Blacklock's Reporter

Any history of racial politics of the Victorian era is alive with booby traps for reckless pundits. Were colonists hardy survivors or plain bigots? The historical record is riddled with trigger wires. Researchers are left with fragments of paper. No eyewitness is available for questioning.

Dr. Doris Jeanne MacKinnon, a Red Deer historian, takes the field with Metis Pioneers, a thoughtful account of interracial politics in an era where serious people ascribed characteristics to blood lines for humans and cattle alike. Society manufactured a descending scale of racial superiority. Indigenous women were always at the bottom.

Metis Pioneers chronicles compelling biographies of Victorian women on the Prairies. The reader is guided pleasantly along by MacKinnon’s meticulous research – until. Time freezes on page 125. The gentle lead-up makes it all the more arresting. MacKinnon is a scholar, not a headline writer for the Police Gazette.

Attorney General Arif Virani yesterday said the internet “frankly terrifies me.” Virani defended a federal censorship bill even Liberal MPs questioned as far-reaching: "We need to make the internet safe."

Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks yesterday bristled over criticism over her posing in an official photograph by holding hands with a Holocaust denier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Saks described herself as a proud Jewish Canadian: "I take offence to your comments."

Union executives yesterday asked MPs to rewrite a cabinet bill that delays enforcement of a ban on replacement workers until after the next election. Quick adoption of Bill C-58 was “the very least elected officials can do,” said Lana Payne, national president of  Unifor: "Not 18 months from now, not a year from now."

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress played no role in a Commons tribute to a Nazi collaborator, the group yesterday told the House affairs committee. Cabinet had blamed the Congress for the incident involving ex-Waffen SS member Yaroslav Hunka: "We had no involvement and never spoke to the Speaker’s office."

Illegal marijuana dealers remain a danger to public safety six years after Parliament legalized cannabis, a Department of Health panel said yesterday. The statutory review of Bill C-45 An Act Respecting Cannabis said marijuana use among postsecondary students was also worrisome: "We are concerned with the criminal activity that persists."

The Commons yesterday rejected a Conservative motion to hold a springtime carbon tax election. The vote on the non-confidence motion followed a raucous, day-long debate: "You have completely lost it, Kevin."

The Department of Employment yesterday tightened migrant hiring as new figures showed 766,520 temporary foreign worker permits were issued last year. The number was in addition to 982,880 foreign students able to work in Canada and a general immigration quota of 465,000: "We know it’s time to ease our reliance on foreign workers."

Catherine Tait, the $497,000-a year CEO of the CBC, lied to Parliament in finagling a budget hike and millions in bonus money for executives, say members of the Commons heritage committee. MPs voted 6-5 to summon Tait  for questioning by April 9: "Miss Tait actually lied."

Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos yesterday confirmed millions were stolen through double-billing by federal subcontractors over a period of four years. “We need to do better when it comes to ensuring the integrity and reputation of our procurement system,” he told reporters: "This is a troubling outcome."

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday said he will introduce a vote of non-confidence to dissolve the 44th Parliament “so Canadians can vote in a carbon tax election.” It followed the Commons’ rejection of a Conservative motion to block a 23 percent increase in the tax April 1: "We are not going to put up with it."

Cabinet spends more money collecting an equity tax on vacant, foreign-owned property than it raises in tax revenue, records show. "Why can we not make the government simpler?” asked Conservative MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, Ont.), who requested the figures: "The form is six pages long."

It is “incredible” anyone would believe Government of Alberta claims about its share of the Canada Pension Plan, says a Liberal-appointed Senator. Figures were absurd, said Senator Donna Dasko (Ont.), a former executive with the polling firm Environics Research Group Ltd.: "Who would ever believe them?"

New Democrat MP Brian Masse (Windsor West, Ont.) yesterday apologized after suggesting there would be no end to anti-Semitism until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza. The MP earlier described conditions there as genocidal: "I am thinking of my area in Windsor-Detroit where outside of the Middle East we have the largest Muslim population."

It is “fairly common” for federal employees to moonlight as contractors, says a former Department of National Defence employee who worked as an ArriveCan supplier. David Yeo, CEO of Dalian Enterprises Inc. of Ottawa, yesterday said plenty of public servants “have a little side gig.”