Blacklock's Reporter

There was a casual brutality to the old RCMP Security Service. Mounties for decades kept Canadians under surveillance, confusing dissent with subversion, compiling mountains of neatly typed files. To read declassified reports today is to be struck by the numbing bureaucracy of the exercise. Surveillance reports were blandly passed from desk to desk, like the Department of Fisheries counting salmon stocks.

Why would they spy on Alberta publisher Mel Hurtig, or the president of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation? Nobody asked. Why watch La Presse editor Jean-Louise Gagnon or Manitoba premier Howard Pawley, who fell under surveillance as president of the Winnipeg’s 1961 Fair Play for Cuba Committee?

Cabinet will make “adjustments” to the 440,000-employee federal payroll this fall, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. He would not discuss the scope of any layoffs: "There are tough choices ahead."

This year's federal deficit is likely more than $80 billion, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Cabinet’s original forecast of $42.2 billion appeared unrealistic following excess spending, he said: "It’s all a show."

Federal agencies are considering mandatory "quick response codes" on consumer products so Canadians can gauge the climate impact of purchases, according to a Privy Council report. No budget was disclosed: 'Our goal was to better understand how we can help Canadians access environmental information.'

Approval of Indigenous groups is not in fact mandatory in the selection of “nation building” projects, says Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin. The Minister in a letter clarified an August 7 claim by the Prime Minister that projects “must advance the interests of Indigenous peoples.”

Operators of Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition yesterday received a six-figure fine for “serious violations” of anti-money laundering regulations at a fairground betting parlour. Mark Holland, ex-Liberal health minister appointed chief executive of the CNE Association five weeks ago, did not comment: "The CNE is more than a fair."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday said he will table an “austerity budget” this fall. Cabinet’s last financial report to Parliament acknowledged the deficit was running 55 percent higher than forecast: "It’s not a sustainable situation."

Employers use migrant labour programs for “attracting talent,” says a Department of Immigration briefing note. Conservative MPs yesterday called for the wind down of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program as unemployment rates for Canadian students reached a 15-year high: "Let’s be honest. Young people today form what I call Generation Screwed."

Amira Elghawaby, cabinet’s $191,000-a year Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, denies any correspondence with a lobby group, the Muslim Association of Canada, that accuses Israel of genocide. However Elghawaby was photographed numerous times at a June 6 Association conference: "No records exist."

Devices used to track marijuana-impaired drivers are so unpredictable several police forces are waiting for “improved technology,” says a Department of Public Safety report. The disclosure follows warnings by legislators that identifying cannabis users behind the wheel would be difficult: "Given that drug testing has not sufficiently evolved, in your own words, why is your government legalizing?"

A national press ombudsman yesterday faulted editors of a rural weekly for falsely implying a local Facebook activist was convicted of a crime. “Court cases are often sensitive and complex matters that should be handled with appropriate care,” wrote the National News Media Council.

Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.), a Liberal appointee, claims “the state” drove a former Liberal MP from office on suspicions of foreign interference. “Who else can be targeted?” asked Woo, who accused police, Parliament and media of waging a witch hunt against friends of China.

Cabinet yesterday transferred control of the Canadian Coast Guard to the defence department under Minister David McGuinty. It followed a 2024 audit that complained the maritime service fell into disrepair when managed by the Department of Fisheries: "Thirty percent of vessels have less than five years left."

Steelworkers are “actually, personally very special to me,” Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday in pledging to promote Canadian metal products. Freeland made no mention of taxpayers’ financing of steel-hulled vessels in a Chinese shipyard or Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola: "People who produce steel and aluminum in Canada are actually, personally very special to me."

University faculties are free to pass resolutions on world events like the war in Gaza, the British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled. The decision came on a petition by 13 faculty members protesting anti-Israel resolutions adopted by the Faculty Association of Simon Fraser University: "It is not the Court’s role to intervene in members’ political disputes."