Blacklock's Reporter

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department yesterday praised China for environmental leadership without mentioning its use of slave labour to make solar panels. A member of Guilbeault’s own caucus earlier noted China used slaves to export renewable energy products: “41.7 percent of polysilicon used to produce solar panels, for all the environmentalists in the House, comes from Xinjiang.”

Federal conflict investigations yesterday resumed with the appointment of Interim Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein, 78, a retired federal judge. A vacancy had forced a four-month halt to ethics probes: ‘Our hands were tied until there was a new Commissioner.’

A Freedom Convoy sympathizer yesterday won an Ontario Court of Justice dismissal of a mischief charge over his Facebook posts. Other protesters also faced police charges targeting social media messages: ‘They peacefully exercised their Charter rights.’

Capitalism is to blame for the August wildfire season, the Communist Party of Canada said yesterday. A Party periodical People’s Voice said trees planted by capitalist forestry companies were more susceptible to fire than other trees: ‘The trees are pinnacles of so-called capitalist efficiency.’

Federal regulators polled Canadians on support for tighter controls on pesticides, records show. “Most Canadians continue to hold negative associations with pesticides,” said an in-house report: “What is needed? Is it when a large group of people die?”

The Department of Public Safety acknowledges stiff resistance to its national buyback of prohibited firearms as costly and pointless. An in-house report confirmed fewer than half of owners would voluntarily surrender their firearms and 12 percent will never comply: “I am a responsible owner.”

Federal curators at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum yesterday confirmed they are “deaccessioning” a century-old flying boat that survived a National Geographic expedition to the Amazon rainforest. The Museum said it has no room for the mahogany artifact: “It has been decided.”

So many federal employees now work from home that more than a third of the government’s desk phones are “not being used,” according to records. Fully 15 percent have been permanently disconnected: ‘We define ‘dormant’ phone lines as lines that have been assigned and activated but are not being used.’

A federal arbitrator yesterday cited the rising cost of living in awarding VIA Rail engineers a combined 10.5 percent wage increase over three years, more than the railway offered. Inflation was a fact of life for the first time in generations, said Canada Labour Code arbitrator William Kaplan: “It is fair to say that interest arbitrators have not had to contend with significant inflation since the early 1980s.”

Misleading and “ridiculous” testimony is disappointing when it comes from a lawyer, Tax Court has ruled. The finding came in the case of a barrister whose testimony “bordered on the ridiculous” in challenging a reassessment of his tax returns: “He is a lawyer with over 40 years at the bar.”

The Royal Canadian Air Force faces a “personnel crisis” with fewer volunteers joining and more veterans leaving the service, says a federal report. It follows a 35 percent decline in military recruitment across the board last year: “The RCAF is experiencing a personnel crisis.”

Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge is in Federal Court to block release of records sought by the Information Commissioner. Cabinet in a 2015 Ministerial Mandate letter had promised to “ensure the Commissioner is empowered to order government information to be released.”

A million-dollar oil painting by Canadian master Tom Thomson was undamaged in a vandal’s attack yesterday, said the National Gallery. A British Columbia environmental activist videotaped himself on Instagram smearing pink paint across the painting: “Fortunately the artwork was not harmed.”

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said cabinet is looking out for “the safety of every single Canadian” in issuing a travel advisory for LGBTQ people visiting the United States. Freeland cited no specific threat: “Our travel advisories are done very professionally.”

Municipalities owe ratepayers a duty of care but only on accurate calculations of their property tax, a British Columbia tribunal has ruled. The decision came in Duncan, B.C. where assessments jumped an average 34 percent and City Council in two years hiked taxes 14 percent: “We are at their mercy.”