The opposition shenanigans manifested during one of the very first votes of the new Parliament, where the government was not able to defeat the Conservative amendment to the Address in Reply to the Speech From the Throne. Said amendment urged the government to table a spring budget, but it’s not binding, and it looks like Mark Carney and the rest of Cabinet will take it under advisement and leave it at that (because you can’t produce a budget within two weeks’ notice, and the Conservatives know that very well).

What gets me is that you have the Conservatives (and others) going “what does it say when the government loses their first vote?” when it says nothing at all. If anything, it says that in a minority parliament, the opposition parties will do everything they can to embarrass the government, just as they have in previous parliaments, and given the current configuration of parties, this is really just a continuation of the constant juvenile bullshit we’ve seen over and over again that resulted in a paralyzed House of Commons last fall. Nothing really changed, and we’re going to see more that very same thing because we have the same insistence on juvenile point-scoring from the opposition, and we have the same Liberal government that is both inept at communicating their way out of a wet paper bag, and who are tactically incompetent because they think that they will somehow come out looking sympathetic to the procedural warfare and gamesmanship when they absolutely won’t because legacy media will simply not actually call anyone’s bullshit, but just both-sides the whole thing, and the Liberals will always lose in that framing. And I suppose what it says about the government is that they haven’t learned a single gods damned lesson from their near-death experience, and Carney’s complete political inexperience isn’t doing them any favours here either.

Meanwhile, the government introduced their big omnibus border bill, and it has a lot of troubling elements, from lowering thresholds for electronic data collection by law enforcement that won’t always require a warrant, and gives Canada Post more authority to open mail they deem suspicious. It also changes particular thresholds for asylum claims, and gives the government powers to simply stop claims or immigration processes with no explanation or apparent avenues for appeal. There are some positives, such as more resources for financial crimes, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m not sure it balances the negatives. The government claims they found the right balance that respects Charter rights, but I am dubious, and I suspect that law enforcement convinced them that they need these rights-violating powers and used Trump’s threats as a justification to get what they want.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian rocket attack killed at least four and injured at least 25 in Sumy. The city of Sumy remains under threat as Russians advance in that region. Ukraine detonated explosives on the concrete piers supporting the bridge linking Russia to Crimea, forcing its closure.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1929871991034568954

Good reads:

• Trump has signed the executive order for steel and aluminium tariffs to double today, meaning 50 percent for Canada; Carney denounced the move.
• The federal government is matching Red Cross donations to help wildfire victims.
• Sean Fraser says that the duty to consult stops short of a full veto by Indigenous communities, but also says this is new law, and will be tested by the courts.
• Mandy Gull-Masty says that Indigenous participation in project discussions is “critical,” as Indigenous leaders raise concerns about the proposed fast-tracking.
• Marjorie Michel says that there’s no evidence forced drug treatment works, but she won’t comment on provinces who are pursuing it in legislation.
• The head of the Net Zero Advisory Body is panning Carney and the premiers touting “decarbonised oil and gas” going through new pipelines, which is impossible.
• An NSIRA report says that CSIS didn’t inform the minister of activities that may have been unlawful as part of an operation that involved ISIS trafficking.
• Duty-free shops want immediate government support because cross-border tourism has crashed.
• Buckingham Palace says that the King was “deeply moved and touched” by the enthusiastic response to his trip home to Canada.
• A Conservative fundraising call was insinuating “liberal media” attacks and that something was up with the recounts in the election.
• Indigenous leaders in Quebec reject the government’s forestry reform bill that would reserve large swaths of their territories for logging purposes.
• Susan Delacourt makes a few observations about Stephen Harper’s recent reappearance in the spotlight, including his curious omissions about India.
• Althia Raj looks into the more troubling aspects of the border bill and wonders just who asked for these provisions (and my answer is likely law enforcement).
• My column looks into the false narratives on pipelines that have fuelled anger that is behind the national unity concerns in the west.

Odds and ends:

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