To my fans at Transport Canada

I was unaware that my blog was so popular at Transport Canada. First off, let me say thank you to those at Transport Canada that viewed it however, I'm guessing they did not view it for fun because in my 2 recent posts about the agency, I summarized the allegations about safety and inspection deficiencies that supposedly have occurred over the last several years. As was brilliantly pointed out by the season premier of CBC's The Fifth Estate, an investigative journalism program for those that don't know, surprise inspections are rarely carried out on commercial jets anymore. Such inspections are now handled by the Safety Management System which is a safety and quality assurance plan managed by individual airlines. The airlines must still follow all Transport Canada regulations within the plan and file all reports with the agency. Inspections are still carried out by T.C. but only if they detect a problem with the safety or operations management.

Another issue pointed out by The Fifth Estate was that when airports get extremely busy, sometimes security is put at risk as security screeners are pressured to not cause delays over security concerns or regulations. A great example of that is a case that happened recently where a passenger on an Air Canada flight did not want to pay an overweight bag fee and was going to cause a scene. One of the security agents calmed the situation by agreeing to take the passenger's bag and put it on the flight ... no extra charges and no security screening was done. Lucky nothing was wrong with that bag. I should point out that what the security agent did was extremely illegal and violates safety regulations. Transport Canada should have been informed about the incident but weren't.

All of the above statements I have just made can be found in The Fifth Estate program titled Riding on Risk. I wonder if this is going to make me more popular at Transport Canada. Google Analytics is such a nice tool.

Thank you to my fans. Safe blue skies everyone.

Parti conservateur du Canada, et lobby du tabac.

TTAWA – The Harper Conservatives showed their support of the tobacco lobby yesterday by trying to weaken a bill aimed at banning flavoured cigarettes targeted to young people. TTAWA - Les conservateurs de Stephen Harper ont manifesté leur soutien du lobby du tabac, hier en essayant d'affaiblir un projet de loi visant à interdire la cigarette parfumée visant les jeunes.

“Greed, not corporate survival, motivated Phillip Morris to engage in blackmail – and the Reform-Conservatives played along,” said Liberal MP Marlene Jennings. "La cupidité, pas la survie des entreprises, motivés Phillip Morris de se livrer à un chantage - et les réformistes-conservateurs ont joué le jeu», a déclaré la députée libérale Marlene Jennings.

After Phillip Morris threatened to close its Quebec City facility, the Conservatives put forward an amendment that would allow sugary and fruity-tasting products to be added to the cigarettes. Après Phillip Morris a menacé de fermer ses installations de la Ville du Québec, les conservateurs ont proposé un amendement qui permettrait sucrée et fruitée, dégustation de produits à ajouter à la cigarette. Met with unanimous opposition, the Conservatives were forced to back down. Ont rencontré une opposition unanime, les conservateurs ont dû faire marche arrière. This didn't stop Minister Josée Verner from voicing Conservative support for Big Tobacco in the House of Commons yesterday, stating: “Our colleagues from Quebec, including myself are concerned about the [Tobacco] industry and we are trying to find a solution”. Cela n'a pas empêché la ministre Josée Verner de exprimant le soutien des conservateurs pour les géants du tabac à la Chambre des communes, hier, en déclarant: «Nos collègues du Québec, y compris moi-même sommes préoccupés par le [tabac] industrie et nous essayons de trouver une solution».

Conservative MP Maxime Bernier also sided with Philip Morris International and its Canadian unit, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, in the dispute regarding cigarettes made with sweeteners such as licorice, cocoa or vanilla. Le député conservateur Maxime Bernier a aussi pris le parti de Philip Morris International et sa filiale canadienne, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, dans le différend concernant les cigarettes fabriquées avec des édulcorants tels que la réglisse, de cacao ou de vanille. After his party was forced to drop the issue, Mr. Bernier said he had no regrets for backing Big Tobacco: “I took a stand in favour of amendments to Bill C-32 in order to protect the freedom of choice of adult smokers.” Après que son parti a été contraint d'abandonner la question, M. Bernier a déclaré qu'il n'avait aucun regret pour la sauvegarde des géants du tabac: «J'ai pris une position en faveur d'amendements au projet de loi C-32 afin de protéger la liberté de choix des fumeurs adultes."

“As someone who has battled cigarette addiction, I can say that Mr. Bernier is getting his principles all wrong by kowtowing to threats from Phillip Morris,” said Ms. Jennings. «Comme quelqu'un qui a lutté contre la toxicomanie cigarette, je peux dire que M. Bernier est payé selon ses principes tout faux par des courbettes devant les menaces de Phillip Morris", a déclaré Mme Jennings. “What 'freedom of choice' is he referring to? «Ce que la« liberté de choix »est-il allusion? Freedom for our children to become addicted to this deadly habit?” Liberté pour nos enfants de devenir dépendants de cette habitude mortelle?

Liberal Health Critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett echoed opinions recently expressed by Cynthia Callard, executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, who said that the Conservative amendment would have severely weakened the bill. Porte-parole libéral de la Santé Dr Carolyn Bennett fait l'écho des opinions exprimées récemment par Cynthia Callard, directrice générale de Médecins pour un Canada sans fumée, qui a dit que l'amendement conservateur aurait gravement affaibli le projet de loi.

“This bill was designed to make cigarettes less attractive to young people and to protect our children from this deadly habit,” said Dr. Bennett. "Ce projet de loi visait à rendre les cigarettes moins attrayants pour les jeunes et pour protéger nos enfants contre cette habitude qui tue", a déclaré le Dr Bennett. “The Conservatives wanted to water it down, all because Phillip Morris has them in their back pocket. «Les conservateurs voulaient de l'édulcorer, tout cela parce Phillip Morris les a dans sa poche arrière.

“It is ridiculous that in 2009, with everything that we know about the deadly effects of tobacco, we still had to fight the Reform-Conservatives on this,” she said. "Il est ridicule qu'en 2009, avec tout ce que nous savons sur les effets mortels du tabac, nous avons toujours dû lutter contre les réformistes-conservateurs sur ce point, dit-elle. “Canadians deserve better than this government.” «Les Canadiens méritent mieux que ce gouvernement."

Conservative Party of Canada, & tobacco lobby.

Harper Conservatives pressured to soften its support for Big Tobacco

TTAWA – The Harper Conservatives showed their support of the tobacco lobby yesterday by trying to weaken a bill aimed at banning flavoured cigarettes targeted to young people.

“Greed, not corporate survival, motivated Phillip Morris to engage in blackmail – and the Reform-Conservatives played along,” said Liberal MP Marlene Jennings.

After Phillip Morris threatened to close its Quebec City facility, the Conservatives put forward an amendment that would allow sugary and fruity-tasting products to be added to the cigarettes. Met with unanimous opposition, the Conservatives were forced to back down. This didn’t stop Minister Josée Verner from voicing Conservative support for Big Tobacco in the House of Commons yesterday, stating: “Our colleagues from Quebec, including myself are concerned about the [Tobacco] industry and we are trying to find a solution”.

Conservative MP Maxime Bernier also sided with Philip Morris International and its Canadian unit, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, in the dispute regarding cigarettes made with sweeteners such as licorice, cocoa or vanilla. After his party was forced to drop the issue, Mr. Bernier said he had no regrets for backing Big Tobacco: “I took a stand in favour of amendments to Bill C-32 in order to protect the freedom of choice of adult smokers.”

“As someone who has battled cigarette addiction, I can say that Mr. Bernier is getting his principles all wrong by kowtowing to threats from Phillip Morris,” said Ms. Jennings. “What ‘freedom of choice’ is he referring to? Freedom for our children to become addicted to this deadly habit?”

Liberal Health Critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett echoed opinions recently expressed by Cynthia Callard, executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, who said that the Conservative amendment would have severely weakened the bill.

“This bill was designed to make cigarettes less attractive to young people and to protect our children from this deadly habit,” said Dr. Bennett. “The Conservatives wanted to water it down, all because Phillip Morris has them in their back pocket.

“It is ridiculous that in 2009, with everything that we know about the deadly effects of tobacco, we still had to fight the Reform-Conservatives on this,” she said. “Canadians deserve better than this government.”

This is what the Republicans think of Canadian Healthcare.

Defending Canadian Healthcare

Published on October 2, 2009

This week while testifying before the US Senate special committee on aging, MP Dr. Carolyn Bennett rose to the defence of the Canadian healthcare system after Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee charged that Canada is “parasitic” in its relationship with the US. While Senator Corker argued that Canada benefits from low-cost prescription pharmaceuticals after US companies do “all the innovation,” Dr. Bennett defended Canada’s health care system. In question period yesterday, Stephen Harper wouldn’t denounce Senator Corker’s comments.

Here’s how Dr. Bennett described the exchange in an interview on CTV’s Canada AM yesterday:

Well, I have to admit I was pretty surprised. I don't think I understood he really used the word parasite at the beginning and then he went on to sort of say living off of us which made it quite clear that that's what he meant and so I – I explained to him I think politely that – that the pharmaceutical industry is run by multinational corporations and that they are publicly traded. They have investors and researchers around the world and it isn't actually an issue of the United States of America. It's an issue of drug companies and their choices. And the fact that we have price controls is one of the seven – seven points that I was making and why our system is cheaper and more – and more effective.

If you’d like to watch the original exchange with Bob Corker, click here (you’ll have to cycle through to find the actual exchange). To watch Dr. Bennett’s interview with CTV, click hereclick here.

Badbishop.

Police review 1980s allegations against bishop

Last Updated: Friday, October 2, 2009 | 11:05 PM AT Comments338Recommend192

CBC News

Bishop Raymond Lahey arrives at a police station in Ottawa on Thursday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Police in Newfoundland and Labrador say they are looking into allegations that Bishop Raymond Lahey possessed child pornography more than 20 years ago.

The investigation comes following comments by some men — who were abused by Christian Brothers in St. John's Mount Cashel orphanage decades ago — who say they told police they saw child pornography in the home of Lahey in the 1980s.

"I think the [Royal Newfoundland Constabulary] dropped the ball on it big time," Billy Earle, of St. John's, told CBC News Thursday. "Senior officers on the job right now dropped the ball on this big time."

Lahey is now facing charges of possessing and importing child pornography. He turned himself in to Ottawa police Thursday and was released on $9,000 bail.

Const. Paul Davis of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says investigators became aware of Earle's allegations on Thursday and immediately began reviewing them to determine if they're accurate.

In a statement, Davis says police are reviewing audio and video records of interviews with "victims and offenders" from their investigation of sex abuse allegations at the Mount Cashel orphanage, including those of Billy and Shane Earle.

Davis said that, so far, police have not found any evidence to support the allegations made by Billy Earle on behalf of his brother.

Twenty years ago, Earle and his brother Shane Earle testified at Newfoundland and Labrador's Hughes inquiry into the Mount Cashel orphanage, where they suffered abuse as children.

Earle and his brother hope the current police investigation of Lahey will dig into what happened in St. John's when they were boys. Possession of child pornography only became a crime in the 1990s.

Shane Earle says he told police back then that Lahey befriended him when Lahey was a priest in Mount Pearl, but the friendship ended when Earle and another boy found pornographic videos and photos in Lahey's home.

Billy and Shane Earle said the news that Lahey is facing child pornography charges now has turned their minds back to that horrible time and that they've been talking and reliving their experiences with Lahey.

In an email sent to his brother Billy, Shane Earle says he told police 20 years ago the pornography he saw at Lahey's home was child pornography.

"During the investigation in 1989 I did reveal to police that during a visit to Father Raymond Lahey's house in Mount Pearl, I found catalogues of child pornography addressed to Ray Lahey. The pictures were of teen boys sexually aroused," wrote Shane Earle, in an email that Billy Earle showed to CBC News.

Shane Earle's allegations to a St. John's newspaper in the 1980s launched the investigation into what happened at Mount Cashel.

Investigations back then established that the Earle brothers were abused. Both were given financial compensation.

Lahey's next court date is Nov. 4 in Ottawa.

Transport Canadas vew on Safety Management Systems (SMS) NOT ME!

Q1. With SMS regulations, are not the existing Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) as well as audits and inspections no longer required?

SMSs are not self-regulation, nor are they de-regulation. The introduction of SMS has never been about reducing the number of inspectors or cutting costs. SMS regulations are in addition to the current regulations and, by definition, add an extra layer of safety to create a more comprehensive, robust and demanding regulatory framework.

Surveillance of operations under SMS will focus on assessments and validations. These new tools are designed to measure an operator’s ability to identify, assess, and address hazards within their organization, from a reactive and proactive viewpoint. The aim is to identify, mitigate or eliminate hazards to safe operations, before they lead to incidents or accidents. Should assessments or validations fail to provide the necessary data to show the SMS is effective, inspections and audits will be used to provide that data.

This is a comprehensive approach to safety oversight under the SMS regulatory framework and not, as some observers have highlighted, a review of the accuracy and completeness of an operator’s paperwork or an acceptance of what an operator is asserting is the situation. The assessment and validation tools enable inspectors to challenge an operator’s compliance record and assertions. In addition, operators are forced to demonstrate the effectiveness of their systems, that is, their ability to identify, assess and respond to safety concerns before they become safety occurrences. If an operator cannot do that, enforcement action or administrative certificate action would be the next step

Q2. How does a safety management system differ from traditional control methods?

SMS is a natural progression from traditional techniques, based on modern understandings of the nature of organizational accidents and how they occur. SMS has much in common with modern quality assurance that may not be directly involved with day to day flight operations, but nevertheless have the potential to indirectly affect aviation safety.

One other notable difference is that while traditional safety and quality systems were managed at the certificate level - for example, having separate systems for Air Operators and Aviation Maintenance Organizations (AMOs) - SMS looks at the enterprise as a whole. While the majority of SMS activity will continue to be directed toward particular specialist functions, the system is also concerned with how those functions interrelate.

To a large extent, the effectiveness of SMS relies on the corporate culture. The aim of SMS is to achieve a culture wherein each individual contributes to and is responsible for safety, and where the reporting of safety concerns is actively encouraged.

Role of Inspector

Under safety management systems (SMSs), the inspector’s role is more important than ever. Why? They will not only make sure that companies comply with regulations, they will measure how effective companies’ SMSs really are.

Enhancing the work of inspectors

Safety management systems add an additional layer of safety regulation and provide additional rigour to Transport Canada’s current oversight program of inspections and audits.

New oversight methods

In the past, Transport Canada (TC) inspectors audited procedures and reviewed records to see if a company met regulations or not. These are known as compliance inspections. Under safety management systems, inspectors will be taking a more in-depth look at companies. Inspectors will also go into a company to watch how it operates and speak with the workers to measure how well a company’s procedures identify and address safety hazards before they become a serious safety risk. This allows TC inspectors to have more contact with a company’s senior management, supervisors and employees.

Evaluating effectiveness and compliance

The top-level assessment looks to see if the safety management system (SMS) complies with regulations and measures how effective a system it is, based on performance. Inspectors review a system by activity, and rate each sub-activity with a score from one to five. Scores are based on defined expectations, and a score of three means that the regulations are being met. A score above three means that the company goes beyond simply meeting a basic requirement and adopts industry best practices – always working to improve they way it operates.

When a company is getting ready to operate under a SMS, Transport Canada (TC) inspectors will evaluate each planned SMS activity before it is put into action. Companies moving to a SMS regime will follow a timetable for getting the system approved and running. When the SMS is in place, TC will continue to conduct recurrent inspections.

Taking a closer look at a company

The second level of oversight is always testing the effectiveness of the safety management system for finding, reporting and addressing safety hazards before they become safety problems. This oversight involves specific, targeted and routine inspections. These inspections take time to go inside a company’s operations to watch how they:

• discover hazards;
• rate hazards;
• find the root causes of hazards;
• respond to hazards and their causes;
• monitor corrective actions to see if they worked.

These program validation inspections go beyond simply making sure a company complies with regulations. Transport Canada inspectors can step in at any point in the process to make sure that the company follows our regulations as well as measure how well they apply them.

When there is doubt that an operation’s level of compliance with all the regulations is low, but the program validation inspections do not prove this, a compliance inspection will be conducted.

Enforcing the law

If the operator does not try to correct any problems found by inspectors, they will be fined, or even shut down.

Fifth Estate RIDING ON RISK air safety Replay

Fifth Estate

RIDING ON RISK: Disturbing allegations about our safety in the air. How well is our government protecting our safety and security? View the web feature
Wednesday, September 30 at 1 & 4 a.m.

Replay