Blacklock's Reporter

It was Canada’s longest military deployment. On Sunday March 15, 1964 peacekeepers landed in Cyprus and stayed 29 years. The mission cost some $700 million and saw deployment of the nation’s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Bonaventure.

There is no library of literature on the Cyprus mission. The island itself was a beach resort for English tourists. No Victoria Crosses were awarded, no wounded veterans came home to parades. For all that, Under the Blue Beret should be required reading for anyone who is thinking of joining the military.

In crisp prose author Terry Burke captures the minutiae of army life. It is neither heroic nor desperate. It is nothing like the military caricatured by non-combatants. It is what it is.

The Canadian Coast Guard in an internal report says its fleet is so old it now spends a third of a billion a year on maintenance as “30 percent of vessels have less than five years left.” Defence Minister Bill Blair counts Coast Guard spending in claiming Canada is on a path to meeting minimum NATO requirements for military preparedness: "The age, condition and obsolescence of Coast Guard vessels and their electronics and informatics infrastructure represent a key risk."

Parks Canada yesterday had no comment over a mistaken historical commemoration. The agency honoured a Saskatchewan athlete as the first Canadian woman Olympic gold medalist in track and field. She wasn’t: "Historic designations illustrate the defining moments in the story of Canada."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller is enforcing new regulations to limit in-and-out claims by foreigners gaming immigration rules. Miller's department called the practice “flagpoling.”

Parliament should mandate criminal background checks on all marine port employees, a practice already required at airports, says the Commons public safety committee. MPs blamed organized crime for vehicle thefts worth $1.5 billion last year: "We need to take a hard look at the security of our ports."

Inflation in apartment rents has cooled but with little improvement in affordability, CMHC said yesterday. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation did not measure what if any impact resulted from Parliament’s GST holiday on new apartment buildings enacted a year ago: "There has been no improvement in affordability."

Federal authorities yesterday denied postponing disclosure of financial accounts to avoid embarrassment over growing debt. MPs on the Commons public accounts committee accused the Prime Minister and cabinet of lying to taxpayers: "If the Government of Canada was on the Toronto Stock Exchange we would be de-listed."

The Department of Finance yesterday said it is “trying to figure out as we go” how many jobs would be lost with a threatened 25 percent Trump tariff. Members of the Commons public accounts committee expressed alarm at the lack of preparedness: "I really hope you guys get on that for the sake of this country."

Climate change targets will cost Canadian electrical utilities about two thirds of a trillion dollars, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said yesterday. Guilbeault in a legal notice said the country had no choice but to stop burning fossil fuels for electricity: "Climate change is a growing threat."

The Department of Transport yesterday deferred for years the full introduction of new safety measures on the nation’s 65,000 school buses. Mandatory seatbelts were already rejected as too expensive and onerous: "School buses are the safest way to transport children."

Canada must acknowledge Taiwanese status in world affairs, Tibetans' self-determination and the Chinese Communist Party’s torture and enslavement of minorities, say MPs. The recommendations are detailed in a report to Parliament, the strongest yet, by the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations: "Much more needs to be done."

Any national digital ID program will be strictly voluntary, says cabinet. Records tabled in Parliament disclosed federal agencies have spent millions on a digital identification program since 2019: "The government is and has been engaged in research and exploration for quite some time."

The Public Health Agency wasted $1.2 billion on unused Covid vaccines, records disclosed yesterday. It was the highest figure divulged to date: "There is a diminishing account of pandemic legacy costs."

A Canadian executive is privately bankrolling a million dollar publicity campaign to lobby Trump Administration appointees to “stand with Ukraine,” records show. James Temerty, founder of the Computerland chain and Northland Power Inc. of Toronto, yesterday did not comment: 'It will assist in building relationships.'

Cabinet is not “preoccupied” with decriminalizing narcotics, Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks said yesterday. Testifying at the Commons health committee, Saks would not say if she considered a short-lived experiment with decriminalization in British Columbia to be a failure: "The only party that is preoccupied with decriminalization is really the Opposition."