In a shocking revelation yesterday, the government, by way of Rob Nicholson, announced that it got something wrong, and it was smothering one of its own bills in the crib. That bill, of course, was C-30, the lawful access or Internet surveillance bill – which I guess means that this government is also on the side of the child pornographers. But more seriously, enough pressure was brought to bear, and they realised that they had a problem, and that it was untenable to continue. Of course, we can also be certain that the NDP will claim responsibility for this victor in QP tomorrow, but that’s another story. Moving forward, the government has tabled a bill to allow warrantless phone tapping for emergency situations like kidnapping or bomb threats, which sounds a lot less contentious, but we’ll see if it too passes constitutional muster.
Tag Archives: Procurement
QP: Senate screeds abound
Monday afternoon, and the Chamber was still a bit sleepy after the weekend. Only one leader was in the House today, being Thomas Mulcair, and he began things by reading off a litany of condemnations against Senators Brazeau and Duffy, and demanded the whole institution be abolished — because a) that’s helpful, and b) two or three bad apples out of 105 detracts from the good work of the rest of the Senate, including when they pick up the ball when MPs drop it, as with the sports betting and royal succession bills. James Moore, the designated back-up PM du jour, assured him that the Senate’s Internal Economy Board was investigating these senators. For his final question, Mulcair read a question about EI reforms, to which Moore assured him that the reforms were helping get people working. Peggy Nash was up next and said that it was false that there was no mechanism to extend Kevin Page’s term as PBO, pointing to his term being renewable. Tony Clement said that there was a process in place to find his replacement. (On a related note, the PBO is not the only accountability mechanism available — it just happens that accountability is the actual role of MPs). Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, warning of a weakening economy while everyone was worrying about other distraction issues, and wanted the budget tabled by the end of February. In response, Moore read off a number of good news talking points. Stéphane Dion was up last, and demanded that the government undo its “job-killing” EI reforms.
Roundup: A questionable CIDA grant
CIDA is funding a homophobic Christian group to do work in Uganda – you know, a country that Harper and Baird have called out for their government-sponsored anti-gay legislation, and one of the reasons why Uganda is no longer part of the Commonwealth? I have to wonder what John Baird thinks of this, considering how much he’s touted gay rights as part of Canada’s foreign policy – much to his credit. I can’t imagine he’ll be happy, but I also don’t imagine that anyone will take the blame except for the bureaucrats who “made the decision” when this gets brought up in QP today.
Senator Mike Duffy’s “neighbours” in PEI say that they never see him, and cast doubt on some of his other claims, like how much he’d allegedly spent in converting his cottage there into a year-round residence. Just to keep that particular story of residency requirements going (seeing as it could mean his removal from the job).
Roundup: An elegant climbdown?
And so, with some drumming and the signing of the thirteen-point declaration, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence ended her hunger action. At a press conference that started off with the First Nations members present blaming the media for their woes, Spence was not present – she was at a local hospital getting checked out before she began eating solid food again – but Bob Rae chimed up to buy into the constitutional relativism about the kind of role that the GG should be playing with future First Nations meetings, and Romeo Saganash said that First Nations shouldn’t have to beg. To that end, he’s going to present a Private Member’s Bill to ensure that government legislation lines up with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Err, except that he’s number 167 on the Order of Precedence, whereas the Commons isn’t quite up to number 90 in terms of what’s been brought forward for debate, and even if he were much closer, a bill like that far exceeds the mandate of a PMB. (And once again, we have an example of MPs trying to govern from the opposition benches rather than doing their jobs of holding the government to account). Kady O’Malley rounds up the responses from the opposition parties, the minister and the PMO. Michael Den Tandt looks at the achievable goals within the 13-point declaration. Martin Patriquin looks at the forces of change versus status quo that played out around Spence and the Idle No More protests. And through it all, the person running Spence’s Twitter account called Senator Brazeau an asshole. Because you know, peaceful and helpful dialogue, and so on.
Roundup: Partisan posts and blaming the bureaucrats
That line between political and public service got blurred again for a short while on the CIDA website, as op-ed responses from the M-4 Unit – err, Julian Fantino – were posted on the department site. And these were very partisan posts. Within a couple of hours of the cry of alarm being raised, they were taken down, and Fantino’s office blamed the department for putting up the wrong information after they had been told to populate the site. Um, okay. Sure. We’ll totally buy that, even though the government has steadily been trying to politicise the civil service. Thomas Mulcair blasted the incident as breaking all of the guidelines set out by Treasury Board. Kady O’Malley Storify’d the whole afternoon’s craziness here. Meanwhile, National Post columnist Michael Den Tandt doesn’t think Fantino is capable of any cabinet position. Poor M-4 Unit! *sad trombone*
Roundup: The continued protests
Despite the meeting arranged with Stephen Harper, Idle No More protests continued across the weekend, including at border crossings. Former Prime Minister Paul Martin met with Chief Theresa Spence on Saturday and said that she’s an inspiration for many. Spence is continuing her hunger strike until she’s sure that “concrete action” will be taken, which seems to be yet another case of goalposts being moved, each one fuzzier than the last. While APTN checks the math that SunTV did on Attawapiskat’s finances and comes to a few different conclusions, a year-old CBC report from the community reappeared over the Twitter Machine yesterday which shows that there are some serious governance problems on the reserve.
As the Parliamentary Budget Officer turns his gaze to the contract for joint support ships that the Royal Canadian Navy has been planning on building for years now, it looks like that particular process is its own mess, but in a reverse fashion from the F-35s, where the civilian side is taking too much control and there seems to be little regard for what the military’s needs are, while the focus remains solely on costs.
Roundup: Harper sets his own terms
In a somewhat surprising move, Stephen Harper agreed to a meeting with Aboriginal leaders next week – but it’s not exactly on the terms that Chief Theresa Spence demanded. Harper set the date for the 11th, while the AFN had proposed the 24th and Spence wanted one within 72 hours. Spence also wanted the Governor General in attendance – never mind that it’s not his role – but it doesn’t appear that he’ll be there. And Harper will let the AFN determine the agenda of the “working meeting.” Spence says she’ll attend, but will continue her hunger strike until then regardless. Grand Chief Atleo, however, appears to have his own problems as First Nations leaders are questioning his role and his legitimacy through these kinds of negotiations. From the other side of the debate comes a look at how the government has been taking pragmatic and incremental approaches to changes to First Nations issues that hope to bring greater economic opportunity, but they are measures being protested currently. Here is yet another reminder why, under Responsible Government, it’s inappropriate for Spence and company to call for the Governor General to join these meetings. And Maclean’s rounds up a dozen different opinions on the Idle No More protests, while also putting together an interactive map of where those protests happen.
Roundup: The Carney conundrum
The Globe and Mail wrote a story that tried to paint a picture of how Liberals were wooing Mark Carney, and that while he spoke at an exclusive event in Nova Scotia, he spent a few days at Scott Brison’s house with his family. And *gasp!* they both talked about income inequality at one time! Nobody else ever talks about income inequality – never! They must have been in cahoots about getting Carney to run for the party leadership! Never mind that they have a lot of similarities in experience and circles that they both travel in. The problem is that the story is largely sourced by unnamed “officials” and is dependent upon one particular organizer who was trying to get Carney to run and who may have simply been spinning a fabulation that Carney was actually entertaining a bid while he tried to get an organization behind him that was based on a false understanding of how the leadership ballot process was being run. It’s a bunch of random information being strung together with a bunch of supposition that something might have been discussed, because nobody wants to talk about it. And from a journalistic perspective, it reads a lot like rumour being reported as fact – especially with almost nobody going on the record to confirm or deny anything.
Whether the events in the story are true or not is no longer the issue, however. Economist Stephen Gordon worries about the irreparable harm that the Carney story does for the office of the Governor of the Bank of Canada, simply so that some “senior Liberal sources” could try and find some imagined gain.
QP: Under the vote-athon countdown
With an expected eight-hour vote-athon looming, and with Harper off meeting the Prime Minister of South Korea, QP got underway with Thomas Mulcair reading off a question about implausible economic forecasting. John Baird, again the designated back-up PM du jour, recited his Economic Action Plan™ talking points. For his final question, Mulcair asked about the government fighting the release of Residential School documents, bringing up how Jack Layton worked with Harper on the apology. Baird assured him that all relevant documents would be released to the question – but one wonders if “relevant” was the key word. Jean Crowder followed up asking the very same thing, to which John Duncan reminded her that he answered those very same questions in committee yesterday. Bob Rae was then up for the Liberals, making the case for refundable tax credits so that they actually benefit low-income Canadians, but Baird wouldn’t actually acknowledge the issue. For his final question, Rae asked the issue the issue of OxyContin in northern Reserves and mechanisms available to the federal government, but Leona Aglukkaq decided to hit back and blame the Liberals for approving OxyContin in the first place. This caused some outburst from Carolyn Bennett, but I missed what she said.
Roundup: Back to the Ethics Commissioner
It’s Friday, and Stephen Harper is jetting off to Labrador to announce a loan guarantee for the Muskrat Falls hydro project – a project that embattled minister Peter Penashue has family ties with, which means he’s back to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Commissioner’s office.
When Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge returns to the Commons, it’ll face between 26 and 47 votes on amendments put forward by the Greens. Kady O’Malley explains why the Speaker’s hands were tied when Scott Brison tried to point out the improper procedure employed in order to get some of his amendments back.
Over at the Natural Resources Committee, the Conservatives managed to work through the Liberal filibustering and have summoned David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau to appear before the committee to explain their “anti-Alberta” comments – not that McGuinty’s comments were anti-Alberta, and despite the fact that it offers both a platform to publicly denounce the job the government is doing in a public forum. But hey, it’s not like the committee has anything better to do than engage in a partisan witch-hunt.