Two Liberal MPs – Scott Armstrong and Massimo Pacetti – were suspended from caucus yesterday following complaints of harassment by two NDP MPs. Thus kicked off a firestorm of calls for independent investigations, bringing in the Speaker, and yes, political gamesmanship. There was, of course, a time when this kind of thing would be handled by the whips and party leaders behind closed doors, but in light of the Jian Gomeshi allegations and the conversation the nation is having about sexual harassment more broadly, Justin Trudeau felt he had no choice but to suspend the members pending an investigation, so that justice was seen to be done. But the fact that he didn’t inform the unnamed accusers – who had brought the matter to his attention in the first place – that he was doing this is suddenly bringing up accusations that he “re-victimised them,” as opposed to leaving him open to accusation that he did nothing when he was made aware of the allegations. The details of all of what happened remain sketchy, and the NDP are even more opaque on what happened and won’t confirm the details that the Liberal whip has revealed, and even the allegations are mostly couched in terms of “personal misconduct,” which both suspended MPs deny, Pacetti going so far as to say that he still don’t know what it is he’s being accused of. Aaron Wherry has collected the various letters and statements that were put out from the Liberal Whip, the Speaker, Thomas Mulcair, Trudeau, and the two suspended MPs. Chantal Hébert recalls the kinds of harassment that was on open display when she first arrived on the Hill in the late 70s. The Ottawa Citizen editorial board says that this story, now part of that conversation about sexual harassment an assault in this country, will hopefully start to bring about change. Similarly, Canadian Business discusses the need to stop treating sensitivity training with mocking, but rather as a way to shift reporting away from the victims alone and putting more onus on bystanders.
Tag Archives: Trade
Roundup: PBO declares the cupboard bare
The Parliamentary Budget Officer appeared before the Commons finance committee yesterday, and said that after the new sorta-income-splitting Family Tax Credit rollout that there won’t be any fiscal room for any further permanent tax cuts or spending measures. In other words, the cupboard is bare (and still reliant on further austerity to keep the budget in balance). Kevin Milligan gives a more detailed breakdown of what all of the family tax credits mean, while Stephen Gordon once again says what needs to be said, especially with what this means for the next election:
Beast. Starved. MT @davidakin: Latest from @PBO_DPB post-FTC. Short version: Fiscal cupboard cleaned out by PMSH: http://t.co/2DwOxNDiBx
— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) November 3, 2014
If oppo wants to campaign on more spending, oppo will also have to campaign on tax increases. And not just on corps and/or the 1%, either.
— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) November 3, 2014
QP: Cautioned questions on Del Mastro
While the Chamber was full for François Hollande’s speech earlier this morning, it was much emptier by the time QP rolled around, the staffers acting as room meat no longer sitting at the desks to the fill the room. None of the major leaders were present for the grand exercise in accountability, leaving Peter Julian to lead off, to which he asked about Dean Del Mastro and election fraud — not government business. Paul Calandra stood up to say that the Procedure and House Affairs committee was looking into it, as they did the issue of the NDP satellite offices. When Julian asked again in French, the Speaker cautioned him that it was not about the administrative responsibility of the government, but Calandra repeated his response anyway. Julian got up and said that it was about the PM’s judgement, but Calandra kept up his own response to turn it back to the NDP, adding in the illegal union contributions. Charlie Angus tried again, got cautioned by the Speaker, asked again, and got Calandra to repeat his answers, while Angus sarcastically catcalled “Good job there, Speaker!” Ralph Goodale stood up to ask about the income splitting tax credit, and how it went agains Flaherty’s advice. Kevin Sorenson praised Flaherty as a response. Goodale noted that single parents were being punished for being single, but Sorenson just delivered praise for the programme. Emmanuel Dubourg asked again in French, to which Sorenson claimed that middle class Canadians were better off since the Conservatives came to power.
Roundup: The problem with political copyright changes
The government doubled down on their leaked plans to change copyright laws to give political parties unfettered access to using news clips in political ads, and accused media outlets of essentially “censoring content” by not broadcasting ads that have material that was taken without permission or compensation. Shelly Glover then went on to misquote copyright law expert Michael Geist to justify the position, leaving everyone to wonder just what exactly they hope to accomplish by picking this fight with the press and with broadcasters, especially after leaking a cabinet document to do so. Paul Wells parses the government’s reasons for this move, and what the unintended consequences will be.
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Roundup: Deployment debate continues
As the debate on the Iraq combat deployment carries on, with the vote set for later tonight, there are already questions as to just how effective air strikes can actually be given that ISIS has already taken lessons to heart about scattering in advance of a raid and reforming after the planes leave. In other words, could that really be the right use of forces. The government made a bit of a show of also adding another $10 million in aid yesterday, including for victims of sexual violence, which the NDP had specifically asked for – but the NDP responded that it’s not really enough to do anything, and then moved an amendment to the government motion to forbid combat and impose strict time limits. (Aaron Wherry recaps the debate here). Liberal advisor and potential candidate, former lieutenant general Andrew Leslie, made the case that an armed non-combat relief mission was a better use of resources because it wouldn’t divide our attention and resources the way doing both combat and aid would, while Roland Paris later noted on P&P that Canada didn’t necessarily need to participate in combat operations, but simply needed to be part of the coalition to help give political cover and legitimacy to the US-led operation. Hillary Clinton, during her speech in Ottawa yesterday, said that military intervention against ISIS was critical – but also not enough to really stop them. Andrew Coyne writes that there is no safe moral ground in this particular fight.
Roundup: Announcing a combat mission
Much ink and many pixels are being spilt over this Iraq announcement yesterday, and I’m not a foreign affairs person, so I’ll leave most of that analysis to people who are. Harper has announced that we’ll be sending six CF-18s, one refuelling jet, two Aurora surveillance aircraft, and that the up-to-69 special forces military advisors will remain on the ground for another six months, and that they are not to engage in combat operations. The air strikes would only be in Iraqi territory unless the Syrian government authorized strikes in their territory as well, which is unlikely (and who wants to be seen to be supporting the Assad regime?) He also worded his motion that he’s presented to the House in such a way that it’s not authorizing the deployment, but that it support the decision to send those forces. (This part is important because it’s less of a trap when it comes to accountability). In response, Thomas Mulcair gave a categorical no, while the Liberals said they can’t support this motion – key distinction there – but they don’t think that the PM has made the proper case for why air strikes are the best tool when we could probably contribute more in other areas, and while Harper says that it’s not an either/or proposition, it could easily be pointed out that the government really lowballed the figures for the Libya mission until the final totals came in, and that those other areas would suffer if we put more eggs into the air strikes basket. Calling our CF-18s aging and casting doubt on their capabilities probably wasn’t the smartest move, however, and insisting that we can do more in a non-combat role does give the impression that the Liberals are becoming pacifistic and shirkers of the heavy lifting that needs to be done. Elizabeth May also made some good points about the road to hell being paved with good intentions, which we have in spades in this situation. David Pugliese gives a Q&A on what the proposed mission entails. Robert Fisher talks about the positive response from the region. Steve Saideman parses the politics of it all, reminding us that this is the land of lousy policy alternatives.
QP: Vaccines and air strikes
While word has it that Stephen Harper would make an announcement regarding a combat mission to Iraq tomorrow, neither Harper nor Justin Trudeau were present for QP. Thomas Mulcair led off by asking why the Ebola vaccine had not yet been shipped to West Africa, to which Eve Adams said that they were waiting on the World Health Organisation to coordinate the necessary logistics. Mulcair said that it was in a media report that the issue was actually one of intellectual property and not logistics. Adams reiterated that it was up to the WHO to coordinate logistics, while touting all of the other aid we’ve sent. Mulcair changed topics, and asked what date the Canadian personnel arrived in Iraq, and if it was September 27th as was reported. Rob Nicholson reiterated the number on the ground, the number allowable to be deployed, and that they come and go per needs on the ground. Mulcair insisted that Harper said it was the 15th and that he was being duplicitous. Nicholson dismissed this, and Mulcair launched into a diatribe about clear answers. Nicholson retorted that Mulcair was being duplicitous in suggesting he might ever approve of a deployment. Joyce Murray led for the Liberals, and decried the lack of transparency to parliament regarding the mission. Nicholson insisted that there has been a debate and an appearance before committee, and noted that the Liberals did not bring deployments to Parliament. Murray pointed out the sum by which the Defence budget had been cut, and not increased, and wondered how they could trust the government’s statements. Nicholson hit back with a bog standard “decade of darkness” retort. Dominic LeBlanc closed off the round by asking the same again in French, to which Nicholson insisted that the Liberal position was all over the place.
QP: A debate or a vote
The President of Germany was visiting the Centre Block today, no matter that Harper was still in New York for the United Nations, and Justin Trudeau was off campaigning in Oshawa, leaving Thomas Mulcair once again the only major leader present. He led off by asking about the Prime Minister’s revelation in New York that we were being asked to contribute more troops to Iraq. Rob Nicholson responded by saying that the request was just received and that it would be reviewed, along with our current non-combat mission at the end of the 30 days. Mulcair wanted the letter made public, and asked how many more troops were being asked. Nicholson repeated that it would all be part of the review. Mulcair wanted the disclosure of the permission given by Iraq, to which Nicholson assured him that they had proper permission. Mulcair moved onto the burgeoning refugee crisis in Turkey, to which Chris Alexander gave a pro forma response about how many refugees from Iraq we have already settled and how many more we planned to. Mulcair pressed for detail on Syrian refugees, and Alexander said that more than 1500 Syrian refugees were present in Canada. Marc Garneau led off for the Liberals, and asked for details on the new Iraq request, and that it would be brought for debate in the House. Nicholson repeated that they would be reviewing everything. Joyce Murray noted the recall of Parliament in the UK to debate their Iraq deployment, to which Nicholson invited the opposition to use their supply days to debate further. Adam Vaughan reiterated the need for debate in parliament before any deployment was extended, and Nicholson noted how forthcoming the government has been.
Roundup: Live from New York…
Stephen Harper is in New York to attend the UN, so of course that means he’ll speak to American media and reveal things he wouldn’t here at home. So we learned that President Obama has asked for more support in Iraq than we have committed at present, but he won’t say anything more than that, other than “we haven’t out” anything as to what we might send. He also started waxing about something that sounded awfully close to the need to find the “root causes” of radicalizing youth. Harper even said that our deficit figures are smaller than expected, though his Wall Street Journal interviewer did challenge the methodology on some of his claims about just how great our economy is performing. He even made some claims about immigrant voters, which can be disputed once you drill down into the numbers. Suffice to say, it’s more than you get here at home, which remains a problem.
QP: A few answers on Iraq
Before Question Period got underway, the Speaker rose to make a statement. Scheer gave a reminder about his role as it is laid out in O’Brien and Bosc, and reminded members that the current practice, upheld by successive Speakers, is that he has no authority over the content of answers, quoting Speaker Milliken several times. He reminded them that it is up to MPs to give him those powers, but did caution MPs to be more judicious in their language. When things got started officially, Thomas Mulcair asked about the end date of the engagement in Iraq. With Harper off in New York, James Bezan stood up to tell him that the clock started on September 5th, and chided the NDP for offering no suggestions for stopping ISIS. Mulcair made a dig about Bezan not being a member of government before asking how many soldiers were on the ground at present. Bezan deferred, but when Mulcair pressed, Bezan said that the commitment was for 69 personnel who would provide assistance to Kurdish forces. Mulcair demanded a vote on deployment, and Bezan noted all of the other deployments that they didn’t demand a vote for. For his final question, Mulcair demanded a full public inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Kellie Leitch said that families of victims were thankful to the government for coming forward with their Action Plan™. For his question, Justin Trudeau cited a report saying that this generation of Canadians would be worse off than their parents, and wondered what the government was doing to change that. Joe Oliver responded by touting assistance for low-income Canadians. Citing the inter-generational wealth gap, Trudeau wondered if the government would vote for their EI credit proposal, but Joe Oliver responded by reading his previous statement in French. Trudeau pressed on their plans for the vote, but Oliver said that the last thing the Liberals were qualified to talk about was EI.