Blacklock's Reporter

On April 11, 2000 a supermarket employee in Williams Lake, B.C. called police after spotting a drunk passed out at a storefront picnic table. A constable arrived and threw the man, Paul Alphonse of the Williams Lake Indian Band, into a police vehicle. Hold that image for a moment: the hopeless drunk, a peevish clerk, an angry cop. It was a very ordinary incident

Except Alphonse was mysteriously dead in police custody within a week. He suffered broken ribs and had a purple bruise on his chest the size of a boot, Alphonse’s boot. The man could not have stomped himself to death. At the inquest, Constable Bob Irwin testified Alphonse was so violent he’d slapped him around and pinned him against a wall at police headquarters. None of this was corroborated by precinct video cameras. They weren’t operating that day.

Alphonse was 67, weighed 120 pounds, and had been arrested for drunkenness more than 70 times. He was a small, sick old man. Constable Irwin stood over 6’, weighed 240 pounds and enjoyed martial arts. “The pathologist believed the stomping had probably occurred just prior to Alphonse’s arrest and may not have been due to the actions of police,” writes Professor Sherene Razack, a sociologist at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Studies In Education. “There remained only the sinister possibility that someone deliberately stomped on Alphonse while wearing his own boot.”

The House affairs committee yesterday by a vote of 6 to 5 ruled Parliament must order a public inquiry into claims of foreign election interference. Liberal MPs opposed the motion now expected to be endorsed by the entire Commons following its return from recess Monday: "This is just taking cheap shots at the Prime Minister."

Federal campaign monitors “were seeing implications that foreign interference could be occurring” in the 2021 election but kept suspicions to themselves, the House affairs committee was told yesterday. MPs expressed astonishment that no one was told: "What prevents you from taking pre-emptive action?"

Nearly half of foreign border crossers flagged as security risks were let into the country by the Department of Immigration, according to an internal audit. The report did not detail any follow-up on thousands of foreigners permitted to stay in Canada despite "admissibility concerns."

"Mental illness" accounts for almost half of all disability claims by federal employees, says a departmental report. It follows an earlier study that found employees are “drowning in a pool of repetitive, menial and uninspiring tasks.”

Canada’s federal delegation to the last climate conference burned through $622,000 in air fares, accounts show. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault called the meeting in Egypt “the next step forward for climate ambition.”

Conservatives, Bloc Québécois and New Democrat caucuses yesterday pledged enough votes, 172 against the Liberals’ 158, to force an independent public inquiry into alleged Chinese election interference. The House affairs committee today is expected to send the recommendation to the Commons: "Not a single individual has been hauled to the bar to account for any of this."

Cabinet signed for billions’ worth of vaccines yet to be delivered, records show. Vaccines under contract for shipment are enough for another four booster shots for every Canadian adult already fully vaccinated: "There are currently 90.8 million remaining doses to be delivered in 2023 and 2024."

The Senate yesterday said it will offer staff “recognition awards” like gold bracelets. The prizes are to help employees "feel a strong sense of belonging” to the institution that has run its budget up 70 percent since 2016: "We’re lucky."

The Department of Immigration yesterday budgeted for war in Ukraine to continue into 2024. Managers set aside millions to cover free hotel bookings for unsponsored refugees who land in Canada with no place to stay: "There is no limit to the number of people who will be welcomed."

Statistics Canada yesterday detailed new food inflation figures documenting a dramatic rise in basic groceries from pre-pandemic levels. Data were based on actual checkout prices nationwide: "More are borrowing money to cover their day to day expenses."

Morris Rosenberg, former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, yesterday in a federal report said there was “no evidence to indicate foreign state actors were specifically targeting Elections Canada or Canadian electoral systems and networks” in the 2021 campaign. Conservative MPs questioned Rosenberg’s impartiality: "There were concerns."

Cabinet yesterday named a Québec rapper to the federal Historic Sites and Monuments Board. Aly Ndiaye, a self-described “history enthusiast,” criticized scholars for their treatment of racism in Canada: "It was only in rap music that I recognized my experience as an African American, American in the continental sense."

The Commons heritage committee yesterday voted to summon executives from Google Canada to explain the company’s test blocking of news websites. It followed MPs’ passage of a bill that would force Google to pay a portion of ad revenues for linking to stories by news corporations like the CBC: "Bill C-18 would give regulators unprecedented influence over news."

Sears Canada employees are petitioning the Senate to pass a pension bill that would protect retirees’ benefits in bankruptcy settlements.  Reforms are too late for longtime Sears workers but would help others, they wrote: '"The Senate can help the next group."