Roundup: Paradis’ abortion firestorm

Christian Paradis ignited a firestorm yesterday when he declared that our big push on preventing child brides would not include funds toward providing for safe abortions for victims – nor for victims of war rapes. Not that Paradis could even say it outright, but rather couched it in the terms that they would follow the pattern set out by the Muskoka Initiative on maternal and child health, where the government line was that they wouldn’t provide for abortion funding because other groups were doing it, and they would focus on things like “nutritious babies” (to employ a Bev Oda-ism). Of course, opposition parties are now up in arms, and guess who is applauding the move? Campaign Life Coalition, of course, who feels that “pro-abortion groups” are hijacking those kinds of horrible situations. No, seriously. Slow clap, everyone.

Parliamentary Secretary David Anderson is the latest to have been found to have written a letter to the CRTC, even though it’s somewhat murky if he’s allowed to do so in his position. And while the likes of Charlie Angus bays for blood, Kady O’Malley remains unconvinced, considering that Anderson wasn’t advocating on any interest, but merely offering an opinion about the need for informed media. (O’Malley also reminds us of the last time a letter to the CRTC was an issue for comparison’s sake).

With a Manitoba judge setting aside a mandatory minimum sentence, and a former director general of the government’s corrections and criminal justice directorate slamming the failure of the “tough on crime” policies of the Harper government, it’s not been a good week for said agenda.

CBC’s Chris Hall looks at the Harper government’s record of judicial appointments, not only at the Supreme Court, but other superior court levels, and finds that not only is there a decreased concern over diversity, but that there seems to be a preference for judges who are seen to be more “tough on crime” and who will be more likely to exercise restraint when it comes to striking down laws that Parliament has enacted.

The Chief Electoral Officer says that the inability for elections investigators to compel testimony means that reluctant witnesses are behind the stalled investigations into things like the deceptive robocalls that were a problem in the last election.

On a related note, after the media story from former Quebec construction boss Lino Zambito about the donations he made to Claude Carignan’s campaign (before he was appointed to the Senate), Glen McGregor went looking into Carignagn’s paperwork. It seems that in one instance, seventeen members of the same family made donations – curious, and possibly the sign of a prêt-nom scheme at work, but it may have been done in a fairly legal fashion, which is one of those particular quirks of the law.

A lawyer for several of the patients in the SALOME study is considering legal action after Rona Ambrose’s directive to ban the further prescription of heroin for clinical uses with those cases where other replacements are ineffective.

National Defence and Public Works officials have been informally meeting with rival helicopter makers to see if they can pick up on where the Sikorsky deal is sitting, and provide new choppers of their own with similar enough capabilities. Remember that the Sikorsky Cyclones were discovered to not be shielded against strong electromagnetic signals, like a ship’s radar, which is kind of a big deal.

Here is a look at the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and what that means with regards to the relationship between the Crown and the First Nations.

Back when the Harper government decided to appoint Dr. Arthur Porter to the post of the chair of the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, they consulted the opposition leaders. The NDP and Liberals didn’t have any objections because they didn’t know enough about him. But as we are now finding out, Gilles Duceppe did write a letter with his concerns, but the PMO seems to have ignored them – and look where we are now. What’s even more galling is that when the question of his appointment was rasied in the House, the standard Conservative response was that the opposition leaders vetted it, so the government wasn’t solely responsible (which is wrong – the Crown Prerogative of Appointment clearly states that the Prime Minister is accountable, even if he consults on the appointment, because it is ultimately his advice to the Crown that the appointment is based on).

The government is delaying the full implementation of regulations to phase out energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs for another two years in order to harmonise with US regulations.

Corrections Canada is looking to expand their use of stab-proof vests on guards, but there are fears that it will create a more “militarised” environment that is threat-based.

Maclean’s has an infographic that shows the declining number of peer-reviewed studies being published by government scientists while the government denies that they are muzzling scientists.

Chrystia Freeland is the subject of some online snark as journalists at her former job at Thompson Reuters are being let go after the project she was in charge of and failed to find a viable revenue model for is being abandoned. At the same time, her NDP rival, Linda McQuaig, is launching advertising that not so subtly reminds everyone that she’s from Toronto and hasn’t left.

As Ireland holds a referendum on abolishing their Senate, the Seanad, there are some valid concerns being raised – that the claims of savings are far over-inflated, that the claims of their uselessness are wrong given the hundreds of amendments to bills that they have proposed, that the Irish parliament will lose much of their expertise in matters like economics and medicine if they go, and that it is a power grab by the prime minister, who will have less opposition. And if anyone in Canada looks on in envy, remember that Ireland is also not a federation with dual linguistic and cultural concerns, and that these same concerns about the effects of abolition there will still apply here.

Susan Delacourt writes about the advent of “shame-based” politics in Canada, where parties – most especially the Liberals and NDP – are using their donor data to elicit more funds from their membership, such as reminding them that they haven’t yet contributed according to their records.

And an 89 year-old woman is being threatened with jail time over her refusal to fill out the census because she objects to the fact that Lockheed Martin developed some of the software behind it, and she refuses to pay any other kind of fine or sanction. Remember when the government killed the long-form census because of the threat of jail time that never happened? Funny, that.