Blacklock's Reporter

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."

Senator Patrick Brazeau (Que.), 50, yesterday fainted on the Chamber floor, prompting an immediate suspension of Senate business. A medical doctor rushed to Brazeau’s aid as senators cried out: "Oh!"

Creation of a first-ever Canadian Financial Crimes Agency is now speculative though it was a 2021 Liberal Party campaign promise, a cabinet spokesperson said yesterday. The Party had pledged the new agency would coordinate white-collar crime units of the RCMP, Canada Revenue Agency and others: "When and where?"

No new sacrifice is expected of taxpayers under cabinet’s plan to increase defence spending sevenfold, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. Defence spending that totaled $34.6 billion last year is targeted to surpass $200 billion annually by 2035: "Can you outline what sacrifices you are expecting Canadians to make?"

A Crown bank, the Business Development Bank, yesterday invoked “solicitor-client privilege” in censoring all records regarding executive donations to the Liberal Party. Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland would not comment on whether she appointed the Bank’s chair as financial agent for her failed Liberal leadership campaign: "The records have been redacted."

A federal program that doubled grants for women in trades was gamed by men who self-identified as female on application forms, says a Department of Employment report. Auditors did not estimate the scope of the problem: "Applications were approved based solely on the apprentice self-identifying as ‘female.'"

A federal labour board has upheld the dismissal of a Employment Insurance call centre worker censured for political comments in the workplace. Records showed the woman expressed resentment over Parliament Hill protests like Black Lives Matter, asking: “When will there be a day to remember white people?”

One of last of the smart meter scofflaws has been ordered by Québec Superior Court to permit utility crews to replace her old analog electricity meter. Smart meter mandates provoked years of litigation in provinces where they were enforced: "Out of 4,000,000 meters currently in service in Québec there are only five analog meters left."