Blacklock's Reporter

Police were not infrequent visitors to author Cheri DiNovo’s childhood home. All families have troubles but DiNovo’s make Angela’s Ashes look like a holiday camp. “I grew up in a violent, neurotic, narcissistic household where victims of their own personal traumas acted out in nasty, aggressive ways,” she writes. “This is not to blame any of them.” Take Uncle Ken, one of the more responsible adults in the home. “It was Ken who took me to dance classes, Ken who took us shopping, Ken who drove us up to the family cottage and stayed with us there, Ken who financially supported us, Ken who always arrived at breakfast at the same time,” writes DiNovo. “My breakfast was Sugar Crisp, white toast and milk. His, brown toast and coffee. It was also Ken who, one day as I was slurping down my second bowl of cereal, picked up a knife and slashed my Aunt Lorna across the neck.” READ MORE

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board holds shares in a Chinese social media company used by Communist Party agents to intimidate Conservatives in the last election, records show. The Board had no comment on millions invested in operators of WeChat, a platform used to distribute wanted posters of one candidate who was forced to suspend his campaign: 'The RCMP intercepted a credible threat to harm me during the election.' READ MORE

Attorney General Sean Fraser yesterday said he feared some future justice minister will use federal hate crimes legislation to settle scores with environmental groups or political opponents. Fraser did not identify any person by name: "Those are dangerous conversations." READ MORE

Parliament should criminalize Indian Residential School denialism just as it outlawed wilful downplaying of the Holocaust, First Nations leaders yesterday told the Senate human rights committee. Indigenous witnesses condemned skeptics who state “no children actually died or are buried at these sites.” READ MORE

A federal Taxpayer Bill Of Rights is “non-binding,” says the Canada Revenue Agency. The admission followed repeated Court rulings that the measure was neither a bill nor any guarantee of rights for taxpayers: "It would probably be better if the document were given a different name." READ MORE

A failed experiment with decriminalization left British Columbia with the lowest public support of any province for a “public health” approach to drug addiction, says in-house Department of Health research. New findings followed admissions the “safe supply” policy led to public disorder: 'Support is only 15 percent in B.C.' READ MORE

Nearly half of Canadians surveyed distrust the federal government to “make good decisions in the public interest,” according to in-house Privy Council research. The study documented growing public skepticism: "On the whole, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way democracy works in Canada?" READ MORE