Roundup: One bill passed, one deferred

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After very little drama, the budget implementation bill passed the Senate, their tempers cooled overnight. Not that it was ever going to be a real constitutional crisis – blame some garden variety torque for that one, but this wasn’t a meek climb down. The Senate did launch one final jab at the Commons, reminding them that while they are passing the budget bill this time, they nevertheless have the authority to amend or veto budget bills if they so choose – a pointed rebuke to the provocative boilerplate language of the Commons’ rejection of their amendments.

This having been said, what the Senate didn’t do was pass Bill S-3, which aims to remove certain types of discrimination from the Indian Act. The Senate amended the bill to remove all of the discrimination, while the Commons nixed said amendments, and the Senate was more willing to dig their heels in this one. By deferring debate and votes on this until September, it puts the government into a particular legal bind because they were under a court deadline of July 3rd to pass this bill in order to comply with a court order. This didn’t happen, and one suspects that it’s because the senators at the centre of this want to put more pressure on the government to accept their amendments and remove that discrimination.

Meanwhile, Dylan Robertson got a copy of the court decision that refused to extend the timeline for the government.

We shall see what the government’s next move is. I suspect it will be another court extension, but whether the summer to think over the amendments in light of the judge’s ruling may prompt a change of heart. Maybe. Time will tell.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau recapped the spring sitting’s accomplishments, and John Geddes annotates them here.
  • In a New York Times interview, Trudeau said that there’s no need for a plan-B for NAFTA renegotiations, and about calls from Donald Trump.
  • The US trade representative says they’re taking a no-harm a “do no harm” approach to said NAFTA renegotiations.
  • Craig Forcese and Kent Roach dig into the new national security bill and assign grades to its various sections (spoiler: Mostly positive, but a couple of fails).
  • Scott Brison has appointed an expert panel to examine front-line minority language services in the public service.
  • NDP MP Romeo Saganash is outraged that the House of Commons doesn’t have the technical or physical capacity to translate Indigenous languages.
  • Dean Del Mastro is out of jail and on bail while the Ontario Court of Appeal considers his second appeal.
  • While we’re being asked to return to Afghanistan for police training, here’s a look at the problem of “green-on-blue” violence there.
  • Emails from PCO have revealed that there was concern about some of the language in Trudeau’s Castro eulogy.
  • Citing a “misunderstanding” between himself and his lawyer, Senator Fabian Manning is dropping his lawsuit against the House of Commons.
  • Vox Pop Labs was supposed to conduct a massive survey of Canadians’ attitudes on issues, but it looks like it’s been delayed, possibly to the fall (if at all).
  • Andrew Scheer plans to hit the road and meet Canadians over the summer, and will unveil a new shadow cabinet in a few weeks.
  • United Steelworkers hosted an NDP debate, where Trudeau was criticised for not standing up to Trump, and they praised protectionist procurement.
  • Tabatha Southey examines the politics of renaming the Langevin Block.
  • Kady O’Malley suggests that maybe Ontario should give a provincial Senate another shot.

Odds and ends:

Conservative Senator Daniel Lang has announced he’s retiring early, making him one of three upcoming retirements over the summer.

One thought on “Roundup: One bill passed, one deferred”

  1. The Senate did the right thing!!! The house of Commons is promoting discrimation and racism, plain and simple, this all stem from Minister Carolyn Bennetts False numbers of people who would be entitled to be register indians… The charter of canada states equality, The Senate is following the law the house of commons is breaking the law,

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