In the aftershocks of yesterday’s revelations in the ClusterDuff affair, everyone is still sorting through the pieces, trying to make sense of it all. Kady O’Malley digs into that ITO and finds three particular dangling threads in the documents that are begging for answers (and you really should read this). Aaron Wherry looks into those documents and finds the voice of sanity, Chris Montgomery – one of Marjory LeBreton’s staffers (apparently paid for out of the PCO budget, which seems to be the source of confusion for people who have said that he’s from PCO) who objected to the process and the interference of the PMO in the Senate’s operations. CBC has their own look at Montgomery in this video piece (with text from The Canadian Press). Senators on both sides of the aisle are reeling from the revelations that PMO was trying to pull the strings of the Duffy audit, because they feel strongly about the chamber’s independence – as well they should. That PMO thought that they could get away with it speaks to the level of control that this government is trying to impose on parliament as a whole, and which parliamentarians themselves should be resisting – as clearly a few in the Senate were, much to the PMO’s frustration. The RCMP are questioning the credibility of Senators LeBreton, Tkachuk and Stewart-Olsen based on their interviews with them, and the quality of that testimony. The auditors from Deloitte are going to be hauled before the Internal Economy committee in order to answer pointed questions about the independence of that audit given the revelations that Senator Gerstein was trying to influence it, though Deloitte has come out to say that there was an ethical wall around those auditors to protect their information from any leaks. As part of that revelation, Charlie Angus is casting aspersions that some of Deloitte’s other work may be politically influenced, like the audit of Attawapiskat’s books (though I’ve heard from my own contacts at Aboriginal Affairs that there are definite governance problems in that reserve). The Law Society of BC is also considering an investigation into the conduct of Benjamin Perrin, the former PMO lawyer who is also implicated in this affair.
Harper himself was in Lac Mégantic yesterday to pledge up to $95 million to pay half of the decontamination costs for the clean-up at the site of the devastation. The province is to pay for the other half of the costs.
Health Canada committed a major privacy gaffe when it sent out 40,000 envelopes to users of the medical marijuana programme with “Medical Marijuana Access Programme” written on the envelopes, thus jeopardizing their safety by putting them at the risk of home invasion and having said medicinal marijuana diverted to the black market. Slow clap, Health Canada. Slow clap. That said, they say that they wouldn’t want their neighbours to know, but it’s pot – how could their neighbours not know?
With the anticipation that the Auditor General is going to come down hard on the shipbuilding procurement process – and budget envelope – next week comes news that a French company wants in on the programme, and has a ready-to-go design for combat ships that use fewer crew, and could save up to $7 billion over their operational lifetimes. Somehow I doubt that the government will go for it, as they have made much political hay of their decision to rebuild the shipbuilding industry in this country.
What’s that? The increased fees for pardons have shown that the number of applications has dropped? You don’t say! And thus carries on the rather boneheaded position of “once a criminal, always a criminal” rather than helping to make those who have served their time get on with their lives and become contributing members of society.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal on Quebec retaining the long gun registry data for that province.
Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth has put forward a motion that seeks to have a scientific definition of “human” that he insists is totally not a backdoor abortion wedge – as though that were believable. And of course there is a scientific definition of human – homo sapiens sapiens – but what Woodworth is looking for is in the realm of philosophy, which he is trying to wrap up in the guise of science. Valiant effort, however. He’s also used his private members’ business slot for this parliament, so it will come to nothing.
Maxime Bernier says the Canada-EU trade deal will help to combat corruption in Quebec by opening up the construction industry to more competition. It is certainly a novel argument but one that makes a lot of sense in the long run.
Senator Colin Kenny has stepped outside of the Liberal caucus while facing charges of sexual harassment, which he denies.
The Grid talks to Linda McQuaig and Chrysita Freeland and then compares their books in the run-up to the by-election. Aaron Wherry recaps other by-election developments in the four ridings. Paul Wells dissects the extraordinary letter that Harper sent to voters in Brandon-Souris, and the Conservatives’ massive radio ad campaign against Trudeau and the Liberals’ marijuana legalisation policy – a campaign that is especially targeting ethnocultural communities who come from countries that are not sympathetic to recreational pot use as we have become in Canada.
And starting Tuesday, the audio feed of the Senate’s proceedings will be publicly available for the first time. Hooray!