Roundup: Conflating sex work with trafficking

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The hearings into the prostitution bill wrapped up yesterday, and clause-by-clause consideration of the bill, along with amendments, will take place on Tuesday. Yesterday’s testimony included warnings not to confuse prostitution with human trafficking, which are different and human trafficking already has laws in place to combat it (though there have not yet been many charges). Of course, Conservative MP and booster of the bill, Joy Smith, says that the two are “symbiotically linked,” but again, separate regimes – just like talking about child sexual exploitation has nothing to do with adult sex work, and is a separate provision in the Criminal Code. Amongst the other nonsense that Smith went on Power & Politics to talk about included her assertion that maybe there are “one or two or three” sex workers who do it willingly, despite that being in complete contravention to testimony heard. It just didn’t fit with her established narrative, and as she often does, she rejects it outright. Surprisingly, a group of Anglican clergy have come out against the bill because of the effect it will have on those sex workers when it forces the trade further underground. And then, once the hearings wrapped, Conservative MP Stella Ambler sent out this gem, which pretty much shows you her belief that there is apparently only one side to this whole debate:

It’s not a surprise, but the NDP are off to Federal Court over the Board of Internal Economy’s decision to order them to repay for the costs of those improper mailings. Let’s see if the Courts feel that it’s their role to start interfering in political processes, which the Supreme Court at least has been very cautious about doing.

In a bid to avert a Gattaca-like future dystopia, the Privacy Commissioner has asked that insurance companies stop asking for genetic tests to assess risks, and spoke about the difficulties of genetic privacy. (Though it should be said that of all the future dystopias, at least Gattaca was the best dressed).

Jason Kenney’s heavy-handed approach to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme could soon have a major detrimental effect on our film and television production in this country, as it becomes much more cumbersome and time consuming if we get American talent filming up here. Well done. *slow clap*

The government’s audit of charities for political activities has broadened beyond environmental groups, and is creating an “advocacy chill” according to some research. But it begs the question that if they are actually breaking the rules, should they be engaged in those activities or should they be focused more on the charitable aspects than the politics? It’s not like the current government made up new rules.

James Cudmore asks if the Prime Minister is obligated to fill vacant Senate seats. The answer of course is a blindly obvious yes, as Section 24 of the Constitution states, and anyone who thinks that it should be allowed to dwindle to the Quorum figure of 15 members (plus Speaker) needs to give their heads a shake. Who would willingly invest an unlimited legislative veto into a mere 15 people who are entrenched with institutional independence and can’t be removed? This aside from abdicated all of the Senate’s other roles, not the least of which is representation, which a number of provinces are losing out on as their membership falls. It was unthinkable that a PM would not make appointments, and yet here we are.

The Supreme Court is going to re-hear a case currently before it in a rare occurrence, so that Justice Gascon can also weigh in on the decision.

James Moore says he’ll be releasing a paper “soon” on why the 1995 attempts to break down interprovincial trade barriers failed, but remains vague on his own plans.

First it was an “olive branch” by Clement, but now the Public Service Alliance of Canada is filing a labour complaint against the government over plans to reform sick leave, citing bad faith bargaining. But bargaining hasn’t even begun yet! It was just consultation!

French defence companies are aggressively lobbying not only for a chance to build fighter jets, but also some of the combat ships of the navy, providing jobs in Canada and intellectual property rights that the US contracts – by Lockheed Martin in the case of both the F-35s and combat ship systems – won’t do, making it harder for the government to turn them down.

It sounds like our CF-18s currently deployed to NATO could be sent to Lithuania for patrol missions near Russian airspace sometime in August.

Party fundraising pleas could mean that we’re going to start seeing a ramping up of pre-writ advertising as the campaign for the next election get underway, especially as the Conservatives continue to try to define Justin Trudeau in the minds of the public – a task made more difficult because he had a more high-profile personality before he became leader.

The Liberals may have a headache on their hands as “prince of pot” Marc Emery and his wife Jodie plan a 30-city tour upon his return to Canada from a US jail, and that they will be promoting the Liberals during their stops because of the party’s position on legalizing marijuana. No doubt the Conservatives will try to use this against them, while the Liberals say that they’re not endorsing Emery nor are they affiliated with him.

Dean Del Mastro remained on the stand at his trial yesterday, and not only contradicted most of the key witness testimony to date, trying to assert that he didn’t write a number of the emails entered into evidence – despite a number of forensic experts who have testified as to their authenticity. The Crown did begin its cross-examination, and found some of Del Mastro’s explanations for things like apparently hanging onto cheques for months to be wanting.

Brent Rathgeber blogs about how the changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker programme are having knock-on effects further along the economic supply chain, and that it solves nothing about the labour shortages in places like Alberta.

Administrative law professor Paul Daly takes a look at the Federal Court decision on refugee healthcare, and how the decision also relates to the spending powers of the executive, and whether the decision means a spending programme without parliamentary authorization. Colby Cosh notes another peculiarity of the decision – the way in which the judge took the measure of public opinion, by turning to newspapers and magazines.

The House of Commons curator is retiring, but he took CBC around the building to show some of the treasures therein.

And Paul Wells gives us a bit of a video tour of Parliament Hill as part of Maclean’s series on how to be a better Canadian. (I might even forgive him when he calls the Rotunda the Hall of Honour).