Tag Archives: Supreme Court

QP: The supposed worst in the G7

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The PM was present today for the first time in two weeks, and it will be the last time for three as the next two weeks the House is not sitting. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and as he did yesterday, raised the Auditor General’s report on student visas to once again demand that the current and past two immigration ministers be fired. Mark Carney said that he was blessed to have a great Cabinet, and that he has “taken back control” of immigration. Poilievre switched to English to compare current immigration numbers compared to under Harper, and returned to the AG’s report and demanded those minister be fired. Carney repeated his same answer in English. Poilievre recited the talking points about how poorly we are doing economically, and Carney noted how many jobs Canada grew versus the U.S., that wages are outpacing inflation, and rents are down to recent lows. Poilievre recited the same economic doom points again, getting some of his figures wrong, and Carney again praised our economic performance before listing off the strategies they have launched. Poilievre said that strategies won’t pay the bills, and declared how much cheaper Americans get gasoline, before demanding the industrial carbon price and clean fuel standard be repealed. Carney patted himself on the back for scrapping the consumer carbon levy, and again repeated that wages are outpacing inflation. Poilievre spun a complete fiction about carbon pricing, and Carney patted himself on the back once again for how much they are building.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he first claimed that the Bloc supports freedom of religion before noting that Carney quoted from the Bible in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, and he wondered about church-state separation. Carney admitted he did quote from the Bible, but also Marcus Aurelius, because he had some good ideas. Blanchet then used this to pivot to the Supreme Court of Canada case on the Law 21 challenge, and demanded the government lawyers scrap their arguments. Carney noted that this is about the Charter, and that they would wait for its ruling. Blanchet tried to insist that Carney either say that religion can’t influence government or they have to stop fighting Law 21. Carney said this was a false choice, and praised their hate crime bill on protecting the Jewish community and others.

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QP: Demands to fire the current and two former immigration ministers

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Unusually for a Tuesday in the current Parliament, the PM was not present today even though he was in the building, but Pierre Poilievre was present, and led led off in French, and he raised the Auditor General’s into student visas, and he torqued and misrepresented what was found. Lina Diab got up to recite that they have taken on the AG’s recommendations, and provided a corrective in terms of what triggers investigations. Poilievre declared that the question was for the PM who “is in Ottawa” (skirting the line of what is allowed), and demanded the PM fire the current and past two immigration ministers. Marc Miller, one of those past ministers, got up and took a gratuitous swipe at Poilievre. Poilievre then switched to English to again demand those three minsters be fired, and Sean Fraser, the third of those former minsters, said that if anyone is guilty of political incompetence, it is Poilievre. Poilievre claimed that Carney is encouraging incompetence, and again recited torqued and misleading claims from the report, and again demanded they be fired. Diab got back up to repeat her first response in English. Poilievre mocked her response, and Diab again got back up to praise that the Auditor General for agreeing that they tightened the system. Poilievre took a swipe at the absent Carney and demanded he “stand up now,” and this time Steven MacKinnon to praise the Liberal record and Diab’s performance, and touted the decline in population as though that was a good thing.

Backbench Liberal to Poilievre: “How many antivaxx billionaires did you meet with?” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T18:24:49.144Z

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and badmouthed the lawyers at the Supreme Court on the Law 21 challenge, and demanded the government withdraw their arguments. Fraser said that they are standing up for the constitution, and that the Supreme Court is the best place to have this debate. Blanchet treated this as the assertion that the federal government is superior to Quebec’s, and this time Joël Lightbound expressed some confusion with the question, and pledged that the government would not use disallowance. Blanchet then took swipes at Pierre Trudeau, and claimed that the argument is a “colony of Canada,” to which Lightbound reminded him that Quebeckers are challenging the law at the Court.

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Roundup: Big problems with student visas

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Yesterday was Auditor General Report Day, and there were three on offer—the replacement for the Phoenix pay system, recruitment problems with the RCMP, and problems with the student visa system.

In short:

  1. The Phoenix replacement, Dayforce, is taking lessons learned from the problems of Phoenix, but in terms of simplifying pay rules, there has been no progress with the unions (which is not a surprise).
  2. The RCMP recruitment process is so bad partly because the RCMP hasn’t done enough workforce planning, their application process times keep getting longer, and they aren’t filling training classes. (Of course, the real problem is the force is horribly broken and needs to be dismantled and replaced).
  3. The student visa issue has been beset by problems with anti-fraud controls, and there has been a lack of resources to investigate cases. Additionally, the planned reductions in visa numbers wound up being way worse than intended (but that’s hardly a surprise when they get the message that they’re not wanted).

The thing that gets me in particular about the student visa issue is that the provinces are getting off scot-free here. I know the AG has no mandate to investigate provinces, but so many of the problems with this programme started with the provinces, who have not been held accountable for them, whether it’s because they cut university funding, which made them reliant on the higher tuition of foreign students, or the fact that several provinces, most especially Ontario, let these fraudulent strip mall colleges flourish, which were in turn used to be a source of cheap labour, and the federal government, which doesn’t have the mandate or capacity to investigate these colleges, is left taking all of the blame. No, the department is not blameless, as the audit shows, but the wider problem is not addressed by this, and continues to go without any accountability.

PBO candidate

The nominee for the new Parliamentary Budget Officer, Annette Ryan, appeared at the finance committee, where the Conservatives outright declared that they will not vote for her because they claim that the interim PBO, Jason Jacques, was “silenced” for calling the government out, and that he should get the job. Except that he disqualified himself, and he was not fired, nor did he “expose” anything. He made an ass of himself on camera, but that’s what the Conservatives want, and they are now spreading lies to make that point. Just unbelievable.

This is pathetic.Jacques wasn't fired. He didn't "expose" anything. His term expired, and he disqualified himself from the permanent post because he decided he wanted to play for the cameras. But that's why Poilievre wants him on the job, because for him, Parliament is a clip factory.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T00:46:12.483Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-23T13:08:04.927Z

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy is warning of an imminent “massive attack” against the country. He also says that he has “irrefutable proof” that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran.

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QP: As if the trade war wasn’t happening

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The Monday after a break week, and it was little surprise that neither of the main leaders were present. That left it up to Garnett Genuis to lead off, and he decried the job numbers released last Friday, and demanded an end to excuses by the government. Steven MacKinnon responded in French with condolences for the loss of lives in the collision at LaGuardia late last night. Genuis noted that Conservatives send their condolences as well, and again, decried job losses and blamed…government deficits. MacKinnon repeated his condolences for the collision in English. Melissa Lantsman took over, and she too decried the job numbers, and François-Philippe Champagne dismissed this as talking down the economy when they have so many things happening. Lantmsan seemed to think that we are somehow uniquely awful thanks to the government because other countries also face tariffs, as though their economies are equally exposed to the US. This time Patty Hajdu reminded her that we are in the midst of a trade war, and that they have tariff response plans with provinces like Ontario. Luc Berthold took over in French, to again denounce the job numbers, added in the recent job losses at Algoma Steel, and added in that there was no deal with Trump. Champagne took exception to that kind of question that was creating division while Canadians were standing together. Berthold tried again, blaming Carney for making things worse, and Mélanie Joly took her own turn to take exception to the question, saying that Algoma not shut down, and that they have the defence industrial strategy that would transform the sector.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she denounced the hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada on Quebec’s so-called secularism law, and declared it an attack on Quebec. Sean Fraser said that the Court is the right place to hold this argument, and it was inappropriate for him to comment. Normandin tried again, saying that the Notwithstanding Clause is the only think keeping Quebec as itself. Joël Lightbound repeated Fraser’s response. Rhéal Fortin tried the same line again, and this time Steven MacKinnon took a swipe at the Parti Québécois. 

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Roundup: Justifying ghoulish behaviour with a single study

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Alberta has announced that it is closing its safe consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge, citing that they will be “transitioned” to different services like withdrawal beds and addiction clinics, and justified by a single study that used anonymized data to show that the closure of the site in Red Deer didn’t lead to increased overdose deaths or emergency room visits. And there’s a lot to unpack here.

One of the problems is that the province has a bunch of dodgy partnerships with providers for these supposed addiction recovery services that are privately owned, not proven to work, and who have some pretty spotty histories. Nevertheless, the ties to the government are suspicious and reek of collusion and possible corruption, as with so many things in the Danielle Smith government.

The other problem is that this single study, that stands apart from thirty years’ worth of public health research, is emboldening conservatives across the country to claim that this “proves” safe injection sites don’t work. Federal Conservatives are using this in a series of ghoulish demands for the federal government to end its authorizations for these sites, using a bunch of other straw man arguments like the fact that there are no age restrictions on safe consumption sites (because apparently minors who are addicts should just use in an alleyway). Another Conservative MP has been trying to ask gotcha questions about whether fentanyl is safe to inject, never mind that it has pharmaceutical applications (which is part of the problem). It’s stupid and dangerous, but this singular study is emboldening it, and I fear that we’re in for another round of increased overdose deaths as certain provincial governments beyond Alberta take this one study to heart.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-20T13:24:02.456Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones hit two foreign-flagged civilian ships in Odesa. Ukraine has begun to evacuate children from Sloviansk as the security situation deteriorates there. Some 228 Ukrainian drone specialists have now been deployed to five countries in the Persian Gulf to counter Iranian drone attacks.

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Roundup: Missing the point about the Senate

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Because everything is so stupid all of the time, a new conservative think tank popped up in Calgary that is issuing stupid polls, some of the questions of which fundamentally do not understand how Parliament works. They call themselves the “Aristotle Foundation,” and it’s a collection of the usual right-wing (and in some cases, far-right) suspects, and when they claim to be championing “reason, democracy and civilization,” well, you can start picking up where the dog-whistles are sounding.

In any case, they published this stupid poll (and of course, the National Post picked it up, because a bunch of their columnists are members of this think tank), and the very premise of their questions are absurd. “55 percent of non-Western respondents would be open to negotiating with Alberta or other Western provinces amid the threat of separation.” As well, there was a question on whether they “favoured reform of the House of Commons and Senate in the case of threats from Western separatism and Quebec separatism.” Why anyone would want to negotiate with a group of crybabies who make up a marginal fraction of the population is beyond me, but it’s not my poll. Nevertheless—negotiating about what, you ask? Supposed under-representation in the House of Commons and the Senate. They even have a handy chart about population per senator to make their case. I swear to Zeus, I am going to lose my mind.

If you're complaining about "per capita representation" in the Senate, might I suggest you read a fucking book for once in your life? nationalpost.com/news/canadia…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-19T04:29:03.776Z

The Senate is not and has never been a rep-by-pop chamber. It is, in fact, designed not to be. That’s the whole fucking point of why it was constructed the way it was in 1867. It’s explicitly designed along regional lines in order to counter the rep-by-pop of the House of Commons, because having two rep-by-pop chambers would be stupid and counter-productive. Yes, the Atlantic provinces have outsized representation explicitly to counterbalance their small populations in the Commons. That’s why the breakdown is regional: 24 seats for Quebec, 24 for Ontario, 24 for the Maritimes, and 24 for the west (and then the three for the territories and six for Newfoundland and Labrador were later additions). If you don’t understand this basic bit of Canadian civics, what exactly are you doing? Other than shit-disturbing? This is beyond idiotic, and I cannot believe that they want to be taken seriously.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-18T22:01:56.308Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones struck several apartment buildings in Odesa. Ukraine struck two Russian plants building and maintaining military and cargo planes. Here is a look at the interceptor drones that Ukraine is sharing with several Gulf states.

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Roundup: Making Canada work…by inventing grievances

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Paul Wells had a lengthy interview with Danielle Smith yesterday, and let me tell you, it is just exhausting to wade through the volume of bullshit that she is flooding it with. Lots of numbers that she has pulled out of her ass, tonnes of scapegoating, revisionist history, and so, so many strawmen that she keeps fighting in order to make Alberta look like the victim. Much of what Wells had to ask her about was her plans with those nine referendums, and the possibility of at least a couple of more questions in addition, but he never really challenged her on the fundamental basis of what she was doing.

Re: Danielle Smith

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T05:26:00.334Z

Referendums are a way for governments to bypass parliament or the legislature, and to manufacture consent for whatever issue they’re putting forward. They control the questions and the interpretation of the answers, so they manipulate the process from start to finish. Most of the time that works out for them, because they can successfully manipulate it to suit their purposes, but sometimes it gets away from them, such as Brexit, and a giant clusterfuck was created because David Cameron was too chickenshit to stand up to the xenophobes in his own party. In this particular case, Danielle Smith is looking to manufacture consent to both engage in further scapegoating of immigrants and asylum seekers (and believe me, there is a portion of the Alberta population who will take the permission that she has granted to them and target those newcomers), but to also manufacture consent for her to continue to engage in grievance-mongering to the detriment of everyone, in Alberta or in Canada.

Smith keeps insisting that she’s trying to make people confident that Canada can work, but it’s really hard to believe her when she keeps inventing new grievances to be mad about, and then engages in an effort to make everyone else mad about them (such as through these referendum questions) even though there is no actual basis for these grievances. And being a crybaby because your preferred party didn’t win the federal election is not a legitimate grievance, and should not be ginned up as one. That said, Alberta has largely been a one-party state for more than 40 years, so it’s hard for them to understand what it’s like to actually lose an election and not consider it illegitimate. And what is most frustrating is that precious few people actually call Smith (or her predecessors) out for inventing these grievances. It’s bullshit, and it needs to be called out as such, particularly from Albertans because being force-fed these fake grievances has done a number on their psyche, and it hurts all of us as a result.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-06T23:56:01.450Z

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy visited the eastern front lines, as the second day or prisoner exchanges concluded with a total of 500 swapped over both days.

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Roundup: Jeneroux crosses over

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Prime minister Mark Carney got one step closer to a majority parliament yesterday as Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux formally crossed the floor, weeks after he said he would resign after floor-crossing discussions happened, and there have been rumours of threats. There is some irony in this development—Pierre Poilievre insisted that Jeneroux not resign immediately, but that it not become official until sometime in the spring, and Jeneroux simply absented himself from the Commons and from votes, and because he had not formally resigned as he might have at the time, it meant he still had a seat to cross the floor with. Oops. Jeneroux says that what changed his mind was Carney’s speech in Davos, and also made mention of a “national unity crisis,” and that he couldn’t sit on the sidelines. So that’s something. Also, Carney has bestowed upon him the title of “special advisor on economic and security partnerships,” but apparently this is not paid or a retitled parliamentary secretary position like Chrystia Freeland’s special advisor role was before she resigned.

Well. I guess Jeneroux has reconsidered his retirement. That statement:

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T15:33:27.661Z

JENEROUX: "After further reflection with my family, and conversations with colleagues and constituents, I will be continuing to serve in Parliament — and I will be working with PM Carney as a part of his new government to help build our country's strength as we face the challenges ahead."

— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T15:48:31.398Z

This, naturally, led to the usual bouts of hand-wringing and accusations of betrayal from the Conservatives, and the usual nonsense lines that Canadians had somehow voted against a majority parliament (not government—government is government, regardless if they have a majority of seats or not in the legislature), because that simply doesn’t happen. Canadians vote for a single representative, and that’s it. They don’t vote for the configuration of the Chamber, and they because they vote for the individual, that individual also gets to make the choice of whether or not to stay in the party that they were elected with, because that choice is sacrosanct in our system, no matter what anyone tells you.

It's going well.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T16:48:36.623Z

And the reactions? Well, former MP Rick Perkins tweeted that MPs should live in the province and community they represent, but well, that would disqualify his party’s deputy leader Tim Uppal (who made a song and dance about living in Ottawa and not Edmonton and declared he would not move back there if elected), and yes, Poilievre himself, but I am willing to give that one latitude because as opposition leader, he lives in Stornoway. But still. Perkins quickly deleted that tweet. Another unnamed former MP and two other sources in the Conservative party each told the Hill Times that ““Pierre Poilievre has become the Justin Trudeau of the Conservative Party,” which is absolutely hilarious.

Has anyone told Tim Uppal about this rule?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T17:22:45.316Z

Matt Jeneroux leaves Conservative party after being too intimidated by Poilievre's workout regime

— The Beaverton (@thebeaverton.com) 2026-02-18T18:37:31.796Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-02-18T14:25:04.438Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukraine has been able to reduce some electricity imports as the weather improves. The former head of the military is talking more about his rift with Zelenskyy.

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Roundup: The tedious nonsense around food price inflation

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The inflation numbers were out yesterday, which meant that it was time once again for Pierre Poilievre to mislead everybody with a headline number that doesn’t say what he thinks it does, and frankly, The Canadian Press was not helping. Food inflation was not actually 7.3 percent. Not really. Grocery prices are 4.8 percent, but because of last year’s stupid “GST holiday,” the price index for food from restaurants spiked in comparison, so there was a 12.1 percent year-over-year hike in that index, which completely skewed the overall food index. (Incidentally, there’s a reason why the Bank of Canada generally strips out food and energy prices from their “core” measures, because they are volatile and the Canadian government has little influence over them).

Poilievre, however, took that 7.3 percent figure, and called a press conference and published an open letter about the “Liberal Hunger Crisis,” and he is begging the prime minister to do something about it. That something, of course, is to gut environmental policies by destroying industrial carbon pricing, clean fuel regulations, and plastic regulations, each of which has virtually fuck all to do with the price of food (seriously, their impact works out to about statistically zero), but has everything to do with his crusade against any and all environmental regulations, because he believes they’re killing investment. (Just wait until he hears what contaminated groundwater and poisoned waterways does for investment. And votes). But this act where Poilievre insists he’s “trying to help” is just tedious. He’s not helping. He’s lying about the causes (which he should be able to read), and we went through this same song and dance with the consumer carbon levy, and when Carney killed it, prices didn’t change. Just stop.

This is such tedious bullshit.The 7.3% figure is driven by food at restaurants, because a year ago, there was the "GST holiday" and a year-over-year price comparison from that is skewed. Food at stores actually moderated last month.Also, Carney doesn't control Brazil's climate for coffee beans. 1/

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T19:59:39.814Z

And the worst part of this is that when Question Period is back on next week, Poilievre will keep up this whole act, and he’ll beg and plead for the government to do something, and will the government point out any of the facts in the StatsCan report? Will they even bother to correct that the index on food from stores was actually down last month? Nope. They will instead pat themselves on the back for their enhanced/badly rebranded GST credit, and then talk about the school food programme, and the Canada Child Benefit, and maybe dental care, or OAS for seniors, but they won’t put any gods damned facts on the table and counter any of the lies Poilievre tells to justify his nonsense. Because that’s how they insist on rolling.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-02-17T15:08:04.114Z

In case you missed it:

  • My Xtra column on the federal NDP leadership race and the particular crossroads that the party finds itself at.
  • My latest for National Magazine on Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision, upholding Newfoundland & Labrador’s COVID restrictions.
  • My weekend column on the government’s political cowardice in refusing to actually do something about the RCMP (like breaking it up) when the Force is broken.
  • My column on the apparent deal struck between the government and Conservatives on getting the budget bill passed, and why this shows the problems in Parliament.

New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. This week, I'm talking about Bill C-4 and what federal political parties want to do with your personal data. #cdnpoli

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T02:26:33.961Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Twelve Ukrainian regions came under attack as more “peace talks” are underway, while Ukraine struck an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region. President Zelenskyy says that Trump is trying to pressure him to give up territory to Russia.

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Roundup: His photo-ops were different, you see

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Jamil Jivani has returned from his trip to Washington, and before briefing Dominic LeBlanc or anyone from the government, he turned to the pages of the National Post to pen a self-congratulatory op-ed for the trip that nobody asked for, and that op-ed says pretty much nothing but a collection of platitudes about the GM plant in his riding, and looking for ways to continue the partnership with the US, as though the US isn’t the problem. It’s empty, and has apparently accomplished absolutely nothing

What is hilarious, however, are the fact that conservative posters over on social media have been taking his photos from his meetings with various players in Washington and declaring this to be “leadership,” as opposed to photos that say nothing other than he met with them. And yes, these are the very same voices who denounce the fact that prime minister Mark Carney has travelled across the globe several times over the past nine months and has met with all kinds of world leaders, because of course, that’s just a useless photo op (per Pierre Poilievre’s talking points in Question Period), but Jivani’s pointless photo ops? Totally different. Because of course.

Meanwhile, Kirsten Hillman can’t actually say if she thinks Trump wants to preserve the New NAFTA because his positions change from day to day, and there is no consistency from anyone around him, so that’s fun. Here is more about Hillman’s time in Washington as she wraps up her diplomatic career.

Ukraine Dispatch

There was a massive drone attack on Odesa overnight, which followed a previous massive attack on energy facilities with over 400 drones and 40 missiles earlier in the weekend. The US says they want the war over by summer, but Russia can go home at any point, and these deadlines do nothing but encourage Russia.

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