Tag Archives: Foreign Policy

Roundup: Up to 579 consecutive votes upcoming

Posted on by

While you’re enjoying your weekend, give pause for the poor clerks in the Commons spending their weekends preparing for report stage voting for the omnibus budget bill. You see, the Bloc has some 22 substantive amendments, Elizabeth May has some 330 amendments tabled, and of the 503 deletion amendments the Liberals submitted and the 506 that the NDP did, well, there’s a lot to go through. Peter Van Loan says that 579 of those don’t overlap, but we need to see how those amendments will be grouped together before the marathon of votes begins sometime next week.

There are new concerns around what happened in that senior’s residence poll in Etobicoke Centre in the last election, as a third version of events surfaces.

The CBC takes a look at the weakening of civilian oversight and the increasing influence of lobbyists with military procurement – especially when it comes to the F-35s.

Continue reading →

QP: Taking lessons from France

Posted on by

With Stephen Harper just having visited France, Thomas Mulcair took the opportunity to start off Question Period by pointing out that the French president has just lowered the retirement age in that country from 62 to 60 (which I believe is simply restoring the age that had been raised previously), and wondered why Harper wouldn’t take a page from the same notebook and keep from raising the age of eligibility for OAS from 65 to 67. Peter Van Loan, still the designated back-up PM du jour, wasn’t biting. Mulcair then went on to ask about Harper’s further comments about European integration, to which Jim Flaherty informed him that the solution was not to give Canadian money to a bail out those European countries. Peggy Nash was up next asking about what plan there was for the coming European economic storm, to which Flaherty asserted that they’ve been working with Europe for years about their fiscal woes. Bob Rae was up next, and asked the government to divide up the omnibus budget bill, to which Van Loan responded with the canned pitch for the Economic Action Plan™. Rae asked about the changes in the bill that had no consultation with the premiers, but Van Loan cleverly retorted that the Liberals cut provincial transfers during their reign. To finish off the leaders’ round, Rae asked why, per Van Loan, they ran a competition for their limos used in Davos, but couldn’t run a competition for the F-35s? Van Loan pointed out that they have a new secretariat and a Seven-Point Action Plan™.

Continue reading →

QP: Questions arising from the Mansbridge interview

Posted on by

Thomas Mulcair was back in the House today, and led off Question Period with a trio of questions arising from Stephen Harper’s interview with Peter Mansbridge last night, about what kinds of plans he had to stave off another recession if the Europe situation worsened. Seeing as Harper was not there to respond in person, it was Peter Van Loan’s turn to be designated back-up PM du jour, and he responded with praise for the Economic Action Plan™ as the only tool the government needs to head it off. Peggy Nash got up for her turn, and followed up with a pair of questions on whether the government would be focusing on cuts instead of growth and job creation. Ted Menzies stood up to lament that the NDP obviously didn’t want to help people if they wouldn’t vote for the budget. Bob Rae apparently also paid attention to the interview, and wondered if Harper would call a meeting with all of the various premiers upon his return, since he was preaching greater integration in Europe, so why not with Canada. Van Loan simply delivered a talking point about Harper preaching Canada’s fiscal approach to Europe. For his last comment, Rae asked if Conservative foreign policy had sunk so low that MP Larry Miller – he who compared the long-gun registry to Hitler’s actions – was musing that Canada should withdraw from the UN. Van Loan insisted that Canada has a Values-Based Foreign Policy™, and that we were all about freedom and human rights. Okay then.

Continue reading →

Lord and Smith Commission, Episode 7

Posted on by

My friend Destine Lord and I have a new video up, in which we talk about Syria, the RCMP Commissioner’s frank open letter, and that wine bill that made MPs go insane.

Roundup: Unveiling the proposed regulations

Posted on by

Diane Finley has unveiled her proposed EI reform regulations, and it seems to be a lot about twice-daily emails about “appropriate” jobs in the local area to EI recipients. Which is great – provided you have a computer and Internet access, and aren’t one of those poor schmucks who has to rely on their local library for the Internet, especially seeing as the federal funding for those library computers is now at an end. The changes will also track how often one claims EI, and start taking away benefits the more you claim it. Rona Ambrose likens it to E-Harmony for jobseekers. No, seriously. Meanwhile, here is some more reaction, plus Scott Brison relays concerns from the agricultural sector in his riding with regards to these reforms’ limits on temporary foreign workers, who they say the use of actually creates more jobs for local residents. Steve Murray casts his satirical eye on the situation here.

To say nothing about him personally, John Baird has been pretty vocal about promoting GBLT rights around the world in his capacity as foreign affairs minister. With that in mind, it’s awfully curious that he was speaking at an event sponsored by an anti-gay church on the topic of religious freedom. His speech, however, was pretty bland, and offered no real clues about the still undefined Office of Religious Freedoms.

Continue reading →

QP: Tinfoil hats and telecom trouble

Posted on by

While some MPs may have been a bit bleary-eyed from the previous late night, it certainly didn’t make for a dull Question Period. Or perhaps, that’s why it took such a turn for the worse the longer it continued. Thomas Mulcair was up first, reciting his carefully prepared questions on why the government still hadn’t provided any figures for the planned changes to OAS, to which Harper assured him that there weren’t going to be any actual cuts to benefits. Mulcair then turned to the issue of Chinese telecom company Huawei being granted Canadian contracts after the US and Austraila barred them as security risks. Harper insisted that the US doesn’t dictate our policies. When Randall Garrison rose to keep asking about the same questions, Vic Toews said that the CBC story only told half the tale, and that his officials weren’t in opposition, while Conservative backbenchers chirped about people wearing tinfoil hats. Bob Rae got up to ask about the changes to EI and how worker protections were eroding as their rights would no longer be enshrined in legislation, but rather in regulation. But when he demanded that Harper produce said regulation now, Harper dodged and insisted that the appeals process would remain in place. When Rae turned to the issue that the government wouldn’t produce the data on how much would be saved in the OAS changes, Harper reminded him that the measures wouldn’t be coming into effect until 2023.

Continue reading →

Roundup: Begin budget implementation week

Posted on by

It’s budget implementation debate week in the Commons this week, as Second Reading debate moves ahead under time allocation. The CBC’s Kady O’Malley made a very good point on the weekend that Second Reading debate on this bill isn’t going to matter very much, because it’ll simply be parties reciting their support or outrage into the record, but rather it’ll be the committee where all of the important debate happens. Given that the government has less ability to invoke time allocation on committees, there is still a chance for some more scrutiny and debate to happen there – however they still do have a majority on the committees, so that will be limited nevertheless.

Speaking of committees, here’s a look at the dysfunction creeping into the committee system as a whole – not that anyone can agree as to the causes or solutions. Part of this soul-searching was triggered after Liberal Mauril Bélanger quit the official languages committee after 17 years. Conservative Michael Chong believes there are simply too many committees, so MPs are stretched too thin as they have to do double-duty and are unprepared, and that they do too many studies when not considering legislation. Others, like Ned Franks, think the committees are too large, and that this is part of the symptom of party leaders having too much power over their MPs that said committee members are too afraid to actually speak their minds or have confidence in the expertise they develop. And they’re probably all right, to varying degrees.

The government has signalled that they’re going to put their weight behind a Conservative private member’s bill on banning facemasks during riots. The NDP say they’re supportive in principle, but want some clarification that it won’t muddy the waters with other legal inconsistencies.

It appears that changes to the OAS weren’t in the Conservative platform, because the issue wasn’t discussed until after the election when public servants presented those changes as one of a number of options the government could look at when it comes to addressing the demographic crunch.

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2006 there has been a sharp decline in immigration applications from many Asian countries, due in part to tightening language restrictions. As immigrants can help be bridges between Canada and their countries of origin when it comes to business opportunities, the fact that the world economy is shifting toward Asia means that we could be losing out in the future if this trend continues.

Here’s a look at the examination of protocol at Heritage Committee last week.

And Joe Clark talks about the need for Canada’s foreign policy to innovate as more economic power and demographics shift toward the developing nations of China, India, Brazil, and even Mexico.

Roundup: Happy Harper-versary!

Posted on by

Happy one-year anniversary of the Strong, Stable, Conservative Majority Government! This morning we are looking forward to self-congratulatory speeches from Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair, and an announcement from the Liberals about how they plan to not only open the doors to their party, but knock down the walls as well. No, seriously. (I write more about that here).

Eight deputy ministers and senior officials turned up at the Public Accounts committee yesterday to talk about the Auditor General’s report on the F-35s. And by “talk about,” we mean basically say “Not my fault – don’t look at me.” And hey, because there were eight of them around the table, it meant there was very little questioning of any of them once they all got through their opening statements. (You know, the kind of thing that Liberal committee member Gerry Byrne was trying to avoid when he tried to pass a motion that the witnesses would be heard in panels of no more than two at a time). Accountability and transparency in action!

Quebec is officially calling for a Supreme Court reference on the constitutionality of the Senate “reform” bill. As well they should – the bill is unconstitutional, no matter how the government tries to make changes through the back door.

A Federal Court judge has given an “unreserved” smackdown of the practice of clawing back disability payments for veterans. Peter MacKay hasn’t yet said whether the government will appeal the decision.

Here is a pretty damning indictment about the death of oversight at CSIS.

Here is a look at the 40 diplomatic residences we’re considering selling, and the damage it’ll do to our “brand” abroad.

As was mentioned during QP yesterday, it looks like Conrad Black will be coming back to Canada after all, while the NDP took this case, along with that of Gary Freeman and showed the apparently double-standard being applied there.

Peter Kent accuses environmental charities of “laundering” foreign funds to undermine our country’s interests. Seriously.

And Steve Murray illustrates ways that we can help to improve decorum in the Commons.

Roundup: No lessons learnt with immigration backlog

Posted on by

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.

Roundup: Branding Mulcair

Posted on by

The NDP have launched their English-language ads about Thomas Mulcair, which is mostly a bunch of b-roll people saying how great Thomas Mulcair is, at which point Olivia Chow says that Layton’s vision is in good hands, and Mulcair gives his pledge to “get the job done.” And hey, the party has been buying up some prime ad space too. Mind you, it seems these scripts were done up before the leader was even chosen, but considering how much in “violent agreement” they all were about policy it wouldn’t have affected the outcome much one way or the other.

Good news, everyone! Peter MacKay promises there will be more transparency with the F-35 going forward. Great. Now what about a proper procurement process that isn’t rigged and predetermined? Maybe? No answer. Meanwhile, Laurie Hawn seems to think that the Auditor General doesn’t know how to do his job, while Peter MacKay seems put out that DND will have to actually calculate operational lifetime costs as part of procurement – you know, like Auditors General have been asking for, for years now. The poor little lamb. Oh, and former Assistant Deputy Minister Alan Williams? Is still not buying any of these accounting excuses, for the record.

Another of our submarines is (finally) ready for sea trials, making that two now in the water. Meanwhile, it seems the navy may have some training issues with crews for said submarines, which really can’t be a surprise given how long they’ve been in drydock.

It appears that Canada will be setting up a separate immigration system for skilled tradespeople to deal with all of those labour shortages in places like Alberta.

Here is an accounting of how John Baird picked up the phone eight times to “lobby hard” against a vote for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the UN.

Just like the Manning Centre does for the Conservatives, the nascent Broadbent Institute has a poll that shockingly supports the NDP’s partisan position. I know – I’m just as surprised as you are.

Here’s a glance at the thirteen Senate “hopefuls” in Alberta’s “nominee election.” Note how they’re running under provincial banners for seats in federal caucuses – because that totally makes sense.

Here is a look at just what those cuts coming to the CBC will be, including the closure of foreign bureaux and the cancellation of two current affairs shows.

And one of Michael Ignatieff’s old novels, Scar Tissue, is being given new life as a theatre production in Vancouver.