could never leave Russia again,
which worked on these people,
even more than their disillusionment with the USSR. They
would come to my office…and
weep bitter tears.”
In Petrozavodsk the north
shore radicals helped erect a
monument that still stands: a
grotesque statue of Lenin as tall
as a house.
At the Lakehead there is no
monument at all.
holly doan
Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism and Politics
1900-35 by Michel Beaulieu;
UBC Press; 316 pages; ISBN
978-077-4820-028; $32.95
Beaulieu documents the minutiae of local radical groups, and
their ultimate failure. The twin
city Reds could not even elect
an MP: “The sum of their efforts
came to less than the immense
sacrifices and energies they had
poured into them.”
Most poignant is Beaulieu’s
brief account of “Karelia fever,”
the come-to-the-motherland
campaign that saw hundreds
of Lakehead Bolsheviks leave
Ontario for the Karelia Autonomous Soviet Republic in 193132. They were among thousands of socialists who fled the
west in Depression years, believing a bright future could be
found in Stalinist Russia – and
surrendered their passports to
find it. “Pathetic,” wrote news-
www.robinbakerartist.com
BLACKLOCK’S REPORTER
APPOINTMENTS
Alper, Howard – of Ottawa, reappointed
chair, Science, Technology & Innovation
Council. Dec. 9
Gauthier, Jacques – of Montréal, appointed a member, National Energy Board,
Dec. 13
Luciak, Lubomyr – of Kingston, Ont., appointed a part-time member, National Parole board, Ontario division, effective April 2
Beattie, Merri – of Ottawa, appointed a
member, Public Service Staffing Tribunal,
Jan. 30
Goodman, Robert – of Toronto, reappointed a member, Canada Pension Plan
Review Tribunal for North York district,
Dec. 6
Luftig, Olga – of Toronto, appointed a
member, Canadian Human Rights Tribunal,
Dec. 13
Bogoroch, Richard – of Toronto, appointed a member, Patented Medicine Prices
Review Board, Dec. 13
Brazeau, Denis – of Longueuil, Que.,
reappointed vice-chair, Canadian Forces
Grievance Board, Feb. 9
Buchanan, Marilyn – of Whitehorse, appointed a trustee, Canadian Museum of
Nature, Dec. 13
Cadieux Pierre – of Rigaud, Quebec, appointed a part-time member, Parole Board
Quebec Region, Dec. 13
Carpeneto, James – of Sarnia, reappointed chair, EI Board of Referees for
Sarnia district, Dec. 18
Castelli, Ray – of West Vancouver, BC, appointed chair of the Canadian Commercial
Corporation, with an annual retainer in the
range of $8,000 to $9,400 and a per diem
in the range of $310 to $375, Dec. 14
Claridge, Jayne – of Callander, Ont., reappointed a member, Canada Pension Plan
Review Tribunal for North Bay region, Dec.
13
Daigle, Nathalie – of Gatineau, Que., appointed a member, Public Service Staffing
Tribunal, Dec. 13
Dansereau, Claire – of Ottawa, appointed
Senior Advisor to the Privy Council, with
a salary in the range of $216,900 to
$255,100, Jan. 14
Davies, Philip – appointed a member, National Energy Board, Jan. 7
Dodds, Murray – of Calgary, reappointed
a part-time member, Parole Board Prairie
Division, Jan. 14
Guindi, Shahir – of Beaconsfield, Que.,
appointed a director, Business Development Bank, Dec. 13
Fawcett, Sue – of Calgary, reappointed a
director, Business Development Bank of
Canada, Dec. 13
Filliter, George – of Fredericton, NB, reappointed a part-time member, Public Service Labour Relations Board, Dec. 14
Fowler, Ian – of Calgary, reappointed a
part-time member, Parole Board Prairie
Region, Jan. 14
Guindi, Shahir – of Montreal, appointed
a director, Business Development Bank,
Dec. 17
Lunn, Gary – of North Saanich, BC, appointed a director, Canada Foundation
for Sustainable Development Technology,
Dec. 13
Hamel, Bruno – of Ottawa, reappointed
chair, Canadian Forces Grievance Board,
with a salary in the range of $139,900 t
$164,500, effective March 2
Lupul, Nita – of St. Albert, Alta., reappointed chair, EI Board of Referees for
Alberta Division, Dec. 13
Helwer, Sherry – of Brandon, Man., appointed a director, Canadian Commercial
Corporation, Dec. 7
Hermanson, Elwin – of Winnipeg, reappointed chief commissioner, Canadian
Grain Commission, with a salary in the
range of $226,100 to $266,000, Jan. 21
Huebert, Robert – of Calgary, appointed
a director, Canadian Polar Commission,
Dec. 13
Jean-Louis, Maxim – of Sudbury, Ont.,
reappointed a director, Canadian Polar
Commission, Dec. 13
Johnston, Dale – of Ponoka, Alta., appointed chair, Farm Credit Canada, Dec. 13
Jolicoeur, Renée – of Ottawa, appointed
Associate Deputy Minister of Public Works,
with a salary in the range of $188,600 to
$221,800, Jan. 14
Jollette, Denis – of Ottawa, reappointed a
full-time member, Parole Board of Canada,
effective Feb. 18
Keenan, Michael – of Ottawa, appointed
Associate Deputy Minister of Natural
Resources, with a salary in the range of
$188,600 to $221,800, Jan. 14
Kennedy, Claire – of Toronto, appointed a
director, Bank of Canada, Dec. 18
King, Matthew – of Ottawa, appointed
Deputy Minister of Fisheries, with a salary in the range of $216,900 to $255,100,
Jan. 14
Lacroix, Hubert – of Westmount, reappointed president, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with a salary in the range
of $363,800 to $428,000, Jan. 1
Lalani, Arif – appointed Ambassador to
United Arab Emirates, Aug. 15
Lineker, William – of Port Moody, BC,
appointed a part-time member, Canada
Industrial Relations Board, Jan. 14
Macdonald, J. Ed – of Pictou, NS, appointed a part-time member, Transportation Appeal Tribunal, Dec. 20
MacPherson, Elizabeth – of Ottawa, reappointed chair, Canada Industrial Relations Board, with a salary in the range of
$226,100 to $266,000, Jan. 1
MacSween, James – of Red Deer, Alta.,
reappointed a member, Canada Pension
Plan Review Tribunal for Red Deer region,
Dec. 13
McCaw, Maureen – of Edmonton, appointed a director, CBC, Dec. 13
McDougall, Daniel – of Ottawa, appointed
chief climate change negotiator, Dec. 3
McGraw, Louis-Philippe – of Moncton,
NB, appointed a member, Parole Board of
Canada, Atlantic Region, effective Feb. 11
McLaughlin, E. Virginia – of Richmond
Hill, Ont., reappointed a trustee, National
Museum of Science & Technology, Dec. 18
McPhail, Ian – of Toronto, reappointed
part-time vice chair, RCMP Complaints
Commission, with a per diem in the range
of $605 to $710, Jan. 14
Mallory, Stephen – of Toronto, appointed
a director VIA Rail, Dec. 21
Marshall, Robert – of Winnipeg, appointed a part-time member, Parole Board
of Canada, Prairie region, effective April 2
Menke, Ursula – of Gloucester, Ont., reappointed as Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency, with a salary in the
range of $226,100 to $266,000, Dec. 3
Piper, Sharon – of Whitby, Ont., reappointed chair, EI Board of Referees for
Toronto district, Dec. 18
Pratas, Maria – of Ancaster, Ont., reappointed a member, Canada Pension Plan
Review Tribunal for Hamilton district,
Dec. 6
No. 012 Jan. 21, 2013
15
Price, James – of Ottawa, reappointed
vice-chair, Canadian Forces Grievance
Board, with a salary in the range of
$105,900 to $124,500, Dec. 9
Reeves, Joanne – of New Ross, NS, reappointed a member, Canada Pension Plan
Review Tribunal for Bridgewater region,
Dec. 13
Rivard, Normand – of Ottawa, appointed
a member, Canada Industrial Relations
Board, Jan. 15
Rowe, Derrick – of St. John’s, appointed
a director, Canadian Commercial Corporation, Dec. 7
Sairanen, Sari – of Toronto, appointed
governor, Council of the Canadian Centre
for Occupational Health & Safety, Dec. 13
Senécal-Tremblay, Marie – of Montréal,
appointed a citizenship judge, effective
April 2
Sergieh, Hind – of Montréal, appointed a
director, VIA Rail, Dec. 21
Sherwood, Kelley – of Ottawa, reappointed a member, Canada Pension Plan
Review Tribunal for Ottawa region, Dec. 13
Silberman, Toni – of Toronto, appointed a
director, Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Dec. 18
Smith, G. Patrick – of Ottawa, appointed a
member, Specific Claims Tribunal, Dec. 13
Sokolyk, Diane – of Montréal, reappointed
a member, Immigration & Refugee Board,
Montreal Region, Jan. 11
Stewart, Greg – of Regina, reappointed
president, Farm Credit Canada, with a salary in the range of $290,700 to $341,900,
Jan. 1
Treusch, Andrew – of Ottawa, appointed
Commissioner of Revenue, with a salary in
the range of $216,900 to $255,100, Jan.
14
Vancise, William – of Regina, appointed
part-time chair, Copyright Board, with a
per diem in the range of $940 to $1,105,
Jan. 11
Wallocha, Katherine – of Coalhurst, Alta.,
reappointed chair, EI Board of Referees for
Alberta Divisino, Dec. 13
Whalen, W. Lawrence – of Sault Ste.
Marie, Ont., appointed a member, Specific
Claims Tribunal, Dec. 13
Whitley, Stuart James – of Whitehorse,
appointed vice-chair, National Parole
Board Pacific Region, Dec. 13