Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “My hairdresser pressed his fingers against my scalp; my teller had her eyes in my transactions; my plumber had his tools in my bathtub…”

It was a horrific year, 1917: conscription and coal rationing in Canada, carnage in France, revolution in Russia, unrestricted submarine warfare on the Atlantic. Steamships were torpedoed at the rate of ten a day. One British liner bound for Halifax, the Rappahannock, vanished without a trace.

This was the moment French Foreign Minister René Viviani spoke to Parliament. “Every speech is a freeze-frame of history in the making,” writes J. Patrick Boyer in Foreign Voices In The House; “When Réne Viviani spoke in 1917, his vibrant voice had to fill the entire chamber because no amplifying speakers delivered his words to the audience.”

Boyer captures the event, May 12, 1917. Canadian casualties were 13,000 a month. Twenty-seven MPs were in uniform. One had been killed in action, another won the Victoria Cross. The MP for Beauce, Que., Henri Béland, could not attend the Commons that day. He was held in a German prison camp.

Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs yesterday by a 6-5 vote blocked a committee motion asking that cabinet disclose a secret blacklist of Nazi collaborators let into Canada after 1945. The majority on the Commons heritage committee expressed unease in identifying suspected war criminals: "This is an extremely delicate situation."

Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge yesterday refused to say if she will comply with a Commons committee order banning future CBC executive bonuses while the Crown broadcaster pleads financial hardship. CBC management cut 346 jobs on complaints of “chronic underfunding” while approving $14.9 million in bonuses: "There is a media crisis."

Canadians in federal focus groups question the billions budgeted in subsidies for the electric auto industry. Cabinet proposes that by 2035 all new car buyers must purchase a zero emission vehicle: "A number expressed concerns."

Cabinet yesterday appointed a five-member panel to find ways to pay for a universal pharmacare program. The final report is not expected until after the next general election: "There is lots to work out."

All Canadian cable and satellite TV subscribers should be obliged to pay for LGBTQ programming, the country's only gay-themed channel has told the CRTC. Out TV Network of Vancouver said it faced “continued marginalization and discrimination” with a 60 percent decline in subscribers.

Canadians driving across the U.S. border will be asked to pre-submit photos and license plate numbers to the Canada Border Services Agency beginning in 2026, says a federal report. The “traveller modernization” plan is separate from the Agency’s $59.5 million ArriveCan program that ended in failed audits and an RCMP investigation: "Officers will be given smartphones to access the digital referrals."

Health Minister Mark Holland’s Public Health Agency has failed an internal audit on conflicts of interest. Auditors said management operated a feeble honour system that asked staff to disclose unethical contracting without any “clear reporting mechanism for employees to report other employees’ conflicts.”

The number of pleasure boats registered in Canada dropped by almost a tenth since Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced a luxury tax, new figures show. Manufacturers had predicted the tax would only punish Canadian industry and prompt boaters to register their vessels tax-free in the United States: "The tax can be easily avoided."

CBC News should stop commissioning its own election polls, the network's Ombudsman said yesterday. It followed viewer complaints over a 2023 opinion survey published three days before balloting in a provincial vote: "Devote less time to the horse race and more time to the issues."

A long-promised federal flood insurance plan will be operational in about 18 months, says the Department of Public Safety. Homeowners on flood plains would be asked to pay up to $900 a year for extra coverage under threat of being disqualified from disaster relief: "This is a priority."

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office yesterday had no comment on what, if any, contingencies it has to deal with a seven-week filibuster that has gridlocked the Commons. Freeland was counting on quick passage of an $18 billion hike in capital gains taxes by Christmas: "It's an important moment."

The Department of Immigration in a “Welcome To Canada” guide advised foreigners to be prepared to book Airbnb rentals or resort to homeless shelters on arrival here. “Search online,” said the guide published in Arabic, Dari, Haitian Creole and Spanish: "Housing costs in Canada are high."

Labour disputes are “economic self-destruction,” Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said yesterday. MacKinnon for the fourth time in three months forced transport unions into binding arbitration without Parliament’s consent: "Are you concerned about the precedent you are setting?"