Roundup: Clarity for First Nations titles

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The Supreme Court has given a unanimous ruling granting a title claim to the Tsilhqot’in First Nation in BC, over a large area of land in the south central part of the province, ending a 25-year court battle over forestry claims and a 150-year dispute between that First Nation and the Crown. Because most of BC’s First Nations don’t have treaties yet with the government, this ruling impacts them in particular, and will make sure that the government has a greater role to play in fulfilling its consultative duties to First Nations as more resource and pipeline projects come up. The ruling also declares that provincial governments have regulatory authority over land obtained by First Nations people through court cases or land claim negotiations. While the ruling has been said to give clarity to negotiations, it also raises the possibility that some First Nations will abandon their negotiations with the government in favour of turning to the courts to establish title or land claims, which should be a red flag seeing as treaty negotiation is a Crown prerogative, and we should be careful about delegating it to the courts. Terry Glavin gives the backstory to the whole dispute dating back to 1864 here.

It’s the final weekend to campaign before the by-elections, so Justin Trudeau is back in Fort McMurray for the third time, pitching for the local Liberal candidate there, and taking aim at the government in the process, calling the changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme “anti-Alberta,” and accusing the government of taking Alberta voters for granted as a result. (The Conservative candidate’s response – that the Liberals have written off Alberta already so these visits Trudeau has made don’t really count). Jason Kenney of course took umbrage with Trudeau’s comments, calling the Liberal position on the TFW programme “shambolic” and bring up, once more, the “Liberal temporary foreign stripper programme,” which is getting to be a pretty tiresome line. I guess we’ll see Monday if Trudeau’s message had any traction in the riding, where the TFW programme is a very big issue, and where the need for the programme is extremely evident.

It’s not a real surprise, but it should be treated as confirmation. A November 2013 memo obtained by CBC shows that the Chief of Defence Staff, and the deputy minister of National Defence, wrote to warn the defence minister that the Canadian Forces’ operational readiness will be impacted by budget cutbacks, as training and exercises are being reduced, and so on. Part of the problem is that much of their budget allocations are being reserved for ships and planes that won’t exist for years, and makes it hard for Harper’s 2012 directive that front-line forces not be affected.

While Peter MacKay blames female staffers for those questionable Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day memos, Kellie Leitch is also trying to defend the government, saying that it’s great that the government’s senior appointments are one-third women. Err, sure, one third is progress, but it’s not parity yet, so it’s a little early to rest on your laurels. Oh, and MacKay’s wife lashed back in a war of open letters, and apparently it’s all the media’s fault, with our need to fill the 24-hour news cycle and our anti-Conservative bias and *yawn* I stopped caring.

The number of Mounties facing disciplinary hearings is at a 13-year high, as the Commissioner continues his crackdown on bad behaviour and misconduct in the Force – armed of course with new powers under changes to the Act. And while the number facing charges is currently high, apparently the overall rate of incidence is falling in proportion to the total size of the Force, if that matters for anything.

Day four of the Dean Del Mastro trial, and we hear that the businessman in the case who was dealing with Del Mastro had reservations about altering the invoices, after he grew suspicious of the way in which Del Mastro’s campaign was reporting the costs of his services. Cross-examination of the witnesses still hasn’t begun yet.

The past president of the Canadian Bar Association is set to give a speech to the association that will rip the government over their failure to live up to their Charter obligations. Not that the government hasn’t pretty much written off lawyers as some other special interest group.

Seeing as the new citizenship law changes are now in effect and has the ability to strip the citizenship of Canadian citizens who have been convicted of charges like terrorism, the NDP sought clarification to see if that would apply to Mohamed Fahmy, currently languishing in an Egyptian jail. PMO has assured them that Fahmy’s citizenship is safe.

Long-time public servant and former undersecretary general of the UN, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, has been named the new lieutenant governor of Ontario.

Helena Guergis is continuing her quixotic legal action against the government for the demise of her political career when she was kicked out of cabinet during the “busty hookers” affair. One of the people that Guergis is taking particular aim at is Shelley Glover for telling a television panel that “there is far more to come out” about Guergis.

NDP MP Joe Comartin, who is also currently the Deputy Speaker, has announced that he won’t seek re-election in 2015.

The Senate Ethics Officer isn’t pursuing investigations against either Senator Irving Gerstein for allegations he tried to interfere in the Duffy audit, or Senator Pana Merchant because of allegations of her husband’s offshore tax haven activities. Because both complaints were made under the old Senate ethics code, she can’t make anything about her investigations to date public.

If you’re around the Hill today at noon, there will be a Carillon concert to mark Canada’s sacrifices during the First World War, as part of marking the centenary of the conflict.

And for a tweet relating to his support for Nova Scotia’s Nature Trust, Scott Brison posed with his family, and it’s pretty adorable.