Blacklock's Reporter

The Canada Border Services Agency yesterday confirmed it’s opening an Office of Biometrics under the largest surveillance scheme in the country’s history. Exit Information Regulations will see the Agency use computer chips embedded in new passports to monitor every citizen who travels out of Canada. In-house research identified widespread opposition to the program: “What more information would they want?”

Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc yesterday said Parliament should lessen the paperwork requirements for electors who want to vote by mail. Elections Canada said it will refuse a mail-in ballot to anyone without proper ID or a notarized affidavit: “This will be the first election in which those voting by mail from within their riding can apply online.”

Federal agents have issued millions’ worth of tickets to quarantine scofflaws including $2,964,000 to air travelers who refused to stay at pandemic hotels, records show. Other offences included forged Covid tests: “The exact breakdown of costs cannot be publicly disclosed at this time.”

Changes to the Oath Of Citizenship are not mere words, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino yesterday told the Senate. A cabinet bill “makes a crucial addition,” he said: “It is a public declaration of joining our country and everyone who calls it home.”

A bill granting preference to pensioners in bankruptcy court settlements would benefit more than a million private sector workers, the Commons industry committee was told yesterday. The private bill follows protests over insolvencies like the 2018 collapse of Sears Canada that left pensioners with under-funded plans: “Pensioners should be fully paid.”

Cabinet yesterday declined comment on internal emails from a federal lab indicating executives were wary over ties to China prior to an RCMP raid on the facility. “The government is not hiding documents,” said Senator Marc Gold (Que.), Government Representative in the Senate, who complained MPs were making “excessive demands” for records in the case.

Senators yesterday challenged Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson to resign from his $274,500-a year post if he fails to meet his own climate change targets. Wilkinson declined. “I actually don’t accept the premise,” he told the Senate energy committee: “That, in my mind, is not correct.”

The Commons yesterday by a 180-147 vote endorsed a temporary ban on residential real estate purchases by offshore foreigners. The Opposition motion asked that cabinet “examine a temporary freeze” for an indeterminate period: “Housing shouldn’t be taken over by speculators.”

The Senate legal affairs committee last night passed a private bill restricting children’s access to online pornography. Penalties for website operators range from $500,000 fines to six months’ jail with personal liability for corporate directors: “You have to block it.”

A Senate bill to give 16-year olds the vote yesterday survived a floor challenge. Senators by a 55-19 margin rejected a proposal to kill the bill: “Young people very much want to speak to senators in their own voices for a deeper examination of this pressing issue.”

Internal emails disclose the scientific director of a federal lab was uneasy over close ties with researchers in China. Two employees were fired January 20 at the National Microbiology Laboratory in circumstances unexplained to date: “We still don’t know why these two scientists were terminated.”

Homeowners nationwide must embrace high density housing for the sake of climate change, CMHC said yesterday. The federal mortgage insurer said it would help in “unblocking those barriers” that favour construction of single family homes: ‘We feel NIMBYism and zoning issues are very significant barriers.’

The Commons yesterday considered a temporary freeze on foreign offshore purchases of residential real estate in Canada. Opposition parties blamed non-resident speculators for rising costs: “Actions of foreign speculators and investors are increasing home prices for regular Canadians.”

A federal Job Match service for the unemployed “did not work very well” and few employers use it, says an internal report. The Department of Employment has operated the program since 2015 at a cost of $3.3 million a year: “Officials recognized the Job Match service did not work.”

A federal monument to Cold War victims is now 284 percent over budget and incomplete. The Department of Canadian Heritage blamed the pandemic, though the project has been on the drawing board since 2009: “The design team experienced delays related to ensuring the Memorial is buildable.”