Prime minister Mark Carney once again said on Wednesday that Senate appointments will be made “in due course,” which doesn’t help when nearly ten percent of the Chamber’s seats are vacant or will be before summer is out, but for the first time, he indicated that he would be preserving the independent appointment committees. Sort of. (Currently only the federal members of these committees remain in place, and those for Nova Scotia, but none of the other provinces). “I will take into account the advice of the independent advisory committee that was established by my predecessor,” was what Carney said.
The problem is that’s not actually saying anything. Taking advice into account? Either these committees will be providing short-lists for appointments that Carney will choose from, or they won’t be. That was the point—they took the applications (which was always a mistake—they should have been doing the searching for worthwhile nominees to tap on the shoulder), vetted them, and honed them down to the short-lists, which Trudeau would then choose from, because he remains constitutionally responsible for those appointments. But what “advice” are they supposed to be offering if not a short-list of candidates? Will he look at their list and then decide to choose one of his friends from another hedge fund or big bank? Will he give them a list to do due diligence on? Maybe. None of this is clear, and it looks like he either doesn’t understand this responsibility that is part of his office, or he doesn’t care, and I’m not sure which is worse at this point when he’s been in office for a year now.
Meanwhile, Carney also said that he’s waiting on the joint parliamentary committee report before coming to any decision on the MAiD expansion for irremediable mental health issues, but it cannot be understated that said committee has been an absolute sham process. The two co-chairs are hostile to MAiD and have stacked the witnesses to be overwhelmingly against it, and have sidelined groups like major national psychological and psychiatric organisations who might actually argue that they can provide adequate safeguards. This is just going to result in more Charter litigation, and so many people will continue to suffer needlessly because a bunch of MPs and senators were too squeamish to actually listen to evidence that they didn’t want to hear.
Ukraine Dispatch
In spite of Ukraine giving Russia an early start to their Victory Day ceasefire, Russia attacked several cities in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 27 people. The new Hungarian government returned to Ukraine the confiscated $82 million USD in cash and gold that was seized while transiting the country.
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/2051983745297617183
Good reads:
- Mark Carney was in Mirabel, Quebec, to celebrate AirAsia deciding to purchase 150 A220 jets from Airbus Canada, the largest such purchase in Canadian history.
- Sources™ say the government will be making changes to regulatory frameworks for natural resource projects to ram through more approvals. (Hello, litigation!)
- It looks like Patty Hajdu gave FIFA special exemptions to labour laws back in 2018.
- Mandy Gull-Masty wants Indigenous people to just ignore the fact that there was no new Indigenous-specific funding in the Spring Economic Update.
- The government will need to decide between American or European platforms for new Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft.
- The federal Privacy Commissioner, along with his counterparts from Alberta, BC, and Quebec, found that OpenAI violated Canadian privacy laws.
- Cattle producers in this country are freaking out about a possible Mercosur trade deal, because they want a protected market.
- As the government ponders privatising airports, it bears reminding that when Australia did this, it wound up raising fares by a lot.
- Officials from Apple told the justice committee that the lawful access bill would create encryption backdoors that would weaken privacy safeguards.
- Apparently, Liberals are regaining the votes of younger men, because they couldn’t stand Trudeau’s (performative) feminism. (You know this is actually bad, right?)
- Danielle Smith says the opposition in her province should have told her about the leaked voter database when her own party staffer was on the Zoom call about it.
- There is more confirmation that Russian and American interference is amplifying the “separatism” debate in Alberta with disinformation, each for their own ends.
- Oh, look—Jason Kenney expects everyone else to clean up the mess that he made when he invited the separatists into his “united” tent.
- Joseph Heath walks through the gaping flaws in Avi Lewis’ thinking when he insists on his public grocery store option.
- Philippe Lagassé has a few reflections about Louise Arbour’s appointment.
- Susan Delacourt suggests that Carney essentially got himself some good legal counsel with Arbour’s appointment.
Odds and ends:
Danielle Smith Needs You To Shut Up About The Voter Database Scandalyoutu.be/fbKiBUKTZKk
— Clare Blackwood (@clareblackwood.bsky.social) 2026-05-06T22:18:47.492Z
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