Blacklock's Reporter

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."

Access To Information records show the finance department wanted to move “extremely fast” to adopt Sharia loans in Canada prior to the April 28 election despite repeated warnings the measure was impractical. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s office yesterday had no comment: "This file is moving extremely fast and it is somewhat sensitive."

A public registry of foreign agents in Canada may not be in place until 2026 though Parliament passed it into law a year ago, says a memo to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree. No reason was given for skipping a June 30 deadline: "Establishing a new independent office takes time."

Jews remain the leading target of hate crimes in Canada though they are less than one percent of the population, new federal figures confirmed yesterday. Release of police data followed introduction of a Commons petition to ban the swastika and street protests targeting synagogues and Jewish homes, shops and schools: "Numbers don’t paint the full picture."