Word has been given – Parliament shall resume on October 16th. That means that about three-and-a-half weeks of sitting days will have been missed, as the week of the 14th was supposed to have been a constituency week owing to Thanksgiving. Also factor in that there is an APEC Summit in Indonesia the week before, so that also affected the timing of an October return. Mind you Harper could have simply prorogued and still returned on September 16th as planned, but what can you do? (Well, withdraw confidence in the government, if you really want to be technical about it).
At the close of the NDP caucus retreat in Saskatoon, we find Thomas Mulcair rehashing old campaign slogans like “Ottawa is broken” and “Liberal, Tory, same old story.” And in an apparent burn, he said the he only names Justin Trudeau when he’s done something, but he hasn’t so he shall remain nameless. But hey, they’re going to unveil their energy policy in the fall, so they’re bringing something to the table – right?
More red flags are being raised about the presence of the Conservative Party lawyer in those witness interviews in the Guelph Robocall investigation, as it seems that in some cases, he wasn’t acting as counsel for said witnesses, and in other instances, he took over the line of questioning or answered for them. Yikes.
In the wake of the Quebec “Charter of Values” being released, legal scholars say that it overreaches even if its goal is religious neutrality and secularism, and that there is a big difference between this kind of push and ensuring that faces are uncovered in order to receive government services. Emmett Macfarlane writes about how it violates the principles of freedom of religions, and how the province could get away with it by invoking the Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Chantal Hébert says that this is less likely to be debated in the National Assembly than during an election campaign, which sounds about right. Curiously, the Quebec public service union says it’s all for the Charter, and that it’s about time that it happens, because if public servants have to keep political opinions to themselves, it should extend to religious opinions. Um, okay?
The final release of National Household Survey data dropped yesterday, and told us things like the number of super-rich Canadians is dropping, that the median income level is rising, that we’re continuing to buy condos, while the home ownership rate remains steady around 70 percent. Of course, the real problem is that only one piece of data is compatible with the 2006 census data.
The RCMP are proposing to update their code of conduct for the first time in 25 years, looking in particular to deal with their issues of harassment, as well as use of force.
Joe Oliver says he’s getting an “enthusiastic” response in Washington about the proposal that Canada and the US work together on emissions targets.
The database of Diamond Jubilee Medal winners is now up, and we see that several top Harper advisors – including his wife – are all recipients of the award. Now, one can’t dispute that these people do contribute to public life, but when you also find that no senior Liberal or NDP staff also received medals, well, it all starts to look a little distasteful.
Part two of Amy Minsky’s look at Officers of Parliament profiles the Information Commissioner, Suzanne Legault, who is seeing an increasing number of complaints as the RCMP has stopped responding to Access to Information requests, and other departments taking up to 1100 days to respond to requests. Legault says the legislation needs updating, and that her office needs more teeth to ensure compliance.
Kady O’Malley wonders whatever became of that promised review of the MP Ethics framework, which has yet to show up on the Procedure and House Affairs committee’s agenda more than a year later.
Former Senator Lowell Murray writes about centralised control in the PMO and PCO, and how the advent of centralised messaging has made that control worse – though it’s unlikely the NDP or Liberals would be much better. He also offers some suggestions for reforms to better empower MPs to push back against that centralisation. Aaron Wherry checks the opposition propositions on these topics to date.
Economist Andrew Leach double-checks the maths on the Energy East savings, and finds problems with the assumptions made in the Deloitte report.
And Philippe Lagassé reminds us of why opposition MPs shouldn’t be voting for military deployments, as it blunts their ability to hold the government who engages in said deployments to account as the opposition has legitimised the government’s decision.