Blacklock's Reporter

Trail, B.C. produced the 1939 World Ice Hockey Champion Smoke Eaters, longtime Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti, NHL All Star Ray Ferraro and historian Ron Verzuh, a smelter worker’s son who clocked hours at the Cominco mill in its heyday and became a gifted chronicler of the nation’s labour history. “If there was ever a workplace that would persuade me to return to school it was the lead furnaces,” writes Verzuh.

Smelter Wars through meticulous research and a warm narrative documents tensions between managers in a company town and the Communist-led Local 480 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. It is also more than that.

Verzuh recaptures an era when home for most Canadians meant a thriving place far from the big cities. It’s not that Trail was off the beaten path; there was no path. The Trans-Canada Highway was not complete until 1962. Years later when Brian Mulroney famously campaigned on the slogan that Canada was a land of “small towns and big dreams” it touched a nostalgic chord with many voters.

Cabinet conducted pre-election polling on vaccine mandates that found they were most divisive in regions where Liberals held few seats. The confidential polling was finalized only days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a snap election, records show: 'Atlantic Canada indicated unanimous support for requiring proof of vaccination for domestic flights; Alberta and Saskatchewan were unanimous in opposing this idea.'

Inflation is likely to remain high and climb even higher, Statistics Canada yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Analysts said they will change methods used to account for some price gains that explain the difference between Canadian and U.S. rates: "Thirty years I’ve worked at Statistics Canada and I can tell you we haven’t been through an economic period like this."

The Senate yesterday took 50 minutes flat to pass $88.7 billion in new spending amid complaints Parliament now gives only cursory scrutiny to budget bills. Spending included $13,209,519,773 to cover last-minute expenses before the fiscal year expired at midnight last night: "It does feel like party time."

Customs agents must show “reasonable general concern” prior to searching travelers’ cellphones and laptops under a cabinet bill yesterday introduced in the Senate. It follows an Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that struck down random searches as unconstitutional: "Electronic devices contain very sensitive personal information."

Crime does not pay, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The comments came in a unanimous decision upholding a steep fine against a ringleader of the biggest maple syrup heist in Canadian history: "Although this case involves maple syrup the hierarchy among the various accomplices is not unlike that of a drug ring."

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez yesterday appointed a panel of "experts," mainly professors, for advice on regulating the internet in Canada. Cabinet has proposed hiring a federal censor to block legal online content deemed hurtful: "I think in some ways this will really help freedom of speech."

A record 26,000 air passengers filed complaints with federal regulators over Covid flight cancellations, records show. The flood of grievances followed airlines’ refusal to pay cash refunds: "Compensate as generously as possible the passengers who had their flights cancelled."

The CBC in an internal memo asks that producers use Google and other public data sources to determine the ethnicity of invited guests and interview subjects. The point was to ensure news programs “better reflect the diversity of Canadian communities.”

All-Canadian manufacturers of personal protective equipment have received few federal contracts despite millions spent on high-grade masks, the Commons health committee was told yesterday. A large share of N-95 contracts in Canada went to two companies, both multinationals: "This undermines the entire domestic Canadian PPE industry."

Cabinet is striving “every single day” to curb misconduct by military commanders, Defence Minister Anita Anand said yesterday. Her remarks followed a guilty plea by General (Ret’d) Jonathan Vance to obstruction of justice: "It is not my role to comment on the results of an individual criminal defendant."

The retired cabinet minister who wrote the Emergencies Act last night urged Parliament to examine carefully whether extraordinary powers were needed against the Freedom Convoy. Perrin Beatty, 71, wrote the law 34 years ago and never expected it to be invoked in his lifetime, he said: "Ask how we got to this point."

The Department of Environment yesterday said “more needs to be done” to lower auto emissions. It followed a March 21 report from an advisory panel recommending a four-figure Green Levy on pickup trucks and SUVs: "Reduce the number of single passenger trips in motorized vehicles."

Three quarters of small and medium sized businesses nationwide applied for taxpayers’ pandemic subsidies, the Department of Industry said yesterday. Virtually every operator who asked for aid got it, data show: "With an approval rate of 98 percent nearly all small and medium enterprises that requested government financing had their requests approved."

The Canada Revenue Agency is among the most expensive tax collectors in the industrial world, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reported yesterday. Giroux was formerly the Agency’s chief data officer: 'For every dollar of operating expenses Canada collected $74 in net tax revenue. The international average is $126.'