Documents suggest that the NDP may have mislead the House of Commons administration with respect to their “satellite offices,” saying that those staffers would be working in Ottawa when they weren’t. This will make for a lot more awkward and/or acrimonious questions when Thomas Mulcair appears before committee to answer questions about this particular setup.
Apparently elections investigators never bothered contacting a Winnipeg call centre company that did work for one of the Conservative campaigns were complaints were registered, nor did they check the records of calls with the Conservative party database.
The NDP don’t want to reopen the abortion debate – so they’ve moved a motion about it. Logic!
Dean Del Mastro is calling on the RMCP to investigate Elections Canada for leaks to the media, and thinks that the Chief Electoral Officer – whom his government appointed – is showing systematic bias towards them. Um, good luck with that. On a related note, given that the Public Works minister refuses to follow up on the Information Commissioner’s report of Access to Information interference by former ministerial staff with the department, the NDP say that the police should be called in – something the Commissioner can’t actually do herself. The matter had previously been referred to the RCMP by the previous minister, but nothing ever came of it. Meanwhile, it seems that Charlie Angus’ new tactic is going to be calling in the police over every matter, and then haranguing them when they don’t proceed with charges.
Jason Kenney is promising more reforms to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme within a few weeks. Kenney also insists that the Canada Job Bank website is not a mess, despite evidence to the contrary. Remember that the Job Bank and its questionable data plays a big role with the granting of Labour Market Opinions that grant Temporary Foreign Worker permits.
An obscure line in the omnibus budget bill would give the police the powers to see a person’s tax filings without a warrant. No, seriously. Because apparently that’s how the police can determine if one is living off the avails of crime so that they can get a warrant to search for other records. Or so they tell us.
The UN Special Raporteur’s report on Indigenous people in Canada is out, and the government actually gave a somewhat reasoned response to it, pointing out actions that they’ve taken – but they won’t bite when it comes to a Commission on missing and murdered Aboriginal women. The report points to notable efforts that the government has taken, but says that they have been insufficient.
Three people plus a railway company are facing criminal negligence charges after the disaster at Lac Mégantic. The train engineer has been arrested.
Bell Helicopter has been awarded the contract for new Coast Guard choppers, despite a lawsuit underway that the bid was rigged in their favour and the fact that they were given a weight exemption by Transport Canada. Yay procurement woes!
Stephen Harper’s former advisor, Bruce Carson, is facing new charges from the RCMP for lobbying when banned and influence peddling. Carson’s lawyer says that Carson was not lobbying.
The government has proposed a new law that would give stiffer penalties for harming or killing police dogs and horses.
Aaron Wherry talks with Irwin Cotler about the fight between the Parliament and the Chief Justice, and some important points are raised, such as Canada’s move from a purely parliamentary democracy to a constitutional democracy with the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Wherry also tries to make sense of the government’s responses to the controversy of their own making, in that they try to blame the Chief Justice for responding in the first place.
Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant called the Liberals Nazis over the electronic snooping debate. No, seriously.
Pundit’s Guide gives her look at the timing of the four by-elections that were just called, as well as the updates on the candidates who have been nominated.
In the first part of a series on Macleans.ca, Martha Hall Findlay lays out the case for dismantling our system of Supply Management.
And Andrew Coyne calls out the government’s plan to try and close the price gap with the US, and repeats some of the CD Howe Institute’s choice words for the scheme: “profoundly wrong-headed,” “wholly impractical,” “misguided” and “unenforceable” and probably illegal under international trade law, “destined for costly failure” and “should be abandoned forthwith.” What’s even more galling is that the Prime Minister is supposed to be an economist, and should know the reasons why the price gap can never really be closed, unless the government wants to throw the entire Bank of Canada into utter anarchy.