Vic Toews held a press conference yesterday to say that hey, that big explosion in prisoner populations didn’t happen, so here, let’s reallocate $1.48 billion from corrections back to the Finance Department’s fiscal framework. Except that Toews is being awfully disingenuous here. The provisions from Bill C-10? Most of them haven’t even come into force yet, and some of them won’t until oh, November. Add to that the time it will take the cases that the court sees after such rulings come into force to make their way through the system (since these laws aren’t retroactive), and then, two or three years down the road, we’ll see the effect. So one has to wonder – is Toews trying to manufacture a crisis in the corrections system? We know there is overcrowding and double bunking happening already, we know that there is a rise in prison violence, and we know that there is a time bomb on the way when it comes to that explosion in prison populations. And the endgame? Well, I suspect it may have to do with more private sector involvement in the penal system, as we’ve already heard they’re looking into. Something to consider anyway.
After those Enbridge hearings in the States, Thomas Mulcair says that we should pull the plug on the Northern Gateway pipeline entirely. BC Premier Christy Clark is putting Enbridge “on notice” about pipeline safety.
Liberal MP Scott Brison says that student unemployment is at its worst rate since 1977, and needs government help at this point.
Another military procurement – this time for trucks – has gone off the rails. Try to look surprised, everyone!
A unique glacier research station is the latest victim of budget cuts.
There are sovereignty concerns being raised over a new cross-border policing arrangement that passed as part of the omnibus budget bill.
The Supreme Court is set to rule on five copyright cases that will deal with downloads and royalties, especially on platforms like iTunes.
Michael Ignatieff writes about the proxy war that has emerged in Syria, while Roland Paris writes about corruption and renewed aid commitments in Afghanistan.
And new books on the Afghan War from American and British sources are not painting a very rosy picture of Canada’s commitment, and while there is an element of scapegoatism, there is some resonance in that perhaps our troops were ill-equipped and under-manned to have taken on Kandahar by ourselves.