Roundup: Trudeau takes a knee

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The day began with a federal response to the death of an Indigenous woman in New Brunswick at the hands of police during what was described as a “wellness check.” Mark Miller, the Indigenous Services minister, very bluntly stated that he was “pissed” and outraged and wanted answers as to what happened. He also demanded answers on the video of RCMP in Nunavut using a truck door to knock down an intoxicated man, calling it out as “disgraceful” and “dehumanizing.” And while the prime minister later said that he would be speaking to Cabinet and the RCMP Commissioner about these incidents, Miller was correct in pointing out that there continues to be this pattern of behaviour. (Commissioner Lucki put out a statement later in the day that was long on platitudes).

Trudeau was up next with his daily presser, making some fairly vague mention of those police incidents before moving onto the day’s announcement – a $600 disability payment for those who qualify under the federal disability tax credit (because, again, most disability supports fall under provincial jurisdiction), as well as announcing an accessibility stream for employers to tap into. He also announced that he has put $14 billion on the table for provinces as part of their safe restart plans, to assist with more personal protective equipment for front-line workers and businesses, as well as for child care, support for municipalities, and made mention of the attempts to get that sick pay into place using federal dollars. (That isn’t going well either, as premiers like Doug Ford say that they don’t want the sick leave, but want even more money than what’s on offer – with no strings attached, obviously). During the Q&A, he was asked repeatedly about what he would do about police violence and systemic racism, but he would only offer his usual generalities and no specifics. He also again committed to collecting race-based disaggregated data, but put in a few digs about the quality of data that some of the provinces are providing because that’s who we are relying on to collect it. (Ontario’s health minister says she’s working on it).

Later in the day, as a number of Black Lives Matters protest marches took place peacefully all across the country, Trudeau showed up at the Ottawa protest and took a knee on a couple of occasions while holding a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, flanked by minister Ahmed Hussen and MP Anju Dhillon. (Catherine McKenna was also in the crowd but not with Trudeau). While Hussen said the image of the head of government taking a knee and clapping when people say “Black lives matter” is powerful, it does raise questions about just what is being said. Taking a knee was a form of protest about the government (of the United States, granted), but if Trudeau takes a knee, who is he protesting? Himself? I would charitably say that this is Trudeau showing solidarity, but it does open himself up to criticisms about doing this for the sake of appearance over substance.

Senate selection committee

I did want to mention the CBC story about senators getting pay increases for sitting on the Selection Committee when it’s only met twice. It’s yet another story in the vein of never-ending stories about how the Senate is full of grasping drains on the public purse, but as so many of these stories go, it ignores the mechanics of the situation. Selection committee meetings are meant to formalize the work that caucuses do internally to allocate committee seats – they don’t make those determinations in committee meetings. They do the work beforehand in whatever assignment process the caucus uses, and it can be a fair amount of work and one could make the argument that any kind of work like that deserves additional compensation. But it is work done that even if the actual committee meets very infrequently, that is the tip of the iceberg of work. The only thing that is particularly unusual in this circumstance is that ISG leader Senator Yuen Pau Woo named himself to the Selection Committee. Normally, it was the caucus whips who were on the committee because they usually did the bulk of the work of allocation committee assignments (and arranging for alternates if a senator couldn’t be present for their scheduled committee meeting for whatever the reason). Considering that Woo has been agitating for changes to the Parliament of Canada Act because as a caucus leader who is not leader of either the government or the opposition, he doesn’t get an additional stipend, so perhaps this was his way of trying to earn himself some additional compensation. This being said, Senator Pierre Dalphond, who recently defected from the ISG to the Progressives, took the opportunity to unload on Woo for this in a press release, which makes me wonder just what happened between the two that has apparently caused this drama.

Good reads:

  • Liberal MP Marwan Tabbara has removed himself from caucus after he was charged for break-and-enter, assault, and criminal harassment.
  • The NDP are pushing again for the government to end the gay blood ban; the government says they are awaiting for the evidence from 15 research projects.
  • Matt Gurney has an eye-opening three-part series on how much we knew about the state of Ontario long-care facilities pre-pandemic. (Parts one, two, and three).
  • Jennifer Robson suggests that the government would be better off offering economic “rehabilitation” to the current situation – not stimulus.
  • Kevin Carmichael looks over yesterday’s surprising jobs numbers, and looks ahead to the voices that the government will listen to as it plots the recovery.
  • Chris Selley boggles at the state of Ontario’s public health response to the pandemic – and that it happens by fax – and the job Jane Philpott has ahead of her with it.
  • Selley also look at the increasingly visible police impunity and hopes that current events overturn the current system and policing culture for good.
  • My weekend column recounts my experience before PROC and the foregone conclusion that the Liberals are pushing for when Parliament returns in the fall.

Odds and ends:

For the CBA’s National Magazine, I wrote about the concerns being raised about the government’s draft legislation on extending statutory court timelines.

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Trudeau takes a knee”

  1. Well, they wanted him to “stick it to Trump,” and I’m sure the powerful images made Fox News, so if any consequences or backlash arise from him standing up by kneeling down I look forward to Trudeau’s never-satisfied critics like Al Sharpton saying it was worth the risk. Personally I think a lot of (white) people don’t really want to do anything about racism, so they can shift their own responsibility for looking inward onto Trudeau for “not having done enough.” And then some of the things the activist wing are calling for are so absurd and unrealistic, they almost seem geared at setting him up to fail just so they can call him a racist. Like demanding Blair’s resignation or abolishing prisons and the RCMP.

    He can’t just wave a magic wand and make structural inequities or generational traumas vanish all by himself, which is the same criticism leveled at Barack Obama during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Not when people like Ford and Legault and countless social media trolls are in total denial that such a system even exists. Or how if he did wave a magic wand they’d be decrying him as a dictator. This is a marathon and not a sprint. and it’s going to take a concerted, collective effort to address it. Not just one guy.

  2. This seems like a jerk question, but honestly curious how many times has Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal publicly condemn the American President? It seems like a lot especially as your Q.P. recaps point out he likes to also condemn the P.M.’s ‘pretty words’ all the time.

  3. “…it does open himself up to criticisms about doing this for the sake of appearance over substance.”

    Gosh! Ya, think?

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