Andrew Scheer gave another one of his “economic vision” speeches yesterday, this time on the subject of immigration policy. And while it was all “yay economic immigrants,” there were still a few questionable pronouncements throughout. It should be pointed out that off the top, he made a big deal about how they don’t want racists or xenophobes in the party (in apparently contradiction to the succour they gave avowed racists when they thought they could use them to paint the Liberals as the “real” intolerant party), and invoked his belief that we’re all God’s children so nobody is inferior regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, and if they didn’t like that, the door was that way. So there’s that.

As for the policies, they were not only deficient when it comes to detail, but there was some of his usual problems of straw man arguments and hollow promises. For example, he repeated his usual argument that privately sponsored refugees do better than government-sponsored ones, but nobody is disputing that, and nobody is arguing against private sponsorship, but there is a place for government sponsorship which has to do with the most vulnerable who need more timely relocation and who may not have private sponsorship lined up. And yet, it’s part of his dichotomy about private groups being better than government. He also vowed to stop irregular border crossings, and good luck with that, because it’s always going to happen, and unless he can also stop Donald Trump from threatening immigrants and refugees in his own country, it’s not going to stem the flow coming into Canada irregularly – it’ll just push them to more dangerous crossings. He also didn’t stop the usual rhetoric that pits immigrants against asylum seekers that this kind of vow just exacerbates, so that’s not exactly turning over a new leaf. He also promised that economic migrants would get their credentials recognised in Canada faster, but good luck with that because credentials recognition is a provincial responsibility, and the federal government has precious few levers there, and successive federal governments have tried to deal with this situation in the past and not had much success, ensuring that his promise is empty. But what was perhaps most frustrating was his talk about intake levels – and while he took a dig at Maxime Bernier for calling on them to be reduced, he also said that the level should change every year based on “Canada’s best interests,” which is a giant loophole for that same kind of talk about reducing levels for bogus reasons.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1133506929442131971

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1133508491438624769

Meanwhile, the IRB says they need more funding if they’re going to tackle the asylum claimant backlog (which again, they inherited from the Conservative government) rather than just stabilize growth, which is what they’re projecting currently – but the real kicker here is that they’re still relying on faxes and paper copies rather than emails or electronic files, because they can’t share information effectively with CBSA, which should boggle the mind. And this problem was identified a decade ago (as was pointed out by Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès at Public Accounts), and it’s still a problem. I’ve talked to immigration and refugee lawyers who say that it’s a huge frustration for them that until recently, they couldn’t even schedule hearings by email. The IRB say they’re seized with the issue, but cripes, this should be embarrassing.

Good reads:

• While Justin Trudeau says the timeline for ratification of the New NAFTA will be close to that of the US, the bill will allow flexibility if there are changes agreed to.
• The Commons will now be sitting until midnight four days a week to get through the bills on the Order Paper.
• Chrystia Freeland apparently hasn’t been able to get a call with her Chinese counterpart to dispel myths about the legal process Meng Wanzhou is undergoing.
• The government tabled a bill to amend the citizenship oath to include references to treaties with Indigenous peoples (but thankfully left the oath to the Queen alone).
• The government’s gun control bill has passed the Senate and awaits royal assent.
• Ginette Petitpas Taylor says that MPs’ hopes for a “soda tax” won’t happen.
• The report that examined the extradition of Hasan Diab is now on the justice minister’s desk.
• More junk news is circulating online saying that Trudeau called for a million immigrants from Kenya. Identical posts previously used Nigeria instead of Kenya.
• Mark Zuckerberg ignored the summons by the international grand committee on data privacy, while the assembled MPs discussed banning platforms as leverage.
• The recent Coast Guard shipyard announcements won’t likely be finalized before the election, and here is some analysis of how that might affect nearby ridings.
• Studies are showing that pay disparities for girls start as early as summer jobs.
• The Ontario Proud/Canada Proud sites are planning a massive pre-writ advertising blitz (which left-wing Engage Canada plans to counter, and on and on it’ll go).
• The Senate’s national security committee has voted to hear from Vice Admiral Mark Norman, Harjit Sajjan and General Vance on the subject of Norman’s suspension.
• A former Imam has been nominated to run for the Liberals in Saint-Léonard–Saint-Michel – the first non-Italian to run in the riding.
• Andrew Scheer also said that if he was prime minister, he would ensure that CBC was reporting enough Canadian news. (So, he’d be dictating coverage? Really?)
• Jody Wilson-Raybould says she doesn’t regret any of her actions, and won’t say if she wants to see the Liberals re-elected (but still identifies with their values).
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column explains what would happen if Mark Zuckerberg were indeed declared to be in contempt of parliament.
• Chantal Hébert hears from a group of Liberals who are already trying to recruit Mark Carney for a future leadership bid – because they need a new messiah.
• Aaron Wherry notes that if Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould win as independents (and it’s a bit if), it will because the party system raised their profiles.
• Matt Gurney gives some context around the garbage dispute with the Philippines, and the broader problem that neither of our countries is dealing with.
• Kevin Carmichael looks at how tech company Lightspeed is breaking the established moulds, which could be a new path for Canadian companies to innovate.
• Heather Scoffield delves into how Andrew Scheer seems to be eschewing the Ford-esque path of economic disruption, but also notes his lack of clarity for his plans.
• My column looks at some of the economic holes in Scheer’s “economic vision” speeches, which one might think would be a problem.

Odds and ends:

There’s an issue with contaminated crude being shipped from Russia that’s affecting oil markets in Europe.

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