Roundup: Unhelpful comparisons with Crimea

While we wait to hear the latest developments with Russia’s troop movements in the Crimea, here’s an interesting piece about how the markets are punishing Russia even more swiftly than diplomats ever could, where they lost some $55 billion in the two days since they moved troops into Ukraine. Stephen Harper is threatening that Russia may also face expulsion from the G8. John Baird helpfully compared Putin’s actions to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. Andrew Coyne savages the “peace activists” defending Putin’s actions, and calls for NATO resources in the region to be bulked up.

The Speaker has ruled that Brad Butt’s “misspeaking” about seeing voter identification cards being used fraudulently is a prima facia breach of privilege, and will be debated in the Commons to decide whether it should go to committee. And it sounds like the government is going to try to move closure on that debate, which is unprecedented and ham-fisted in their management of this whole affair.

The Conservatives data-mined the live streaming of the prime minister’s web event with the Aga Khan. Not that the Liberals are saints either, data-mining on a site to congratulate Justin Trudeau on the birth of his new son. (And yes, the NDP did it with Jack Layton’s memorial and the donations to the Broadbent Institute by way of the party because of it).

Joe Oliver told mining executives that the government is complying with a G8 commitment to transparency in the industry, and has warned them to start disclosing foreign payments by April 1st of next year, or they’ll implement legislation to force them to do so.

First Nations survivors from the St. Anne’s residential school want government lawyers turfed from the case as they have lost faith in them after those lawyers were withholding documents.

The National Defence Employees union is not happy with the implementation of the programme that gives medically discharged veterans priority hiring in the public service, as the growing number of surplus public servants due to cutbacks is going to lead to clashes and resentment between the two groups.

The government has extended an amnesty to owners of those Swiss rifles that have been reclassified as prohibited, because it’s always great when the RCMP second-guesses the RCMP.

Ruh-roh! The government’s plan to privatise medical marijuana distribution has resulted in unforeseen growth that has “seriously compromised” its goals of providing the drug to patients while ensuring public safety.

The Conservatives are trying to argue that Statistics Canada exploring “alternate means of data collection” as part of cost-cutting won’t harm their mandate. Maybe, but their constantly changing data tables so that you can’t compare them over time surely will.

For their next opposition day, the Liberals plan to move a motion to have House of Commons administration post all MPs’ travel claim data in the same manner as ministerial proactive disclosure. No doubt the NDP will protest that they thought of this first.

Senate Security has been asked to probe leaks of the Auditor General’s probe into Senate expenses to the media. This is quite a change from the usual way things are done in the Upper Chamber, where, well, certain senators like to leak like sieves, if one were to employ a cliché.

Here’s a look at how the Competition Bureau has increasingly adopted more consumer-friendly stances over the past few years.

At the Manning Networking Conference on the weekend, former government whip Jay Hill gave a lengthy speech which included three particular challenges – to the Speaker to better control members’ statements; to the opposition, to act more like a government-in-waiting; and to the media, to stop behaving as though there is a presumptions of guilt. All are very worthwhile suggestions, but something that else that got attention were his comments about the Reform Act, some of which echo my own concerns – that caucus triggering a leadership review for a leader chosen by the membership seems undemocratic, which goes back to my concern that caucus should be the one to choose the leader, so that he or she can be accountable to the caucus who can then remove him or her. He also shared the concern over a nomination officer for the riding, but Chong himself has said he’s amenable to a provincial nominating officer, which would be a much more effective safeguard for hijacked riding nominations.

And Laura Stone had lunch with Tom Flanagan, who considers Stephen Harper to be a predator in the way he approaches his opponents, warns against an “inbred” PMO of too many like-minded staffers, and he also realises his weaknesses with communications, as witnessed by his academic musings that made him persona non grata in political circles last year.