Another day, another apocalyptic warning that the workload and schedules of MPs are going to wind up killing somebody someday, and I just cannot even. This isn’t even the first time this particular argument has been made by MPs, but it boggles me even more that journalists aren’t pushing back more, and at least giving an “Oh, come on,” and it leaves the impression that there is an expectation that parliamentarians go in thinking it’s a nine-to-five job. And it gets even more ludicrous when you realise that MPs are not only sitting fewer days than they used to, but we already eliminated evening sittings three days a week in order to make the days more “family friendly” (which, as it happens, made congeniality worse because they stopped eating dinner together three nights a week).

https://twitter.com/garry_keller/status/1150587736736317441

Part of what has triggered this wave of pearl-clutching are the number of voting marathons that we saw in this current parliament, but we need to pour a bit of perspective sauce on the situation here. First of all, the opposition needs to have some tools to apply pressure to the government when they feel it’s necessary, and eliminating those tools would be a major problem. That said, I’m not sure that these particular marathons were appropriate uses for those tools, particularly as they were pegged to issues that were fairly minor on the scope of things, if not outright ridiculous, and yet the Conservatives made a big song and dance about these vote-a-thons, which wound up coming across as a temper tantrum. It became routine that estimates votes were coming up, so they were going to force a vote-a-thon to express their outrage of the day, and then blame the government for “forcing it” to happen. That’s…not how this works. And if MPs are opposed to those tactics, well, they can let their party leadership know that they’re opposed and do something about it internally. Otherwise, I’m not sure what their suggestions are for making life easier for MPs, because the alternatives – such as time allocating all business by means of programming motions and the like – is not healthy for democracy either. Perhaps they need to think about that as they complain about the jobs they chose.

Speaking of workloads, there was some angry debating over Twitter over the weekend about the Senate not sitting later to pass the bill that would add CBSA to the new civilian oversight body created for the RCMP (the accusation that they wanted to go on vacation). While I have my doubts about that bill (I think the earlier Senate bill to create an Inspector General for CBSA held a lot of promise, but the government refused to debate it), it’s pretty unfair to lay the blame on the Senate as a whole. Rather, it’s the government’s fault – both in introducing the bill so late, and sending it to the Senate at the very last minute, and in their Leader in the Senate, Senator Peter Harder, who controls the agenda. He could have ensured that the Senate sat long enough to pass it, but we’ve seen over the past three-and-a-half years that Harder has been absolutely allergic to staying later than the Commons does, even though the Senate is actually scheduled to sit for an extra week at the end of each sitting, like they always do. Harder, however, has steadfastly refused, and the Independent senators haven’t pushed back. If you want someone to blame, start there.

Good reads:

• While at a Stampede event on Saturday, Justin Trudeau said the Liberals could pick up seats in Alberta. (I mean, if they could take over Linda Duncan’s seat).
• The arrest of another Canadian in China appears unrelated to other arrests of foreign nationals, and may have no connection to the ongoing detentions.
• A Chinese-born researcher who helped develop the Ebola vaccine was removed from her lab by the RCMP, with talk of a “policy breach.”
• CFIA says that they’ve flagged some 900 food shipments from China over the past two years with irregularities…which experts say is pretty normal.
• The Global Affairs Canada’s Digital Inclusion Lab is concerned about bot activity trying to stoke separatist sentiment in Canada as part of online disinformation.
• It looks like the final tally for compensation of the LGBT “purge” from the civil service will be 718 individuals.
• Parks Canada has come to a co-management agreement with Timiskaming First Nation at the Obadjiwan-Fort Témiscamingue National Historic Site.
• There are questions as to why CBSA officers at immigration detention facilities need bullet-proof vests and pepper spray.
• Gun lobby groups are trying to push the false notion that the UN Arms Trade Treaty will require the creation of a new gun registry in Canada.
• The first two F-18s acquired from Australia are now upgraded and flying in Canada, with more on the way.
• The Canadian Forces were forced to pay $25,000 in damages after a mechanic at CFB Halifax was found to have suffered racial discrimination.
• Here’s a look at some privacy breaches reported to the Privacy Commissioner, including how suicide attempt details got sent to the wrong RCMP email chain.
• In advance of the Centre Block renovations, there are archaeologists on Parliament Hill excavating some of the pre-Confederation structures there.
• Susan Delacourt looks at how the Liberals plan to try and hold the middle ground as the election is now less than 100 days away.

Odds and ends:

James Bowden has an interesting exploration of Section 16 of the Constitution Act 1867, and how it allows the Queen to decide to change the capital of Canada.

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