The big news yesterday was that the “Heartbleed Bug” had forced the shutdown of much of the Canada Revenue Agency’s website as a precaution, given that personal information that Canadians uploaded as they filed their taxes could be accessed and later decoded through the recently discovered backdoor flaws in the encryption software that some two-thirds of the Internet uses. Of course, the NDP tried to make a partisan issue out of this, and tried to say that it was because the Conservatives didn’t spend enough on cybersecurity – even though the issue has nothing to do with cybersecurity, or hacking, or malware, or anything like that. The minister, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, did later announce that the filing deadline would be extended by the number of days the site is down as they patch the bug, so that might give Canadians a few extra days to get their taxes in order. It also demonstrates how vulnerable we all are to these kinds of flaws in the basic Internet architecture that we rely on. Not affected were Canadian banks, and political party donation portals, for the record.
In Fair Elections Act news, the Liberals are spending their opposition day on a doomed motion to amend the Standing Orders to ensure that no future changes to either the Elections Act or Parliament of Canada Act are subject to time allocation or closure motions. Down the hall in the Senate, Conservative Senator Thomas McInnes also claims to have witnessed voter fraud, but backed away from the assertion that it was thousands of cases, saying that he was just extrapolating from those out-of-context vouching irregularities numbers that Pierre Poilievre likes to quote so much. Also, Senator Linda Frum seems to think that Elections Canada encouraging voter turnout is a conflict of interest, because that’s employing critical thinking skills. Justin Trudeau vows to repeal the bill if he becomes Prime Minister. Pierre Poilievre’s statement regarding some of Elections Canada’s powers gets a fact-check and is found to be wanting. Andrew Coyne worries a crisis is brewing because the Conservatives are eager for vengeance against the agency after being caught out one too many times.
Leona Aglukkaq said that the new ID requirements in the Fair Elections Act won’t be a problem for all of those remote communities in Nunavut, and then proceeded to give two fabrications to back up her reasoning. It’s almost like she didn’t think that the media would fact-check her story. She later corrected herself and said that those cameras for IDs were purchased when she was a minister in 2004, but her assurances still ring pretty hollow.
Niki Ashton asking about this in QP yesterday ended up degenerating into bizarre, childish accusations across the aisles as NDP MP Dan Harris said that he saw Ed Fast make a “gun-like” gesture at Ashton after Aglukkaq gave her answer. Fast denied it, there’s inconclusive video, and then another MP apparently tried to have a confrontation with Harris… Because it’s really all degenerated into childish antics and whinging to the Speaker like he’s Mommy and your brother looked at you funny.
Sources are saying that the Clerk of the Commons did not give the NDP the go-ahead for their “branch offices,” as they had previously said she had.
The government’s new digital privacy bill includes new powers for the Privacy Commissioner, which is a pretty good thing.
It looks like the private information of residential school survivors may not have been breached after all as the person claiming to have done so recanted. Apparently he’s disgruntled with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner and is trying to get him fired.
The Canadian Forces are looking at incentives to keep the level of physical fitness in the ranks up, and no, we’re not talking about military exercises this time.
The Conservative Party’s national council has admonished Eve Adams for her behaviour in her current nomination drama – but they won’t bar her from running there either.
A number of federal Conservatives are looking to Jim Prentice to run for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives. Well, except for Rob Anders, who considers Prentice to be too much of a Red Tory for his liking. It sounds like the only federal Conservative who might be interested in the job is James Rajotte, who promises an answer soon.
Senator Romeo Dallaire wants a Vimy memorial constructed in Jacques Cartier Park, directly across the river from Parliament Hill, as a reminder to parliamentarians before they decide to deploy troops in the future. Dallaire also says that there is added symbolism of having it on the Quebec side of the river, given Quebec’s traditional opposition to troop deployments, as it would force Canadians to reconcile our history.
Economist Mike Moffatt looks at the changing auto sector, and given how auto plants are now “too big to fail” and too risky to keep existing unsustainably, the government needs to start looking at creative exit strategies rather than to keep pumping more dollars into the corporate welfare to keep them running for another generation.
And Maclean’s tries to find out why the government continues to stockpile Tamiflu, despite the mounting evidence that it’s really ineffective against the flu virus, and doesn’t really get an answer.
Up today: The second attempt at the First Nations Education Act is going to be tabled.