Blacklock's Reporter

Cabinet yesterday nominated Anton Boegman, British Columbia’s former Chief Electoral Officer, as Commissioner to oversee a federal registry of foreign agents. A majority of MPs and Senators must ratify the appointment of Boegman, who was ridiculed as incompetent in a 2024 commentary privately circulated by federal election managers: "No one at Elections BC has apologized or assumed responsibility for the embarrassing failures of leadership."

Drone hobbyists are making it more challenging to track UFOs, says cabinet’s chief science advisor. “Can we identify these devices at night?” Dr. Mona Nemer asked in an Access To Information memo to staff.

Executives in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Privy Council Office last year awarded themselves bonuses worth nearly $28,000 each, records show. Virtually all executives won an award even as Carney appealed to other Canadians for sacrifices: "We won't play games."

Cost of a new GST credit estimated by cabinet at $5.8 billion will come closer to $14 billion including debt interest charges, the Budget Office said yesterday. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne did not dispute the report: "We are going to meet the moment."

Liberal MP Bill Blair (Scarborough Southwest, Ont.), 71, yesterday was named High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. The appointment followed Blair’s dismissal from cabinet after a judicial inquiry found he “dropped the ball” on foreign interference.

Federal regulators yesterday disclosed the Bank of Montreal had paid $3.6 million in compensation after it was caught overcharging 101,091 depositors on discounted fees. Bank managers ignored hundreds of complaints from customers, said the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: 'They received over 500 complaints.'

The Federal Court of Appeal has ordered a new hearing into a WestJet employee who questioned women co-workers about breastfeeding and puberty. Judges overturned a labour board finding that the workplace comments were not sexual harassment though admittedly “outside the normal boundaries."

Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s department has sealed internal reports on vaccine and drug injuries for 15 years, records show. The documents run to “several million pages," it said.

Farm Credit Canada confirms its $458,000-a year CEO in a speech to staff praised Fidel Castro as an impressive and visionary leader. The Crown bank had no comment on remarks by Justine Hendricks, who also praised Communist Party management of Cuba: "It’s Fidel Castro. There’s all sorts of aspects of Fidel Castro."

A tenth of small businesses in Canada have vanished since the pandemic, new Department of Industry figures show. Data confirmed Canadian Federation of Independent Business research showing nationally, closures now outnumber start-ups: "We are bleeding businesses."

Defence Minister David McGuinty has vetoed a recommendation by MPs that he freeze rents on military housing. Money was required to upgrade accommodation on military bases that failed a 2025 audit, he said: "The Government of Canada disagrees with this."

A cabinet order blacklisting all plastic goods as toxic was “simply an enabling provision,” says the Federal Court of Appeal. Judges upheld the 2021 order by then-Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault but acknowledged more legal challenges are possible: "There was overwhelming scientific evidence."

The landmark was expropriated by the National Capital Commission in May 1965 and all tenants including MPs and a Supreme Court justice were evicted six months later. The building was demolished. “A disgrace,” one 89-year old tenant said of the destruction. “They are pulling down the only decent apartment building in the city.”

What do municipalities and First Nation reserves have in common? Both are used to being told what to do. It’s natural, then, that any review of Indigenous self-government would examine how these two get along at the most elemental level. A Quiet Evolution is the first research of its kind, and prompts the reader to wonder why nobody thought of this before.

It turns out relationships between cities and reserves can be petty or profound. Human, in other words. If Parliament ever settles outstanding land claims and accepts Indigenous property rights nationwide, it would look something like this.

“It would be easy to conclude that the Indigenous-Crown relationship is almost entirely adversarial and problematic,” authors write. “While this pessimism is certainly pervasive and somewhat justified, given Canada’s history of colonialism, a much different story seems to be unfolding at this local level.”

Heritage Minister Marc Miller in a letter to MPs says political organizers are using the internet to undermine Canadians’ trust in public institutions. He did not identify any by name: "The needs of protecting public interest journalism are urgent."