Blacklock's Reporter

Read this book and you’ll never think the same way again in reaching for a roll of kitchen foil to cover your barbecued chicken. Authors in searing detail document aluminum production from open-pit Third World bauxite mines to toxic refineries to the $2.90 kitchen convenience. The supply chain is coldly efficient.

Aluminum Ore is stark and meticulously researched. Authors Robin Gendron of Nipissing University and two faculty members at Norway’s University of Science & Technology tell the very human story of an everyday commodity we only think we know.

Making one ton of aluminum requires 1,380 tons of water, produces 85 tons of industrial waste and 10 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Its main source, bauxite, can only be refined through heating and cooling with caustic soda in a process that annually produces 120 million tons of toxic discharge the industry calls “red mud.” In Hungary, the 2010 collapse of a red mud reservoir at an alumina plant flooded villages, caused 131 casualties and nearly poisoned the Danube. In India, bauxite labourers are paid $2 a day and hundreds of thousands of villagers have been displaced to make way for strip mines and refiners’ plants.

Vincent Rigby, now-retired national security advisor to the Prime Minister, yesterday testified he never saw a memo warning that Chinese agents targeted a Conservative MP. Rigby told the House affairs committee he read thousands of documents: "There was a pandemic going on."

The chair of the Trudeau Foundation yesterday testified he never knew a portion of the charity's $125 million taxpayer endowment was used to buy shares in Chinese corporations. Edward Johnson said he was unaware of the stock purchases until a member of the board objected: "We told our financial managers to get rid of them."

China is as carefree a travel destination as Belgium, according to risk ratings by the Department of Foreign Affairs. A member of the Senate foreign affairs committee yesterday questioned the claim given hostage takings and arbitrary detention of more than 120 Canadians in China: "I certainly accept at times there will be counterintuitive results."

The pandemic left Canadians with “increased distrust of government and science,” says a Public Health Agency report. Less than a quarter of people surveyed, 22 percent, said they were more likely to trust federal agencies: "Asked what the remedy might be for restoring trust, participants suggested being honest."

The Commons yesterday by a 177 to 146 vote passed cabinet’s half-trillion budget bill. It followed a five-week filibuster by Conservatives: "If someone had a time bomb ticking away under their home, what would they do about it?"

The Privy Council Office in a confidential August 13, 2021 memo said Liberal and New Democrat voters were more likely to get vaccinated than Conservatives. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a vaccine mandate election two days later: "We’re a government that is grounded in science."

The Canada Revenue Agency in Access To Information records scripted a Zoom call with employees by Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos (London North Centre, Ont.), parliamentary secretary for revenue. Fragiskatos was instructed to tell a “very touching” anecdote about an auditor he never met and praise the Agency's work: "Wow, congratulations!"

The latest interest rate hike will see “a lot of people struggling,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. The Bank of Canada raised its charge on interbank loans from 4.5 to 4.75 percent. The rate was 1.5 percent a year ago: "It is an issue that worries me a lot."

The first federal employer to introduce random workplace marijuana testing has won a Federal Court judgment upholding the practice, it said. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission yesterday described random tests as essential though they were struck down by the Supreme Court a decade ago: "We are proud to have been the first."

The Senate has given Second Reading to a bill allowing police to intercept parcels in the mail. Federal law dating from the Confederation era prohibits police from opening suspicious packages in transit: "This ban is far too broad."

There were “clearly strange practices” in the nomination of MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) as a Liberal candidate in 2019, David Johnston yesterday told the House affairs committee. Johnston admitted he never questioned Dong about his dealings with Chinese officials: "There clearly were strange practices, unusual practices going on,"

David Johnston, 81, yesterday testified he did not see “every bit of information we would like to” before absolving cabinet of any wrongdoing in its handling of suspected election fraud involving Chinese agents. Members of the House affairs committee expressed astonishment that Johnston never bothered to talk to Elections Canada: "Are you saying you didn’t have all the material evidence?"

Canadians want “stronger legislation” to regulate legal internet content, says a report by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s department. Findings were based on comments from groups handpicked to attend Department of Heritage meetings on censorship: "There was support among participants for creating an online safety regulator."

Cabinet has awarded millions more to Baylis Medical Technologies Incorporated on a sole sourced service contract, records show. The firm previously run by ex-Liberal MP Frank Baylis (Pierrefonds-Dollard, Que.) in 2020 was a subcontractor on a $237 million deal for Covid ventilators: "When the crisis hit my partner and I, we took a decision."