Roundup: A claim without evidence

John Baird and Leona Aglukkaq made the announcement yesterday that said that we made our submission to the UN regarding our Arctic sea floor claims. Apparently we have claimed the North Pole – but we don’t yet have evidence to support that claim. Um, okay. And yet this is the same party who is standing up in the House to ridicule Justin Trudeau for saying that he was going to listen to the advice of scientists before he determines if we do indeed have a claim on the North Pole or not. Because politics.

It was an opposition day in the House yesterday, and the NDP wanted to move a motion on immediately raising the CPP levels to head off a retirement crisis because Canadians aren’t saving enough. The government has said that this might be a good idea, but not just yet since the economy is still too fragile to absorb the payroll tax increases. And when MP Michelle Rempel challenged the NDP to provide more data – amounts, actuarial assumptions, premiums – they couldn’t answer. Andrew Coyne cautions that there are risks to simply increasing the current donations, not the least of which is that it becomes all the more tempting for politicians to raid.

Here’s some photos and video of the four PMs on the plane, and while they seem to be having a good time – at least while Harper’s official photographer is watching – one has to wonder if it really isn’t a terribly awkward dinner party once the camera has left. Equally so with Adrienne Clarkson and Michaëlle Jean, given Clarkson’s tendency to snipe about Jean at every opportunity. It’s been noted that we don’t really have a “former Prime Ministers” club in Canada to act as advisory elders to the politicians of today, but one supposes that since the current PMs tend to spend their careers disavowing their predecessors, it’s not unsurprising.  Meanwhile, on the tarmac in Johannesburg, PMO advance staff tried to handle the South African media in order to ensure favourable positioning for Canadian media (or perhaps just the PMO photographer), which ended up blowing up in their faces. Bravo.

Aaron Wherry recaps the Reform Act reactions from the past few days. My column this week looks at how its reforms need to extend to the grassroots level rather than stopping at caucus.

Here’s a little more about that closed-door meeting that Conservative senators will be having on Friday to talk about how to reassert some more independence from the will the PMO is trying to exert on them, so that they can try and control their own agenda.

The NDP want to put the Benjamin Perrin emails before the Commons ethics committee under the guise of a study on Access to Information and email retention. Because nobody can see through that political reasoning.

Regulations are being proposed to force air travellers to Canada from nearly every country in the world to obtain an “electronic travel authorisation” before arriving. This is part of the Beyond the Border changes that we are trying to implement with the US for new entry and exit controls, in order to harmonise our security measures. And yes, you can bet that the Privacy Commissioner has some serious concerns about this plan.

A Correctional Services briefing note obtained by Access to Information says that there is only a “minimal impact” between the increase in rates of double bunking and of violence. Never mind that double bunking is bad correctional practice and that we’ve signed international treaties against it, and that it creates more problems than it solves, but hey – if there is “minimal impact” on violence then everything is cool. Right?

Two Aboriginal women were denied boarding on a flight to Ottawa from a remote community because they don’t have appropriate documentation, and Air Canada can’t break the law to grant them passage unless there are arrangements made well in advance and not last-minute at the gate. But Niki Ashton calls this “systemic discrimination.”

A former battlefield doctor from Afghanistan talks to Maclean’s about depression and PTSD.

Our Religious Freedom ambassador is deeply troubled by Chinas’ treatment of minorities and he won’t stay silent despite trade concerns! Duly noted.

New Edward Snowden leaks show that CSE has established outposts around the globe and will spy on trade allies for the NSA upon request. It also appears that we are trading on our reputation that we’re a rather benign power, and that this kind of build-up would require high-level ministerial approval, possibly even from the PM himself.

Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott has put a pair of anti-abortion motions onto the Order Paper about striking special Commons committees to study the issue of protecting children before birth. We’ll see if these ever see the light of day, especially as he has a bill about “equal parenting” when it comes to divorce orders already on the Order Paper as well. It also doesn’t need to be said that Harper will kill this with fire, right? Or will we need to endure yet more hectoring by Niki Ashton about how awful it is that Harper isn’t controlling his caucus’ private members’ business?

Jim Flaherty and his wife have official left the Whitby, ON, law firm that they were partners in, despite the fact that neither had practiced with it for years.

Energy economist Andrew Leach looks at the plan to build a new refinery in Alberta, whose costs are now escalating, and asks some very pointed questions about what it all means.

And Laura Stone has lunch with Liberal House leader Dominic LeBlanc, who used to babysit Justin Trudeau back in his youth. While much of it ends up being talking about Trudeau, it does look at how LeBlanc got into politics, and it had less to do with his late father, the MP, Senator and eventual Governor General.