Blacklock's Reporter

MPs investigating the $54 million ArriveCan project tomorrow will question an Ottawa insider who reportedly boasted he “rubbed shoulders with every assistant deputy minister in town.” The Commons government operations committee to date has been unable to find who approved sweetheart contracts that paid millions to federal consultants: “It should be evident to everyone in this room as well as Canadians there is systemic corruption within this government.”

A taxpayer-subsidized electric auto battery factory is under Department of Fisheries review over “potential for the destruction of wetlands and fish habitat." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had called the Northvolt plant "the world's cleanest."

CBC News says it published an inaccurate “fact check” of Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. The Crown broadcaster had sought recognition as a Facebook fact checker in the last federal election: "CBC’s video has been edited to remove inaccurate mortgage comparisons and clarify information."

Employers opposed to assisted suicide should be disqualified from Canada Summer Jobs funding, an advocate has written MPs. The submission to the Commons human resources committee is from the same group that successfully lobbied for denial of funding to pro-life employers: "Regardless of the Canada Summer job, even if it is to mow the lawn, that work gives sustenance to the group’s harmful mandate and activities."

The CBC last year cut spending on Indigenous language services that account for less than one half of one percent of its budget, Access To Information records show. CEO Catherine Tait had cited “fantastically exciting” Indigenous shows as justification for ongoing subsidies: "Should we be defunded we would no longer be reaching all of those Canadians."

The Department of Transport rated its vaccine mandate “aggressive” and “unique in the world,” says a 2021 memo. The in-house document obtained by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms contradicts public claims the mandate “followed the recommendations of public health experts.”

Cabinet is using media bailout money to “leverage news coverage in its favour,” says Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. His remarks coincided with release of a federal briefing note indicating media subsidies will continue indefinitely “through this time of disruption.”

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault on Saturday named new returning officers for all federal ridings nationwide. The legal notice preceded a major revision to the electoral map: "We are going to have to be ready."

Processing of Employment Insurance cheques has never been faster, says the Department of Employment. Managers claimed turnaround times averaged 18 days last year after longstanding complaints of poor service: "Canadians are growing impatient as they wait months."

Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “The West Block of Parliament Hill. Eight years renovations. Glass-domed ceiling covers the interior courtyard…”

For a certain generation Two Freedoms invokes a nostalgic era when Canada briefly strode on the world stage. In 1955 the nation had 118,000 men and women in uniform and the world’s fourth largest air force. And now? “When a Canadian surface vessel HMCS Athabaskan sailed to Haiti to position itself off the coast where Canadian forces, replete with medics, nurses, technicians and doctors were to be deployed to come to the aid of the local population, amphibious small vessels had to be borrowed from the Americans to get our own folks ashore,” Hugh Segal wrote.

Critics lament a “decade of darkness” in Canadian defence spending and foreign policy but it has been five decades and “darkness” is debatable. Electors decided generations ago they could not have a big navy and pensions and medicare and good schools all at the same time, and made their choice. This was not a conspiracy. It was the will of the voters.

Grants to Ukrainian war refugees will cost nearly a half billion, says a federal briefing note. To date 189,194 Ukrainians in Canada have applied for subsidies to temporarily resettle here: "It’s one thing to promise the money. It’s another thing for that money to hit Ukrainian bank accounts."

The Commons industry committee yesterday adjourned without calling Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne to answer for claims he would cut cellphone prices. Rogers Communications has announced prices on some plans will rise by up to $108 a year effective January 17: "This is like going around in circles."

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said she played no role in police handcuffing of a Rebel News reporter after he asked her a question outside a public meeting. Freeland would not discuss Monday’s incident or her past advocacy of press freedoms: "We categorically condemn anyone who in any way intimidates and harasses journalists."

Ed Broadbent, son of an autoworker from General Motors who led New Democrats to a then-record number of Commons seats as federal Party leader, is dead at 87. His passing was announced yesterday by the Broadbent Institute: "He lived a long life of hope."