Roundup: Nonsensical offers for backroom deals

Well, that was interesting. As the debate in the Senate over the suspension motions carried on, moving into the realms now of invoking time allocation and turning the motions from an independent one to government motions, something else completely weird and awkward happened. Senator Patrick Brazeau took to the floor and said that he had essentially been offered a backroom deal by the government leader in the Senate, Claude Carignan – that if he apologised to the Chamber and took full responsibility, then his punishment would be reduced. But none of it makes any sense, particularly when Carignan “clarified” that he was being too helpful and offered Brazeau options of how they could made amendments to the motion. But Brazeau doesn’t believe that he was in the wrong with his housing claims, and no amendments could have been moved because the Senate is still debating Senator Cowan’s amendment to send these three senators before a committee to have everything fully aired. Not to mention that Carignan said that suspension without pay still had to happen, so we’re not sure what could be negotiated other than perhaps the length of the suspension. And while the Conservatives in the House were demanding that the Liberal senators “step aside” and pass the suspension motions “for the good of the taxpayer,” the counter-narrative emerged that the Liberals were not going to be complicit in a cover-up – the notion that the only way all the facts will come out is before a committee where witnesses can be compelled to testify (and hopefully in a way that won’t interfere in the ongoing RCMP investigations).  These Conservatives didn’t seem to remember that several Conservative senators are also against the suspensions – or are at least in favour of some better element of due process – though Harper took to talk radio in Toronto to urge those dissenters to vote for the suspension motions because it wasn’t about the RCMP investigations but about internal discipline – err, except there are some pretty valid arguments that at least some of these senators have been the victim of unclear rules and processes, and there are no established internal procedures for discipline this harsh, and they are very wary of setting a precedent that could be used against any others that the government of the day doesn’t like in the future. Not to mention that it is increasingly transparent that the Conservative brass wants this settled before their convention. And as for Senator Wallin, well, she continued to speak out, waiving her right to privacy with Internal Economy transcripts from in camera sessions, and tabling her own documents to help prove her case. Nothing is resolved, and the Senate returns Monday afternoon (which is another rarity, as normally only committees will sit on a Monday instead of the full chamber).

Anne Kingston dissects Marjory LeBreton’s masterful performance at mean-girling the various accusations levelled against her by the embattled trio. Martin Patriquin draws an interesting parallel between Duffy and Vic Toews, and the way in which the Conservatives are reaping what their nasty brand of politics has sown. Aaron Wherry compares Mike Duffy’s version of events with those of Harper and other Senators in the spotlight, and some of the contradictions become apparent on both sides. The people at Global take particular note of the Stephen Harper’s changing talking points as the scandal wears on. Andrew Coyne notes that Harper has set himself as the standard, inconsistencies and all, and that he is ultimately responsible for the culture of expediency that has permeated the whole affair from the start.

While in Washington DC, Justin Trudeau delivered a message of steadfast support of the Keystone XL pipeline, even to a rather hostile audience to the notion because the American left does tend to treat it as a touchstone for the environmental movement.

The government plans to table the EU Trade agreement “in principle” on Tuesday – even though the actual text isn’t final, and won’t be available to members just yet. But hey, yet another ceremonial event that the Prime Minister can use to try to distract attention away from his war with the Senate in advance of the party convention.

Changes arising from the amendments to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act last year means that certain oil, gas and pipeline projects won’t automatically trigger a federally-led environmental assessment process, though this won’t affect provincial processes.

The chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is asking to extend the commission’s mandate, given that delays in accessing documents has held up the process and they want the most complete version of history accounted for in the final report.

The Prime Minister has named Michel Coulombe as the new director of CSIS, after Coulombe served as interim director for the past five months.

Paul Wells delivers a history lesson – and epic smackdown – about the Parti Québécois consternation of federal involvement in the legal challenge against Law 99 in Quebec. In essence, they’ve always been fighting it. Nothing to see here.

The Conservatives are denying that they have completely scrapped their new voter database after spending millions of dollars on it. In reaction to the news that it was dumped, they quickly assured a select portion of their donor base that no, it wasn’t being completely scrapped – it just wouldn’t be used in the ridings, which probably means that it will be the sole domain of the party headquarters.

And Tabatha Southey considers the drama in the Senate scandal boiling over this week, and gives some particular film comparisons that the players are starring in.