Canada in brief: Feb 8, 2012

Toronto lawyer could be son of John Diefenbaker

Toronto based legal consultant John Dryden could be the son of the late Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.

Dryden alleges that his mother had an affair with Diefenbaker some four decades ago. He has been approached by a Utah-based company that specialized in advanced DNA collection approaches after his attempts at securing DNA samples from some of Diefenbaker’s belongings were thwarted.
Dryden also claims that he was approached by a medical professional who told him that Diefenbaker’s brain was actually extracted and preserved after his death. Dryden says he is not in the pursuit of any money, and that he just wants to know who his real father is.

Pickton inquiry and cover-up allegations

Tensions ran high as Inquiry Commissioner Willy Oppal denied allegations of a police ‘cover-up’ in regards to specifics of the Robert Pickton investigation.

The Pickton investigation ran from the year 1997 to 2002, at which point Pickton was finally arrested. He stood on trial for six counts of first-degree murder. Some of the controversies outlined include a ‘crime novel’ that was planned to be published in 2003 based on the investigation by Det. Const. Shehner, who was the Vancouver Police Department’s Lead missing women investigator at the time. During this most recent inquiry Cameron Ward, the representative of the families of 23 missing and murdered women, reiterated his position that there is a cover-up in progress in light of the police’s interests, and walked out of the hearing and did not return for the remainder of the morning. Lawyer Cheryl Tobias, representing the Federal government and the RCMP told the National Post, “Mr. Ward wants every shred of paper that exists, and that would cripple this inquiry.”

EMD facility in London closes

U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar decides to close its recently purchased Canadian subsidiary, Electro-Motive Diesel located in London, Ont. Electro-Motive Canada locked out workers after they rejected proposed pay cuts.

Caterpillar cited the ‘uncompetitive’ labour costs in the London branch as the reason for the shut down. The McGuinty government continues to urge Caterpillar to table a more reasonable offer, while making comments on the necessity to review the Foreign Investment Act. “The Harper government has acknowledged the need for change but hasn’t done anything about it,” McGuinty told the Oakville Chamber of Commerce.” However, it is worth mentioning that the company was never Canadian owned, but was simply a Canadian branch of an Illinois-based company that opened the London branch in the 1950s.

–Compiled by Ravi Balakrishnan