Backbench Liberal MP Greg Fergus is learning the tough political lessons that just because the prime minister says something, it doesn’t mean that changes are necessarily happening. In this case, it’s the declaration by Justin Trudeau a year ago that the government would start to address the systemic barriers faced by Black Canadians, including anti-Black racism, but there has been negligible progress in the meantime, other than a commitment of funds. Fergus’ lesson – that lobbying can’t be a one-time thing, but an ongoing effort.

It’s certainly true, and he’s learning that the hard way – it’s easy to make a declaration, but you need to hold the government’s feet to the fire in order to ensure that things happen, particularly a sclerotic bureaucracy that doesn’t like to change the way it does things (and to be fair, you can’t just turn the way a bureaucracy does anything on a dime – it takes time, and it takes capacity-building, which can’t be done overnight). If anything, Fergus is getting a lesson in being a backbencher – that it’s his job to hold government to account, especially when it’s his own party in power. They can promise a lot of things, but you need to ensure that they actually do it, which is part of why Parliament exists, and why we need good backbenchers who want to do their jobs, and not just suck up to the prime minister in order to get into Cabinet. Hopefully we’ll see an invigoration in the way Fergus and others agitate to ensure that the government keeps its promises, because seeing the backbenchers doing their jobs is always a good thing in any parliament.

Good reads:

• Auditor General Michael Ferguson passed away from cancer over the weekend. Prior to his federal role, he was the AG in New Brunswick.
• The Lima Group meets in Ottawa today to talk Venezuela; Canada’s former ambassador says solutions need to come from Venezuelans, not foreign militaries.
• The government is still looking for trade ties with China in spite of the Meng Wanzhou situation (which is not unsurprising).
• Despite the stated intention to have gender-based analysis in all decisions, fewer than half of all government departments are actually doing it.
• Privacy breaches at CBSA raise questions about their commitment to privacy legislation and best practices.
• The RCMP calculates that they’ve spent some $6.6 million over the past two years at the irregular border crossing in Quebec, most of it in overtime.
• As the MMIW Inquiry wraps up, the government is launching a commemoration fund to disperse to Indigenous communities.
• There are questions as to why the Crown seems to be keen to keep Harper-era records sealed in the Mark Norman trial.
• Liberal MP Adam Vaughan apologized for making a reference to “whacking” Doug Ford – in a poorly-worded tweet about whack-a-mole, of course.
• The Conservatives released a fake Heritage Minute in a shitpost over the weekend, got threatened by Historica, and took it down but haven’t apologised.
• Charlie Angus thinks that SNC-Lavalin should be barred from federal contracts after a second executive was convicted of criminal charges.
• Thomas Mulcair’s bitterness tour continues, as he now suggests that NDP voters may go Green in the next election.
• My weekend column looked at the skills gap that’s keeping wages down in this country, and whether the government can do anything about it.

Odds and ends:

In light of the passing of Michael Ferguson, here’s a replay of the ribbing Ferguson’s office gave me over my tweeting about his “angry resting face.” We’ll miss you, Grumpy Cat.

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