Blacklock's Reporter

The Depression, not the war, left the deepest scars on an entire generation of Canadians. Survivors carried indelible memories of the collapse of capitalism. My mother, raised on a Manitoba farmstead, years afterward could not bear to throw out tin foil pie plates. “That’s wasteful,” she warned. My father-in-law cursed TV episodes of The Waltons that depicted poor but cheerful townsfolk who had love if not money. “It wasn’t anything like that,” he said. “I was there and it wasn’t like that.”

The broad strokes of the Depression years are part of the nation’s memory, preserved in schoolbook texts and grainy newsreels: hobos on freight cars, police on horseback, dust storms and factory closures. Yet it’s the fine details that paint the most vivid picture of whole communities brought to their knees by an economic calamity unmatched in its cruelty.

The Commons last night passed a 60-day sales tax holiday on select Christmas goods from beer to Bibles. The 176 to 151 vote came at 11:23 pm Eastern following hours of acrimonious debate: "Instead of taking chump change off chocolates, call a carbon tax election now."

The Commons industry committee yesterday censured the millionaire CEO of Rogers Communications as a “witness in hiding.” MPs ordered CEO Tony Staffieri to appear by December 5 under threat of arrest by the Sergeant at Arms: "If he thinks he has got political connections that can prevent him from appearing before the committee he is wrong."

The Commons government operations committee will vote on a first-ever investigation of “March Madness,” the last minute spending of surplus funds in the dying hours of each fiscal year on March 31. Conservative MP Kelly Block (Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek, Sask.), sponsor of a motion to investigate, yesterday said the practice was indefensible “when Canadians are facing financial hardship.”

A cabinet advisor says she accepts some Canadians are skeptical that thousands of children were buried at Indian Residential Schools. However accusations of deliberate deception are hateful, she said: "That's the type of speech we need to stop."

Claims of Cree ancestry like those by Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre) are “very common” in federal contracting, an Indigenous witness yesterday told the Commons government operations committee. A company co-founded by Boissonnault had claimed to be Indigenous owned though no First Nation ever certified the claim: "My Cree name means Strong Eagle Man."

Public support for record high immigration levels has collapsed, says in-house research by the Department of Immigration. The abrupt shift in polling coincided with anti-Israel street protests: "To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Immigration is causing Canada to change in ways I don’t like."

A former $200,000-a year assistant deputy industry minister last night testified he never reported inside dealing on corporate subsidies since he was “not a lawyer.” MPs on the Commons public accounts committee expressed disbelief over remarks by Andrew Noseworthy: "You never reported that?"

Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly’s department ordered more than $523,000 worth of furniture in a one-day spending spree this past March 31, records show. Cabinet has long denied the phenomenon of “March Madness,” a yearly blitz that sees departments burn through unspent budgets in the dying hours of the fiscal year: "It’s going to disappear if it’s not used."

Negotiations in the 12-day Canada Post strike are “at a dead end,” Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said yesterday. Cabinet had no immediate plans to intervene, he told reporters: "It is possible we will have a prolonged labour conflict."

A private Liberal bill proclaiming April as Arab Heritage Month ignores “blatant anti-Palestinian racism that pervades society,” says a Liberal-appointed senator. “Take the recent uproar over the singing of an Arabic song during a Remembrance Day ceremony at an Ontario high school,” said Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.).

The Commons ethics committee last night issued summonses for two former business associates of Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre). The warning to appear or be taken into custody came as a company co-founded by Boissonnault was struck from the federal bidders’ list amid an Alberta police investigation: "This is a made-for-Netflix miniseries."

Cabinet is not “panicking” over threats of a winter tariff war with the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Opponents dismissed Trudeau as too weak and distracted to stare down a 25 percent American tariff on billions' worth of Canadian exports: "I don’t think the idea of going to war with the United States is what anyone wants."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller yesterday promised “a number of measures” to enforce the Immigration And Refugee Protection Act. The pledge followed a U.S. warning of a winter tariff war without a Canadian crackdown on illegal immigration: "Are you planning to deploy the RCMP?"

Federal contracting is near “the bottom tier” in accountability and fairness, Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic said yesterday. Jeglic told the Senate national finance committee that irregularities like sweetheart contracting were symptomatic of a “broken system.”