Tag Archives: Tough on Crime

Roundup: Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge

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Yesterday, the government tabled Omnibus Budget Bill 2: The Revenge, and it’s largely tax code changes, along with changes to the Navigable Waters Act (which some call the erosion of those protections), and the bit about MP pensions. Predictably, the opposition is complaining about the size of it – which is their right. But I would also suggest that rather than complain about it day in and day out, they beat the government at its own game and come up with technical critiques, breaking it up by topic among the caucus. It won’t happen, but it would be an interesting tactic that they never employed the last time around.

The tale of Peter Penashue and the federal election in Labrador gets more and more interesting. First the government said it was a “rookie mistake” – err, except the appointed the official agent based on his great business experience, and Penashue stood for office in several Innu elections previous, so he wasn’t a rookie. The Liberal whom he defeated is out-and-out calling Penashue a cheater. And then, we find out that two of the polling stations were closed on election day because an Elections Canada employee drove off with the ballot boxes – mere “hiccups” the agency says. But with the vote so close – 79 votes separating them – perhaps we may see this result overturned as well.

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QP: Not biting on the resignation demands

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With Harper heading home from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Bob Rae away elsewhere, it was up to Thomas Mulcair to be the sole leader in the leader’s round of questions. He began QP by reading a trio of questions on the tainted beef issue, his third question including a demand that Gerry Ritz resign. Ritz was up to speak each time – rather than another back-up PM du jour – but spoke about taking food safety seriously and science-based decision, but wouldn’t take the bait on the resignation demand. Malcolm Allen was up next to say that there aren’t enough meat inspectors in the system, to which Ritz replied that the Union said there were. Marc Garneau was up for the Liberals, first asking a pair of questions on reassurances around food safety, to which Ritz took the classy move of blaming previous Liberal cuts for the problems and to tout their government’s “reinvestments” in food safety. For his last question, Garneau asked about the issue of bullying, to which Rob Nicholson replied that the government was taking action, there were two Parliamentary committees studying the issue, as well as funding for RCMP and cyber-tips hotlines.

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Roundup: Extending the Nexen deliberations

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The government has indicated they will be extending the consideration of the Nexen deal by another 30 days – though this is a fairly common occurrence. Expect the renewed calls for “public consultations” to begin when the House returns on Monday.

Apparently the federal government has been studying ways to change the provincial equalisation programme. Changes to things like the way hydro revenues are calculated could have a major impact on the equalisation that Quebec receives.

Not only have the Conservatives ramped up their advertising spending in an age of fiscal austerity, it seems that over the past five years, they’ve exceeded said advertising budgets by 37 percent. Fiscal discipline, everybody!

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Roundup: The clawback climbdown

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At 4:26 pm on the Friday before a long weekend, it was time for the government to release something they wanted buried – in this case, backing down on some of the changes to the EI Working While On Claim programme. The government will now allow some claimants to return to the old system that didn’t claw back as much for low-income earners. That said, it’s a temporary short-term fix that won’t do much in the long term for those claimants.

Here’s a bit of perspective on the “largest beef recall in Canadian history.”

Uh oh – it looks like the government is set to miss its deficit reduction targets for last year.

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Roundup: A day of resounding nonsense

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Yesterday was a day where Canadian politics pretty much lost its mind. First was a rumour that Justin Trudeau might be entering the Liberal leadership race next week (more than a month early), We The Media completely lost it, and wrote actual stories about how he had nothing to announce today, on top of assertions about who his campaign team will be. At least Paul Wells, Susan Delacourt and Steve Murray have a sense of humour about the whole thing.

And then there was the vote on M-312, which was a vote to create a committee to debate the definition of when someone becomes a legal human being (which of course was doomed from the start because Stephen Harper himself would not abide it). The motion was defeated rather soundly, but that didn’t stop the entire political sphere from losing its grip on reality for a while. (Incidentally, CBC has a handy timeline of the abortion debate in Canada).

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Roundup: Formalising co-locations

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So that whole “shared embassies” thing is being downplayed as far less of a thing than the UK press made it out to be – that it’s simply a Memorandum of Understanding that formalises co-location arrangements that we already have going, so that more of them are likely in the future, given the whole age of fiscal austerity and whatnot.

The Conservatives seem keen on adopting a “buy Canadian” strategy for military procurement whenever possible, rather than solely relying on the usual Industrial Regional Benefits programmes that we usually insist upon. Economist Mike Moffatt decries this as economic nationalism run amok, and notes that it’s the last thing one wants if they’re concerned about the high dollar (as the NDP seems to be). When Andrew Coyne wrote to denounce the idea, the Prime Minister’s DComm contacted him to say that there is no such policy – but it could mean that there’s no such policy yet. It all remains to be seen, apparently.

What’s that? Prison populations are swelling? You don’t say! Meanwhile, Vic Toews’ office continues to insist that the expected wave of new prisoners hasn’t materialised. Funny that.

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QP: Administrative arrangements

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With Harper away, Thomas Mulcair faced off against John Baird instead as QP got underway. Mulcair read his first two questions, about slow economic growth, to which Baird responded with some fairly rote replies about the government’s record on job creation. Mulcair then turned to the burning question of the day – what about those joint embassies? Why did we find out through the UK press? Baird replied that these were simply administrative arrangements – putting  a desk in embassies where we the UK doesn’t have a mission, and likewise a Canadian desk in a UK embassy where we’re not represented. Mulcair then suggested that if they’re so concerned about sharing with the UK, why not share armed forces, or combine the Senate and the House of Lords since they’re “the same thing” (at which point I nearly pulled a Naomi Campbell; they are most certainly not the same thing – not in the slightest), and so on, but Baird didn’t take the bait. Bob Rae was up for the Liberals, playing off that question and wondering why, if our foreign policy is so independent and great, was Harper not attending the UN General Assembly this week? Baird noted that Harper was going to be in New York to get a “Statesman of the Year” award, and that we play a leading role in the world. Rae then shifted to the topic of income inequality, which the government wasn’t addressing, but Baird returned to his job creation talking points, and listed off all of the government’s programmes for low-income Canadians.

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Roundup: Joint embassies ahead

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Apparently we’re going to be part of a network of joint embassies with other British Commonwealth nations, in an attempt to head off the rising influence of European Union diplomats. It’s being billed as a cost-cutting measure, but there already questions about sovereignty being raised, as well as some fairly grossly inaccurate statements about how we’re under the same Queen (which we’re not – the Crowns are separate, even if Elizabeth II wears them all).

Here’s the strange case of an Ottawa communications firm involved with the F-35 blocking media access to aspects of the story. This, of course, while there are more questions as to whether or not the F-35 is really the pinnacle of fighter jet technology that its creators claim.

Thomas Mulcair was in Edmonton over the weekend to attend the provincial NDP convention there (despite saying that he stays out of provincial affairs when asked about happenings in Quebec). There, Mulcair told the audience that they need to boost the Canadian manufacturing sector (in other words, build refineries and upgraders in Alberta and not the Keystone XL pipeline to send said bitumen for processing in the States), while provincial leader Brian Mason claimed that his party were the true heirs to Peter Lougheed’s legacy.

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Roundup: Takeovers and security threats

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CSIS is sounding the alarm to business leaders around Chinese hackers and cyber-spies as the Nexen takeover bid continues to dominate the headlines. A former assistant director of CSIS says that we need to be aware that espionage these days is more about corporate interests and economic advantage – skewing the level playing field – than it is about government secrets, as it was during the Cold War.

Documents show that the government did study the possibility of private prisons, though Vic Toews has said that he’s dismissed the idea.

The second and final hour of debate on the private members’ motion to create a committee to study the legal definition of “human being” (aka the backdoor abortion debate) took place in the Commons and goes to a vote on Wednesday. And just a reminder that no, this is not an outright attempt to re-criminalise abortions, it’s a non-binding vote about creating a committee to come up with a non-binding report that can then get stuck on a shelf to collect dust because Stephen Harper does not want this issue to be resurrected, and he’s doing everything in his powers to kill it with fire. And for everyone who resumes to think that he should have disallowed the debate in the first place, well, the whole point of private members’ business is that it’s outside of the control of the party leader, the House leader, or the party whip, and any MPs who want the leaders to interfere *cough*Niki Ashton*cough* should really think about what it is they’re asking for, since it would mean curtailing what precious few freedoms backbenchers still possess.

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Roundup: No information on the cuts

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Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page can’t get any information on government cuts, and feels the government is deliberately keeping people in the dark. Pat Martin says that the government should provide the PBO with the information so that MPs know what they’re voting on. Or, you know, MPs could compel the production of papers using the powers they already have and demand to know for themselves rather than involving a middleman like the PBO.

The NDP have agreed to wrap up the committee hearings into the Auditor General’s report on the F-35 procurement process because they heard from the witnesses they wanted to during their Potemkin committee hearing in the summer. You know, the one that’s not official, and not on the record? Good job.

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