Tag Archives: Veterans

Roundup: Things that sound the same but aren’t

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Stephen Harper spent his Remembrance Day in Hong Kong, where 283 Canadian Soldiers are buried. He once again dodged questions about the Last Post Fund to assist poor veterans with their own burials. In a not unrelated story, the Veterans Affairs minister defended his decision to call off an investigation by the Veterans Ombudsman into the privacy breaches in the department, saying that he the Privacy Commissioner was looking into it – never mind that the focus of her investigation is different. Much like how they shut down the office of the Inspector General of CSIS by claiming it was duplicating the work of SIRC (which it wasn’t), the government once again takes two things that sound similar but really aren’t, and cutting one while claiming duplication, where the end result is more secrecy and less oversight.

In Harper’s previous stop in the Philippines, he downplayed the leadership change in China as a likely exercise in continuity, and in looking to boost trade with the Philippines, that country’s president declared themselves to be “open for business under new management,” referring of course to the quest to clean up corruption in that country.

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Roundup: Veteran protests and shuttered investigations

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As we head into the Remembrance Day weekend, here’s the tale of a veteran protesting the government’s inaction on the file, and the tale of how the minister quietly shut down the Veterans’ Ombudsman’s investigation into those privacy breaches. Because you know, they had a Ten-Point Action Plan™ and are taking this problem seriously, etcetera.

The Supplementary Estimates B were tabled, which features demands for more funds for the RCMP, First Nations, and oh, look – more government advertising, this time for their branded Responsible Resource Development™.

With Stephen Harper’s tour now in the Philippines to talk trade and security, here’s a look at the unanswered questions from India, such as why the pace of trade negotiations are so slow, and what was up with those warnings about Sikh extremism? Harper will be in Hong Kong tomorrow to mark Remembrance Day there.

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QP: A near-outbreak of spontaneous debate

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It was a strange kind of place in the Commons this morning – the Chamber was on a Friday schedule so that MPs could head back to their ridings early for Remembrance Day activities, and it was a mostly Friday-vibe in the House, with most front-benchers gone – either mentally or physically – and time distorted into what felt like the longest 45 minutes in history. Despite there being other NDP deputy leaders present, it was Nycole Turmel who was chosen to haltingly read off the lead questions about proposals to privatise certain social services in order to run them like Goldman Sachs – or something like that. (In reality, Diane Finley wants charities and private enterprise to explore “social finance instruments,” not that you could tell from the question Turmel asked.) Kellie Leitch responded with an equally coherent accusation that the NDP want to raise taxes and won’t support the Economic Action Plan™ to create jobs. So really, an edifying start to the day. For her last question, Turmel switched to English and lamented the Service Canada wait times, to which James Moore – apparently the part-time back-up PM du jour – responded that just because they were doing things differently it didn’t mean it was worse, or something that effect. Megan Leslie was up next and denounced this call for ideas as a PR stunt to cover cuts. Leitch responded that they were trying to let local communities tackle local problems. Leslie then switched to ski trails being on the receive end of cuts, but Peter Kent assured her that they were protecting natural spaces, and that they were working with volunteer groups. Bob Rae was then up for the Liberals, demanding to know what caused the government to settle with Ashley Smith’s family in their lawsuit, and what other videos or evidence they had in possession, not only with this case, but with other prison deaths concerning the mentally ill. James Moore repeatedly stood up – despite Toews being in the Chamber – and said that all kinds of information was being provided to the inquiry, but Toews remained in his seat, no matter Rae’s efforts.

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QP: Our certain economic doom!

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Thomas Mulcair started off today’s QP by reading a question about how Harper, while over in India, spoke about how the fragility of the economic recovery, to which Mulcair wondered why Harper could only tell the truth about our economy while abroad. John Baird, yet again the back-up PM du jour rather than passing the baton to someone else along the front bench, first gave a shout out to Barack Obama’s win, and then extolled Harper’s economic leadership. Mulcair, however, decided that our economy was in crisis, and we were all headed for doom. Doom! Baird sighed and chastised Mulcair for “talking down the economy.” Rosane Doré Lefebvre was up next, demanding an apology from Vic Toews for his Ashley Smith comments yesterday, but Toews was very obviously sticking to his script, and spoke about how they were cooperating with the coroner’s inquest. Bob Rae, however, was unimpressed, and pressed on, wondering about other videos that hadn’t yet been released publicly, and whether those materials would be turned over, which eventually led to a call for a public inquiry. Baird and Toews both answered, each going back to the “cooperating” talking point, though Toews did consider the coroner’s inquiry to already be a public inquiry. Problem solved, apparently.

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QP: Toews attacks, Penashue lost

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On the anniversary of the very first sitting of the Canadian parliament in 1867, it was a somewhat heated day in the Commons today during QP, and Vic Toews gave another gob-smacking performance. When the PM’s away, the ministers will balls everything up – or something like that. Thomas Mulcair started off by reading out a question on our impending nuclear agreement with India would include independent verification that the materials were used only for peaceful purposes. John Baird, once again acting as back-up PM du jour, assured him that the government takes nuclear non-proliferation seriously. Mulcair then asked why China was getting better briefings on agreements than Canadians were, to which Baird talked about how the FIPA was signed on the margins of another trade conference, and for his final question, Mulcair recounted his doomsday scenario of China buying up Alberta’s natural resources with nobody to stop them. Baird suggested that Mulcair was wearing his tinfoil hat, and touted the safe environment for Canadian investment that the FIPA would create. Peggy Nash was up next, trying to wrap the PBO’s latest report on spending cuts with the issue of Harper’s armoured limousines in India, but Baird deflected it with a defence of the RCMP’s recommendations. Bob Rae was up next, asking a pair of questions on whether Harper would meet with provincial premiers, given how he likes to travel abroad to meet other world leaders. Baird responded that he regularly meets with premiers of all stripes, and hey, look at all the good work they did together with the Economic Action Plan™! For his final question, Rae quoted the trade minister about the “opaque investment climate” in India, and wondered what we told them about the opaque climate in Canada, given that there is no clarity on what constitutes “net benefit.” Baird instead used the opportunity to recite a bunch of trite talking points about the jobs and the economy, and the fictional NDP “carbon tax.”

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Roundup: BYO-Armoured Car

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As the Prime Minister’s trip to India rolls along, we learn that after eight years of negotiation, a foreign investment protection agreement still hasn’t been signed, we’re still haggling out a deal to ship uranium two years later, and Harper brought over his own armoured cars, though that sounds to be more of an RCMP decision rather than his usual case of presidential envy.

A medical journal is warning of increased mental and physical illness as a result of the omnibus crime legislation, as people will be locked up for longer in overcrowded and stressful situations, and will be more exposed to things like Hepatitis C and HIV. The government, of course, doesn’t think the link between violence and overcrowding.

Further to the issue of veterans’ funerals, it seems that the rate has remained unchanged for 11 years. The Liberals are calling for an independent review of the Last Post Fund and its requirements.

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QP: Democracy costs money! Oh noes!

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With Harper off in India, and a number of other MPs back in their riding for Veterans’ Week activities, the Commons was a pretty sparse place, albeit not quite Friday sparse. Undeterred, Thomas Mulcair read off his first question about the extension of the deadline for the Nexen decision, to which John Baird, in his capacity as back-up PM du jour, mentioned that there were consultations going on as part of the complex decision making. Mulcair was up next, and asked quite simply who Baird would be consulting – but the cadence of the question was off, like he was still reading it off of a script he hadn’t previously read (though it was one of the rare moments when he spoke off-the-cuff in QP while not red-faced in anger). Baird, however, returned to his usual talking points about the “net benefit” test, and so on. Peggy Nash was up next and asked a pair of questions, in English and in French, about how in this time of fiscal austerity, Harper could have deigned to fly his own armoured limousines over to India. Toews responded that this was a judgement call by the RCMP, and he respected their decision. Bob Rae was then up for the Liberals, and in a rather impassioned display, wondered just what exactly changed on Friday that the government, which had been sitting on those Ashley Smith videos for five years, decided they now wanted to allow the investigation to proceed. Three times he tried to get the government to say something, to admit that they had been publicly embarrassed by those videos and had no choice but to let the investigation proceed unimpeded – but Baird simply resorted to the talking points about how they needed to do a better job of keeping people with mental illness out of prisons.

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Roundup: Not helping poor veterans

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It seems that two thirds of poor veterans who apply to the Last Post fund for their funeral costs are turned down, and those who are accepted are not given enough to cover the cost of a Last Post funeral, which has certain criteria. Those criteria mean that the funerals can cost up to $12,000, when the fund only provides $3600, and funeral directors have been swallowing those additional costs. Meanwhile, it looks like this one veteran’s disability claim appeal is being blocked because his brother fought the system and embarrassed it publicly.

The former deputy minister of Industry Canada, who worked extensively with the Investment Act, sees no reason why the CNOOC-Nexen deal should be turned down. Except, of course, for politics.

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QP: The committee has spoken

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The Conservatives had a bit of Halloween-themes fun as QP was about to start by getting Corneliu Chisu, an MP who hails from the Transylvanian region of Romania, to affect his best affected accent before warning of the “scary” NDP fictional carbon tax – a tacit admission that this whole carbon tax nonsense is really one big joke. When QP officially got underway, Thomas Mulcair read off a trio of questions around the Canada-China FIPA, promising to cancel it if he should one day form government. Harper’s response was that the investment community has been looking for this kind of long-term protection. Peggy Nash was up next, asking why the Parliamentary Budget Officer was not getting the information he requested, to which Flaherty assures her that the House already gets this kind if information on a regular basis. For his first pair of questions, Bob Rae wondered why the Canada-China FIPA had a 15-year notice period as opposed to the usual six months, to which Harper reiterates the point about long-term protection. For his final question, Rae asked why there was such secrecy around the FIPA and the Nexen deal, and asked, “What would Preston do?” But Harper would not rise to the bait of invoking Preston Manning, and spoke about the FIPA providing a legal framework for investment.

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QP: Ridicule and non-sequiturs

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Things were a bit more subdued in the House today as QP got underway, as Thomas Mulcair asked about a Conservative MP’s accusation that the Canadian Association of Retired Persons was a partisan organisation. Harper responded that his government was preserving pensions while still eliminating the deficit. Mulcair wondered if the Calgary Chamber of Commerce was next on the enemies list after their criticism of the foreign takeover review process, but Harper joked about how their ideological differences with the NDP were vast. For his final question, Mulcair asked when they would get clarification on the takeover rules, to which Harper said the decision was still with the minister. Jack Harris was up next, curious about that letter Harper sent Peter MacKay about the cuts to his department, but MacKay would only respond that under their watch, spending for defence had gone up every year. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, asking about reciprocity agreements with foreign takeovers, but Harper responded with ridicule and the canard that there was no growth in trade with China under the Liberals, unlike his government. (Goodale later tweeted that under the Liberals two-way trade increased 669 percent, whereas it was only 77 percent under Harper). For his final question, Goodale asked about how they could enforce conditions with those takeovers, but Harper didn’t even bother trying to answer the question, and instead read a selective quote from this morning’s Supreme Court decision on Etobicoke Centre – a complete non-sequitur if there ever was one.

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