Blacklock's Reporter

Conspiracy is mythology, but after sundown. Even when wholly fiction, both satisfy some human need to explain a ridiculous, implausible world. Author Richard Syrett calls it “the madness unleashed by creative genius.” He is a gifted essayist.

Syrett is a Toronto broadcaster, producer and podcaster, and enthusiastic chronicler of the underworld of popular culture. “Pop keeps people distracted and docile, background noise for factory life,” Syrett quotes an interview subject. The result is Tales From The Rock ‘n Roll Twilight Zone, a forensic probing of “the eerie coincidences, the suspicious circumstances, the whispers that something darker was at work.” The result is jarring.

Auditors are faulting Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s department for sloppy accounting by diplomats abroad including disappearing paperwork on spending. The latest report follows a 2020 disclosure that one Embassy misappropriated $145,000 for a party pavilion and lied to cover the expense: "It was nearly impossible to determine."

Parliament must convene hearings on property rights after a British Columbia judge granted Aboriginal title to 1,846 acres near Richmond, B.C. including private lots purchased by ratepayers, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. “This is a federal issue,” he told reporters: "You need property rights protection to have a thriving, property-owning democracy."

Canada Border Services Agency executives hurriedly convened strategy sessions after an Opposition MP publicly disclosed whistleblower complaints of workplace harassment, Access To Information records show. Conservative MP Rhonda Kirkland (Oshawa, Ont.) persuaded the Commons public safety committee to investigate the Agency’s “toxic workplace culture.”

Federal executives in 2025 discussed a national campaign to electrify school buses, according to an Access To Information memo. Rebates for the purchase of new vehicles to replace Canada’s current fleet of 65,000 school buses would cost a billion: "We are generally aligned with the direction."

There is insufficient evidence to determine if a costly grocery subsidy for Northerners is lowering the price of food, says a federal report. The Nutrition North program cost $194.3 million last year: "Is the subsidy being fully passed on to consumers?"

Cabinet for a third time in five years is reviewing federal regulation of legal internet content, the Department of Industry said yesterday. “Details will be made public at the appropriate time,” it said.

Floor-crossing by a fifth opposition MP to the Liberal caucus yesterday marked the largest mass defection to a federal governing party in the Commons in 109 years. MP Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia-Lambton, Ont.), former Conservative Party leadership candidate, said she hoped to gain more federal funding for her riding as a Liberal: "I thought, should I quit?"

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet yesterday appealed to voters to hold the line on a close Liberal majority in a Montréal-area byelection. A Bloc win in Terrebonne, Que. would limit cabinet to a thin but working majority in the Commons: "‘Who the hell speaks for me?"

The Prime Minister’s Office yesterday had no comment after a senior executive was censured for cronyism. Christiane Fox, now-Deputy Minister of National Defence, breached an Act of Parliament in finding an $80,000-a year government job for a school friend whose experience consisted of working as manager at a Good Life gym: "Giving someone preferential treatment is in itself improper."

Cabinet’s $30 billion promise to create a quarter million new daycare spaces by March 31 was not met, says a federal document. Then-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in 2021 promised billions in five-year subsidies on a promise of $10-a day fees and “250,000 new high quality child care spaces by 2026.”

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne boasted to senators he was personally involved in details of construction for regional high speed rail in Québec, records show. It contradicts Champagne’s claim he recused himself under the Conflict Of Interest Act after his wife was hired by the railway: "We got the train through Trois-Rivières."

It’s a “good situation” when cabinet ministers’ spouses can enjoy their own careers, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. He dismissed questions regarding the finance minister’s personal involvement in promoting a regional rail corporation that hired his wife as vice-president: "It’s important that we have a system that those individuals can continue to pursue their career."

The housing crisis only affects people who don’t own houses, says a federal briefing note. The Department of Housing in an Access To Information note to Minister Gregor Robertson said it found affordability was no problem for homeowners who bought property 25 years ago: "In other words, if you consider all Canadians there does not appear to be an affordability crisis."

A Toronto banker appointed to oversee defence contracting owns shares in dozens of publicly-traded firms including federally regulated companies, according to ethics filings. Doug Guzman, a former Royal Bank executive, earlier acknowledged he had no military experience: "You would have to ask others why I was picked for the job."