Roundup: Planning for a quick confirmation

The nominee for Privacy Commissioner, Daniel Therrien, will appear before the Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee, as well as the Senate in Committee of the Whole, on Tuesday, in the hopes that they will confirm him shortly thereafter. Why this matters is because the “cyberbullying” bill is under consideration and the privacy commissioner needs to weigh in on it as testimony. The outgoing interim commissioner, Chantal Bernier, had opted for a June 5th appearance as opposed to May 29th in order to have more time to prepare, and to see if a new nominee would be named by then or if her term would be extended. This means that she won’t appear to testify on that bill, though it also remains to be seen if Therrien would appear, days into the position and not fully briefed, or if another official from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner will testify instead. Nevertheless, it does raise problems, and is a reminder to the government why they shouldn’t back-load everything to the last couple of weeks before summer, because these kinds of pile-ups happen frequently and it just becomes a huge mess for everyone.

At the close of the Maternal and Child Health summit in Toronto, the head of the World Bank said that strong business impulses will be essential in driving the development agenda, and that the landscape has shifted since the Millennium Development Goals were first launched so it’s time to fund aid projects with a new vision. Stephen Harper talked about accountability for aid dollars, so that money gets spent where it’s supposed to – never mind that all the data his own government puts out on aid spending is nigh useless because it’s all fragmented and not actually able to be used to hold them to account. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that Canada needs to contribute more to aid, given that we are currently spending at a near record low of 0.3 percent of GDP, rather than the target of 0.7 percent that we promised years ago. And here’s a look at why the first thousand days of a newborn’s life are so important, which is why this Initiative makes a big impact.

CBC’s Rosemary Barton spoke with the wife of that veteran who was brushed off by Julian Fantino on Thursday, and she gave a harrowing tale of not knowing how to deal with a husband who has PTSD, and the need for support and training for spouses to be able to be primary caregivers – a real necessity on the front lines of preventing the suicides of soldiers and veterans. She also pointed to the uselessness of the Veterans Affairs website, which really should surprise no one who’s had to deal with a government website lately.

The Senate Liberals were going to hold a vote on their leadership, when they found that nobody wanted to run against Senator James Cowan (which really shouldn’t be seen as a problem considering that Cowan is a credit to the institution). The only change will be that Senator Downe will replace Senator Mitchell as caucus chair.

The Canadian government won a fight in the American courts against the Moroun family, which were seeking to get an injunction to halt construction of the proposed new Windsor-Detroit Bridge.

Jurors found a Toronto man guilty of trying to join a Somali terrorist group, the first time a Canadian has been tried and found guilty in a Canadian court of trying to leave the country to participate in terrorist activities.

Mark Kennedy talks to new US ambassador Bruce Heyman in advance of his first major speech in Canada.

Dean Del Mastro has a tearful lunch with Laura Stone, where he professed his newfound admiration for independent MPs, Elizabeth May, a handful of other MPs in other parties who have been nice to him, and then accused Elections Canada of having a personal vendetta against him and of leaking things to reporters (which those reporters have repeatedly maintained is not the case).

Barak Obama is slated to release his climate change plan on Monday, which will likely impact Canada, especially given that the Harper government’s favourite excuse is that they’re waiting for the Americans to come up with a plan so that we can harmonize with theirs. Looks like that excuse will soon be running out.

And Jason Kenney and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz are attending the Bilderberg meeting. Get out your tinfoil hats and conspiracy theories, everyone!