Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, writes: ” I open the cupboard, reach for a mug. My mind – ahead of me – sees coffee in it. I hesitate…”

Once upon a time officialdom discovered a new branch of science nobody had ever heard of. Fresh and exciting, it was quickly embraced by the smartest professors, the most progressive thinkers, the wisest judges. It swept the nation. You can’t argue with science.

Only later did Canadians learn it wasn’t science at all but a hodgepodge of supposition and anecdotes perpetuated by hidden agendas. Of course by then much harm was done. There were lawsuits and unsatisfying half-apologies but the people who foisted this fraud on the people were not known for their humility.

It was eugenics, the scientific claim that if dull people were prevented from having children by force if necessary, society as a whole would become sharper. Psychiatry And The Legacies Of Eugenics unravels this dark and startling story, the “devastating social movement of the first half of the twentieth century.”

The Commons public accounts committee yesterday by a unanimous 10-0 vote ordered the Auditor General to investigate the original taxpayers’ endowment used to bankroll the Trudeau Foundation. Parliament awarded the Foundation $125 million subsequently used in part to buy stocks in China: "We are asking for an investigation."

One of the nation’s leading computer scientists says he refused a six-figure payoff from Chinese agents in what was an obvious “recruitment strategy” targeting Canadian academics. Professor Benjamin Fung of McGill University detailed the scheme in testimony at the Commons science committee: "I asked them, ‘What do you want me to do?"

Canadians consider federal anti-trust enforcement “lacklustre” and “ineffective,” says a Department of Industry report. The anti-trust Competition Bureau has acknowledged failures in permitting consolidation in key sectors like grocery retailing: "Large corporations are gaining too much control."

Critics yesterday ridiculed a federal sales tax holiday on new rental construction as a “limousine Liberal measure.” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced a GST holiday bill that dropped cabinet's 2015 promise to link the tax break to construction of "affordable rental housing."

The president of the Canadian Labour Congress yesterday petitioned MPs for a 25 percent windfall tax on corporate profits. Proceeds should go to low income families to buy food, Bea Bruske testified at the Commons finance committee: "Use the revenue to fund an extension of the existing grocery rebate program."

Bank of Canada management including Governor Tiff Macklem would face tighter public scrutiny under a private bill yesterday introduced in the Senate. Critics have demanded Macklem be fired over erratic forecasts: "The Bank is not above Parliament."

The Canada Revenue Agency claims a typical taxpayer waited only nine minutes on the phone to speak with an agent this past tax season. The Agency earlier admitted to faking customer service data: "Monkeying around with these departmental results reports to play with the numbers to make it look good will come out. We will find you."

Federal airport rents will top a half billion next year, by Department of Transport estimate. Airport operators have called rents a straight charge on passengers: "The more expensive we are for aviation in Canada, the more expensive it is for Canadians."

More than half of foreigners ordered out of the country remain in Canada, new figures show. The Canada Border Services Agency had pledged to increase its deportation rate: "Everyone ordered removed from Canada is entitled to due process before the law."

Cabinet will not direct a pending public inquiry into foreign interference to delve into activities by Indian agents, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said yesterday. LeBlanc said he considered India’s alleged involvement in the shooting of a Surrey, B.C. activist to be a police matter: "I am not going to answer questions about what the RCMP investigation is looking into."

David Johnston in three months as cabinet “rapporteur” on Chinese interference awarded millions in sole-sourced contracts to favoured consultants, records show. Payments included fees to a publicist to “identify columnists and key opinion leaders” to promote Johnston: "Actual expenditures for the Independent Special Rapporteur have not yet been finalized."

Cabinet billed more than a quarter million for a three-day cabinet retreat on inflation, records show. Expenses for the meeting at a Vancouver Hyatt a year ago included tens of thousands of dollars for food with catering from one café that sells an $88 "millionaire's cut" steak and lobster plate: "The cost of living, that is our focus."

Crime costs Canadians more than $43 billion a year, says a landmark report by the Department of Justice. Researchers totaled expenses from police overtime to victims’ lost wages, funeral expenses and trauma: "The effects of crime are far reaching."