Author Archives: Dale

About Dale

Journalist in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery

Roundup: Affidavits and quashed excuses

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In today’s Robocon revelations, it seems that in at least six ridings where misdirecting robo-calls were reported, there were actually no polling station changes, thus negating yet another Conservative talking point or excuse. Meanwhile, as part of the court challenge trying to overturn the results in those ridings, an affidavit emerges from a former employee of RMG who tells about making misleading calls based on scripts provided. Naturally, both the Conservatives and RMG have disavowed this, and call the affidavit false.

At an open government conference in Brazil, Tony Clement says that the government won’t give details on the full extent of the cuts until the spring of 2013. Seriously. Because this is the most open and transparent government in Canadian history, everybody!

Professor Stephen Saideman looks back at the excuses of interoperability and economies of scale when it comes to deciding to go with the F-35, and how that’s quickly becoming a moot point, while Canada still hasn’t run a competitive bidding process.

The papers to transfer Omar Khadr back to Canada have now been received by Vic Toews’ office. I’m sure they’re not searching for more ways to deny his repatriation under the notion that he’s somehow a grave threat to national security and that he (falsely) confessed to murder.

Thomas Mulcair has officially moved into Stornoway. Plus, here’s some of the changes in his backroom.

Bob Rae writes about the partriation of the Constitution, and lobs a couple of grenades at the NDP over the Sherbrooke Declaration in the process.

After years spent arguing that it was necessary, the Canadian Forces are closing their west coast intelligence office two years after it was established.

John Ivision delivers a blistering denouncement of the government’s use of secrecy with the environmental changes and the F-35s – and the public’s willingness to swallow it, while Andrew Coyne gives the Liberals some hard truths that many Liberals are acknowledging is a truth they need to deal with.

And Olympic gold medallist Adam Van Koeverden gives an ode to Katimavik, and thanks it for his very existence, as that is where his parents met.

Roundup: Communications in the New Order

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It’s a tale of a media request gone horribly, horribly wrong – in the tragicomic depths of communications groups in the bureaucracy comes this incident where the Ottawa Citizen asked a simple question, and the tangled email chain that resulted. The request was late, the information he requested was pared down to nothingness, and one can tell that even the comms officers were frustrated when the information got edited down to nothing by the senior officials. It is an awful incident, especially when compared to the fact that it took the same reporter 15 minutes to get answers from NASA. While some people will point to this and say “Look! Culture of secrecy!” I’m not entirely convinced. Rather, it seems this is more indicative of the culture of fear and intimidation that the Harper government has instituted as they have centralised communications and messaging to such a degree that not only has the process been so bogged down by doubt that nobody wants to say anything lest they get slapped down, but even if they did provide an answer, the overseers in PMO are just as likely to not approve said message, and pass along a weak “approved” version, several hours later.  Such is life in the New Order, unfortunately.

Here are the statements in the House from Jean Chrétien and others at the 20th anniversary of the Charter. Also not to be missed are Thomas Mulcair’s statements two years ago about the Charter and the “imposition” on Quebec – sentiments he echoed today in his party’s own release. The Conservatives, meanwhile, sent out a press release co-signed by the ministers of heritage and justice, in which they talked about John Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights. Kady O’Malley rounds up the various statements and plaudits here. Here’s a look at laws that the Charter impacted, and how the courts dealt with them before and after the Charter’s inception. And here’s a look at how Harper used to decry the Charter as giving the Courts the power to make “arbitrary” decisions – even though that’s exactly what the Supreme Court smacked his government down over with the Insite decision.

Despite Elections Canada moving to investigate Conservative Headquarters in connection to the Guelph robo-calls, the party still insists they’re not under investigation (which is technically true, if you’re going by the “isolated incident” defence).

Bev Oda defends cuts to foreign aid saying it’s more about accountability than the amount of dollars spent.

There was a massive corruption sweep in Quebec yesterday. The meaning of the arrest of Tony Accurso is discussed here.

And here’s a look at the Communications Security Establishment – the agency that is tasked with intercepting terrorist communications and cyber-security in Canada. They’re growing up as their own independent agency after being hived off from DND, but there remain concerns about just how much oversight they’re subject to.

Up today: “Tom”/Thomas Mulcair moves into Stornoway.

Timelines, jurisdictions, and future court challenges

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The natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, unveiled the planned changes to environmental assessments today, and some of effects are going to be pretty significant. As part of their “streamlining” process, the government plans to reduce the number of departments and agencies that conduct assessments from 40 to just three, and shift more of the weight onto the provinces (despite the fact that they continue to insist that the ‘austerity’ budget wouldn’t download costs onto the provinces, though their measures continue to do so).

Now, before you get too excited, I think we need to sit down, take a deep breath, and consider a few things here. I know everyone is talking about weakening the process, and how this is going to mean carte blanche for Big Oil and so on, but that may not actually be the case. Nobody is saying that any of these assessments are going to be just rubberstamps. There is still a process in place, which we can’t forget. But this having been established, there are some things that the government needs to really consider before they move ahead with these changes.

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Cold water on the merger talk

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It seems to me that every time someone gets Jean Chrétien in front of a camera these days, they get him to talk about a Liberal-NDP merger, and then they run clips about it for a week or so, and get partisans to wail and gnash their teeth – at least until something else shiny comes along. And once again, that particular pot is being stirred, this time with Chrétien looking back and saying that he should have “united the left” back when he was Prime Minister, and that somehow such a merger would “stabilise” our political landscape, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

I am forced to wonder about Chrétien’s recollection of his time as Prime Minister with relation to the NDP – they had a very small handful of seats, and had a couple of leaders who were unable to find traction with the electorate. Chrétien had his successive majorities, and there would have been little tangible benefit for either party, with the NDP acting as the conscience of Parliament – a role they would have been unable to pursue in a Liberal government. Not that there wasn’t a great deal of debate within the Liberal ranks over some of their own policy issues.

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Roundup: Happy Birthday, Charter!

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As it is now the 30th anniversary of the patriation of the Constitution, and the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we can expect some words of congratulations from the Prime Minister, right? Well, no. You see, Harper has decided that the Charter is too linked to the “divisive” issue of patriation, and how Quebec didn’t sign onto the Constitution, so he’s going to keep quiet. Which is pretty interesting, considering that he’s just feeding into the myth that Quebec didn’t support patriation (much like the so-called “Night of the Long Knives” myth, perpetuated by separatists). So not only does he appear to be spiting the Charter out of partisan considerations, terrible Liberal document that it is – despite it being more of a libertarian document than anything else – but he feels needs to feed the separatist rhetoric. (Paul Wells shares his views here). Not that either Jean Chrétien or Thomas Mulcair go blameless here either, if you cast your eyes back ten years ago and what both said back then.

Still on the Charter front, from Britain’s National Archives comes a tale from the cabinet minutes of Thatcher’s government, who were considering rejecting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of the constitutional patriation process. Closer to home, former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour looks at the impact of the Charter 30 years later.

On the Robocon file, it seems that Elections Canada’s investigation into the Guelph robo-calls has taken them to Conservative Party headquarters, and they’re looking into missing log-in information on the CIMS database, considering that the contact list provided by RackNine matches the CIMS list entirely. Meanwhile, NDP MP Pat Martin has apologised for unfairly maligning the calling firm RackNine over the whole Robocon affair – the second apology he’s had to make in the course of this issue (the previous one being to campaign research). And yes, it was almost certainly to avoid a lawsuit, though it’s not clear that this was enough to ward it off. This is why I keep questioning the wisdom of the NDP putting Martin out in front every time a story like this happens – yes, they know he’ll light his hair on fire in outrage, and he’s even aware that it’s why people come to him for quotes, and he says something outrageous, and the party gets press, but it almost always ends up badly. You’d think that the NDP would learn eventually, but I guess not.

Here’s an excellent breakdown – complete with coloured charts – about the “differences in accounting” when it comes to the cost of those F-35s. Meanwhile, here is a look at the mess that is the procurement process for the Cyclone helicopters, which should serve as a cautionary tale for what could very easily go wrong (and already appears to be going wrong) with the F-35s.

The government is axing a prison rehabilitation programme designed to help lifers who get parole, and has been able to claim success. But since their plan seems to be throwing more people in prison for longer with fewer programmes available to help them rehabilitate, axing this kind of programme makes perfect sense in their twisted logic.

And Bob Rae’s resolve not to run for the permanent leadership of the Liberal Party seems to be slipping, if this timeline of quotes is any indication.

Roundup: Questions about online voting

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Experts in online voting have questions about the way that the NDP vote and cyber-attacks were handled, and raise some real doubts about online voting in general, because it means we outsource our most basic democratic rights to small contractors with almost no oversight, and no way of checking the veracity of the votes cast. (Possible paywall). Not to mention, all of the work we’ve done to ensure secret ballots are for naught anyone can set up their own “internet polling station” and watch as people cast ballots, and reward them accordingly. Hello, rum bottle politicking.

Remember how they took Rob Anders off of Veterans Affairs committee for falling asleep and snapping at those veterans making the presentation? Well, they stuck him over on the joint Senate-House committee on the scrutiny of regulations, where he’s decided to start going after regulations concerning gun control.

As previously mentioned, at the Summit of the Americas this weekend the topic of legalising drugs was on the agenda, although funnily enough, many Central American countries are saying they have no choice because America can’t control its consumption of narcotics. And so, both Canada and the US were singled out over the issue, as well as the insistence on keeping Cuba out of the summit. Harper did admit that the current issue wasn’t working, but didn’t offer up any solutions other than that drugs are bad. Okay, then.

Also while in Colombia, Harper continued to insist that the different F-35 figures were just differences in accounting, and that they’ve known the full costs for some time. So he’s admitting that they low-balled the public figure and just told the public the more palatable version? Really? Nothing to see here, move along?

Stephen Harper’s Labour Day trip to New York to attend a baseball game and Broadway show with his daughter cost the public purse $45,000. Oh, but don’t worry – he reimbursed us for the “equivalent commercial cost,” but wouldn’t say what exactly that was, which leads me to believe it was his usual tokenism of paying the economy fare (unlike say, when Paul Martin made it a policy to take the highest rate and then double that). And normally I don’t care that a PM has to take his jet to do stuff that most other people could do because of security – so long as you treat it as a matter of fact, and don’t give insulting reimbursements like economy fares. But also, did he really need to take his staff photographer, press secretary, and executive assistant with him? Really?

There are new explosive allegations of political corruption with the construction industry in Quebec. I’m sure that Thomas Mulcair will be “profoundly saddened” by the reporting of these events.

And here is a reminder that the patriation of the Constitution, which we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of on Tuesday, is about more than just the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, while Philippe Lagassé looks at the way Crown Prerogatives interact with the Charter in light of the 30th anniversary of its inception, plus a tale about the document itself, and attempts to preserve it from the ravages of time.

Roundup: A pre-emptive strike on Lawful Access

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The Supreme Court has struck down the ability for police to do wiretaps without a warrant, even in the case of an emergency, because of failures of accountability. Why this is important now is the fact that the Lawful Access bill is under consideration, which also deals with warrantless access to information and communications. This could be a pre-emptive signal by the Court to tell MPs to drop the warrantless provisions, lest they be struck down the way in which these wiretapping laws were.

A number of Air Canada pilots staged a “sick out” yesterday – calling in sick as a job action to protest the way they’ve been treated by management and the government. I spoke to a former conservative Labour Minister about this issue a couple of weeks ago, and small surprise, she’s no fan of this government’s tactics.

CBC’s Terry Milewski goes through the way in which the government took the $10 billion out of its own figures when it publicly said the F-35s were only going to cost $15 billion, even though their own internal numbers, procurement guidelines, and agreements to include operating costs after previous Auditor General spankings – gave the $25 billion figure.

Here’s a look at the current size of the PMO, and the number of staffers in there making over $100,000 per year. Fiscal austerity everyone!

The government’s “back office” cuts at the military includes gutting Defence Research and Development, whose work saves lives in the battlefield. But they’re supporting our troops, everyone!

Here’s a great speech from Senator Cowan about Senator Eaton’s “foreign money” inquiry, in which he notices a few similarities to laws that Vladimir Putin passed in Russia to keep foreign influence out. This targeting of charities is part of the budget, so we can expect more of this kind of targeting to come.

Susan Delacourt looks at the double standard by which political parties are exempt from the same advertising and marketing rules that the private sector is bound by, which includes Do Not Call lists.

If you’re in the mood for a wonkish look at the Elections Act, Kady O’Malley looks at the clause about foreigners campaigning in Canada, and the debate in 1999 where MPs revising the law didn’t do their due diligence.

Also wonkish but very important is this essay from Liberal MP John McCallum on improving the estimates process. It’s refreshing to see an MP who actually understands that his job is to scrutinise spending and exercise control over the public purse.

Here’s an excellent takedown of “conscience rights” as being debated in the Alberta election.

And here’s a look at how it’s Tom Mulcair in English, and Thomas Mulcair in French.

Roundup: Using the same straw man

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With over a thousand borders services personnel on the chopping block, the union representing them has taken a page from Harper’s book and is now warning of the risks of more guns, drugs and child pornography making its way into the country because there aren’t enough agents. Yes, it’s greatly hyperbolic, but you can’t say that the government didn’t ask for it. Meanwhile over at DND, the cuts seem to be creating chaos as the military tries to hold onto hardware as things shake out.

Looking at DND’s own costing guidelines, Colin Horgan finds that the government’s numbers on the F-35 procurement still doesn’t add up properly (possible paywall). Here’s a timeline of questions being asked in the House about the F-35s, dating back to July of 2010, including some video of what MacKay said on TV back then, much of which has been contradicted by the AG, and the motion the Liberals tried to pass about holding a competitive tendering process (which failed when the Bloc voted with the government). Here are the pointed questions being asked in the House back in September of 2010, and the answers that were given then.

We’re cutting aid to twelve poor countries, including Afghanistan, but don’t worry, Bev Oda declares. We’ll still respond appropriately as needed. Meanwhile, we’re trying to convince other countries to help with the West African food crisis, but imagine the message we’re sending by asking for more help while at the same time cutting our own aid budget.

What’s that? The RCMP say that the loss of gun registry records means that it will be harder to trace firearm ownership as part of criminal investigations? And this might be impacting on our international obligations for tracing illicit firearms? You don’t say!

The 30th anniversary of the patriation of the Constitution and the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is coming up this weekend, and how will the government be marking the occasion? With a press release. The Liberals are trying to organise some rallies, but it seems like a pretty big deal considering how much they’re spending to mark the War of 1812 and the Diamond Jubilee (which are both important celebrations, don’t get me wrong).

Harper is off to the Summit of the Americas, where he plans to urge leaders to keep up the War on Drugs, as many of those countries look to decriminalisation and other options while they face devastating drug wars.

And Jean Chrétien is now musing that he should have tried to “unite the left” when he had a chance, but he decided to keep his cabinet small so he didn’t. Err, I’m not sure that the handful of NDP seats that were in play at the time would have really helped the Liberals stay in power, and until you can convince the NDP to adopt the free market system, good luck with that merger.

Fear and loathing in the Alberta debate

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I’ll admit up front that my familiarity with Alberta politics is about eight years out of date, since I moved to Ottawa and jumped to the federal scene. But I decided to tune in to the Alberta leader’s debate tonight, as a somewhat disinterested expatriate observer, for old time’s sake.

Throughout the debate, two things rang through – fear of the Wildrose Party and their social conservatism, and loathing of politicians and the money they make, as typified by the controversy over the “no-meet committee,” whereby MLAs were paid a thousand dollars a year to sit on a disciplinary committee that hasn’t hand cause to meet for years.

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Roundup: No lessons learnt with immigration backlog

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Because apparently the government hasn’t learned anything since the last time they tried to impose caps to solve the immigration backlog, the plans to simply legislate it away are likely to open the government up to more court challenges. Meanwhile, language testing is going to become mandatory for certain classes of immigrants, while the government looks to centralise immigrant settlement services.

Here’s a look at how this issue over F-35 costs could impact the way future military procurements are handled, and there are a lot of other procurements on the way. Here’s a look at the way in which military officials told MacKay that the F-35 was the “cheapest option” on the market for future fighter craft, despite the escalating costs. Former Assistant Deputy Minister Alan Williams continues to shred the government’s numbers, including the fact that they were actually planning to buy 79 jets, not 65 (remember those 14 replacement planes that Garneau mentioned yesterday morning? And it this is an example of contract splitting, that’s actually strictly prohibited). And Andrew Coyne takes MacKay to task, and breaks it down that this issue is ultimately not about planes, but about whether we live in a functioning parliamentary democracy, or even want to – which is what we all need to remember when we get bogged down in accounting issues.

About 5500 public service layoff notices were given yesterday, including a big number from Border Services, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and policy positions in Health Canada. Here’s a look at the cuts being made to the military, which includes virtually eliminating parts of our air defence.

The government released its greenhouse gas emissions report yesterday and wow, we’re already a third of the way to our 2020 goals! Err, except that we’ve actually increased slightly from 2009. And while there is a patchwork of provincial plans, we still have no federal plan, despite having been promised one for years, which means that they really had no role to play in any reductions that were made. (More detailed breakdown here, but possible paywall).

There is a good chance the election results in Etobicoke Centre could be overturned in an ongoing court challenge. This is also a warning as to some of the lax training by Elections Canada officials out there.

Conservative MP Bob Dechert touts how religious freedoms “trickle down” to other freedoms in society, rather than you know, focusing on human rights in general and that including religious freedom. Also not mentioned – how creating an office to focus specifically on religious freedoms gives the impression that Canada operates on a hierarchy of rights, privileging religion over other rights in its foreign policy.

Here’s a look at what the demise of Assisted Human Reproduction Canada means at a provincial context – in this case, Alberta.

Joe Clark talks about the Conservatives’ damage to our foreign policy here, with a few observations on the rise of the NDP.

And Bob Rae recalls the debates that brought about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 30 years ago.