As first reported by Blacklock's Thursday morning, agency staff recommended the Competition Act be rewritten to broaden definitions of deceptive advertising:

“The Act should be revised,” said the Bureau report The Future Of Competition Policy In Canada. Current law “has yet to prescribe a consumer standard for deceptive marketing conduct,” it said.

“The matter has been left to the courts to adjudicate,” said the report. “This has resulted in a lack of consensus.”

Anti-trust lawyers at @CompBureau urge Parliament to widen ban on deceptive and misleading advertising.  https://t.co/IpQSiGRxk4 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/lk0JTgJFTU

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) March 16, 2023

Expanding the mandate of the agency may open it up to abuse.

In December 2015, the Competition Bureau was weaponized by the environmentalist Left after the climate realist not-for-profit Friends of Science erected a billboard in Calgary that read, "The sun is the main driver of climate change. Not you. Not C02".

We are funded by our member/subscribers, most donations under $100. Competition Bureau already looked into claims that Big Oil funds us and did not find such evidence. pic.twitter.com/ddvixBl1Fx

— Friends of Science (@FriendsOScience) December 6, 2022

The complaint, filed by Ecojustice on behalf of a handful of environmentalists including Tzeporah Berman, Thomas Duck, David Schindler, and Danny Harvey, alleged the billboard was false and misleading.

The group called for “a thorough, rigorous inquiry of the denier groups and their climate science misrepresentations" and asked the bureau commission to refer their application to the Attorney-General of Canada for "criminal charges against the denier groups."

These were the claims of Ecojustice and their merry band of foreign-funded plaintiffs in this complaint to the Competition Bureau. However, no such evidence was found. Comp Bureau has the most sweeping powers of investigation in Canada. pic.twitter.com/COxrPOLoGb

— Friends of Science (@FriendsOScience) September 22, 2022

However, the complaint failed.

An old tactic. Ecojustice tried it with us via the Competition Bureau in 2015. At the time, HUGE support from media+ public (even those who disagreed w our scientific view) in support of our #FreedomOfSpeech #EmergenciesAct pic.twitter.com/Pb4n2BcHNY

— Friends of Science (@FriendsOScience) February 16, 2022

The Competition Bureau elected to drop the investigation against Friend of Science in July 2017 and found no big oil backing of Friend of Science, a shoe-string Calgary-based volunteer-run operation of professional engineers and scientists.