Roundup: The Brexit meltdown accelerates

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The big news yesterday wasn’t really in Canada, but the UK, where two cabinet ministers resigned over the “compromise” Brexit deal, and there remain questions as to whether Thresa May can survive this (though her options are severely limited given the Fixed Terms Parliament Act). Lauren Dobson-Hughes has a good breakdown of just what has been going on:

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016322801072943107

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016323358688927745

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016324262276128770

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016324886845747200

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016325516607905792

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016326668158320640

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016346420712886273

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016346941062410241

https://twitter.com/ldobsonhughes/status/1016347987637727237

Andrew Coyne notes the difficult position that May and the Brexiteers find themselves in, where a Norway-style deal may be their out (but it will be a humiliating climbdown). Andrew MacDougall examines the internal party politics playing out with these resignations. John Cassidy highlights that Boris Johnson’s bluster aside, he can’t point to any more credible Brexit deal, which makes his departure all the more opportunistic.

https://twitter.com/cfhorgan/status/1016376257590657026

https://twitter.com/cfhorgan/status/1016376998036320256

And hey, just remember that Andrew Scheer was a Brexit proponent, and fellow leadership aspirant Erin O’Toole promulgated a fantasy Canada-UK-Australia-New Zealand trading bloc that relies on constructing a pre-WWII relationship that really didn’t exist the way they like to think it did. In case you thought that Canada is immune to such flights of fantasy.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1016330038940258306

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau is in Latvia to visit Canadian troops there, and is expected to announce the mission will be extended to 2023. Up next are NATO meetings.
  • The Russian cyberattacks and propaganda aimed at our troops in Latvia have been easing off, but nobody knows why.
  • The Ford government is demanding the federal government pony up more money for irregular border crossers who’ve moved to Ontario.
  • Ahmed Hussen is criticizing the Ford government’s inflammatory language around those border crossers, and says they’re doing living up to their part of the bargain.
  • A new Inuit carving has been commissioned for the House of Commons Foyer (but it will be displayed in the West Block until after the Centre Block is refurbished).
  • Here’s a look at some of the ways in which the Supreme Court of Canada is less politicized than its American counterpart (though we shouldn’t say it’s not political).
  • The print version of Paul Wells’ interview with Jane Philpott is finally online.
  • NDP MP Hélène Laverdière and Conservative MP Bev Shipley have each decided not to run again in 2019.
  • Rachel Notley says the Alberta government is likely to buy an equity stake in the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column explains what we can and can’t learn from the parties’ annual financial statements.
  • Rachel Giese looks at how Trudeau could have better handled the whole resurfacing of the “groping” allegation.
  • Colby Cosh offers a very cogent takedown of the new law on “random” roadside alcohol testing.

Odds and ends:

In this week’s Law Times, I talk to lawyers about the incoming biometrics programme for visitors coming to Canada.

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