Blacklock's Reporter

The Commons yesterday by a 173-155 vote ordered federal regulators to suspend a data scoop on millions of cellphone users. Telecom customers were never properly advised their tracking data would be compiled by the Public Health Agency, said MPs: “This news was shocking to many Canadians.”

Cabinet’s vaccination campaign is needlessly divisive and political, the ex-chair of the Québec Liberal caucus yesterday told reporters. “Where the hell are we heading here in Canada?” said MP Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert, Que.): “A decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize. I fear this politicization of the pandemic.”

Cabinet has no role in forcing an end to growing Freedom Convoy blockades, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said yesterday. Seventy trade groups petitioned cabinet to force an end to border blockades at Windsor and Coutts, Alta.: “I hope the blockaders or occupiers or protesters stop their protesting.”

The Competition Bureau yesterday said Parliament must outlaw wage fixing. The Competition Act is “out of step,” anti-trust investigators wrote in a report: “The Act does not impose meaningful consequences for non-compliance.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last night said the Freedom Convoy movement “has to stop.” Trudeau spoke in the Commons for the first time since dismissing truckers opposed to vaccine mandates as tin foil hats: “They don’t have the right to insult those who choose to wear a mask, to get vaccinated.”

Federal privacy investigators were refused access to a program that tracked millions of cellphone users in the name of lockdown compliance. “We offered our expertise,” Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien said yesterday. “It was declined. It is what it is.”

The Department of Environment complains tens of thousands of tonnes of pandemic masks have been thrown away as litter or landfill. Covid underscored the use of disposable plastics in everyday life, it said: “An unprecedented amount of single use personal protective equipment is being used in Canada to prevent transmission of Covid.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must explain terms of his pledge to cap oil and gas emissions, the Commons natural resources committee was told yesterday. Trudeau made the announcement without explanation at a United Nations conference: “What is the value of additional legislation that creates even more uncertainty?”

Cabinet should revoke scheduled carbon tax hikes and consider energy rebates for home heating, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The carbon tax will increase to the equivalent of 12¢ per litre of gasoline effective April 1: “It is well beyond what would otherwise be an inflationary factor.”

Elections Canada delayed shipping mail-in ballot kits to 123,000 voters until less than a week before election day, records show. Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault had boasted his agency was fully prepared to conduct a pandemic election: “Being ready to administer an election is at the core of Election Canada’s mandate.”

Sixth and seventh waves of pandemic infection will occur and “some will actually be quite severe,” says the Public Health Agency. Full vaccination with two Covid shots is insufficient, doctors said: “All policies need to be re-examined over time. This is one of them.”

The nation’s largest daily, the federally-subsidized Toronto Star, seeks millions more in taxpayers’ aid. The publisher petitioned MPs for new concessions including a $5,000 tax credit to train employees in how to use the internet: “The industry needs time.”

Uyghur Muslims have filed a Federal Court challenge of cabinet’s refusal to censure China for genocide. The Court claim was filed as cabinet celebrated Canadian athletes at the Beijing Winter Games: “Cheer on our athletes. Go Canada go!”

Taxpayers have now spent $10 million on a decrepit heritage building that has sat empty for 23 years. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017 announced with fanfare the Ottawa landmark would become an Indigenous Peoples’ Space: “We have a lot of hard work ahead.”