Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Proudly the world’s largest, Lloyd’s of London insures people, businesses and communities no matter what the size, location, industry or complexity…”

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, Sitting Bull led the Sioux into southern Manitoba to escape reprisal by the U.S. cavalry. They wintered near my hometown. This went unmentioned in history class. We were told instead to memorize the travels of Champlain who didn’t come within 1,600 kilometres of Manitoba. Relevancy was irrelevant. “Curriculum is ideological,” as Prof. Dwayne Donald of the University of Alberta puts it.

“Official curriculum ideologies become so pervasive and unquestioned that their followers are left unable to recognize them as cultural and ideological,” writes Donald. He calls this “curricular worship.”

“Curriculum documents, and the educational priorities they emphasize, are thoroughly imbued with the cultural assumptions and prejudices that the majority of the members of the society have come to consider normal and necessary for young people to know and understand,” Donald explains in a tidy and devastating critique. “In teleological terms then, curricula can be understood as preparing children for a future that has been imagined on their behalf by adults. Thus, curricula are basically an exercise in citizenship, and the success of this exercise is generally assessed according to how well the children have taken on the characteristics that the adults hoped they would.”

The Commons public accounts committee last night ordered the Department of Public Works to surrender secret Covid vaccine contracts for scrutiny. Pfizer executives threatened Canada could lose its “reputation” and foreign investment if MPs insisted on reading contracts that cost taxpayers $5 billion: "It makes me wonder, what is so damaging?"

Now-Independent MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) yesterday joined 171 opposition Members in demanding a public inquiry into alleged Chinese Communist interference in elections. Refusal by the Prime Minister to comply with the Commons vote would risk a finding of contempt of Parliament: "The evidence is mounting."

Governor General Mary Simon had an RCAF flight crew log nearly 3,000 kilometres so she could attend a six-minute ceremony, records show. Simon earlier said it was “up to all of us to act responsibly” to fight climate change: "How we do things is just as important as what we do."

The Department of Immigration billed taxpayers $137 a day for room and board to shelter illegal immigrants at Niagara Falls hotels, records show. Refugee claimants bused in from Québec stayed months at a time with no obvious processing of their claims: "We just had people show up on our doorstep."

Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier will not disclose how many employees were fired for defrauding a pandemic relief program. MPs have repeatedly sought the number from the Canada Revenue Agency: "The Agency has terminated the employment of a number of employees."

The Commons today is expected to order a full public inquiry into suspected Chinese interference in Parliament. Debate last night grew heated as members shared a Global News report on surreptitious contact between now-Independent MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) and Chinese diplomats. "It is important that all Members of Parliament vote on this."

MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) last night abruptly quit the Liberal caucus following a Global News report he admitted to personal contact with China’s Consul in Toronto. Dong the day before denied any impropriety or secret contacts with Chinese Communist agents: "The truth will protect us."

A pandemic business loan program paid more than $2 billion to borrowers who never qualified for subsidies in the first place, new data show. Figures excluded borrowers rejected at the outset on suspicion of fraud: "How much?"

Governor General Mary Simon billed more than $800,000 for a four-day junket to a German book fair including the cost of two photographers, newly-released records show. The Bloc Québécois forced disclosure of all travel expenses after Rideau Hall concealed the $1.15 million cost of Simon's 2022 junket to Dubai: 'People spend $200 for groceries that are barely enough to feed a family.'

A score-settling interview by a CBC Radio host was “testy,” “unfair” and failed to comply with journalistic standards, says a network ombudsman. Robyn Bresnahan was cited for a broadcast in which she hectored a Conservative politician with snide remarks on media relations: "Okay, so it’s our fault?"

Federally-incorporated companies face a yearly requirement to publish names of their owners under a cabinet bill introduced yesterday by Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. The “beneficial ownership” bill does not apply to the large majority of firms incorporated in their home provinces: "Transparency and accountability are needed."

Small business has been shortchanged on carbon tax rebates promised five years ago, says an advocacy group. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business yesterday calculated rebates to date are a fraction of what operators pay in higher fuel costs: "They have received little or nothing at all."

A Liberal MP accused of secret contacts with Chinese Communist agents yesterday said he was a proud Canadian. “I cannot defend myself against an unverified anonymous source,” MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) told reporters: "To my knowledge I was not offered, I was not told, I was not informed nor would I accept any help from a foreign country."