Blacklock's Reporter

Of all countries on earth how many old colonies managed constitutional independence without gunfire? The answer makes a very short list. First is Canada. This rare achievement took many years and much desk-pounding and today is taken for granted. Canada’s Constitutional Revolution is a celebration of the fact.

The late Barry Strayer, a federal judge, recalled only weeks after the 1982 Charter of Rights was proclaimed thieves broke into his Ottawa home: “When the police came and we were discussing it with the detectives, one of them said, ‘Well, there’s probably not much we can do. It used to be before this Charter thing that we’d round up a few of the likely suspects and take ‘em down to the station. We usually got results.’”

Strayer was a constitutional lawyer, ex-CCF organizer and retired assistant deputy justice minister who helped guide the decades-long, peaceful process to a made-in-Canada Constitution. “I think it is legitimate to call it a revolution,” he writes.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday reneged on a cabinet promise to freeze the current $170 per tonne cap on the carbon tax, the equivalent of 40¢ per litre of gasoline. “It is a decision that hasn’t been made,” said Guilbeault: "We haven’t made any determination for what will happen."

Cabinet failed to write Canadian job guarantees into subsidy contracts with foreign electric auto battery manufacturers, an MP last evening told the Commons government operations committee. Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, N.S.) said he read a confidential Volkswagen agreement and “what’s not in it is a clause that protects Canadian jobs.”

A Senate committee yesterday endorsed a 38 percent increase in living expenses for legislators who stay in Ottawa hotels while on business. “Senators actually are struggling,” said one $169,600-a year appointee: "It is a pretty serious situation."

A cabinet appointee under ethics investigation yesterday said her vote to award $217,661 in taxpayers' subsidies to a company she owned was not a personal benefit. Annette Verschuren, former chair of the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology, resigned November 20: "I am sure that I didn’t break any ethics laws, absolutely."

Commons Speaker Greg Fergus yesterday was ordered to apologize a 14th time and pay a fine of his choosing for breach of rules on impartiality. The House affairs committee rejected demands from 149 Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs that Fergus resign: "For us in the Liberal Party he made a mistake."

Middle class Canadians were disappointed with cabinet’s Strong Middle Class budget, says in-house Privy Council research. Participants in federal focus groups said they were overtaxed and disillusioned with cabinet: "No participants felt the Government of Canada currently devoted enough attention to the middle class."

Jewish Liberal MPs yesterday expressed unease with a cabinet decision to vote with Iran and against Israel at the United Nations. Nine of the ten largest Jewish ridings in Parliament are held by Liberals: "If you can’t stand proud and strong with the Jewish community don’t light our damn Hanukkah candles."

The Department of Health has paid Twitter “influencers” more than $680,000 since 2021, records show. Tweeters collected talent fees to express support for federal programs without disclosing they were paid for posts: 'They are not required to reveal they are government-paid influencers because that, of course, would be very embarrassing.'

Cabinet budgeted $37.4 million and spent a quarter of it on a gun buyback program without buying any guns, records show. Newly disclosed figures follow an internal Department of Public Safety report that warned the program was prone to “wasted time, energy and funds.”

Cabinet should take steps to disqualify from public pension investments any unethical Chinese companies, a Commons committee recommended yesterday. The Canada Pension Plan, the nation’s largest, has held shares in Chinese coal mines, propaganda film studios and a solar power company linked to slave labour: 'There are no measures which prevent funds from investing in companies complicit in human rights violations.'

A cabinet appointee under ethics investigation over alleged inside dealing last evening abruptly fled a Commons industry committee hearing while under questioning. Whistleblowers accuse Liberal Party donor Annette Verschuren of having federal employees hunt up grants for her non-profit Verschuren Centre: "Look, we're entrepreneurs."

Whistleblowers are asking MPs to publicly release hundreds of pages of documents detailing insider dealing at a taxpayer-funded foundation. Some $150 million was paid to friends of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, one witness told the Commons industry committee: "How many board members and executives are in conflicts of interest and are funding companies they have a financial interest in?"

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly yesterday had Canada's United Nations delegation vote with Iran and against Israel and the U.S. in supporting a Mideast ceasefire without condemning the killing of Jews. One Canadian Jewish group last night called the vote disgusting: "Canada voted in support of a resolution that fails to hold Hamas accountable for its war crimes."

CBC executives must forego Christmas bonuses, the Commons heritage committee said yesterday. Paying another $16 million in annual bonuses was inappropriate as CEO Catherine Tait complained of revenue shortfalls and threatened job cuts, said the committee: "Everybody at CBC right now needs to consider the financial situation."