Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “My friend overseas inquires about Canadian politics. ‘I’ve heard your Prime Minister is losing popularity,’ he says. I agree that’s what the polls show…”

Those who live long enough reach a point where all regrets and anxieties simply vanish. No one on their 100th birthday recites a century’s worth of petty gibes. Perhaps it’s the distraction of arthritis, or the comfort of knowing there are no surviving witnesses to our most embarrassing incidents.

Cherie Dimaline, Governor General’s Award-winning author, is only in her 40s and not there yet. Dimaline vividly recalls all her regrets and anxieties, like the time she got drunk on Jägermeister.

“Remember there was that party you went to in your early twenties, when they were giving out free Jägermeister and you were still broke enough to think you needed to drink the hell out of that Jägermeister because, well, it was free, and then you got so drunk you started an argument with that group of strangers who said you were an idiot?” writes Dimaline. “Oh, man, you really were an idiot. Wait, let me play that back in detail for you.”

New Democrat and Liberal MPs yesterday sought to censure Conservative finance critic MP Jasraj Singh Hallan (Calgary Forest Lawn) in apparent retribution for a 37-day budget filibuster. "You want to get rid of me?" Hallan told the Commons finance committee: “I am not here to make friends."

Parliament is catering to transgender visitors by mandating the installation of “non-gender” washrooms, the Opposition Leader in the Senate said yesterday. “Why don’t we call a spade a spade?” Senator Donald Plett (Man.) told the Senate committee on internal economy: "We’re catering to a group of people who say, ‘I want to go into a washroom I don’t belong in.'"

Federal whistleblowers who disclosed secret memos on Chinese spy activities to media should be prosecuted, says a former chief of the public service. Mel Cappe, ex-cabinet secretary, compared whistleblowers to predators whose identities must be exposed: "That is a strange position to take when we lack the clarity of the truth here."

Cabinet yesterday introduced a bill to promote “support for workers” facing layoffs due to its climate program. Some 170,000 energy workers face unemployment, according to the Environment Commissioner: "We know the stakes are incredibly high."

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez yesterday defended millions in federal subsidies for TV corporations despite cutbacks at the network with the largest audience, BCE Incorporated. Television broadcasters received more than $100 million in direct federal grants through the pandemic: "What’s not working?"

Privy Council President Bill Blair yesterday said he never saw a secret memo on Chinese spies because it was sent to the wrong office. Blair’s earlier claim that information was deliberately withheld by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was contradicted in committee testimony: 'They sent it to another office, not my office.'

Cabinet yesterday said Canadian delegates will no longer attend meetings of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank but stopped short of dumping Canada’s shares in the Beijing operation. It followed complaints by a Canadian executive working for the Bank that the Communist Party “runs the joint.”

Cabinet had no choice but to spend billions on a Volkswagen battery plant in Ontario, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. Her remarks followed a Budget Office report warning the venture will cost taxpayers almost 20 percent more than estimated: "Canada had to be at the table."

People have “limited levels of macroeconomic literacy,” the Bank of Canada said yesterday. The Bank complained people often failed to “understand and correctly interpret information” about deficits, inflation and central banking: "Scores are rather low."

The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim of discrimination by a government employee ordered to return to the office after working from home. The employee, a married mother of five, argued the order was unfair: 'Not every conflict between one’s professional obligations and family responsibilities constitutes discrimination.'

Privy Council President Bill Blair’s claim that federal spies withheld information on Chinese interference is false, the House affairs committee was told last night. The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said he specifically sent a memo to warn Blair that foreign agents were targeting MPs: "The information was meant to be seen by the Minister."

David Morrison, the Prime Minister’s former national security advisor, yesterday testified he read a secret 2021 memo on intimidation of MPs by Chinese agents but concluded there “was nothing in the note that spurred me to take action.” Morrison said he read the memo with the 2021 election underway: "You didn’t twig to the fact this could be an issue?"

The RCMP yesterday testified they relied on politicians and news reporters for leads on alleged election fraud by Chinese agents. “I wouldn’t be proud of that,” said Conservative MP Luc Berthold (Mégantic-L’Erable, Que.).