Roundup: Conservative senators see looming crisis

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Wouldn’t you know it, but Conservative senators are pressuring Stephen Harper to start making some new Senate appointments as the current number of vacancies is at eleven, and will be at 17 by the end of the year – almost a fifth of the Chamber. The lack of membership means committees are starting to be affected, and provinces are losing a good portion of their representation, which is a problem. And despite what Hugh Segal says, the Prime Minister actually does have a constitutional obligation to make appointments, and if he doesn’t, he risks triggering a constitutional crisis because he would be in breach of his duties. He certainly has options when it comes to how he makes appointments, especially because of the cloud he’s put himself under by making irresponsible choices in the past (because he was petulant and refused to make appointments until his hand was forced, it should be said), but they need to be made, sooner than later. I did hear from some sources that with the Supreme Court appointment issue out of the way, he could spend the summer making Senate appointments, but I guess we’ll see if that bears fruit. I recently wrote about this very looming crisis here.

The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled that Omar Khadr should be moved into a provincial jail, as he should have been sentenced as a youth given our own laws around international prisoner transfers. Both the federal government and provincial governments are planning to appeal this, because it’s not like they could make the situation any worse than it already is for a former child soldier. Oh, wait… And then there’s this:

During the hearings on the prostitution bill yesterday, consensus among supporters of the bill was that $20 million over five years was wholly insufficient funds to help women transition out of the industry. More alarming was the request from the Calgary chief of police that they be granted powers to forcibly remove people from the profession – basically forcible confinement “for their own good,” which strikes me as pretty horrifying and ripe for abuse. And if said chief of police thinks that prostitution can be abolished, well, good luck to him with that pipe dream. Oh, and the straw men around child exploitation and human trafficking continued unabated during the discussions, which of course serve solely to cloud the issue at hand. Meanwhile, Emmett Macfarlane writes a fantastic takedown of Robert Goguen’s awful line of questioning at the Justice committee, where he used one victim’s gang rape to make a cheap point. Kate Heartfield writes an even more scathing response, given that survivors of sexual assault already run hypothetical scenarios through their heads, and yet Goguen set up one, smirking, in order to make a bad joke and a cheap rhetorical point. Heartfield thinks that Goguen should be kicked out of caucus for it (but of course we know that’s not going to happen). Aaron Wherry tries to put the whole sorry mess in the broader context.

Dean Del Mastro looks set to take the stand in his trail today, which I’m sure will be quite the spectacle, and I’m fully expecting him to start crying at some point, given that he’s been employing that tactic a lot lately. His lawyer, meanwhile, continued to try to raise questions about the credibility of the Elections Canada investigator. Stephen Maher has a video report here.

It sounds like Saskatchewan and one Atlantic province are ready to join with BC and Ontario in the formation of a national securities regulator, which it bears reminding that the government is doing in a voluntary basis after the Supreme Court told them that they couldn’t impose it on the provinces. Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec remain firmly opposed, and PEI isn’t too keen either.

Here’s a look at the next steps in the BC First Nations’ ongoing land claims and treaty negotiations in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on the Tsilhqot’in title claim. Title and treaty aren’t an either-or proposition, but each are part of the broader process for claims.

Aaron Wherry fact-checks the PM’s assertion that their justice reforms have been opposed every step of the way, and finds that most have actually been supported by the opposition. Because who wants to vote against being tough on crime?

Martin Patriquin writes about the scapegoating of refugee claimants as “bogus” even though the numbers don’t reflect it, and how this is part of the narrative that the government is building as part of their next electoral campaign.

And some Canadian MPs and Senators were forced into bomb shelters while on a delegation to Israel, given the recent rocket attacks as tensions escalate in that country. And yes, they’re fine.