Roundup: Play stupid procedural games, win stupid procedural consequences

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My patience for the stupid procedural games being played in the House of Commons is wearing incredibly thin as Liberal House Leader Mark Holland is moving a motion to extend sitting hours to midnight. Now, this would be fairly normal for the last four sitting weeks of the year, but Holland is moving the motion to extend until June. *sighs, pinches bridge of nose* Holland claims it’s because the Conservatives are being obstructionist, and putting up long speaking lists for every bill, so he’s going to accommodate them, and the Conservatives are saying that it’s their job to have vigorous debate on every bill, but this is beyond excessive. (The NDP are also in favour of this, because they too have essentially had a policy of talking every bill to death for the past decade or so). But that should make everyone happy, no?

Of course not. Andrew Scheer is, not incorrectly, pointing out that midnight sittings take resources (read: interpreters) away from committees, and calls this the Liberals trying to kill accountability by stealth. That’s one interpretation, but one could also say that it’s the consequences of the Conservatives decision to fill up the speaking lists like they are. And it’s all so unnecessary. This insistence of filling up speaking lists and having MPs read canned speeches into the record for hours on end is a particularly Canadian phenomenon, and it’s a symptom of our politics being treated un-seriously. It’s stupid gamesmanship that started years ago, and it gets worse with each passing parliament, and we need to stop it. The fact that Holland and Scheer are now exacerbating it even more as a kind of brinksmanship is killing our democracy, and MPs need to grow the hell up, on all sides of the Chamber.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 261:

Ukrainian forces have re-taken dozens of settlements near Kherson, finding them to be littered with landmines, as they make the approach to the city itself. Canadian sappers and engineers are training Ukrainians on mine-clearing. The Ukrainian defence minister says it will likely take a week for all of the Russian forces to leave the city (assuming that it’s actually their plan). American intelligence suggests that over 100,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in the fighting, and probably as many Ukrainians.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1590742949406867456

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau has departed for the first of four international summits over the next ten days, starting with ASEAN in Cambodia.
  • Marci Ien has signed over $700,000 for crisis lines in Nova Scotia.
  • Lawrence MacAulay is defending his record as the union of veterans affairs employees is calling for his resignation.
  • At the public inquiry, we heard about tow trucks paid to refuse to help the RCMP in clearing the Coutts blockade, provincial sniping, and requests for military help.
  • The federal government has approved a $4.38 billion cost estimate to remediate the former Giant Mine site in Yellowknife.
  • At a speech in Toronto, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said that he hopes the tight labour market will absorb some of the negative impact of higher rates.
  • BC Indigenous scholar Margo Greenwood has been appointed to the Senate.
  • Liberal MP Yvonne Jones is taking a leave of absence as her breast cancer has returned after 12 years.
  • A Nova Scotia cabinet minister has been saying untrue things about the federal government supposedly threatening the province over carbon prices.
  • New Brunswick premier Blaine Higgs is musing about eliminating his province’s official languages commissioner, because reasons.
  • Manitoba says they will spend $200 million to alleviate the strain on their healthcare system. Oh, look—provinces have their own money to fix things.
  • The Canadian Press gets a look behind the scenes at what went down when Doug Ford invoked the Notwithstanding Clause and it all went to hell on him.
  • Observers point to Danielle Smith’s lobbying record as to where her governing priorities are going to be.
  • Stephanie Carvin explains the two separate realities on display at the public inquiry, and why this has political ramifications going forward.
  • Heather Scoffield points out that Chrystia Freeland is being cagey about when she can balance the budget, because there are a lot of unbooked commitments.

Odds and ends:

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