Blacklock's Reporter

Cabinet should not declassify a secret blacklist of suspected Nazi collaborators recommended for prosecution 39 years ago, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said yesterday. Suspects named in the confidential 1985 list even if long dead have “several generations of descendants” who deserve privacy, said the Congress president: "Today we hear repeated calls for the disclosure of the names of these innocent people."

The underground economy now comprises a third of the Canadian trucking industry, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. Black market operators dodge billions in tax and flout labour laws, said the Canadian Trucking Alliance: "Please help."

Chinese spies target political aides including unwitting assistants who express no strong views on China, says a secret federal memo. The document by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service explained political staff are co-opted as “gatekeepers” for MPs and senators: "Foreign interference activities often transcend party lines."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other federal officials were warned 163 separate times of foreign interference over a six-year period, China inquiry records show. Trudeau as late as 2023 denied he was ever told of illegal activity by foreign agents: "This list does not include additional ad hoc meetings that may have occurred."

Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks is demanding Opposition MPs say they are sorry for needling her as a friend of terrorists. Saks last March 14 was photographed smiling and holding hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier: "Did you get a thank-you letter from Hezbollah?"

Fewer Canadians trust news media, says in-house CRTC research. The latest data follow Statistics Canada figures showing journalists are considered less trustworthy than politicians or police: "Fewer Canadians express trust in news media."

Subsidized newspapers seek more federal aid. The trade group News Media Canada is asking that MPs mandate a 20-fold increase in federal advertising though cabinet earlier dismissed the proposal as pointless: "Government advertising is not intended to provide such support."

Defence Minister Bill Blair while testifying under oath misled the China inquiry, records suggest. Documents disclosed by lawyers marked the second time Blair’s explanation for the mishandling of security matters was contradicted: "It is evidence that a minister of the Crown gave under sworn testimony."

Voters are resigned to illegal foreign money influencing federal elections, says in-house research by Elections Canada. More than two-thirds of electors say they suspect illegal foreign campaign contributions are commonplace: 'What impact if any do you think it will have on the outcome of the next federal election?'

New evidence shows a former legislator came under federal surveillance for working on behalf of a foreign government to “influence” Parliament. Neither the ex-parliamentarian, party affiliation or the foreign government were named by the Commission on Foreign Interference: "This one is new?"

Liberal-appointed senators are protesting quick passage of a Bloc Québécois bill on dairy quotas. The Bloc has warned Bill C-282 must be signed into law by October 29 or it will “bring down the government.”

A federal labour board faces years’ worth of hearings into complaints Covid vaccine mandates discriminated against federal employees’ religious beliefs. The Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board put an end to in-person hearings to help clear the backlog of grievances: "Scheduling an oral hearing for every religious accommodation case would amount to an impossible burden."

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes “I examine the icons on my new smartphone. An old camera; a rotary phone; a windup alarm clock; a postal envelope..”

It is an immigrants’ story like no other. British Columbia’s Kootenay region was for years a quiet, peaceful land of alpine valleys and crystal streams, peopled by Catholic loggers and miners, New Democrats and Social Creditors – “blue collar”, one MP called it. Suddenly, the Vietnam War happened.

Sociologist Kathleen Rodgers in her compelling narrative tells what happened next. From 1965 thousands of U.S. draft evaders crossed the border to settle in the Kootenays, cursing U.S. militarism and actually building communes with names like New Family and Harmony’s Gate. “Some focused on ‘free love,’” Rodgers notes.

There had never been anything quite like it. True, Canada has been a haven for American draft dodgers since the U.S. Civil War, and northern migrations are nothing new. It was the century-old influx of Montana cowpunchers and Utah Mormons that even today gives southern Alberta its unique view.

Government House Leader Karina Gould yesterday claimed cabinet’s climate plan cut emissions by “the equivalent of 60 million cars.” Aides did not substantiate the claim. Emissions went up in the last official reporting period, and Canada has never had 60 million cars: "We just got the news."