Blacklock's Reporter

Ottawa has more statues than any city in the land. As public art and political statements they run the gamut: haunting, contrived, tiresome, outrageous and wonderful, like the exhausted figure of Harold Fisher, head bowed, that’s survived a hundred winters on Carling Avenue.

Fisher as mayor built one of Canada’s first municipal hospitals in 1924, an era when surgery meant charity wards for the poor and spas for the wealthy. Ratepayers placed Fisher and his free public hospital in a cornfield where land was cheap. Surrounding acres over time became one of the prettiest collections of pre-war bungalows in a neighbourhood still called Civic Hospital. Fisher’s inscription reads: “If you would see his monument, look around you.” Beautiful.

Tours Inside the Snow Globe is fresh and intriguing, an investigation of statuary written at the close of an era that saw street protestors decapitate John A. Macdonald. Only a sociologist could explain what happened. Luckly, author Tonya Davidson is one of those.

Canadian news will vanish if private TV networks fail, the CEO of Bell Canada Enterprises yesterday told the Commons heritage committee. “Without a Canadian broadcasting system there will be no news except maybe the CBC,” testified CEO Mirko Bibic: "We need to figure out how to keep Canadian news alive."

The Canada Infrastructure Bank “has really hit its stride,” Ehren Cory, the Bank’s $600,000-a year CEO, told the Commons transport committee. MPs questioned why bonuses ate up a fifth of the Bank’s operating revenues last year: "Do you think that’s justifiable?"

Critics on the Commons justice committee yesterday ridiculed a New Democrat bill to regulate parents’ discipline of children in the home. Conservative MP Frank Caputo (Kamloops-Thompson, B.C.), a father of three and former Crown prosecutor, questioned whether a tap on the wrist would be criminalized: "When should a parent be subject to criminal law?"

A proposed ban on replacement workers in the federal private sector will give small union locals disproportionate control over the Canadian economy, employers yesterday told MPs. Business and farm groups asked the Commons human resources committee to repeal or rewrite Bill C-58: "This is a bad idea."

The Commons’ standing ovation for a Nazi collaborator was horrifying, the Canadian Polish Congress yesterday told the House affairs committee. MPs continue to investigate the September 22 incident that saw VIP treatment for a member of the Waffen SS, a criminal organization: "There is no ambiguity."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday testified it “wasn’t appropriate” to expel MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) from the Liberal caucus though he was under security surveillance. Trudeau said he assumed it was up to Elections Canada to determine whether Dong had contacts with foreign agents: "Did you ask for further investigation?"

Cabinet aides in a secret 2017 memo told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to avoid public criticism of China despite evidence Communist Party agents were committing crimes in Canada. Cabinet was attempting to negotiate a Chinese free trade pact at the time: "This could be deemed illegal by Canadian courts."

Federal election monitors were supposed to keep a lookout for Russian agents not Chinese, Government House Leader Karina Gould said yesterday. No Russian agents were ever found while cabinet received numerous warnings of illegal activities by the Communist Party of China: "The primary focus was really on Russia."

The China inquiry tomorrow meets in special session over a censored, top secret memo proving the Prime Minister’s Office was warned of illegal activities by Chinese agents. Federal lawyers did not disclose the document until late last Sunday evening after crucial witnesses had already testified: "The question would be, why?"

The National Research Council paid out more than $85 million in subsidies to pharmaceutical companies from the start of the pandemic, records show. Staff at the time complained of overwork in processing payments: "How much federal funding has been provided?"

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office in 2019 was told MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) was under security surveillance but kept him in the Liberal caucus, records show. Trudeau’s chief of staff in 2023 had denied the subject was ever raised: "I am not quite sure what is being referred to."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office in 2023 was given explicit warning of illegal conduct by Chinese agents that posed an “existential threat to Canadian democracy,” the China inquiry disclosed yesterday. Trudeau had denied he was ever told foreign agents breached the Elections Act: "It truly is a remarkable document."

Cabinet had to follow “due process” before firing suspected Chinese spies working at the National Microbiology Laboratory, says Health Minister Mark Holland. Scientists with links to the People’s Liberation Army came under surveillance in August 2018 but remained on the job until July 2019: "Do you think they were eminent scientists or eminent spies?"

The Canadian Armed Forces are more than a quarter below “target strength” with resignations and poor enlistment rates, says a Department of National Defence briefing note. New recruits average just 7,600 a year: "We’ve actually seen greater attrition."