There are a tonne of amendments coming out in committees in the Senate, and there are likely going to be some fairly major developments and debates on these in the coming days – particularly once the House of Commons starts debating (and ultimately rejecting) a number of them. One of the more unexpected ones for me were the fairly major amendments to the solitary confinement bill. I was fully expecting the committee to recommend the bill not proceed because the courts had already found the bill unconstitutional and the committee was on the road to deeming it unsalvageable. Apparently, they’re going to make amendments instead, so we’ll see where this goes, because they have at least two court decisions on their side already.

The legal and constitutional affairs committee has also amended the Criminal Code revamp bill to ensure that there are tougher sentences for those who perpetrate domestic violence against Indigenous women. The problem? Well, most of those perpetrators are Indigenous men, and there is already a problem with over-incarceration, so this is going to be a tough needle to thread (but we’ll see how they attempt to do so.

Meanwhile, it looks like that major revamp of C-69 – the environmental assessment bill – was left intact at report stage on a vote on division, which means that they didn’t hold a standing vote, but were simply acknowledging that the vote was not unanimous. It’s a bit…suspect that they chose to go this route, considering how many of these amendments essentially gut the bill (and were indeed written by oil and gas company lobbyists, which totally isn’t problematic at all). But what is ultimately happening here is that these senators – and Senator Peter Harder in particular – are going to send this to the House of Commons so that they can reject them, and then send it back to the Senate where they will ultimately pass it after some minor theatrics, because of the will of the elected house, and so on. It’s not exactly the bravest route, and for the opposition in the Senate, it forces Trudeau to wear the decision more directly. There may yet be senators who will try to move amendments or delete some at third reading, but given Harder’s stance, I think the strong impetus will be for them to get the Commons to make the defeats so as to protect their own backsides from the wrath of Jason Kenney and others.

Good reads:

• During the visit by Grand Moff Tarkin Mike Pence, Justin Trudeau urged Congressional democrats to pass the New NAFTA.
• Tarkin Pence also offered assurances that they were standing with Canada in dealing with China regarding the two detained Canadians.
• Chrystia Freeland and her UK counterpart are concerned about the new extradition powers in Hong Kong, given how many Canadians are living there.
• Carla Qualtrough says she wishes that Irving Shipbuilding hadn’t threatened reporters when questions were directed to them about the shipbuilding contracts.
• Qualtrough also defended adjusting the fighter jet procurement rules in order to include the F-35 as a way of ensuring the best competition and a level playing field.
• Bill Blair says he is considering a ban on firearms “used to hunt people,” like semi-automatic assault rifles.
• The government quietly settled a lawsuit around the changes to the family reunification programme by opening 70 spots for that group.
• The senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada says the economic outlooks is positive but trade war escalation is of prime concern.
• The Parliamentary Budget Officer calculates that Andrew Scheer’s plan to remove GST from home heating bills will save households $117, and cost $1.5 billion.
• Irving Shipyard used one of its military industrial benefit credits for $40 million for a French fry plant in Alberta, because the credits are so broad.
• CRA settled with some of the KPMG clients implicated in the Isle of Man scheme, and now the minister wants more transparency.
• Here’s a look at how Facebook is still letting white supremacists use its platform for recruitment, even after the kicked off a few high-profile pages.
• Those garbage containers in the Philippines are now on a ship headed back to Canada for proper disposal.
• The head of the CBC defended news coverage at the heritage committee after Andrew Scheer said he would enforce more Canadian news if he forms government.
• There is drama in the Senate around a sole-source contract to help facilitate movement in the new space, especially around the lack of automatic doors.
• One potential Liberal nominee in northern Manitoba, who currently has a provincial seat, wants a special arrangement if she doesn’t win the nomination.
• Conservative MP Michael Cooper went off on a committee witness after he linked conservative commentators to alt-right gun massacres.
• Jagmeet Singh is unveiling his climate plan today, and wouldn’t you just know it, he’s also piggybacking on the AOC “Green New Deal” schtick.
• Jason Kenney was forced to cancel a press conference to crow about killing the province’s carbon levy because of smoke from the forest fires in the province.
• One of Kenney’s MLAs is under investigation for fraud, forgery and bribery.
• The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ weighs in on Andrew Scheer’s pledges about energy independence (and spoiler alert: It’s a lot of baloney).
• Jason Markusoff offers Jason Kenney some tongue-in-cheek suggestions for how to improve decorum in the Alberta legislature.

Odds and ends:

In Law Times, I have four environmental law stories related to carbon pricing, emissions reductions, Endangered Species changes, and a Supreme Court decision.

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