Amendments are proceeding to the Fair Elections Act, and yes, the government is agreeing to a number of them. Others, like those proposed by Brent Rathgeber and Elizabeth May, well, not so much. Kady O’Malley uses the bill as a prime example of how the government’s obstinate and obstructionist communications strategy has not only backfired, but blown up in their faces as they were forced to make a public climbdown as the amendment process is underway.
The furore over the Temporary Foreign Workers programme continues, and Jason Kenney has hinted that the next set of changes to the programme would include audit powers for Service Canada to ensure that the programme isn’t being abused. The opposition parties have been calling for the Auditor General to investigate, but that actually doesn’t make sense since it’s not an issue about value-for-money. Oh, but the opposition wants the AG to do their work for him so that they can hide behind his criticisms as being non-partisan and above the fray. Gosh, that’s clever. Slow clap, everyone.
Taking the Supreme Court’s decision perhaps a little far, Stephen Harper says that it’s up to the provinces to propose amendments to the Supreme Court, or a motion to abolish it. Because that’s how things work in a federation? Sigh. In the meantime, Senate Liberal Pierre Ringuette is pushing ahead with her own particular half-baked reform proposal, which doesn’t actually do anything to address any meaningful problems. Aaron Wherry rounds up more of the fallout suggestions, but for the love of all of the gods on Olympus, could we please stop carrying on as though not making appointments is feasible or legal – it’s a constitutional obligation!
Elections Canada spent some $47,000 having former Supreme Court Justice Louise Charon look over the results of their misleading robocalls investigation, and having her stamp of approval for how thorough their job was.
The Privacy Commissioner says that Bell Canada refuses to say how many times it has handed over customer information to government agencies without a warrant. Why bother with passing lawful access legislation when apparently they’re doing it already when the government asks politely?
As the Canadian Forces continues to look at meeting their budget challenges, they will also look at whether they really need to keep their personnel numbers where they are currently (though the government said they don’t want a reduction in those levels), relying more on allies for capabilities, and how to deal with aging equipment. Meanwhile, we’re sending six CF-18s and associated personnel to Romania at the behest of NATO in the wake of this Ukraine crisis carrying on.
An ad in a Polish-language paper seemed to indicate that Eve Adams is already the MP in Oakville North–Burlington, though it apparently seems to have been a translation error and a confusion of verb tenses. Oops.
A Canadian charity that does work with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza has been placed on the list of terrorist groups because they are alleged to have financed Hamas. Their headquarters has also been raided by the RCMP and materials were seized.
Paul Wells talks to the president of Estonia.
Economist Mike Moffatt offers up eight charts to explain why the Canadian middle class is now richer than the Americans.
My column this week looks at the unintended consequences of making Parliament more “family friendly,” which is why we need to beware the suggestions to carry on that route.
And activists worry about killer robots.
Coming soon: Thomas Mulcair’s appearance before a Commons committee to talk about satellite offices and mailouts.