Blacklock's Reporter

“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."

The labour department yesterday disclosed a $10,000 fine against a subsidized newspaper chain for breach of migrant labour regulations. The company, which described itself as “radically transparent,” declined comment.

Lawyers with the Department of Justice charged more than $21 million in billable hours on civil litigation targeting the Freedom Convoy, records show. The charge to taxpayers was more than double the compensation paid to Ottawa businesses that claimed lost income as a result of the 2022 protest: "What are the total legal costs incurred to date?"

Cabinet aides in internal emails schemed to “limit the damage” from public disclosures that Canadian taxpayers financed Chinese shipyard jobs, records show. “Distance ourselves from this as much as possible,” wrote one aide as then-Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland denied personal knowledge of the $1 billion BC Ferries deal: "It is our attempt to make the best of the worst."

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree yesterday launched cabinet’s long-delayed buy-back of “assault style” firearms under a national program he privately dismissed as a political ploy to save 44 Liberal seats in Québec. Opposition MPs demanded his resignation: "Why did you say it was about Québec?"

The Department of Industry billed taxpayers nearly a third of a million to host a two-day conference of green technology companies seeking federal subsidies, records show. “Now is the time for ambitious climate action,” then-Minister François-Philippe Champagne said at the time.

Statistics Canada confirms it excludes jobless data from First Nations reserves in calculating its benchmark Labour Force Survey though Indigenous communities have one of the highest jobless rates. Half a million Canadians live on reserves nationwide, nearly as many as live in Newfoundland and Labrador and more than twice the number in Prince Edward Island: "Why does the Labour Force Survey exclude such persons?"