Roundup: Common ground on “secularism”

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There was some small respite in news coverage yesterday and a chance for all of the federal party leaders to come to agreement on an issue – their mutual disdain for Quebec’s now-tabled “secularism” legislation that forbids the wearing of religious symbols for anyone in a position of authority, which includes teachers and police officers. Never mind that it’s not actually about secularism and that it specifically targets minority communities – this is about “solving the problem” in Quebec about their not knowing how to accommodate these minorities, so says one particular Quebec MNA who went on English Canadian television to try to sell the plan. It was as distasteful as it sounds, because hey, who needs to protect minority rights when the majority of voters feel uncomfortable with them?

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1111319646475423744

As for the reactions of party leaders, they may have been uniformly opposed to the bill, but they did it in very different ways – Trudeau forceful in denouncing laws that legitimize discrimination. Jagmeet Singh gave personal perspectives on being othered as a child because he was different and how this legislation reinforces that. Andrew Scheer, however, was true to form and gave an insipid line about freedom of religion and individual rights, but didn’t actually denounce discrimination. Oh, and he promised he wouldn’t introduce similar legislation federally, which I suppose is small progress from the moral panic over veiled voting that his party stirred up while in government.

Chris Selley, meanwhile, brings some fire to this “debate,” and finds hope in the province’s youth, who are rejecting the underlying anxieties that led to this kind of legislation in the first place.

The interminable Double-Hyphen fallout

Yesterday’s Double-Hyphen Affair fallout stories included The Canadian Press following-up on the story of that wrongful conviction that Jody Wilson-Raybould sat on for 18 months. Documents were also obtained to show that SNC-Lavalin indeed told the Public Prosecution Service that if they didn’t get a deferred prosecution agreement that they would move their headquarters to the US, cut their Canadian workforce to 3500 and eventually wind-up their operations here. Justin Trudeau told the media that he condemned the leaks about the Supreme Court of Canada appointment process and insisted that his office “would never leak.” Jody Wilson-Raybould’s submission to the justice committee is expected to be ready for public release later this afternoon. In advance of this, the Stargot a copy of a legal opinion from the justice department to Wilson-Raybould saying that any decision regarding remediation agreements haven’t been tested in Canada and that she could get outside legal advice on it – and it meshes with the timeline of what we know.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau apologised for a sarcastic remark to Indigenous protesters at a fundraisers Wednesday night. Predictably, opposition MPs “lashed out” over it.
  • Chrystia Freeland told the UN that white supremacy and Islamophobia are some of the gravest threats facing the world.
  • Bill Morneau met with a First Nations consortium in Calgary looking to invest in the Trans Mountain pipeline.
  • Bill Blair is acknowledging that there is a problem with money laundering in BC, and the government is offering some federal dollars to help combat it.
  • SNC-Lavalin’s ongoing legal issues could create a problem for National Defence, which relies on them for defence contracts.
  • Canadian security and intelligence agencies have already identified persistent foreign cyber-campaigns targeting our upcoming election.
  • Transport Canada is looking for concepts on hyperloop technology.
  • Mark Norman’s defence wants access to an unredacted copy of a memo Michael Wernick wrote about the case, as he’s not a lawyer and can’t give legal advice.
  • Andrew Scheer is planning on sending mass text messages in the four provinces where the federal carbon backstop comes into force next week.
  • Here’s the tale of one of the staffers of that “Kamikaze” campaign during the UCP leadership, and why he went along with it (and the dodgy financing).
  • Matt Gurney opines that the worst part of Trudeau’s Wednesday night incident was that the brand damage happened within a Liberal safe space.
  • Andray Domise has a lengthy contemplation on the predominantly white media in Canada not challenging white nationalism adequately in its coverage.

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1111277270889623557

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