The solidarity protests with the Coastal GasLink protesters continue across the country, and police continue to hold off on enforcement while dialogue continues – Carolyn Bennett is slated to meet with chiefs in BC, while Marc Miller will be meeting with the Mohawk protesters in Ontario today using the protocols of the covenant chain. And amidst this, Andrew Scheer decided he needed to get involved. It didn’t go well.

The office of @BillBlair has responded saying: "The minister of Public Safety does not direct police operations. The minister may not attempt to influence in any way an investigation, or direct the conduct of specific police operations." https://t.co/ZbsKkO3TnL

— Cat Tunney (@cattunneycbc) February 14, 2020

Scheer’s tone deafness over the “privilege” remarks likely stem from the belief that the Conservatives have convinced themselves of, that it’s just rich, foreign-funded radicals who are protesting while the First Nations want the projects to proceed because jobs – which some do, but it delegitimizes the legitimate grievances and differences of opinion within Indigenous communities (even if all of the protesters aren’t themselves Indigenous). Add to that, Scheer’s insistence that ministers should be directing the operations of the police is wrong-headed (and dangerous – this is how police states happen), which forgets that even if Bill Blair could get on the phone and direct RCMP to enforce injunctions, the ones in Ontario that have shut down the rail network are squarely within the jurisdiction of the OPP. Oops. There may be some debate over how much authority that governments have to direct enforcement in cases like these, but Scheer (and Scott Moe, who has also been echoing his comments) should know better. That they don’t is a bad sign for the governance of this country.

Meanwhile, Chris Selley decries the ongoing blockades but makes some interesting points about the way in which the male hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs displaced the female hereditary chiefs who were in support of the project. Colby Cosh is bemused at how threatening commuters in Central Canada is the kind of leverage that Alberta could only dream of having. Matt Gurney recalls Christie Blatchford’s book on the Caledonia crisis, and how the Ontario Progressive Conservatives apparently didn’t learn anything from what happened then, given their absolute silence over what is happening under their jurisdiction.

Good reads:

• Trudeau shook the hand of Iran’s foreign minister at the Munich Security Conference because diplomacy, and the usual suspects are having meltdowns.
• Also at the conference, Trudeau told American delegates that the New NAFTA is expected to pass the House of Commons.
• François-Philippe Champagne reports some progress with Iran in terms of the investigation into PS752 (but expect the black box recordings to be anti-climactic).
• The Auditor General has announced he will audit the infrastructure programme (which is slow to get funds out the door because provinces aren’t doing their part).
• The Privacy Commissioner suspects that federal departments are under-reporting privacy breaches and violations.
• Erin O’Toole is making noises about slashing CBC English TV’s funding and privatizing it (because that plays well to the base).
• New Brunswick’s deputy premier has resigned over planned cuts to emergency room hours at rural hospitals, leaving the government’s fate in jeopardy.
• Stephen Maher writes about how Erin O’Toole feels the need to start “bullshitting dimwitted Conservatives” to win the leadership vote.
• Kevin Carmichael tries to put Bombardier in a bigger context and why its ambition was a good thing for Canada.
• Heather Scoffield makes the economic case for the need to get reconciliation with Indigenous people.
• My weekend column has me interviewing Senator Marc Gold, the new Leader of the Government in the Senate, about how he sees his new role.

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