Roundup: A reasonable plea for restitution

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Retired Senator Sharon Carstairs is looking to be reimbursed for some $80,000 in legal fees after being caught up in the Auditor General’s report on expenses, and it’s a tale that exposes how shabbily many senators were treated in the wake of that report. To recap, that AG report essentially made up a bunch of rules that did not exist, particularly around how many days a year constituted “primary residency,” which Carstairs got caught up in. And in a rush to show the public that they were taking this report seriously, the Senate turned over the report directly to the RCMP, and Carstairs was left trying to keep her reputation intact, hence retaining counsel and trying to explain that she hadn’t broken any rules.

What needs to be repeated again with this story is just how problematic that AG report was. When the Senate later retained its own counsel to go over that report to see if they should try to sue any of the senators who had refused to repay or seek arbitration for the identified sums (which included Carstairs), that legal review laid bare the arbitrary rules that the AG imposed as part of his review, and essentially how shoddily it was done. And I know several senators who simply opted to pay back the sum rather than keep fighting it because they wanted it to go away – Carstairs refused, and it looks like she’s going to be punished for it, whether financially with the loss (the maximum reimbursement for legal fees under Senate rules is generally $25,000), but also with the loss of reputation. I would hope that the Senate has had enough time since the audit that they can now revisit this case and offer the apology and what restitution they can, and admit that they were hasty in their actions because they were trying to appease a public that was baying for blood post-Duffy, for what good it did them. I would also hope that more of my media colleagues would also start calling out the AG for the problems in his report when cases like Carstairs’ come up again in the media, but I suspect that won’t happen, as we pay far too much deference to him as being untouchable and infallible, when clearly that’s not the case.

Good reads:

  • From Victoria, Justin Trudeau again reiterated that current pot laws stand because the point of legalization is regulation, and there are no plans to legalize other drugs.
  • Oh noes! The budget’s forecast is an extra month old and we had good GDP numbers! Except there was underlying weakness in those numbers…
  • Changes to CPP are now law, but Bill Morneau says any more changes (like that “loophole” the opposition was concerned about) will need provincial input.
  • Here’s a good explainer on the irregular asylum claimant issue.
  • The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada made the case for carbon pricing while talking about the costs of climate change.
  • While the government is pledging to help fund abortions abroad after the Americans pulled funding, the overall level of Canada’s foreign aid remains an issue.
  • Remember when everyone thought that the Trump win caused the immigration website to crash? Nope. It was shoddy Shared Services plus travel authorizations.
  • Citizenship and Immigration admits that they’ve accepted fewer Iranian LGBT refugees, but they’re still working with the UNHCR on helping the most vulnerable.
  • Here’s some more about Kelly Knight Craft, our putative new US Ambassador.
  • The new head of the RCMP in BC is an Indigenous woman, which is a first.
  • The government could be compelled to offer gender neutral passport identification if human rights complaints currently underway are successful.
  • One of the candidates has withdrawn from the Markham–Thornhill Liberal nomination in protest of what they believe is a rigged contest.
  • Here’s a look at whether the NDP leadership race will stir things up on the political scene.
  • Conservative leadership candidate Rick Peterson says his chances are “excellent,” which is adorable.
  • Robert Hiltz examines Kellie Leitch’s attempts to fake sincerity.
  • Paul Wells writes about the current government’s diminishing ambitions and ever-growing timelines on decisions.

Odds and ends:

Justin Trudeau and Harjit Sajjan started off their day in Vancouver with a run with members of the military base in Victoria.

Here are the finalists for the Victims of Communism memorial, and my vote is for the toppling statue of Lenin.