Senator Peter Harder made it official yesterday – the announcement of a Deputy Leader and Whip – err, sorry, “deputy government representative” and “government liaison” as he wants them styled, and it erupted in a bit of a fight in the Chamber that he can’t just make up names for people because the Parliament of Canada Act doesn’t work that way. I also have concerns with the job descriptions that Harder has given them (and these were provided to me from a Senator).

For his deputy, Senator Bellemare:

Assists the Government’s Representative to process the legislation coming from the House of Commons (government, private members’ bills and government bills in the Senate) in a transparent, impartial, constructive and non-partisan manner;

In the context of an evolving modernized Senate, assists the Government’s Representative so that all bills (including bills coming from Senators) receive a fair and non-partisan treatment;

Assists the Government’s representative to provide Canadians with a clear understanding of the treatment by the Senate of the bills coming from the House of Commons;

Assist the Government’s Representative in the Chamber, to make sure that due process is provided to Government legislation and all other bills and businesses,

Follow the legislative work of Committees,

Assist Committees to provide more substantive reports on their specific study of bills,

Assist informally Senators with rules and procedures.

And for his whip – err, “liaison,” Senator Mitchell:

It is the role of the Government’s Representative group in the Senate to facilitate the passing of government legislation and to contribute to the effective functioning of the Senate in a non-partisan and open way. The Government Liaison position will be responsible for administrative and management roles and for liaison with all Senators. Specific responsibilities will include:

-Working with the caucuses’ Whips and with independent Senators to help organize the business of the Senate, including, for example, the coordination of Senate Committee placements;

-Supporting sponsors of bills by ensuring that they receive the required input, briefings, and material from Ministers and government officials to present bills effectively;

-Assisting sponsors of bills to identify and deal with the issues and concerns raised by Senators in the debate and review of legislation.

The Government Liaison will exercise these responsibilities in a collaborative and non-partisan fashion.

The problem with these descriptions is that they are largely comprised of buzzwords. Throwing around terms like “due process” and “non-partisan” is hard to square with the fact that these are government representatives, and government is inherently partisan. While I can grudgingly agree that having a Deputy makes some sense out of pure logistics, the “liaison” role is largely nonsense. The existence of the Independent Working Group means that there was no need to have a Whip to organise committee assignments for non-aligned senators, and senators are grown-ups and should be able to arrange getting materials from Ministers and government officials. They have phones and emails, and assistants who can make arrangements. And “assisting sponsors of bills to identify and deal with issues and concerns,” which purported will including helping senators draft amendments? Again, they’re grown ups who can do their own jobs and talk to the Law Clerk if they need to. Aside from bigfooting the Independent Working Group – and making this move without consulting them – what is most striking is that Harder made this move for largely the sake of optics – he wanted both a Conservative and a Liberal by his side to make a big show of being bi-partisan, even though the role he gave Mitchell is ludicrous, and heaven forbid that Harder just have Bellemare by his side, because that would give the impression that he is really a Liberal, and he couldn’t have that. So instead Harder is making things worse for everyone with this particular move, angering both the Conservatives and the Senate Liberals, while still acting outside of the Parliament of Canada Act and the Senate Rules. It’s undermines his credibility, the work of the independents at pushing for meaningful reform, and is going to make getting anything accomplished in the Senate difficult for the foreseeable future.

Good reads:

• The Auditor General released reports on the government’s venture capital fund, detecting citizenship fraud, prescription drugs for veterans, the state of the Canadian Army Reserves, hiring at administrative tribunals, PPP Canada and VIA Rail – not that you heard the opposition parties talk about hardly any of it.
• Mike Duffy was back in the Senate Chamber, but keeping silent. More on Duffy from Nicholas Köhler (whose descriptions of the Senate itself are tiresome).
• Meanwhile, Senator Tkachuk said he never advised Duffy about housing claims, blowing up a narrative from the trial (making it inexplicable why he didn’t testify).
• Order is restored to the universe as the Conservatives are back on top of the political fundraising results.
• The government plans to name their “ministerial representative” for the added environmental review process of existing pipeline proposals later this month.
• KPMG told a Cabinet committee that they got out of the tax haven business after changes to the law.
• Susan Delacourt draws on the lessons of the census and Senator Duffy to remark on the relative lack of paranoia in Canadian politics.

Odds and ends:

Barack Obama is slated to address a joint session of Parliament in late June, following a Three Amigos summit hosted in Canada.

Ben Makuch received the World Press Freedom award for his ordeal with RCMP production orders, which he writes about.