Blacklock's Reporter

Blacklock’s observes the 158th anniversary of Confederation with a Canadiana Quiz. The questions are deceptively simple. The answers will have you say: “I did not know that!” Happy Canada Day.

Two climate programs launched on a $300 million promise of new jobs and lower emissions could prove neither after seven years, says a Department of Natural Resources report. Managers “stopped collecting” data that would establish whether taxpayers received value for money: "It will most likely be too difficult and too late to identify weaknesses or errors."

The Department of Employment confirms it has begun writing off millions in unrecoverable pandemic relief cheques paid to ineligible claimants. It would not say how much taxpayers lost: "We knew."

The Commissioner of Elections in an unusual enforcement action is taking a New Democrat riding association to Federal Court for nonpayment of a fine. The Commissioner would not comment on the $1,000 debt collection: "The Notice Of Violation required the debtor to pay."

U.S. President Donald Trump cited Canadian dairy quotas in threatening a new round of tariffs by July 4. His remarks Friday on social media came the same day Bloc Québécois MPs celebrated passage of their private bill shielding milk producers from trade concessions: "Passing this bill would no doubt be a provocative move."

Customs officers now have nearly 13,000 firearms at border crossings and airports, says a Canada Border Services Agency audit. The arsenal included millions of rounds of ammunition: "It is recognized that Border Services officers face inherent risks."

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Thank God It’s Friday has little to do with God Almighty…”

In 2012 three residents of Huntingdon, Que. complained one of the biggest transport companies on the continent, CSX Corp., was ruining their lives. CSX began shunting freight cars through the town at all hours. Locomotives idled for days at a time. The rumble of diesel engines was so disruptive it rattled windows.  Neighbours could not escape the noise inside their own homes.

One resident, Shirley O’Connor, said she begged CSX to expropriate her house. No one would buy it, and she could not afford to move. In desperation, Mrs. O’Conner filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency – and won. A federal panel ordered the billion-dollar corporation to find another place to switch its freight cars.

A $49 billion-a year tax on financial trades and transactions first proposed by New Democrats 26 years ago “could happen,” says the Liberal-appointed chair of the Senate budget committee. “You could get revenue from people,” said Senator Lucie Moncion (Ont.): "What would you think if this government were to decide that when you buy a share, there’s a tax on doing so?"

A Liberal-appointed senator yesterday said he received so many abusive calls over his opposition to a Liberal bill that he told staff to stop answering the phone. “Canada is becoming a country of extremes,” said Senator Paul Prosper (N.S.): "Gone is the ability to have moderate social discourse."

The Senate yesterday passed cabinet’s “nation building” bill under deadline imposed by Prime Minister Mark Carney. “I will trust,” said one senator.

A federal labour board has overturned the firing of a Service Canada clerk caught snooping through Employment Insurance claims. Evidence in the case showed it “was the office culture” to poke through private records: "In some quirky way, she believed she was being efficient because it only took two to three minutes."

The Senate yesterday observed a seniority record with election of Senator Fabian Manning (Nfld. & Labrador) as chair of the fisheries committee for 14 consecutive years. “I never fished in my life,” joked Manning.

Fewer than 40 percent of federal transactions were actively tracked and monitored during the pandemic, the Treasury Board has disclosed. The figures follow warnings of waste and fraud in hurried contracting worth billions: "We can have the best laws in the world, but if nobody is ensuring oversight of the process, that’s where we wind up in problems of waste, of potential fraud."

Liberal appointee Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) yesterday served notice of a motion to “examine the risks to Canada and Canadians of complicity” in alleged war crimes committed by Jews. Woo was among 11 Liberal appointees, a tenth of the Senate, to signed petitions accusing Israel of genocide: "We urge senators to do more."