Roundup: Terror in Nairobi

A terror attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya killed two Canadians, including one of our diplomatic staff who was off-duty and shopping at the time. This is the first time in seven years one of our diplomats has been killed abroad. Word is the government will be closing the embassy in Nairobi for the time being because of security concerns, which is going to be a major problem in the region because that embassy is sitting on a lot of visa applications and refugee paperwork (that is already backed up by something like five years), and with few other resources in the area, backlogs could get considerably worse.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar says that Canada should ban Russian legislators who support the anti-gay laws there from entering Canada – which is pretty much all of them, but the amount of resources it would take to do that kind of background checking would be quite a lot. Thomas Mulcair shrugged off questions about the logistics of such a proposal when asked, which is indicative of just how seriously they’ve thought through such a proposal.

Stephen Harper said that federal money is going to help expand Toronto’s subway system (despite the whole subway/light rail controversy), but he won’t say how much they’re getting.

The shortlist of candidates for the next Supreme Court justice has been sitting on Harper’s desk for weeks, but his office says they’ll have the decision made before the Court begins its fall sitting on October 9th. Because of prorogation, the new appointee will face an ad hoc committee of MPs to be interviewed, so expect that in the next two weeks.

It sounds like Nexen has been urging CN Rail to start transporting bitumen to Prince Rupert, BC, by rail, in quantities that would match the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which isn’t surprising considering that the product will find its way to market one way or another.

Paul Wells previews the upcoming speech from the Throne, and looks at all of the unmet goals from previous Speeches.

Aaron Wherry looks at the changes in the PMO over the summer, and some of the key Harper loyalists in their new positions.

On the television machine yesterday, retired General Andrew Leslie went on the offensive against the Harper government for their treatment of veterans and the way in which they are completely botching budget reductions in the military.

Omar Khadr is due to be in an Edmonton court room today – his first public appearance in 11 years. His lawyers are arguing that he be given a youth sentence, given his age at the time of his alleged misdeeds, and the fact that there is no evidence to warrant his being kept in maximum security.

Pundit’s Guide takes a closer look at the dynamics in Brandon-Souris, where long-time Conservatives in the area are advocating their membership to hold their noses and vote Liberal after the alleged shenanigans with the Conservative nomination, while also looking at the Liberal nomination, where one of the candidates dropped out for family reasons, leaving it uncontested.

Justin Trudeau is off to Halifax to campaign with the provincial Liberals there.

James Bowden gives yet another well researched rebuke of the government’s position on the royal succession bill, but in the end concludes that since this government refuses to listen to reason, it’s a good thing that we have three generations to get it right.

Michael Ignatieff’s new book is about his personal lessons from life in politics, and while it sounds like there isn’t a lot of airing of backroom grievances, there is a frank discussion about the end of his friendship with Bob Rae, which is sad to hear about.

And Scott Feschuk takes the headline of Mexico being “really mad” at Canada, and runs with the theme of international diplomacy as Mean Girls. Priceless.