Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: Public transit becomes dangerous. More robberies, sexual assaults than ever. Police storm bus stations, charging three for possessing open alcohol containers…”

Police were not infrequent visitors to author Cheri DiNovo’s childhood home. All families have troubles but DiNovo’s make Angela’s Ashes look like a holiday camp. “I grew up in a violent, neurotic, narcissistic household where victims of their own personal traumas acted out in nasty, aggressive ways,” she writes. “This is not to blame any of them.”

Take Uncle Ken, one of the more responsible adults in the home. “It was Ken who took me to dance classes, Ken who took us shopping, Ken who drove us up to the family cottage and stayed with us there, Ken who financially supported us, Ken who always arrived at breakfast at the same time,” writes DiNovo.

“My breakfast was Sugar Crisp, white toast and milk. His, brown toast and coffee. It was also Ken who, one day as I was slurping down my second bowl of cereal, picked up a knife and slashed my Aunt Lorna across the neck.”

The Senate last evening by a 52 to 16 vote passed into law first-ever federal regulations of legal internet content in Canada. “I am excited,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters.

Bank scares in the U.S. and Switzerland have prompted cabinet to grant itself unusual powers to stem any financial panic in Canada. “Why is it that government feels those authorities should be granted?” New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, Man.) yesterday asked the Commons finance committee: "There are some extraordinary powers."

The CBC is a “pillar of democracy,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said yesterday. The network in the past year published 36 corrections: "We have seen some very troubling trends around the attack on the role that media play including the CBC."

Most Canadians named in the offshore Panama Papers scandal had actually paid their taxes, says the Canada Revenue Agency. Auditors said only two criminal investigations are ongoing following the disclosures seven years ago: "Just because a Canadian individual or company has their name in a leak, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have not met their tax obligations."

Cabinet in last minute revision to a language bill would mandate “equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society.” The clause amends a bill that for the first time extends bilingual requirements to the private sector: "We want a modern ambitious law with teeth, a law that will protect and promote French across Canada."

CBC President Catherine Tait in a private letter dismissed a Conservative Party proposal to cut the network budget as a partisan fundraising ploy. Cutting the CBC’s $1.3 billion annual parliamentary grant would have “implications to this country,” wrote Tait. The CBC disclosed the letter through Access To Information: "Your party continues to run email blasts."

Canadians are uneasy with letting cabinet decide what qualifies as fake news, says in-house research. Internet users in federal focus groups said they were confident they could spot misinformation online without the government’s help: "Many participants expressed reservations about the Government of Canada telling Canadians what is true or false."

A federal media bailout has not stemmed the continuous decline of news corporations, says the Department of Canadian Heritage. The department four years ago justified a $595 million bailout as a remedy for an industry “in crisis.”

Cabinet yesterday described 155,000 striking federal employees as unreasonable but stopped short of issuing a final offer to the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said cabinet was “there to respect collective bargaining” though it used back-to-work legislation twice before: "I don’t have infinite patience."

A federal buyback of prohibited firearms is delayed again this year under program details outlined yesterday by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. Cabinet for three years has proposed to buy some 1,500 models of banned guns at an undisclosed cost: "It sounds like you’re still at the beginning."

Taxpayers will only learn of terms of a $13 billion Volkswagen Canada subsidy once the money is spent, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. Managers with the Department of Industry refused to discuss the subsidy for a battery factory in St. Thomas, Ont.: "I am just trying to get an impact of what that $13 billion is going to be on the government’s deficit."

The Canada Revenue Agency is mandating electronic payment of tax bills over $10,000. The Agency yesterday did not explain if it would refuse alternative payments or prosecute cheque users: "What if somebody doesn’t want to do that?"

Security advisors have no business recommending whether candidates for Parliament are suitable, a senior advisor to the Prime Minister said yesterday. The remarks came during House affairs committee debate over two-term Independent MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.): "That is not their role."