Blacklock's Reporter

Liberal MP Shafqat Ali (Brampton-Chinguacousy Park, Ont.), a former realtor once cited for attending Parliament by videoconference from a men’s toilet, yesterday was named President of the Treasury Board. The Board presidency previously rated a senior position has seen eight appointees since 2019: “The Member of Parliament was literally using the washroom while participating in a sitting of the House of Commons, the cathedral of Canadian democracy. I can’t believe I actually just said those words.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it would not discuss self-published commentaries by Neil Macdonald, a former CBC-TV reporter now writing as husband of Canada’s Ambassador to Vatican City. Macdonald mocked Pope Francis’ funeral after attending the mass as a VIP, complained Canadians don’t work hard enough and proposed a boycott of exports to the United States: “It is easy to mock.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday appointed nearly a third of his cabinet from the Greater Toronto Area but said they would represent all Canadians nationwide. Appointments left one senior minister west of Winnipeg: “We are governing for all Canadians, all regions.”

Five veteran ministers have been fired from cabinet after Canadians “voted for big change,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. The firings included ministers who’d spent a decade in cabinet: “Big change, not small change; they voted for big change.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs has asked statisticians to calculate when the last Canadian survivor of the Second World War is likely to die, Access To Information records show. Statistical tables were compiled in planning for a national tribute: “The last surviving Second World War veteran is projected to pass away between 2034 and 2038.”

Diplomat Neil Macdonald, husband of Canada’s Ambassador to Vatican City, in an election commentary ridiculed Conservative voters as “rumpy-Trumpy” and questioned whether Hitler had worse media relations than Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday had no comment: “Fanboys in Alberta thought becoming the 51st state was a super-keen idea.”

Results are pending in three more judicial recounts in federal ridings with narrow outcomes in April 28 balloting. A Superior Court ruling that gave Liberals a win by a single vote in suburban Terrebonne, Que. was the closest call since 1963.

The federal government in pre-election focus groups shopped various slogans to persuade Canadians to support a cap on oil and gas emissions, according to in-house research by the Privy Council Office. Depicting energy companies as hugely profitable corporations that could afford clean technology was most popular, said a report: “Asked whether they had seen, read or heard anything about the federal government’s action on this front, only a small number indicated they had.”

Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne yesterday called this a “pivotal time” for fundamental rights in Canada. Dufresne avoided all mention of his 2023 dismissal of privacy rights under pandemic mandates: “At a time when the personal information of Canadians is being collected, used and shared at an unparalleled pace and volume on a global scale, effective privacy protection requires more than the status quo.”

A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit by RCMP members who complained that monitoring of police radio calls breached their Charter right to privacy. The case followed a 2017 New Brunswick investigation into organized crime: “An individual choosing to share personal information while at work in a work-related communication channel does not translate into having an objective expectation of privacy.”

Canadian diplomats described as “pleasant and friendly” a 2024 visit to the West Bank that cost a Liberal cabinet minister her job. Ex-Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks (York Centre, Ont.) acknowledged Jewish constituents were upset aftershe posed in an official photograph holding hands with a Holocaust denier: “I have been asked this many times.”

“Uncertainty of the political landscape” is impacting subsidized newspapers, says the Manitoba daily that led the national campaign for a $595 million media bailout. The publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press did not identify any political party by name but noted loss of taxpayers’ aid would hurt the business: “We anticipate circulation to remain challenging.”

Refugee claims by air passengers fell 75 percent after cabinet reintroduced visas on Mexicans, Canada Border Services Agency figures show. Taxpayers saved millions when the visa rule was brought back into force on February 29, 2024: “Do you regret not doing it earlier?”

A third of payday borrowers have “self-control issues,” says a Bank of Canada report. Researchers said a significant number of people who borrow money at exorbitant rates were in “households that suffer from temptation.”

Global warming in theory would make the Northwest Passage a viable route for commercial shipping, says a Department of Environment report. However the region remains ice-bound and hazardous, it said: ‘Insurance is costly.’