Blacklock's Reporter

More volunteers are quitting the Canadian Armed Forces due to inadequate housing and health care, says an internal report. It follows a federal audit that concluded the Department of National Defence manufactured its own housing crisis: "Lack of military housing, loss of spousal employment, shortages in primary health care providers and limited daycare spaces can lead to financial and personal hardships."

Israel’s Ambassador to Canada last night said he was unnerved by rising anti-Semitism here. “Some of the things I’ve witnessed here to me are mind-boggling,” Ambassador Iddo Moed testified at the Senate human rights committee: "When it comes to attacking Jews here, that’s very troubling.”

The National Research Council confirms it spent more than $60,000 on lounge chairs and bistro furniture for a rooftop patio. The spending was approved by one manager who told staff she did “not want anything that looks like a picnic table.”

Cabinet is increasing taxpayer funding for the Canada Infrastructure Bank by 29 percent though the Bank has billions unspent from its initial 2017 financing. It follows a boast by Ehren Cory, the $679,000-a year CEO, that the Bank “reached the stage of being self-sustaining.”

The Canada Revenue Agency has collected nearly a half billion through informants calling a tax evasion tip line but won’t say what it paid in bounties. In-house research shows most Canadians are wary of becoming Agency informants and consider other peoples' tax planning “none of their business.”

The immigration department is keeping a Conservative “barbaric practices” law on the books “to find out if this is actually happening,” says a senior manager. Then-Immigration Minister Chris Alexander sponsored the contentious 2015 bill targeting polygamy and forced marriage in the immigrant community: "This brings back memories."

Federal regulators have deferred a proposed 23 percent hike in subscription fees for CPAC, broadcaster of parliamentary proceedings since 1992. The Cable Public Affairs Channel said it faces ruinous losses despite a multi-million dollar bailout in 2024: "We cannot continue to provide our core services."

A Senate bill mandating health warnings on liquor labels would “stigmatize” wine drinkers, says a petition by the Wine Growers of Canada. The Senate social affairs committee recommended the bill for Third Reading after concluding drinkers should be cautioned on their risks of disease: "It does ruin lives and kills people."

Canada Post is signaling more stamp rate hikes in 2026 amid ongoing pre-tax losses approaching $1 billion to date this year. The price of mailing a domestic letter has increased 35 percent in the past 18 months, from 92¢ to $1.24: "Rates are underpriced."

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Due to the associated smell…”

It was an unnerving moment at a Victoria hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools. An aging priest was to testify. There were no abuses at his school, he explained. Frankly the care was excellent, he recalled. There were Indigenous staff, and parents could visit anytime.

“Tell the truth!” voices shouted from the back. “Shame on you!” “Tell the truth!”

It was a significant moment, writes Professor Ronald Niezen. The old man’s testimony set off the audience. “He interrupted the boundary that separated the oppressed as a collectivity from those who have moral responsibility for their suffering,” writes Niezen. “He questioned the foundational historical premise of the Commission itself, captured succinctly in the title of an interim historical report, They Came For The Children.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney has the highest ethics and should be commended for accumulating a large stock portfolio, his chief of staff yesterday told the Commons ethics committee. MPs questioned why Carney did not simply sell millions in stock he held in companies including federal contractors: "Mr. Carney imposes the highest standards on himself."

The Commons health committee by a 5-4 vote yesterday requested a special audit of a half-billion dollar fund covering medical claims by illegal immigrants and refugee claimants. The vote came as MPs dismissed testimony by Assistant Deputy Immigration Minister Soyoung Park that foreigners received no better health coverage than taxpayers: "I am not sure what point you are trying to make there."

Members of the Commons heritage committee are demanding an inventory of 132 works that vanished from a $14.4 million federal Indigenous Art Collection, largest of its kind in Canada. Conservative MP Rachael Thomas (Lethbridge, Alta.) said mismanagement by the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations was “despicable.”

The Commons government operations committee yesterday by 5-4 vote asked to interview future candidates for appointment as Budget Officer. Cabinet seeks to replace Interim Officer Jason Jacques after he criticized federal spending as reckless: "You know something is going to break."