Blacklock's Reporter

A New Brunswick schoolgirl was so anxious over her father’s deployment to Afghanistan she felt like vomiting every time the phone rang. Another recalled a sibling who “had nightmares that my dad blew up and he had no face.” A third remembers being reprimanded for weeping in class: “My teacher told me to stop crying because there was no reason to cry, and that it was stupid for me to cry over something like that. I got mad at her because my dad just left to go to war for six months, and I’m pretty sure that’s a valid reason to be upset.”

These are the stories in Armyville: Canada’s Military Families During the Afghanistan Mission. The  narrative is compelling. Poet Raymond Souster, a WWII volunteer, said every patriot who would send Canadians to war should first walk through the ward in a veterans’ hospital. They should also read Armyville.

The Prime Minister's Office yesterday acknowledged it was told two years ago of a security memo detailing Chinese threats against the family of Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.). There was no explanation of why Justin Trudeau said he only learned of the threats last Monday: "He closed his eyes. It’s only now that he is interested because the information leaked out."

Room and board for illegal immigrants who entered Canada at a single Québec border crossing cost more than $127 million in the past five years, new data show. The figures, the highest disclosed to date, include hotel room bookings from Surrey, B.C. to St. John’s: "Staggering."

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland faces an opposition filibuster over her latest omnibus budget bill. Conservative MPs at the Commons finance committee delayed all clause-by-clause votes until Freeland appears for questioning: "Oh my goodness."

Cabinet's estimated $5.2 billion cost of settling with striking federal employees did not include the expense of $2,500 bonuses, says Treasury Board President Mona Fortier. Bonuses would add more than a third of a billion to the settlement: "We can adjust the amount."

Canada Post yesterday reported a pre-tax loss of $548 million last year. Cabinet has yet to detail a management plan to return the post office to profitability but polled Canadians on service cuts: "To what extent would you support or oppose an end to door to door home delivery?"

Alexandre Trudeau yesterday said Canadians “need to recognize certain accomplishments” of the Chinese Communist Party. “I am a reader of Confucius,” the Prime Minister’s brother testified at the Commons ethics committee: "We need to recognize certain accomplishments of that regime."

Cabinet yesterday would not say how many MPs have been harassed by Communist Chinese agents. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said security advisors never told him foreign agents threatened Hong Kong relatives of Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.): 'Are any other MPs the subject of similar threats?'

Cabinet does not know how many federal employees are working from home, says Budget Officer Yves Giroux. Testifying at the Senate national finance committee, Giroux said he asked and had no response: "There seems to be a great lack of information."

The Commons yesterday passed into law a bill to name and shame Canadian importers that deal in slave-made goods. One MP described slave goods as commonplace in Canadian stores: "These people are harvesting our coffee or the sugar we eat or making the clothes we wear."

A small fraction of veterans are homeless, about half of one percent, according to Department of Veterans Affairs figures. The Department said data were estimates only: "The total number of veterans who experience homelessness might be higher than this."

Morris Rosenberg, former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, yesterday testified he never questioned mailing a $140,000 Canadian charity tax receipt to the Beijing address of a TV production company affiliated with the Communist Youth League. “The money actually came with no strings attached,” Rosenberg told the Commons ethics committee: "Isn’t that unusual sir?"

Commons Speaker Anthony Rota yesterday rejected an emergency debate on Chinese intimidation of an MP and threatened to eject the Leader of the Opposition from the House. Rota in a raucous exchange was jeered by Conservative benches: "It is outrageous."

The CRTC yesterday said it will define newsroom ethics under a cabinet bill on internet revenue sharing. “I have met with newspaper publishers,” Scott Shortliffe, executive director of broadcasting policy, told Senators: "It puts frankly a bit of an onus on us to define that."

MPs could spend a hundred hours dissecting cabinet’s latest omnibus budget bill, members of the Commons finance committee complained yesterday. Conservative MP Marty Morantz (Charleswood-St. James, Man.) noted Liberals in opposition had condemned catch-all budget bills as undemocratic: "Anyone? Anyone here can answer that?"