Blacklock's Reporter

Thursday, August 6, 1981 was a day to remember. At 11 am Eastern the Bank of Canada raised the prime rate to 21 percent. The country had a million unemployed for the first time since the Dustbowl. Farmers and small business owners had a hunted look. Mortgage and trust companies collapsed, 17 of them, and then the banks.

No one who survived the summer of ’81 ever forgot it. “Scarring,” the economists call it now. At a 2017 hearing of the Commons agriculture committee, members were chattily debating farm debt when an oldtimer, then-MP Bev Shipley (Lambton-Kent, Ont.), spoke up. “I remember the 1980s,” he said. The room froze.

Author Aaron Hughes’ 10 Days That Shaped Modern Canada omits that date to remember. Hughes acknowledges his work is necessarily subjective. Hughes’ favourite dates are neither mine nor yours. That is not the point.

CBC managers “pushed through the correction” of a news story mildly critical of the federal government, Access To Information records show. CEO Catherine Tait has repeatedly denied any political interference in ensuring "correct" CBC News coverage: "Complaints are treated as confidential."

Defence Minister Bill Blair yesterday said the military should bolster thinning ranks by cutting its minimum enlistment period in half to as little as 18 months. “We have to go faster,” Blair told reporters.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan yesterday abruptly quit cabinet. O’Regan is the third Liberal MP to confirm he won't seek re-election in Newfoundland and Labrador where a provincial Liberal government has campaigned against the federal carbon tax: "Nerves are rubbed raw."

More Canadians were killed in rail accidents last year than air accidents, according to the Transportation Safety Board. Investigators blamed trespassers: "The numbers speak for themselves."

A hasty email breached privacy rights of more than 1,000 Canada Student Loan borrowers, says Northwest Territories Privacy Commissioner Andrew Fox. The Commissioner yesterday detailed his investigation into a hurried email that mistakenly disclosed two years’ worth of financial records on borrowers: "A moment’s inattention led to a privacy breach that affected 1,159 people."

Health Minister Mark Holland yesterday told reporters he was a recent victim of road rage. Asked for comment on the shooting of Donald Trump, the Minister replied: “The United States is different than us, but not that different.”

Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault’s business partner yesterday admitted he lied to reporters about company dealings. Stephen Anderson, an Edmonton importer, was threatened with contempt by the Commons ethics committee: "The jig is up."

Senate chauffeurs, mail clerks and maintenance workers have won a three-year wage hike compounded at 11.7 percent. Total spending by the Senate is estimated at $134.9 million this year, according to budget documents: "We have not looked at the impact of potential reductions."

A decline in the number of veterans in Canada is no reason to cut the Department of Veterans Affairs, says a federal briefing note. The departmental payroll has grown 26 percent since 2015 even as managers overestimated the dwindling number of veterans they serve: "How is that possible?"

The Department of Fisheries yesterday pledged to save Canada’s tallest lighthouse, a 10-storey clifftop landmark at Gaspé, Que. built in 1858. It follows a federal audit that faulted the Government of Canada for allowing heritage structures to crumble into disrepair: "I mean, the government doesn’t look good."

Chrystia Freeland says she considers herself a regular working mom and “the first woman finance minister in Canada.” She isn’t. Speaking to tax lobbyists in Vancouver, Freeland omitted all reference to the true record holder and mistakenly claimed no other finance minister knew “what it is like to pump your breast milk.”

Whistleblower leaks to reporters hurt democracy, says an Access To Information memo from the Department of Immigration. Managers told employees to send any grievance to an anonymous electronic suggestion box but acknowledged media were bound to hear about it anyway: 'Disclosing privileged information to media erodes the very trust on which government depends.'

A federal program to provide emergency food and shelter to destitute veterans went 53 percent over budget last year, records show. Most applicants were homeless or suffered addiction or mental health issues, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs: "The shelters are full."

Regulating minimum payments on credit cards may save some consumers interest charges but drives others to delinquency, says a Bank of Canada study. Researchers drew findings from the only province to introduce a minimum payment rule: "We find evidence the policy led to a reduction in credit access."