Roundup: Cases and questions on Iraq

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Stephen Harper gave his big speech about extending the Iraq mission into Syria yesterday morning, and not unsurprisingly, the opposition parties were not in favour of the motion, though they have slightly different reasons for it. The NDP, not surprisingly, reject the whole mission outright and went so far as to basically call Harper an ally of Bashar al-Assad, while the Liberals focused on principles they laid out not being met, and their past objections about the mission not being suitable for Canadian non-combat capabilities. There was also the difference of the NDP promising to pull our forces out right away if they form government, whereas the Liberals said that they wouldn’t because we’ve made commitments to our allies and they would ensure that we at least see those through. As for the legal justification, the Conservatives offered a couple of different ones during the day, which doesn’t help with the clarity. Here’s the statement Elizabeth May would have said if she hadn’t been denied permission to speak by the jackasses in the backbenches. Paul Wells parses the speeches a little more, and pays particular attention to Trudeau and his attempt to stay consistent. Michael Petrou gives some perspective sauce as someone who’s been in the region an on the front lines. Stephen Saideman has questions and comments about the motion, and David Pugliese tries to answer a few of the basic questions people may have. Philippe Lagassé examines the motion from the lens of a political convention (still likely designed to launder the decision) as opposed to an attempt to build a constitutional one.

Good reads:

  • Here’s your roundup of C-51 testimony yesterday, including a member of the Toronto Police and former Supreme Court Justice John Major, though the notion that it’s less about terrorists than pipeline opponents is still a bit tough to swallow.
  • Don Butler has uncovered John Baird’s hand in removing “totalitarian” from the Victims of Communism memorial’s name and documentation.
  • Despite being pretty much frozen out by this government, the US Ambassador to Canada touts the positives one year into his posting.
  • Here’s a look at some of the renovations on Parliament Hill (including some new concept art), and we are assured that it is on time and on budget.
  • My column this week looks at the looming deadlines in the current parliament.

Odds and ends:

The Senate has completed a review of its “broken” communications, and will be working to reform those operations.

One name so far has been dropped from the list of consideration for the next Chief of Defence Staff.

Patrick Brazeau’s lawyer is trying to undermine the credibility of the alleged victim.