Call it a shot across the bow, or maybe a broadside, but former Auditor General Sheila Fraser has weighted in on the Fair Elections Act, and she is not amused. In a blistering, no-holds-barred interview, the woman whom the Conservatives had previously sainted point-blank called them out for trying to rig up a bill designed to sideline Elections Canada because they had been investigating various voting irregularities and other misdeeds by the Conservatives, and which would advantage their particular donor base. And yet, during QP yesterday, Pierre Poilievre just kind of shrugged it off and denounced the “so-called experts” as not being able to stack up against “common sense and democracy.” Actual quote. And yet, when we see the real need for things like being able to compel testimony, as the investigation into “Pierre Poutine” continues to this very day. Former Guelph Conservative campaign worker Andrew Prescott, who has been granted immunity in exchange for testimony, has given evidence about Michael Sona – the only person thus far charged in that whole affair – as well as Ken Morgan, then campaign manager who is now living in Kuwait. Sona, meanwhile, asserts that he has ironclad alibis that will exonerate him, and that they didn’t learn their lessons after being coached into a story about Sona that was contradicted by the fact that he was in Aruba when an alleged incident took place. If the Commissioner of Elections had the power to compel testimony, it is likely this dance around the Guelph robocalls would have long been over. First Nations groups are also sounding the alarm about the bill, and pointing out the reality on most reserves are that the kinds of acceptable ID just aren’t there for most residents and that the bill is a fix for something that simply isn’t broken.
The Conservatives tabled their “Victims Bill of Rights” bill yesterday, and to some mild surprise, it’s not just a catalogue of tougher sentences under the guise of being what victims want. The provisions include making the victims surcharges mandatory – something that has been criticised by judges, who lose their discretion, especially as it concerns those criminals who are trapped in a cycle of poverty and simply can’t pay these charges. It also removes the spousal immunity for testimony (which seems to come from nowhere and could dissuade a spouse in an abusive situation from reporting a crime in the first place), gives victims the right to access more information, to give testimony under a pseudonym, have access to a complaint process, and can ask for restitution orders against offenders.
As part of their rollout on their victims of crime bill, the Conservatives put out a video featuring a photo of a sad mother. And as Glen McGregor finds, it’s a stock image from Oregon, bought cheaply from a site with no Canadian content.
A member of the Conservative Party’s national council from the Yukon is charged with sorting through the Eve Adams nomination intrigue, and the various complaints there. Meanwhile, Adams’ opponent in the new riding thinks that Adams should stick to her old one, and that her position as an MP confers an automatic unfair advantage. Adams insists that she’s done nothing wrong.
Surprising no one, the Conservatives have already moved time allocation on the latest omnibus budget implementation bill. And yes, there is much opposition wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The government has disavowed the letter to the families of fallen soldiers asking them to pay their own way to the national memorial ceremony in May. The minister essentially blamed the uniformed bureaucrat, said that it was all incorrect and premature and that yes, they would be footing the bill. Liberal critic Joyce Murray noted that this is at least the third incident of such type in recent months, despite Nicholson’s promise that this kind of nonsense would end.
The Correctional Investigator has issued a report on the state of the Baffin Island Correctional Centre in Iqaluit, calling it “nothing short of appalling,” as it is overcrowded and in a state of disrepair. A new jail facility is being built in the Territory, but we’ll see if that will be sufficient to deal with the overcrowding once it opens.
The current estimate is that it would cost $700,000 to put television cameras in the Senate, and CPAC would have to spend another $600,000 to create an additional web portal for Senate proceedings. Senate proceedings wouldn’t be carried live on television because CPAC is contractually obligated to carry the Commons live, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t an appetite to create a CPAC2 channel.
The Senate’s Conflict of Interest committee is looking into improving the rules, and has issued a report on their activities and proposals.
In Trinity–Spadina, blocked would-be-Liberal candidate Christine Innes is fighting back and hinting darkly about legal recourses, but I’m not exactly sure what kind of redress she can expect from the courts given that these processes aren’t governed by any elections laws, and are beyond the jurisdiction of any court. It’s also hard to see what she hopes to gain at this point, going against a leader who has the solid support of the party, because even if she somehow managed to get in, she would still be subject to his whims when it comes to things like critic assignments, and her badmouthing him won’t have earned her any points.
NDP MP Chris Charlton is being targeted by an anti-abortion group.
Economists across the country are decrying the increasingly useless data being produced by Statistics Canada, which simply isn’t taking their data sets far enough back every time they tweak them.
Aaron Wherry reflects on the Broadbent Institute’s “progressive summit” last weekend, and the state of the so-called “progressive movement” in the country. In particular, there seems some tension as to just who is captured by the term “progressive” (as the NDP will likely claim they are the only ones, while Justin Trudeau would conflate “progressive” with “liberal”), and the embrace of higher taxes at the summit is not matched by the political realities of parties who are largely unwilling to raise them to fund the kinds of schemes that the summit attendees are keen on.
And here is Paul Wells’ speech at Politics and the Pen after he won the Shaugnessy Cohen Prize.