Blacklock's Reporter

A Freedom Convoy lawyer yesterday alleged Liberal Party operatives paraded Nazi and Confederate flags at last winter’s protest to discredit demonstrators. Libel counsel for one man named as a provocateur said their client was neither a Liberal nor in Ottawa at the time: “It was all over the news.”

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez yesterday pleaded with senators to quickly pass Canada’s first bill to regulate legal internet content. Members of the Senate transport and communications committee warned of likely amendments to Bill C-11: ““I am asking you, please, Senators.”

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault yesterday said he saw no evidence Chinese Communist agents interfered in the 2019 federal campaign. Perrault acknowledged he did not look for any: “There may be offences that are committed that we find out after the fact.”

Federal repeal of interest on Canada Student Loans will cost more than $556 million a year in perpetuity, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. The measure takes effect next April 1: “The investment is $2.7 billion over five years but then there is an ongoing cost as well of $556.3 million per year.”

A publicist and former Toronto Star manager yesterday was named as the masked provocateur seen hoisting a Nazi flag at the Freedom Convoy. The individual named denied it. The Prime Minister had pointed to the incident as proof protesters were violent extremists: “It was all over the news, the gentleman who was carrying the Nazi flag.”

Thousands of Canadians have written and emailed Justice Paul Rouleau to discuss his Freedom Convoy inquiry. Tens of thousands more followed testimony online, the Public Order Emergency Commission said yesterday: “Public interest in the Commission’s work has been very high.”

The Royal Canadian Air Force spent $6 million on a falconry program, records show. The military paid falconers for use of ancient techniques in protecting aircraft from nuisance bird strikes: “They happen quite often. Rarely do they cause any major damage.”

Pandemic lockdowns saw more than a billion coins go out of circulation, records show. The Royal Canadian Mint called it an unprecedented event that could lead to a “cash light society” with fewer bank tellers and armoured cars: “Coin demand will continue to decline.”

Treasury Board President Mona Fortier yesterday would not say how much it will cost to recover funds from ineligible applicants who received Canada Emergency Response Benefit cheques. One Canada Revenue Agency estimate said nearly $150 million had been spent to date: “It makes you wonder.”

Cabinet discussed seizing funds held in Freedom Convoy sympathizers’ bank and credit union accounts, according to minutes of a secret meeting. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told cabinet that Emergencies Act powers “enabled the seizure of funds.”

Cabinet had to bring “the full power of the federal government” against the Freedom Convoy, says the head of the federal public service. Janice Charette, the $343,000-a year clerk of the Privy Council, wrote in a secret memo the protest threatened “social cohesion” and “national unity.”

Fewer than 5,000 firearms have been seized at the border in the past six years, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. Federal authorities acknowledged they do not know the extent of gun smuggling: “There is still more work to do.”

The federal payroll will top $50 billion this year, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Analysts counted 391,000 federal employees: “Spending on public servant salaries and benefits is forecast to climb to almost $55 billion this year or about $130,000 per full-time employee.”

Conservative and New Democrat MPs have joined in condemning cabinet for weakening a private bill to protect workers’ benefits in company bankruptcies. “I am sick of it,” New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, Man.) told the Commons: “There always seem to be roadblocks.”