Roundup: Refusing to appoint senators

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Stephen Harper says that he’s in no rush to appoint senators because legislation is still getting passed, so no big deal, right? The question arose because the new Senate Speaker, Pierre-Claude Nolin, remarked that there are concerns about regional representation becoming unbalanced, and I’ve heard from other Conservative senators who are not-so-quietly complaining that they are being overloaded with committee work because they’re having to sit on several committees given that we’re soon to be at seventeen vacancies – almost one-fifth of the Chamber. It’s a significant figure, and the added danger is that a Prime Minister – either Harper, or a new one post-2015 – would appoint a big number at once, stressing a system that is designed to absorb two or three new ones at a time. It also demonstrates a kind of contempt that Harper is showing toward the system and the specific role that the Senate plays within it, preferring instead to treat it as a rubber stamp that he is ramming legislation through. Nolin pointed to several passages from the Supreme Court’s reference decision during his presentation, and noted one of the roles of the Senate is to provide reflection to legislation that passed the Commons in haste. In this era of time allocation, that would seem to be more needed than ever – and yet, the government’s senators are doing their own best to rush things through, which Nolin quite blatantly called out today, saying that he aims to remind all Senators of their obligations as laid out in that decision. Nolin also said that he thinks the worst of the Senate’s spending woes are behind it, as we wait for the AG’s report next spring, and offered his own take on what happened on October 22nd.

Good reads:

  • Despite the Information Commissioner saying she is out of funds, the government kept insisting that Access to Information fees be raised as a source of revenue – never mind that the Commissioner doesn’t get those fees. Really, it was the most boneheaded of suggestions from government MPs ever.
  • Senators Eggleton and Jaffer challenged the Barbaric Practices bill in committee, and Chris Alexander went on a petulant tear and made a bunch of utterly galling claims.
  • There are questions as to whether or not Elizabeth May should have exercised her judgement as an MP and refused to present a petition by 9/11 Truthers.
  • While Chris Alexander keeps insisting that over 1150 Syrians have “received Canada’s protection, only 457 have arrived in Canada out of a promised 1300.
  • The government has quietly signed a customs deal with China, which raises a lot of concerns about detecting counterfeit goods from that country.
  • Justin Trudeau says he is still mulling the next steps about an investigation into the conduct of the two MPs suspended from his caucus for harassment allegations.
  • There are small claims court proceedings against David Bertschi alleging he paid for a campaign worker out of personal and not campaign funds.
  • Paul Wells looks at how the government is breaking the university research funding model.

Odds and ends:

Given Thomas Mulcair’s push to ban junk food advertising to kids, the National Post put out an attack ad of their own.

The government approved the takeover of Tim Horton’s by Burger King, with a number of niggling conditions.