Blacklock's Reporter

The National Research Council is budgeting millions to renovate a vacant library into an “engaging workplace” with an atrium, staff gymnasium, “wellness rooms” and an executive suite for Mitch Davies, its $377,500-a year president. Notices to contractors were issued Friday, only days after the Prime Minister instructed federal agencies to earmark unused property for public housing: "Our people make big things possible."

The Department of Environment secretly commissioned in-house research on a New Democrat proposal to restrict advertising by oil companies, records show. Pollsters were told to gauge support for the private bill by then-MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) though the measure never went further than First Reading in the Commons: "Fossil fuel advertising currently deploys techniques which knowingly mislead the public."

A subsidized “anti-hate” expert blames Blacklock’s Reporter for a review of its federal funding. Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said in a Friday podcast he thought Blacklock’s was “really cool” until it began reporting on his activities: "They’re the ones who recently reported that we target Catholics."

Canadians nationwide would be directed to open Canada Day celebrations with Indigenous “sacred fires or other appropriate ceremony” under a petition sponsored by Liberal MP Karina Gould (Burlington, Ont.). It follows a federal report suggesting July 1 observances “adapt to emerging needs and social expectations.”

Illegal immigrants need more free legal help, Amnesty International says in a submission to the Commons finance committee. The Federal Courts Administration Service has complained immigration cases are already clogging dockets with taxpayers' costs up more than 300 percent: "Provide Legal Aid funding to ensure certainty and consistency for refugees and migrants regardless of where they are in the country."

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Compasses of all shapes and sizes on display at the outdoor equipment store. I check the selection, wondering who’s buying them…”

“We know ourselves only through stories,” writes Professor Daniel Heath Justice of the University of British Columbia. Canadians define themselves through stories of pipelines or Catholicism or the fisheries or our grandparents’ ethnicity. Why Indigenous Literatures Matter tells a poignant story of discovering his Cherokee roots through a 1976 bestseller The Education Of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, the biography of an Indigenous boy raised by Tennessee mountaineers.

“I read it every year,” writes Justice. “I suggested it to others. It told me a story that was so familiar; it became part of my story of self. But it wasn’t until I was an undergraduate that I learned the shattering truth.”

Shocking levels of federal borrowing are pushing the nation to a point where “something is going to break,” Interim Budget Officer Jason Jacques yesterday warned the Commons government operations commitee. His remarks came hours after Jacques tabled documents indicating cabinet skipped this year’s deficit target by 62 percent: "That's what is shocking."

It is not CMHC’s job to solve the housing crisis, the federal insurer's $551,000-a year CEO yesterday told the Commons public accounts committee. Coleen Volk omitted all mention of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s earlier promise to ensure “everyone in Canada has a home they can afford” by 2030.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers last evening launched a national strike hours after cabinet abruptly announced sweeping cuts to mail delivery. Service cuts were similar to measures detailed in a 2013 Action Plan shelved by Liberals a decade ago: "We cannot accept this attack."

Taxpayers will take a double hit on federal financing for Chinese shipyard jobs, union executives yesterday told the Commons transport committee. Costs of the subsidized loan are on top of waivers of tariffs intended to protect Canadian jobs, they said: "If we are using taxpayers’ money to fund projects, surely to God we can put people to work."

Corporate tax delinquents would see their names and debts published on a federal website under a private bill introduced in the Commons by Conservative MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, Ont.). The Commons six years ago defeated a similar bill sponsored by a Liberal-appointed senator: "It is in the public interest."

Auditors are faulting the Canada Border Services Agency for haphazard oversight of contraband seized at the border including cash and narcotics worth hundreds of millions. “There is an increased opportunity for misappropriation,” said a report.

Cabinet will reintroduce an internet censorship bill, its third try in four years. Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday said a pending bill would be similar to 2021 legislation, a failed bill critics called “overbroad and incoherent.”

Taxpayers have been billed hundreds of thousands for aid to universities in China, records show. The Department of Foreign Affairs would not detail Chinese grants that exceeded foreign aid paid to postsecondary schools in some of the world’s poorest countries: "The Chinese have always been looking for a respectful relationship."