Blacklock's Reporter

The film classic It’s A Wonderful Life recounts the story of George Bailey, a frustrated everyman trapped in a small town with unfulfilled dreams of travel and adventure. But what if George left Bedford Falls? He’d have become Conrad Kain. It is a story too poignant for filmgoers. Instead it is a compelling title from University of Alberta Press.

Kain is renowned among Canadian mountaineers as a pioneering guide so accomplished they named a British Columbia peak for him, Mount Conrad. He escaped grinding poverty as a miner’s son in rural Austria and travelled the world from Honolulu to Ulaanbaatar.

“As far back as he could remember his ‘chief ambition was to travel,’” notes Letters From A Wandering Guide. “As a boy, despite the constraints of unremitting poverty, he never missed an opportunity to speak with tourists who passed through the alpine valleys near his home. ‘I would ask a great many questions,’ Kain wrote. ‘Where he came from, where intended going, what the place was like where he stopped last.’”

Opposition MPs yesterday pressed Defence Minister Bill Blair to explain why his office waited 54 days to approve a warrant targeting Liberal Party contacts with Toronto’s Chinese Consulate. “The truth will be revealed,” Conservative MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake, Man.) told the Commons defence committee: "A warrant sat around your office."

A Liberal MP yesterday disrupted a hearing of the Commons public accounts committee with a profane rant against Conservative members. “F—k right off,” said MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, Ont.): "Come on. Come on. Come on."

The carbon tax has an “overall negative economic impact” including a net cost to households, the Budget Office said yesterday. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault disputed the findings: "That’s not what this report says."

The Senate last evening on a voice vote passed cabinet’s pharmacare bill into law. Advocates called it short of its promise but a necessary first step to public prescription drug insurance: "This is not universality. But it is the first step towards universality."

Parliament must “clear the air” over allegations of foreign spies on Parliament Hill, former public safety minister Marco Mendicino yesterday testified at the Commission on Foreign Interference. Mendicino complained a damning report by a Liberal-dominated committee could turn Parliament into a “kangaroo court.”

Lawyers at the China inquiry last night suggested a cabinet aide tried to obstruct an investigation of Liberal Party contacts with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto. Zita Astravas, former chief of staff to Defence Minister Bill Blair, could not explain why she shelved a warrant application for weeks despite requests by the Department of Public Safety and Canadian Security Intelligence Service: "You saw it was deeply concerned with the operations of your Party."

No parliamentarians have committed treason though some MPs have poor judgment, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security advisor testified yesterday. Nathalie Drouin's remarks at the China inquiry contradicted a federal report stating unnamed legislators were in the pay of foreign embassies: "I’ve seen no treason, no traitors."

CBC-TV advertising revenue fell another 10 percent last year, according to new financial accounts. Management in a report to Parliament said it expected no improvement in years ahead: "Television and radio audiences will continue to erode."

A Liberal-appointed senator yesterday apologized for censoring a newspaper commentary written by a Conservative opponent. Senator Lucie Moncion (Ont.) invoked her authority as chair of the Senate’s committee on internal economy in rewriting an opinion piece she deemed "incorrect."

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre raised some half-million dollars in pre-election Conservative Party donations over 72 hours in Toronto, according to newly released filings. The fundraising coincided with remarks by the Liberals’ campaign co-chair that “this is going to be a tight race.”

Cabinet yesterday gave final approval to install full body scanners at federal prisons. Scanners have been used at federally regulated airports since 2008: "Scanners can detect contraband."

Evidence at the China inquiry yesterday depicted Defence Minister Bill Blair, 70, as distracted and ineffectual. Witnesses testified Blair liked to work from home and had employees explain what security memos meant rather than reading the documents himself: "We were aware when drivers went to his house."

Legislators targeted by Chinese Communist Party agents should have been warned in person, the Department of Public Safety said yesterday. Canadian MPs were among 400 parliamentarians worldwide who were targeted by Chinese hackers in 2021: "Is the current system adequate? No."

Canadian employers have become addicted to migrant labour, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Senate last evening. Miller in November is expected to table a new Immigration Levels Plan that cuts the number of temporary foreign workers let into the country: "All of them ask for more and more."