Blacklock's Reporter

Federal elections managers privately circulated an unsigned commentary ridiculing Anton Boegman, British Columbia’s Chief Electoral Officer, for a “comedy of errors” in a 2024 provincial vote. The Commissioner of Canada Elections released the critical seven-page document through Access To Information: "No one at Elections BC has apologized or assumed responsibility for the embarrassing failures of leadership and management."

A federal Competition Act investigation marks an “unprecedented and legally unsubstantiated” attempt to ban service fee pricing in Canada, say lawyers for California-based Door Dash Inc. The delivery firm in a Tribunal filing said the outcome would impact all fee pricing nationwide: "This matter raises novel issues."

The CRTC has approved the abrupt closure of another local TV station, the sixth in six years. Revocation of a federal license for CHAT-TV of Medicine Hat, Alta., on the air since 1957, followed warnings from broadcasters that local television is in crisis: "The future of an entire Canadian industry is hanging in the balance."

Poet W.N. Branson writes: “It only took forty years to expose the Charter for what it is…”

Manitoba Premier Howard Pawley’s Conservative opponent Sterling Lyon liked to call him a Bolshevik. Even the Soviets had abandoned the phrase in the 1950s, but Pawley had that effect on some people. His leftist credentials were impeccable. Pawley once played a juror in a theatrical production of Twelve Angry Men, Henry Fonda’s denunciation of anti-Latino bigotry. In 1962 he served as president of Winnipeg’s Fair Play for Cuba Committee. It was a popular quip in Manitoba that Pawley’s cabinet dare not meet at the International Peace Garden for fear of arrest by North Dakota marshals. Pawley’s northern affairs minister was a Vietnam draft evader, his attorney general was an ex-Communist organizer. Yet Pawley never looked like a bomb-throwing Marxist. His campaign slogan was “Great People, Great Land.”

Federal agents last year tracked more than 44 million trips by Canadians driving back and forth across the border, says a Canada Border Services Agency report. Drivers were monitored under a little-known surveillance program approved by cabinet six years ago: "Do you feel comfortable?"

A federal fund for exhumation of suspected graves at Indian Residential Schools is heavily oversubscribed, says a report. First Nations have applied for more than $700 million in funding, triple the original budget: "The actual number of individuals buried, or cemetery sites associated with Residential Schools, is unknown."

Housing starts will fall this year, CMHC forecasters said yesterday. Cabinet was counting on builders doubling the number of housing starts to meet its affordability target: "New construction is slowing."

Honouring Persian Gulf War veterans with an inscription on the National War Memorial “would set a precedent,” says a Department of Veterans Affairs briefing note. Veterans have sought the honour though no Canadians died in the conflict: "There are differing perspectives among veterans and military historians about adding the Gulf War."

The Public Health Agency yesterday appealed to Canadian parents to keep children’s vaccinations up to date as a cost savings for the nation. New revisions to the Canadian Immunization Guide followed acknowledgment that many families remain wary of taking medical advice from the federal government: "What is your perception of childhood vaccination?"

Federal surveillance of social media posts by friends of Israel was part of a larger project to find “promising regulatory avenues to curb online content,” according to Access To Information records. The Department of Canadian Heritage responsible for the project would not say whose Twitter and Facebook accounts were monitored: "Help drive evidence-based strategies to counter the harmful online fallout of the Israel-Gaza crisis."

Foreigners do not have a right to immigrate to Canada, a Saskatchewan judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of an Indian lab technician whose permit was revoked on suspicion of irregularities: "Foreign nationals do not have a right to immigrate to Canada."

Canada employs only 25 federal postal inspectors nationwide with limited powers to intercept contraband by mail, says the Department of Public Works. Cabinet has sought new powers for inspectors and police to open mail in transit: "With only roughly 25 postal inspectors, Canada Post’s ability to inspect the 240 million parcels it delivered in 2024 is limited."

A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a Customs agent who moonlighted as an airport bodyguard for VIPs. Commons committee hearings have been told moonlighting by government employees is commonplace: "Everybody has their day to day work and maybe they have a little side gig at night."

Commentary in a CBC-TV program is insufficient grounds for a class action lawsuit, Québec Provincial Court has ruled. A judge dismissed a claim against the nation’s largest supermarket chains over allegations by a viewer who watched a cooking show: "The claim is based on a television program."