Blacklock's Reporter

All religions have customs scorned by tactless unbelievers, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are no exception. The fact the earth orbits the sun and oceans still flow may be disappointing to Witnesses who’d predicted our world would end 24 years ago.

Few produce their own eloquent critics, which brings us to Marvin James Penton, a Witness and professor emeritus of history at the University of Lethbridge. Penton’s Apocalypse Delayed, a crisp examination of the church, has been in print for decades.

“When the first edition came out,” Penton writes, “Jehovah’s Witnesses still believed that by the year 2000 the apocalypse would have destroyed the present world system and that they, the survivors of the battle of Armageddon, would be dwelling in a revitalized paradise earth under the millennial rule of Christ Jesus. Of course that did not happen.”

Apocalypse remains a compelling account of the faith, meticulously researched. If church leaders have “failed dismally” in their prophecies of impending doom and salvation, believers have also suffered persecution and ridicule. Jehovah’s Witnesses remain one of the few groups outlawed by Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany and liberal Canada all at the same time.

John Ossowski, former $273,000-a year executive responsible for the ArriveCan program, yesterday was summoned for questioning by MPs after he declined to appear voluntarily. Members of the Commons public accounts committee vowed to follow all leads in uncovering sweetheart contracting for the $59.5 million app: "These are unruly witnesses."

Housing Minister Sean Fraser yesterday said he will “be the person who actually goes and does” fix the national housing crisis. Testifying at the Commons human resources committee, Fraser complained his predecessors did not do enough to restore affordability: "I am going to be the person."

Certain politicians have “made it more dangerous to be a Jew in this country,” Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.) yesterday told the Commons justice committee. Lantsman identified no MP by name but pointed to a photograph of one cabinet minister holding hands with a Holocaust denier: "Do not be fooled."

A New Democrat MP yesterday said nobody wants to visit his hometown’s central district due to opioid use and homelessness. “It is as bad or worse” in other cities, said MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.): "Nobody wants to go into the downtown anymore."

A GST holiday for apartment builders will cost taxpayers at least a billion more than cabinet claimed, the Budget Office said yesterday. The $5.8 billion cost, the highest estimate to date, compares to a Department of Finance figure of $4.5 billion: "There is a large amount of uncertainty."

The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations yesterday confirmed it spent millions to uncover the “heartbreaking truth” of unmarked Indian Residential School graves in Kamloops, B.C. No remains have been recovered to date and no accounting of what became of the $7.9 million has been disclosed: "The community had received $7.9 million for field work."

The Commons yesterday by a unanimous 327-0 vote endorsed a justice committee report that it take immediate steps to protect faith communities. The vote followed warnings from postsecondary students that Canadian universities were fostering vulgar anti-Semitism: "I have personally heard ‘death to the Jews’ chanted in Arabic."

The Commons environment committee by unanimous vote has ordered disclosure of subsidy contracts under a federal program claiming to lower industrial greenhouse emissions. Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Dauphin-Swan River, Man.), sponsor of the motion, called it “nothing more than another slush fund.”

Federal union executives yesterday protested a Treasury Board order that teleworking employees return to their jobsites at least three days weekly. Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said cabinet reneged on a 2023 agreement to negotiate telework terms: "We will be encouraging our members to file tens of thousands of individual grievances."

The Department of Immigration is phasing out costly hotel subsidies to shelter illegal immigrants and refugees. It will be up to local authorities to find “permanent, sustainable” housing for foreigners by 2026, it said: "Funding in 2026 will be conditional."

Catherine Tait, the $497,000-a year CEO of the CBC, yesterday denied misleading the Commons heritage committee over payment of millions in executive bonuses while the network pleaded financial hardship. All but Liberal MPs expressed exasperation: "I want to make a personal objection."

Cabinet learned a lot from its short-lived experiment in decriminalizing public use of cocaine in British Columbia, Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks said yesterday. The program scheduled to run to January 31, 2026 was abruptly cut short on complaints of public disorder: "Is this a failure?"

Cabinet yesterday moved to invoke closure on its latest omnibus budget bill introduced a week ago. The 686-page bill amends 48 separate Acts of Parliament and raises the federal debt ceiling to $2.13 trillion, a record: "Every single Canadian will be affected by this budget in some way or another."

Canada Post should work with its unions to cut costs after posting a $748 million pre-tax loss in its latest Annual Report to Parliament, Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said yesterday. Duclos told reporters the post office faced stiff competition from non-union rivals like Amazon: "Decrease costs by working with unions."