Blacklock's Reporter

For a certain generation Two Freedoms invokes a nostalgic era when Canada briefly strode on the world stage. In 1955 the nation had 118,000 men and women in uniform and the world’s fourth largest air force. And now? “When a Canadian surface vessel HMCS Athabaskan sailed to Haiti to position itself off the coast where Canadian forces, replete with medics, nurses, technicians and doctors were to be deployed to come to the aid of the local population, amphibious small vessels had to be borrowed from the Americans to get our own folks ashore,” Hugh Segal wrote.

Critics lament a “decade of darkness” in Canadian defence spending and foreign policy but it has been five decades and “darkness” is debatable. Electors decided generations ago they could not have a big navy and pensions and medicare and good schools all at the same time, and made their choice. This was not a conspiracy. It was the will of the voters.

Grants to Ukrainian war refugees will cost nearly a half billion, says a federal briefing note. To date 189,194 Ukrainians in Canada have applied for subsidies to temporarily resettle here: "It’s one thing to promise the money. It’s another thing for that money to hit Ukrainian bank accounts."

The Commons industry committee yesterday adjourned without calling Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne to answer for claims he would cut cellphone prices. Rogers Communications has announced prices on some plans will rise by up to $108 a year effective January 17: "This is like going around in circles."

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said she played no role in police handcuffing of a Rebel News reporter after he asked her a question outside a public meeting. Freeland would not discuss Monday’s incident or her past advocacy of press freedoms: "We categorically condemn anyone who in any way intimidates and harasses journalists."

Ed Broadbent, son of an autoworker from General Motors who led New Democrats to a then-record number of Commons seats as federal Party leader, is dead at 87. His passing was announced yesterday by the Broadbent Institute: "He lived a long life of hope."

The first South Asian manager hired by Senate administration has won his job back following a nine-year legal fight. The executive complained he was fired after white female colleagues treated him as a problem employee: "Mr. Singh is reinstated."

The Commons industry committee meets today by request of Opposition MPs to consider hearings into mobile phone rates. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne promised lower prices 10 months ago when he approved one of the biggest telecom takeovers in Canadian history: "What I’m telling you, everything is on the table."

Israel may detain Canadians who criticize it on Twitter or Facebook, claims a travel advisory by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The department did not explain the unusual notice: "We have professionals in the government whose job is to look carefully around the world and monitor whether there are particular dangers to particular groups of Canadians."

Cabinet's "safe supply" drug policy has had minimal impacts despite costing more than $820 million, says a health department report. Researchers said while supervised consumption sites saved some lives “opioid-related deaths have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.”

Groceries are so expensive Canada’s poverty rate is expected to rise this spring, says a Department of Social Development briefing note. Ongoing food inflation sees Canadians pay an extra 14 percent or more year over year for basic groceries like hamburger and peanut butter: "As food prices increase poverty thresholds are likely to follow."

A majority of Canadians, 81 percent nationwide, have some type of prescription drug insurance typically through work, new Statistics Canada figures showed yesterday. The latest data follow in-house Privy Council research indicating voters are indifferent to pharmacare as promised by Liberals and New Democrats: "Few felt this to be a significant issue."

More than a third of a million foreign students were allowed to remain in Canada as permanent residents in the past three years, the Department of Immigration disclosed yesterday. The number coincided with the highest federal immigration quotas in Canadian history: "It is too much too fast."

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday had no comment after police handcuffed a reporter who attempted to question the Minister. Freeland is a former newspaper executive who said any reporter could ask her any question "without fear of retaliation.”

Cabinet yesterday opened visa applications from Canadians for 1,000 cousins, in-laws and other extended family in Gaza. No rescues will be undertaken unlike a 2006 war evacuation from Lebanon that cost more than $90 million: "Movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging and may not be possible."

Canada Post yesterday said it will sell its wholesale shipping subsidiary SCI Group Inc. at an undisclosed price pending cabinet approval. The sale follows warnings the post office faced heavy losses in the past year: "How are we going to get to fiscal sustainability?"