Roundup: Peter MacKay’s “special bonds”

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Peter MacKay ignited yet another firestorm by making comments to the Ontario Bar Association that there isn’t enough diversity in federal and federally-appointed courts because not enough women are applying since they have a special bond with children. No, seriously. And when called out on it, MacKay insisted that his comments were “misconstrued,” and then went on say law schools need to do better – never mind that female enrolment is already outpacing males. And no, there was nothing in his explanation about visible minorities, just women. Naturally, this turned into a parade of accusations about the regressive social attitudes during Question Period, laced with all of aggravating qualifications from all sides, MacKay included, about being parents. MacKay also gave a litany of appointment figures, all of them out of context, like how there was only one woman out of the thirteen appointments made last week. There was some great fact-checking over Twitter which pointed out just how ridiculous or outright wrong MacKay’s justifications are.

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/479732973470638080

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/479739582615785472

The Fair Elections Act has now been signed into law, and the Council of Canadians plans to challenge it in Ontario Superior Court immediately under Section 3 of the Charter.

The legal challenge being launched by Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati regarding the transfer of Justice Mainville from the Federal Court to the Quebec Court of Appeal is unlikely to succeed, so say several legal scholars, given that his particular position would mean that two-thirds of the judges on the Quebec Court of Appeal would have been appointed illegally, which doesn’t make any sense. Galati may also not have standing as he is not a member of the Quebec bar.

While at an announcement in PEI, Stephen Harper responded to questions about provincial outmigration and the relationship to EI changes. Harper said that because the EI changes are only about finding work in their local areas, outmigration is not really related, but has more to do with the economic opportunities in the province for young people. The Premier said that the empirical evidence is still being gathered.

It looks like the move to restore old-style ranks and insignia in the Canadian Forces will wind up costing $4.5 million, the bulk of that for new dress uniform jackets. That said, it was a move that had broad support in the Forces, who generally preferred to have some differentiation between the branches and who had long been calling for this kind of reinstatement. It also should be noted that most of those uniforms would have to be replaced with wear-and-tear anyway, so the actual costs are further minimized in that way.

The RCMP announced that they made a series of arrests in child porn cases and rescued five children from sexual exploitation situations. They also granted unprecedented access to CBC for this investigation, and the cynical side of me wonders if this isn’t a pre-emptive PR campaign on their side to try and convince the public that they need lawful access legislation, even after the Supreme Court has said no.

Canada is being asked to take as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, which is going to be difficult for a government that can’t even confirm how many of the planned 200 government-sponsored refugees are already on Canadian soil, let alone privately sponsored.

The outgoing Russian Ambassador to Canada warns that joining ballistic missile defence with the Americans will be seen as a provocation against the Russians.

Not unsurprisingly, the Liberals and NDP are calling for an investigation into Conservative MP Mark Adler’s fundraising activities. The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Mary Dawson, won’t say if she’s investigating or not. There are also outside calls that she investigate Ted Menzies for his new gig at CropLife, since they would lobby Finance, where Menzies was the minister of state.

As he heads back to Toronto to resume his role at Onex, Nigel Wright is being fêted by Conservatives around town, including the Speaker.

Remember those confessions of Quebec political fixer Jean Yves Lortie? Well, a former Quebec civil servant has confirmed the tales of Lortie helping the PQ to win the provincial election in 1981. Now as for his role in Mulroney’s leadership win…

And Stephen Gordon gave us some food for thought about the state of economic thought amongst the certain segments of the commentariat:

Up today: The Commons finally rises, and I’m hearing rumours that the Senate will rise as well. Jason Kenney and Chris Alexander will also unveil the changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme – after QP, of course, so that nobody can ask questions of the government about it.