There were reverberations around the world as an Egyptian court sentenced three journalists to lengthy prison sentences, including Canadian Mohamed Fahmy for his work with Al Jazeera. While other world governments had their leaders or foreign ministers express condemnations or set up calls to the new Egyptian president, Canada’s response was kind of tepid, with Minster of State for consular affairs, Lynne Yelich, putting out a press release to express “disappointment.” Apparently we didn’t want to be too harsh so as to offend them. Fahmy’s brother tweeted out that he holds the government responsible for his brother rotting in jail because Harper couldn’t be bothered to make a public statement. It does make one wonder about why Harper couldn’t be bothered, considering the number of condemnation press releases that we already get in our inboxes. Is it because Harper has his own difficult relationship with the media? Who can say?
Day one of the Dean Del Mastro trial, and while it sounds like it’s not nearly as exciting as the Sona trial, we are hearing tales about backdated cheques and Del Mastro allegedly illegally contributing to his own campaign. We’ll see tomorrow about the admissibility of some of the evidence, and I wait with baited breath to see if Del Mastro himself will take the stand and inevitably turn on the waterworks, as he’s been doing for the Commons and the media of late.
Access to Information documents show that complaints around the Temporary Foreign Workers programme date back to 2006, and that Conservative MPs were on both sides of the issue, complaining both that the programme was being abused, while others demanded yet more permits because of the overheated economy in Alberta leaving the job market to run dry. But hey, Kenney’s one-size-fits-all solution unveiled on Friday will do the trick – right?
Because things keep looking up for the Sea King replacements, we find out that the Sikorsky Cyclone helicopters are missing some key safety features, like the ability for the gearbox to run for more than thirty-minutes without oil. Why is this important? Because if said choppers are over the water for an extended period, they need that ability to run dry rather than crash into the sea, like a civilian Sikorsky chopper did from an offshore drilling platform off the coast of Newfoundland, where it ran dry and crashed, killing 17. So it’s kind of a big deal. But the government’s response? That these ruggedized military versions of the choppers have safeguards so that they’re less likely to run dry in the firs place. Err, not exactly an answer or reassurance for the fact that it’s a safety feature and not a “nice-to-have.” But apparently getting these choppers in the air sooner than later was the bigger priority.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the government’s attempt to get an emergency stay order against the lower court ruling that would allow ex-pats who had been out of the country more than five years to vote in the upcoming by-elections. Elections Canada has already taken measures to accommodate any ex-pats from those ridings for the forthcoming by-election.
The rust patches on one of our few remaining destroyers, HMCS Iroquois, are bad enough that it’s being tied up as it may not be safe to be seaworthy, and the debate now moves as to whether it’s worth it to repair her or retire her. Our navy really is feeling its age.
In reviewing the country’s nuclear safety regimes, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is proposing giving people who live near reactors a stockpile of radiation-fighting pills in the event of a mishap.
The Information Commissioner is taking the Toronto Port Authority to court for not revealing requested information about expenses for when Lisa Raitt chaired the Crown Corporation prior to her election.
The cost of the Auditor General’s Senate audit has more than doubled, and senators are now debating whether or not to freeze committee budgets in order to pay for it.
Aaron Wherry looks at the private members’ bills that have passed thus far in the current parliament.
Economist Kevin Milligan examines David Dodge’s call for more infrastructure spending while there is fiscal room in this age of historically low interest rates, and how that would work out.
And the Liberals think it’s an outrage – outrage! – that the Conservatives have sent out attack mailings that mischaracterize the party’s marijuana policy. So to counter this outrage, they encourage you to donate and put your name on the mailing list so that they can continue to mine your data for their purposes. (But don’t forget – outrage!)