Roundup: Sorrow and motions

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As the various party leaders lined up, one after another, to give their positions before the microphones on yesterday’s return of the House of Commons, prime minister Justin Trudeau devoted his presser to the mass-shooting in Nova Scotia and the loss of an RCMP constable, including a direct address to children as part of his speech. More controversially, Trudeau made a plea to media not to name the killer and give him the “gift of infamy,” which became the subject of many a column the rest of the day. During the Q&A, he insisted he didn’t want to fight about the return of the Commons, while also saying that the government was not backing away from its plans to enact further gun control measures.

Not far away, the Commons resumed its sitting with a skeleton complement, kicking off with Green MP Paul Manly immediately launching a point of privilege to complain that their health and safety was being jeopardized by the sitting, and it impacted on the ability of MPs who faced travel restrictions to participate. (Manly’s point was later rejected by the Speaker). After a very surreal QP, and more speeches on the Nova Scotia shooting, the vote was held and it was decided that there would be in-person sittings on Wednesdays starting next week, with planned 90-minute “virtual” sittings on Tuesdays and Thursdays – you know, assuming that they can actually get them up and running. Also, those sessions would not be regular sittings of the Commons, but would qualify as “special committee” sessions that would be devoted to two-and-a-quarter-hour-long sessions to ask questions of the government.

Throughout this whole debate, I keep shaking my head at the fact that they insist that they don’t want MPs to keep travelling, or how MPs from regions with travel restrictions can’t participate, but nobody can apparently fathom that MPs could travel to Ottawa, and then *gasp* stay there! You know, like they have housing allowances and per diems that facilitate it. This insistence on once-per-week sittings means that there will be all kinds of unnecessary travel, travel that MPs from those regions can’t participate in (or at least not easily), and it needlessly complicates this whole affair when we could have more easily kept a skeleton parliament with these MPs who stay in Ottawa present, and just ensured that you had a representative sampling that includes MPs from those otherwise hard-to-travel-to-and-from regions so they don’t have to travel back-and-forth. It’s revolutionary, I know. None of this is rocket science, and yes, it involves some sacrifice on the part of these MPs, but no worse than some of our essential healthcare workers who also can’t see their families during this crisis.

Good reads:

  • During QP, Justin Trudeau promised an overhaul to stockpile management practices for medical supplies.
  • Also during QP, Bill Blair said that fewer than 10 asylum seekers tried to cross the border irregularly since it was closed, and that they were turned back.
  • The government has put out a call for new suppliers for key drugs required in the fight against the pandemic as supply chains have been disrupted.
  • An Alberta meat packing plant has been forced to shut down after hundreds of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19 (further disrupting supply chains).
  • Facebook is taking the Privacy Commissioner to court to try and get one of his reports on their practices tossed.
  • West Texas Intermediate prices are now trading in the negative, which will have a huge impact on Alberta. (More explanation here).
  • It would seem that some senators are grappling with how they should be conducting their oversight over the government’s pandemic measures.
  • Jen Gerson worries that physical distancing snitch lines will erode the trust in our society that we need now more than ever.

Odds and ends:

Here is the updated Maclean’s page on COVID-19 symptoms and where to get help.

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