Blacklock's Reporter

Minor hockey players and parents oppose a federal “concussion passport” as an invasion of privacy, says internal research by the Department of Canadian Heritage. “The possibility that individuals’ highly confidential medical information could be shared potentially outside the health care system was a fundamental concern,” wrote researchers: "Divulging information about their health should be their decision and theirs alone."

Tips are GST taxable but only if mandatory, says Tax Court. The rare ruling on sales tax treatment of gratuities came in the case of a caterer that charged all customers 15 percent regardless of whether they enjoyed themselves: "To discourage behaviour one taxes that behaviour."

On Sunday, June 22, 1953 a liquor store clerk named Bill Beatty died from an accidental fall at his Toronto duplex. Beatty was a plain man who died an ordinary death, yet a Globe & Mail editor pushed his obituary up to page four: “As a result of injuries suffered a week ago in a fall from an upper duplex porch at his home, William James Beatty, 54, of 56 Macdonnell Ave., died yesterday afternoon in St. Joseph’s Hospital. Mr. Beatty, it is believed, suffered a dizzy spell from the heat and lost his balance. He never regained consciousness. A veteran of the First World War, he served overseas with the 75th Regiment.”

He was with the 75th. In a city that celebrated Old School Ties and the exclusivity of private clubs, the combat veterans of the Toronto Scottish Regiment were a privileged class of workers’ aristocracy honoured long after the war’s end.

Blacklock's Reporter today pauses for Remembrance Day observances with gratitude to all who honoured our country. Thank you for your service -- The Editor.

A truckers’ blockade in Windsor, Ont. was so relaxed local police complained they couldn’t earn enough overtime, records show. However “the food provided was top notch,” said a police department report submitted to the Freedom Convoy inquiry. Cabinet had pointed to the Windsor blockade as a contributing factor in its use of the Emergencies Act: "The food provided was top notch and officers were extremely grateful."

Costs of Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill have nearly doubled since the Department of Canadian Heritage assumed responsibility for all expenses, records show. Accounts indicate cost of the one-day observance is up to $6 million: "The information is based on actual costs."

The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a final petition in Canada’s longest-running petition for veterans’ disability benefits. The case dated from 1954 and was carried into court one final time by a former airmen’s aged widow: 'We have to apply the law, no matter how heart-rending, whether we like it or not.'

All new handgun sales and transfers in Canada were yesterday outlawed by cabinet effective at 9:05 am Eastern. Applications to transfer firearms received by regulators prior to the deadline would still be processed, said the Department of Public Safety: "Firearms violence is a complex issue."

A Québec judge has upheld a four-figure fine on a harried office manager charged for breaking a Covid curfew by driving alone in his car at night. Québec had among the strictest pandemic lockdowns of any province: "I don’t know why I didn’t tell the accountant it could have waited."

A Unifor executive threatened to lead 1,000 autoworkers in a street brawl with Freedom Convoy protesters, the Public Order Emergency Commission heard yesterday. Dave Cassidy, president of Local 444 in Windsor, Ont., denied remarks attributed to him in second-hand police notes: "At no time did I threaten physical violence."

Police lawyers in a confidential January 28 memo cautioned Ottawa authorities to go easy on Freedom Convoy protesters in case they were Indigenous. “Any police response considers the uniqueness of Indigenous occupations,” wrote the legal department of the Ottawa Police Service: "Focus on the requirements for peacekeeping, communication, negotiation and building trust."

The Freedom Convoy was a “movement by right wing Christians” to gain converts, claimed internal reports by an Ottawa police consultant Advanced Symbolics Inc. Documents did not disclose how much police paid for surveillance of Christian imagery at the protests: "These are really important insights."

A bare majority of Canadians are confident in the federal government, says Elections Canada research. The agency said it commissioned the internal polling “to gauge the general public’s opinion on various electoral issues.”

A federally-funded advocacy group is petitioning senators for a national “disinformation reporting system.” The submission to the Senate human rights committee follows cabinet proposals to censor legal internet content: "Media play a powerful role in influencing the public perceptions."

Governor General Mary Simon and travelling companions dined on steak, cake and Chardonnay on a costly junket to Dubai, records show. Staff claimed Simon and 45 friends ate typical airline food. Actual menus for meals that cost $218 per plate featured French crepes, Beef Wellington and Red Velvet Cake with Chantilly cream: "$218 per meal would represent groceries for a whole family."