Tag Archives: Immigration

Roundup: Incoherent amendments to an incoherent bill

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith has announced the plans to amend her “Sovereignty Act” to take out the egregious aspect of giving Cabinet unlimited powers to amend existing legislation without through decree, and framed in a way that this was about “listening to caucus” rather than admitting that this was one giant omnishambles from the get-go. The problem is that her planned amendments…don’t actually make any sense. It sounds like they plan to send any proposed amendments from Cabinet back to the legislature to vote on, but that doesn’t make sense if you would just remove that whole section and let the legislative amendment process carry on as usual? And does it really remove the Henry VIII clause, or just add an extra step to it that would wind up being pro forma given their majority? None of it makes any sense, but considering just how incompetent she and her government are, nothing can really be surprising.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 286:

Russians fired another barrage of missiles into Ukraine, many of them hitting the suburbs of the city of Zaporizhzhia, plus other energy facilities including near Kyiv. Two Russian airbases were hit, allegedly by Ukrainian drones, but Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for a strike inside Russian borders. Meanwhile, here’s the tale of how Ukrainian healthcare workers saved children from being deported into Russia. Elsewhere, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court denounced a plan by the EU to create a UN-backed special tribunal for war crimes in Ukraine, saying that the ICC is perfectly capable of doing the job.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Ingersoll, Ontario, as the first EV rolled out of the GM factory there. There, he offered assurances about hunting rifles in the gun control bill.
  • Trudeau also said he is “extremely concerned” by reports of Canadian-made parts found in Iranian drones used by Russians in bombarding Ukraine.
  • Trudeau said that he is “watching closely” as the Americans respond to European complaints about North American protectionism in their Inflation Reduction Act.
  • In a year-ender, Trudeau says that Canadians need to be reassured about the allegations of Chinese interference in elections.
  • The COP15 biodiversity conference begins in Montreal today, which Canada is co-hosting with China (and I’m sure there’s no awkwardness there).
  • Mélanie Joly announced new sanctions on Haitian elites accused of empowering the criminal gangs in the country.
  • Sean Fraser says the federal government will fund projects to remove barriers for foreign-trained health care workers from practicing in Canada.
  • Employment data is showing that the national child care programme is having the desired effect, as more working-age women are entering the labour market.
  • The Royal Canadian Mint plans to release a special $2 circulation coin to honour the late Queen Elizabeth II.
  • Permanent residents can now apply to join the Canadian Forces.
  • Major-General Dany Fortin was acquitted of a sexual assault charge dating from 1988, and says he wants to get his career back.
  • As you may have heard, researchers at Dalhousie University predict that food prices will continue to climb by another seven percent next year.
  • A Spanish civil rights group reports that there are at least three Chinese “secret police stations” in Toronto, one in Vancouver, plus one more unknown location.
  • The Assembly of First Nations is likely to vote this week on the child welfare settlement agreement that their negotiator helped to craft.
  • Grocery oligopoly executives were at the Commons agriculture committee to push back against the claims they are driving food price inflation. (They’re not really).

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take sorts some fact from fiction on the notion that Justin Trudeau has turned his back on Europe looking for LNG.

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Roundup: Blame the premiers for the paediatric health crisis

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The crisis in our hospitals, particularly paediatric ones, continues to get worse. In Ottawa, CHEO now has Canadian Red Cross staff assisting. In Newfoundland and Labrador, their children’s hospital had to cancel surgeries. In Alberta, they are sending children in palliative care home because they need to redeploy those staff elsewhere. So what are people doing? Telling people to bother the federal government.

No.

This is squarely on the premiers. They have been consistently underfunding their healthcare systems, even with higher transfers the federal government has been sending the past couple of years, both because of the pandemic and with additional funds intended to help reduce wait times, but has that money gone to good effect? Nope. But you have several provinces who sent out vote-buying cheques to people, nearly all of them are running surpluses, and New Brunswick and Quebec are promising tax cuts, particularly for high-earners. They have been playing chicken with the federal government, driving the crisis so that they can be sent more money with no strings attached (this is one of Danielle Smith’s many complaints), and it really looks like they want the system to collapse so they can blame the federal government and bully them into acceding to their demands. But so long as everyone keeps fixating on what the federal government is going to do to fix the problem rather than playing blame on the premiers, where it belongs, this state of affairs is going to continue. It’s only when the premiers start feeling the pressure that they’ll make changes, and right now, they are being let off the hook by too many people. Don’t let them. Put the pressure where it needs to be, and that is the premiers.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 285:

Ukrainian forces held a three-day amnesty for those looking to cross the Dnipro river in the Kherson region from the Russian-held side, in order to reunite families and get civilians to safety, but it sounds like Russian forces killed at least one person crossing the river. Meanwhile, the US’ intelligence chief says that the slower tempo of action in the conflict could wind up favouring Ukraine as Russian forces continue to be outmatched. Here’s a look at the fiscal situation Ukraine finds itself in, trying to finance the war without printing more money and driving up inflation. And here is a slideshow of the conflict.

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Roundup: Botching the Asia-Pacific Strategy Rollout

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The federal government launched their long-awaited Indo-Pacific Strategy yesterday, which was, well, a choice. They launched it on a Sunday morning at the same time as Canada was playing in a World Cup match, and didn’t provide journalists with a technical briefing beforehand as the usually do (the technical briefing will be today, which is after the ministers have all made themselves available to the media), so they were basically flying blind about trying to figure out what’s in it as the media availability was happening. This should not have happened, and I suspect this was the old trick of trying to make announcements on a Sunday in order to try and set the agenda and tone for the week (the Conservatives used to be big fans of this, but the Liberals rarely did).

https://twitter.com/ChrisGNardi/status/1596943087930335233

What we know about it so far is that it’s two years after it was initially promised to be delivered, there’s a lot of back-patting about how this is a major foreign policy shift, and that they are going to re-engage through the region with some added spending, slightly more military engagement in the region (eventually), and maybe some intelligence operations in the area as well. I’m sure we’ll learn more later today, but yeah, the government made a lot of choices today in their communications strategy, and what do we say about this government’s communications strategies? That they can’t communicate their way out of a wet paper bag, and well, they proved that once again yesterday. Slow clap, guys.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1596925774044405760

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1596927851130851329

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 278:

There is a renewed evacuation of Kherson now that it has been liberated (though they are fleeing to Ukrainian-held regions and not Russian-held areas) as Russia has stepped up its attacks on the liberated city, while they deal with a loss of critical infrastructure. Power and water have been restored in Kyiv, but the mood is sombre as blackouts still continue because of the damage to infrastructure as winter is setting in.

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Roundup: Auditor General day passes with little notice

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The Auditor General released a series of reports yesterday, but you almost wouldn’t know it from the dearth of coverage. Yes, The Canadian Press did cover them, and CBC did somewhat, but most of those stories were not headline news, and barely made a splash. The reports didn’t come up in QP save for two NDP questions near the back third of the exercise, and Power & Politics gave it seconds worth of mention in their “five things” segment (while they also spent three blocks on their Power Panel, a block on their ridiculous “Quote of the Day,” and ran the segment on Donald Trump’s pending announcement twice). Power Play did slightly better by actually having the Auditor General on to discuss the reports, but gave her a mere 3 minutes and 42 seconds of airtime, and only a couple of the items actually got mention.

The reports:

  • We don’t know if the federal government’s plan to reduce chronic homeless by 50 percent by 2028 is working because they don’t have enough actual data.
  • Indigenous Services’ handling disasters like fires and floods remains reactive rather than proactive, even though this has been highlighted for a decade now.
  • Federal departments need to do more to ensure secure storage on cloud servers given the rising threat of cyberattacks (which is pretty alarming, really).
  • Our aging aircraft and icebreakers mean we can’t effectively monitor Arctic waters, and there are no plans to replace RADARSAT capabilities by 2026.

Is any of this earth-shattering? Maybe not, but it’s still important and a big part of the way we’re supposed to be holding the government to account, which should be important. There was once upon a time, not that long ago, when Auditor General Day was a big deal in the spring and the fall, and it was a media circus. And now? It barely makes a dent in the news cycle. It’s a pretty sad indictment of where we’re at in terms of our national political media, and how little we’re paying attention to the things that are supposed to matter.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 266:

Russia fired a large number of cruise missiles at civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine, and throughout this, a pair of missiles appear to have crossed into Poland and struck a farm near the border, killing two people. While everything is being verified that these were in fact Russian missiles (and not, for example, Ukrainian missiles that missed intercepting the Russian missiles), NATO leaders are thus far keeping cool and trying to keep the situation cool, but this is almost entirely unlikely to trigger Article 5. Instead, it’s likely to trigger Article 4, and ramping up their investment into giving more equipment to Ukraine faster, including the plan from Poland to deliver its old MiG fighters to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1592647150504407042

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QP: Disney+ versus crypto outrage

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While the PM had landed in Bali for the G20 meeting, his deputy was present for Question Period back in Ottawa. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he worried about children not getting medication, and the report that only Canada is lacking these medications out of 19 countries that one company distributes to. Jean-Yves Duclos noted that the supply has increased, and that hours ago, they announced that they signed a deal with a company to import several months’ supply of children analgesics. Poilievre repeated the question in English, and Duclos repeated his answer in English. Poilievre then misquoted the governor of the Bank of Canada on the supposed “domestic” source of inflation (which is not what he said—the inflationary pressures are largely domestic now because they have metastasised through the economy, not because they were caused by local factors) and then wholly made up him saying that they need to cut wages and increase unemployment (which is entirely false), and demanded to know if the government agrees. Chrystia Freeland praised their “compassionate” and “fiscally responsible” plan, and quoted the Globe and Mail to bolster her cause. Poilievre raised the cost of diesel and blamed that on food-price inflation (it’s not the cause), and decried that families in “oil-heated communities” couldn’t cut their subscriptions to Disney+ to heat their homes, again raising the fake outrage that dominated the country last week, before demanding they cut the carbon price. Freeland noted that everyone in this Chamber is privileged, and that she recognises how privileged her family is, which is why they focused the government’s finite resources on those who need it. Poilievre demanded that the Liberals end their plan to “triple, triple, triple” their carbon price, and this time Fraser got up to take exception to the line about oil-heated communities because his province has seen the cost of climate inaction and worse is yet to come, and after the Speaker had to quiet the Chamber down, Fraser said that perhaps they should turn on the microphones of the backbenches to showcase their climate denialism.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the notion that the conversation on health transfers was futile as provinces we “rolling in money,” and demanded they talk to emergency room doctors. Duclos insisted that they should be discussing actions that should be taken. Therrien decried that the “pontificators” in government were unable to do things like get passports out, so how could they manage healthcare (which no one is asking). Pablo Rodriguez got up and chirped about the Bloc’s recent convention and how their only priority was independence and not helping people. 

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and in French, decried the overloaded emergency rooms and demanded that the federal do something about it, as though it were their jurisdiction. Duclos listed the stressors on the system and called on people to mask and vaccinate. Don Davies took over in English, raised drug shortages and demanded a plan, to which Duclos reminded him that they did announce an emergency importation of analgesics as domestic production ramps up. 

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Roundup: Don’t just rely on the federal government

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While at a feel-good announcement yesterday about the enhanced GST rebates going out to Canadians, Justin Trudeau told reporters that he was weighing “all options” on what to do about Doug Ford’s pre-emptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause, though federal options are extremely limited because it is a legitimate constitutional power under certain circumstances, and doing anything about that would require a constitutional amendment, which if Quebec or Ontario are not on board with, would be dead in the water. And disallowance is likely a Pandora’s box of federal-provincial warfare, which limits options.

Trudeau also said that Canadians themselves need to stand up to provinces using this power rather than waiting for the federal government to intervene (as the pre-emptive use pretty much rules out the courts becoming involved), because we shouldn’t underestimate the power of popular discontent—particularly for someone like Doug Ford, who doesn’t like it when people are mad at him. The powers are being invoked by populists who think they can get away with it by pandering to baser instincts, and of people put sustained pressure on those governments to let them know that no, using these powers are not okay, that could force them to back off, but that means actual sustained pressure, and not just the kinds of slactivism that we have become accustomed to. That is the kind of democratic power that still exists and holds sway, and we shouldn’t discount it.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 255:

Russian authorities in occupied Kherson continue to attempt to evacuate civilians from the city, moving them deeper into Russian-occupied territory, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns that Russia could be laying a trap to ensnare Ukrainian forces into intense urban warfare. Zelenskyy also said that Ukrainian forces have been holding their positions around Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region, while Russians send more troops into the “meat grinder.”

https://twitter.com/AnitaAnandMP/status/1588684951381508097

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QP: It’s hogwash and poppycock

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In advance of the Fall Economic Statement, neither the prime minister nor his deputy were present, and neither was Pierre Poilievre, for a change. That left Jasraj Hallan to lead off, and declared the Statement to be the “last chance” to stop tax increases and inflationary spending (of which there are no actual taxes being raised for ordinary Canadians, nor is the spending actually inflationary). He insisted that people are paying more in taxes than ever before (not sure that’s actually true), and railed about the so-called “Liberal inflation tax,” and demanded the prime minister stop spending. Randy Boissonnault reminded him that the plan would be released in two hours, but that they could rely on the government to do what is right, and supporting Canadians who need it. Hallan insisted the government’s “greed knows no bounds” and decried rising interest rates because of the “Liberal inflation tax” and demanded the government stop spending. Boissonnault reminded him that they reduced taxes on Canadians five times, and that the Conservatives voted against it every time. Hallan repeated his demand a third time, to which Boissonnault listed that the Conservative plan is to cut benefits, EI, climate incentives, child care, and so on. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French, and declared that the government is in no hurry to reduce inflation because that would reduce its revenues (which doesn’t actually match what the government is doing and is completely misleading), and demanded no new taxes, and Boissonnault said the statement was both economically false and cruel, as helping Canadians who need it is not inflationary. Paul-Hus misquoted Mark Carney about inflation and blamed it on “irresponsible spending” (which, once again, is not true), and Boissonnault quoted former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz in saying that the government’s measures stopped a deflationary spiral, while the Conservatives only want to cut, cut, cut.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he worried about the announced immigration targets, insisting that Quebec cannot handle that many and wanted a slowdown. Sean Fraser stated that the Quebec doesn’t set targets, the federal government does, and we need immigration. Blanchet insisted that this was about trying to weaken the Quebec nation and drown them out, to which Pablo Rodriguez needled that the Bloc was so concerned about percentages when these are about men, women and children.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and in French, he cited a report stating that the government was losing $30 billion per year to tax evasion and the Irving family in particular was  a prime offender. Diane Lebouthillier said that those who evaded taxes would get a knock on the door from the CRA. Daniel Blaikie then worried about Loblaws’ profits, demanding that the chains “pay what they owe,” and a windfall profit tax, to which Boissonnault listed the actions they have taken around raising income taxes and investments in the CRA to combat evasion.

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Roundup: The possible constitutional crisis Ford wrought

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The fallout of Doug Ford’s pre-emptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause to bigfoot labour rights carried on yesterday on a few different fronts. In Queen’s Park, the NDP’s interim leader and half of their caucus were ejected by the Speaker for calling Doug Ford a liar over his comments about the CUPE strike, and not retracting. And when one was ejected, another one did on their turn, and so on. This is becoming a problem in legislatures and the House of Commons federally, where it becomes difficult to call out blatant falsehoods because of the prohibitions from calling someone a liar, which has absolutely emboldened parties and elected officials in their respective legislatures at different times, but it’s really bad right now.

Federally, NDP MP Matthew Green tried to call for an emergency debate on this abuse of the power, but it was not deemed worthy, and I’m at a loss as to how it could be because this isn’t a federal matter, and there is nothing the federal government can legitimately do (and don’t say Disallowance, because that is a constitutional dead letter). Later in the day, Justin Trudeau had a call with Doug Ford to tell him that his pre-emptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause was “wrong and inappropriate,” but I’m not sure what more he can do about that, other than try and encourage enough public sentiment against Ford. After all, he likes to be the fun uncle, and if enough people are mad at him, he will back down. The question is sustaining enough anger and ensuring it is widespread enough for Ford to blink.

https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1587989392383148032

Meanwhile, Andrew Coyne argues that federal disallowance powers should be revived to stop provinces’ abusive pre-emptive use of the Notwithstanding clause, and it’s a position I’m going to have to give more thought to, because in a limited way there could be an argument, but it would have to be very particular. I will also note that over Twitter, there has been some chatter that there wasn’t this disallowance talk with Quebec using the Notwithstanding Clause, which is wrong—it has been there, but it is usually met with the same reply, that it’s a constitutional dead letter, and you’re provoking a constitutional crisis. But the constant abuse may have provoked that very crisis, so it’s going to need some very careful consideration as to what next steps are, and what the unintended consequences may be.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 253:

Russia is re-joining the deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea days after it pulled out of the agreement, saying that their security concerns have been met. Ukraine has officially denied being involved in the attack on Russian ships over the weekend, but president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia seeking security guarantees from Ukraine is a sign of how badly its invasion has gone for them.

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QP: Getting shouty to build their narratives

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It being Wednesday, the benches were largely full, and the prime minister was present for his designated day to answer everything. Pierre Poilievre led off partly in French, and worried about the shortage of children’s Tylenol, and switched to English halfway through to reiterate. Justin Trudeau started talking about Health Canada taking action and there were challenges to supply chains around the world, but was shouted down and needed to reiterate his answer when it quieted down. Poilievre then moved onto his bog standard inflationary nonsense and “triple, triple, triple” ear worm, and demanded that tomorrow’s fiscal update have a spending freeze. Trudeau noted that they have supports for Canadians as the GST rebate comes out on days, and other supports are on the way. Poilievre repeated his question in French, and Trudeau noted that the Conservatives only want austerity and cuts. Poilievre returned to English to claim only he was protecting pensions from inflation, and repeated his demand to cap spending and taxes. Trudeau called Conservatives cold-hearted if they considered dental care for children to be pouring fuel on the inflationary fire. Poilievre tried to turn over the “cold-hearted” accusation with his tripling nonsense, to which Trudeau reiterated that in spite of Conservative misinformation and disinformation, the climate rebates give more back to most Canadians than they pay.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he accused the federal government of starving the healthcare system (which is utter bunkum), and wanted more funding without conditions. Trudeau reminded him that Quebeckers and Canadians expect results from the system, but if systems don’t work as expected, they want to work with provinces to ensure that more money gets better results. Blanchet accused the federal government of micromanaging, and Trudeau reiterate that the systems are not working, which is why they are trying to get provinces onside to improve things for that money.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he attacked Doug Ford’s preemptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause, and demanded the prime minster do something about it. Trudeau denounced Ford’s actions, and called out Poilievre for not denouncing it. Singh repeated the question in French, and got the same answer.

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Roundup: Internet troll and wide-eyed naïf

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The occupation leaders started their turn to testify at the Emergencies Act committee yesterday, and it’s quite an interesting picture that they are painting of themselves. Chris Barber, for example, admits to being a racist internet troll who “saw the light” thanks to all of the love and hugs during the occupation (sure, Jan), but also tried to present himself as this wide-eyed naïf who couldn’t possibly understand the MOU about overthrowing the government, or who believed all the honking was just these truckers being excited. Yeah, so believable. There were, apparently, power struggles between the different groups and organisers, and things started to spiral out of their control. Gosh, you think? And when Barber was presented with an email with an assassination threat targeting Chrystia Freeland, he insisted he had no knowledge of this—because, you know, it was all peace and love. (Credit to Shannon Proudfoot for the troll/naïf descriptor).

Elsewhere, Doug Ford’s lawyers were at Federal Court to argue that the rule of law would be “irreparably harmed” if Ford and Sylvia Jones were forced to testify at the public inquiry or deal with any subsequent contempt proceedings, which…is a bit much. The judge in the case noted that the parliamentary privilege relates to criminal and civil courts, but does not specify public inquiries (because the basis of the privilege stems from a time when the Crown controlled the courts). Said judge also said he expects to have a decision by November 8th, which is two days before Ford and Jones are supposed to testify at the inquiry.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 252:

Russian authorities in occupied territories have ordered the evacuation of civilians in an area near Kherson, which the Ukrainian government considers a forced depopulation, which is a war crime. Russians also fired missiles into an apartment building in the port city of Mykolaiv, and have destroyed about 40 percent of the country’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

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