Blacklock's Reporter

Poet W.N. Branson writes: “The geese flee south in the moonlight, a weird eerie sight. Silent dark shadows gliding in that putrefying light. The report of a rifle: a shock, a flash…”

“It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk,” wrote English author Rebecca West. This is enough to make you wary of history that smells like violets.

Winston Churchill & Mackenzie King casts these “two elderly statesmen” as wartime peers out to save democracy. Author Terry Reardon is struck by parallels. Both were Sagittarians born in 1874, both had blue eyes and “large egos,” both stood 5’6”.

In chronicling their fifty-year acquaintance Reardon sees two dynamos of the Second World War. Well, not exactly. Churchill’s own Foreign Office in 1940 described King as “lukewarm about any war measure which he cannot show to redound to Canada’s own advantage.”

Cabinet will add $182.4 billion in new borrowing over the next three years under a budget plan tabled yesterday. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne justified ongoing deficit spending as reasonable: "I stand by our projections."

The head of a federal anti-money laundering agency that failed an October 29 audit yesterday declared auditors were all wrong. “I do not agree,” Stéphane Sirard, interim CEO of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, told the Commons public accounts committee: "That is deeply disturbing."

Cabinet will grant permanent residency to nearly a quarter million foreigners in Canada on temporary permits, according to a budget document yesterday. The Department of Finance did not specify whether it would include amnesty for illegal immigrants subject to deportation: "Up to 200,000 temporary residents already in Canada would have the opportunity to become permanent residents."

Cabinet-approved media will gain another $539 million in federal subsidies including extension of pandemic payroll bonuses that were to expire in seven weeks, plus $300 million more for the CBC. Measures detailed in yesterday’s budget followed “terrific” praise from the chief lobbyist for paid publishers: "The Government of Canada, I have to say, has been terrific."

Cabinet must enforce its national ban on imported slave goods including Chinese auto parts, says the Commons industry committee. MPs specifically targeted Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to grant Chinese electric auto makers an unprecedented five-year import quota of 278,989 vehicles: "Do you believe there is forced labour in China?"

Cabinet yesterday enacted new regulations to speed the deportation of illegal immigrants. Minister of Immigration Lena Diab in a legal notice said the typical refugee claimant was male, Haitian and under age 30: 'Lengthy processing times make the removal of failed refugee claimants harder.'

A multi-million dollar plan to modernize the federal patent office ran two years late and went 114 percent over budget, the Department of Industry disclosed yesterday. Figures detailed at the request of Conservative MP Arnold Viersen (Peace River-Westlock, Alta.) showed patent holders still waited nearly four years on average for documents to be approved even after managers spent millions to computerize the system: "Do we have a marketplace that allows our inventors to first showcase their products to the world? We do not."

Cabinet must identify and track clear targets on housing starts, says a Commons committee. The recommendation followed a decision by the Department of Housing to drop its longstanding promise to build 500,000 new homes annually as the minimum required to restore affordability: 'Publish clear, measurable targets for federal housing programs relating to the number of units created.'

New data show labour inspectors targeted religious institutions in ongoing investigations of abuse under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Four institutions were fined a total $117,500 over a nine-day period. The labour department did not comment: "Inspections have become increasingly complex."

Cabinet aides prepared a video featuring Prime Minister Mark Carney to be shown at mandatory citizenship ceremonies, Access To Information records show. No rule prohibits it though the Department of Immigration had cautioned that swearing-in ceremonies, a legal requirement for new citizens, should be nonpartisan: "Citizenship ceremonies provide a forum for visibility."

Gambling advertising has spoiled the enjoyment of sports, says Conservative MP Ned Kuruc (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, Ont.), former assistant with Canada’s national Muay Thai martial arts team. Kuruc and other members of the Commons heritage committee passed a private bill proposing regulation of advertising: "We see where sports and betting have become one."

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday expressed irritation when asked why he reversed three years’ worth of interest rate cuts. “There’s no immediate benefit of raising interest rates,” Macklem told the Commons finance committee after Conservative and Liberal MPs alike opposed the October 28 increase: 'Explain to small business owners why the decision was made because I’m having a hard time explaining it to them, okay?'

Parliament should let the courts define what “national interest” would justify quashing a lawful strike, an Air Canada executive yesterday told MPs. Unions have cautioned the ambiguous phrase does not appear elsewhere in labour legislation: "‘National interest’ is fairly vague."