Blacklock's Reporter

Canadians are skeptical a federal freeze on new handgun sales will curb crime, says in-house research by the Privy Council Office. Focus group respondents questioned the point of the freeze if handguns used in the commission of crimes are smuggled from the United States: “It was largely felt the majority of handgun related crimes were caused by those who had obtained their firearms illegally.”

A House affairs committee report demanding an independent inquiry into elections is expected to be tabled today in the Commons. The tabling would trigger an inevitable showdown between Parliament and the Prime Minister over control of the investigation of foreign agents: “We’re straying into banana republic territory here.”

Liberal MPs on the House affairs committee yesterday filibustered a vote to question political aides and party organizers regarding foreign election interference. MP Jennifer O’Connell (Pickering-Uxbridge, Ont.) dismissed critics as “spy kids” angling for editorial approval in the Toronto Sun: “You got a tweet out of it, right?”

More than a third of households have difficulty paying grocery bills, Statistics Canada data showed yesterday. MPs on the Commons agriculture committee blamed a lack of competition among grocers: “It’s a painful experience every time they are going to the grocery store.”

CMHC is hiring publicists to plot “tactics” in promoting a statutory right to housing. It follows a recommendation from the National Housing Advocate that Parliament expropriate properties of bad landlords and “prevent the sale of housing to financial firms.”

The United States would never tolerate a seal cull in Atlantic Canada, Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray said yesterday. Any cull in the name of conservation would likely breach a 1972 U.S. law, she said: “We cannot take measures that risk that market.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last night rejected a House affairs committee motion that he immediately call a public inquiry into foreign meddling in federal elections. His refusal set cabinet in conflict with Members of Parliament over control of the investigation into alleged criminal breaches of the Canada Elections Act: “Unbelievable.”

Cabinet yesterday called on consultants to help it create a long-promised Financial Crimes Agency. The Department of Public Safety said work will continue into 2024: “It will establish Canada’s first ever nationwide agency whose sole purpose is to investigate these highly complex crimes.”

A federal agency saw more than a tenth of its annual operations budget spent through employees’ use of government-issue credit cards. Auditors uncovered “purchases from unusual vendors” at the National Research Council: “We reviewed a sample of high risk transactions.”

Federal prisoners allowed to serve time at Indigenous healing lodges have a higher recidivism rate than those held in regular cells, says a federal report. Healing lodges feature arts and crafts, skating and book clubs, said the Correctional Service: “Emphasis for hobby crafts would be on traditional Indigenous arts and crafts such as rattle making or beadwork.”

Federal regulators yesterday fined a Toronto-based bank $676,500 for breach of regulations under the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act. The penalty for Wealth One Bank of Canada was the steepest levied in two years: “We will be firm.”

A federal panel recommends another Covid booster shot for retirees beginning this month. It follows disclosures the Public Health Agency ordered delivery of 91 million vaccine doses: “We will never be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.”

Federal spending on consultants will jump 13 percent this year, says a Budget Office report. “It has shown consistent growth year over year,” wrote analysts: “More than half of spending on professional and special services is consistently comprised of five departments alone.”

The Senate human rights committee outspent all other committees combined last year with a detailed study of Islamophobia. Hearings resume this week after the panel heard from 135 witnesses in five cities: “How does the Senate human rights committee define the term Islamophobia?”

Conventional TV is on a “downward trajectory” that will see networks fight over an ever-dwindling pool of revenue, says a CRTC report. All television programming with the exception of sports is now a money loser, it said: “Each year a larger share of ad spending in Canada is flowing to the internet.”