While Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence continues to insist that the GG and PM meet with all of the chiefs, here is a reminder of the role that the GG played at the last Crown-First Nations gathering – basically the introductory speech, and then left. In other words, not at the table for the working portion, nor should he ever be. Meanwhile, the PMO says that they’ll be following up with National Chief Shawn Atleo on a follow-up meeting in the coming weeks, and have no intention of calling another big meeting with the GG. Apparently this means that the protests will continue. And the fact that NDP MP Charlie Angus is buying into Spence’s constitutional relativism and encouraging the GG’s participation in order to “draw down the rhetoric” is not only disheartening, it’s constitutionally irresponsible. I guess the “democratic” in New Democratic Party means that Responsible Government can be tossed away on a whim, and that we are subject to the whims of an activist monarch. Because that’s what he’s encouraging.
The National Post talks to Diane Finley about the single mother in PEI whose EI benefits have been cut off because she doesn’t have a car. Finley says the woman should get back in touch with Service Canada – because her picketing outside of their office means she’s unreachable, or something.
Following embarrassing data losses, HRSDC is banning the use of portable data storage devices. They could also actually start enforcing their data policies, as they weren’t doing before the loss of that unencrypted portable hard drive.
It seems that the PMO paid the way of a number of top Canadian CEOs who accompanied the PM on his trip to China last February. Meanwhile, for the upcoming trip to Davos, Switzerland, it looks like it’ll be a fairly small delegation, with only Mark Carney being scheduled to speak.
The recently retired Assistant Deputy Minster of Defence Materiel speaks, and defends his handling of the F-35 file, while blaming feuding bureaucrats for delays in procurements.
Here’s a bit of a fact-check on our mission to Mali, and what the reality of the transport plane we’ve sent means. Meanwhile, it seems like we’ve been preparing for a possible engagement in that country since last spring.
With reports that there were Canadians among the Islamic militants in Algeria, a declassified CSIS report shows that there remain concerns about extremist elements within this country.
Today in ironic political news, the Hill Times features one article that bemoans the centralisation of the civil service and how it has been turned into a private-sector model that doesn’t really work, while at the same time running an article about how more centralised supervision from the PMO/PCO on the Aboriginal file is a good move.
The government’s war against the media continues, this time calling a PostMedia reporter an environmental activist because he asked questions about fuel economy standards. This follows on the recent labelling of PostMedia columnist Stephen Maher as “controversial” because he has been digging into the voter suppression stories.
Aaron Wherry takes note of scheduled sitting days in the Commons – it sat 129 days last year, and is scheduled for 133 this year. A far cry from the average of 153 sitting days per year in the eighties – and they had evening sittings three days per week then too.
And Patricia Treble compares the American Inauguration to the Diamond Jubilee – the closest available comparison between our two systems. And the winner? Mostly the Queen – as it should be.