Blacklock's Reporter

Ask oldtimers what pre-industrial life was like in Yukon and Northwest Territories and they recall the sound of sled dogs galloping through the snow, the blue gleam of moonlight in winter and smell of fresh caribou steaks drying on spruce boughs.

Anthropologist Leslie McCartney asked twenty-three Gwich’in elders as old as 99. Their stories are chronicled in Our Whole Gwich’in Way Of Life Has Changed, a big, beautiful volume, 848 pages. It is warm and human.

There is a blank space in all history books dotted here and there with guesswork and anecdotes. Missing are accounts of daily working lives prior to the 18th century. There are no written descriptions by workaday Norwegian sailors or Hessian miners or Mongolian herders since ordinary people had no means of writing it down.

New Democrat Party headquarters yesterday would not comment over its refusal to answer a B’nai Brith campaign questionnaire on public disorder. It was the only Party that would not comment when asked, “If elected, what steps will your government take to ban hate rallies?”

Crime data analysis suggest a spike in church fires coincided with First Nations claims of hidden graves at Indian Residential Schools, an Ottawa think tank said yesterday. “Few Canadians understood the full scope and scale of these attacks,” said a report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute: 'This must have an explanation.'

Electric car mandates set to take effect in 2026 will be repealed if Conservatives are elected, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Car buyers must not be compelled to drive vehicles they do not want or cannot afford, he said: "This is not a ‘tomorrow’ problem, this is a ‘now’ problem."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday depicted Justin Trudeau as an unserious figure who invited ridicule. Relations with the United States are not a photo op or “a visit to Mar-a-Lago,” said Carney.

Cabinet has declared a New Brunswick island the nation’s only tariff-free zone. Campobello Island was a special case since residents have to buy their groceries in Maine, said the Department of Finance: "Residents have no practical choice."

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is asking a federal judge to censure Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon for imposing a six-month ban on lawful strike action. The unilateral order breached the Charter Of Rights, Union lawyers told the Federal Court: "Right to strike is an indispensable component of a meaningful collective bargaining process."

Voters should read for themselves a “jaw-dropping” federal report warning of social and economic collapse, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. The Liberal Party has not commented on the report: "It’s not surprising Liberals would want to shut out discussion on that."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday dismissed a Conservative proposal to clear public lands of tent cities as “a typical American-style approach.” Carney’s own housing minister has complained of public disorder caused by homeless people tenting in parks and on sidewalks: "Typical American."

Canadians’ shame over Indian Residential Schools must result in “real closure and healing,” New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday. Speaking by videoconference with the Assembly of First Nations, Singh made no mention of a New Democrat bill to criminalize Residential School “denialism.”

New figures from Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault show a wide variance in the number of voters in federal ridings, a difference of 90,000 or more in some cases. The latest revisions under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act were to ensure each vote carried the same weight with exceptions in extraordinary cases: "It matters."

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday said he was staggered by a newly-disclosed Privy Council report predicting Canadians in 15 years will resort to poaching wildlife for food and crowding into gated communities as protection against civil disorder. “That’s not my words, that’s the government’s words,” said Poilievre as he recited whole passages from the document: "What they are anticipating on the current trajectory is a total meltdown, a societal breakdown in Canada."

New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday appealed to British Columbians to “hold the line” on election day to prevent a Liberal majority. British Columbia in the last election gave New Democrats more than 660,000 votes and most of their seats in Parliament: "It will be British Columbians who decide if Mark Carney gets a super majority."

Voter turnout at Easter weekend advance polls was 25 percent higher than the last national campaign, Elections Canada said yesterday. Returning officers reported Canadians cast ballots by the millions: "Some polls may not have yet reported."

Repealing the GST on most new home purchases would cost the federal treasury about $400 million to $2 billion annually, says the Budget Office. The largest parties in the Commons have all proposed removing the five percent federal sales tax charged since 1991 on new construction: "The GST was not meant to apply to the basic necessities of food and housing."