With the final vote in the Senate today on the cannabis bill, there have been a few interesting developments, starting with the fact that the government has been making appointments – there was one on Friday, and two more were announced yesterday, and what’s even more curious is how fast they are being sworn in. The two named yesterday will be sworn in today, while the one named Friday was sworn in Monday is already voting on amendments to C-45 despite not having been there for any of the debate or committee testimony. Normally when senators are named, there are a few weeks between their being named and being sworn-in so that they can get all of their affairs in order, which makes this curious, and like it’s looking like Trudeau has been making panicked appointments with the fate of C-45 in the air. And what’s even more curious is the fact that it’s not the Conservatives who are the problem, since they don’t have the numbers to defeat it, but it’s the independent senators who are no longer voting as a bloc but have swung different amendment votes in different ways.

https://twitter.com/JacquiDelaney/status/1004520578919817216

Of course, Conservatives are already promulgating the conspiracy theory that because the provincial nomination committees are largely vacant that these are all hand-picked by the PMO, but in truth, the PMO is sitting on over a hundred vetted names on the short-lists, and these new appointments are all coming off of those lists, where they’ve been languishing for months. So not a conspiracy – just poor management to the point of incompetence.

Meanwhile, some 40 amendments have been passed, with several more defeated, and the government engaged in a bit of deal-making to assuage the concerns of Indigenous senators who wanted to put in an amendment to delay implementation until more consultation with Indigenous communities had been done. The health and Indigenous services ministers instead offered a number of measures and funds to ensure there was access to production, and culturally-appropriate addictions treatment services. One Conservative senator accused those Indigenous senators of capitulation, before she was slapped back by Senator Murray Sinclair for her patronising tone. One could argue that this means that the government is listening to the concerns that are raised, so we’ll see how much follow-through there is.

Good reads:

• Everyone was reporting of a phone call between Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump wherein he brought up the burning of the White House during the War of 1812.
• Paul Martin says that the Americans need to learn that there’s a price for starting a trade war, which the retaliatory measures may help with.
• As a new institutional investor programme to encourage women’s investment was launched, Bill Morneau said he won’t sugar-coat the trade situation with the US.
• Suncor says that despite the federal purchase of Trans Mountain, they’re holding off on any other major projects, citing competitiveness issues.
• The government is looking to invest in affordable housing units for homeless veterans.
• The government settled with a First Nations girl over medically necessary orthodontics and has changed the rules to make future cases easier.
• Canadian Forces may be complicit in American violations of international law regarding the capture and improper detention of drug smugglers at sea.
• Kent Hehr’s harassment investigation is complete, and he has issued an apology to victims and says he won’t be back in Cabinet but will stay in caucus as an MP.
• Andrew Scheer says he’s not ready to sign onto a bilateral trade deal with Trump so long as the existing NAFTA agreement can be saved.
• Erin O’Toole says the government should have joined Ballistic Missile Defence to help get NAFTA on track. I’m not sure that’s the problem…
• Two of the seven Bloc MPs who quit the party plan to rejoin it now that Martine Ouellet is on her way out, but the other five want to stick with their new party.
• With Vancouver set to ban “conversion therapy,” here’s one gay survivor’s recollections of the suffering he was subjected to by this form of torture.
• Andrew Coyne laments that no party deserves to win the Ontario election.
• Chantal Hébert digs into the report about women premiers not lasting long in office and tries to nuance the conclusions by looking at the circumstances in the cases.

Odds and ends:

A sitting judge has completed a study on jury composition in Ottawa, and it is overwhelmingly white and wealthy.

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