For his daily presser, prime minister Justin Trudeau opened with an announcement of some $75 million in additional support for off-reserve First Nations people, Métis and Inuit, primarily those in urban situations that require additional supports. He also said that provinces – most especially Ontario and Quebec – were being offered additional federal supports for testing and contact tracing as they open up their economies, which was later confirmed in the readout of the first ministers’ teleconference that took place later in the day. During the Q&A, Trudeau also referred to China not understanding the notion of what a rule of law country is after certain comments about the detention and determination of the extradition of Meng Wanzhou (and the BC court will make its determination next Wednesday).

Meanwhile, in the special COVID-19 committee, Conservative MPs engineered outrage by demanding the government answer questions on the Harrington Lake renovations, and when they were called out for the fact that the agreement between all parties was that the special committee’s ambit was on the pandemic, they tried to justify the question by saying that if the government was granted extraordinary spending powers, they needed to ensure that it wasn’t going to these renovations – which is disingenuous bullshit because the spending for those would have been approved of years ago. Nevertheless, they bundled their outrage clips and started putting shitposts around social media to claim that because we don’t have proper parliamentary sittings right now that they weren’t allowed to ask questions that the “government doesn’t approve of” – again, which is disingenuous bullshit. Those questions weren’t in the ambit of the committee, which is why they were objected to. I’m also incredibly pissed off that they are trying to make an issue out of these renovations, calling them “secret renovations” to “mansions for the prime minister’s enjoyment,” which is out of bounds. These are official residences, and every time they get weaponised like this in order to score political points, it means that we can’t maintain them properly. That’s the reason why 24 Sussex was allowed to turn into a crumbling shitpile, and yet here they are, carrying on the same kinds of accusations that led to this situation. They refuse to learn, and we all pay the price for it.

At the same time, I am exasperated by the fact that the Conservatives are now trying to use yet more lies and disingenuous bullshit to bolster their case to bring back regular sittings of a skeletal parliament. Nobody wants these sittings more than me, but the fact that they are trying to drum up fake outrage against Trudeau, claiming he is trying to permanently sideline parliament in favour of daily press conferences (where they falsely claim that he hand-picks the journalists asking questions), is really beyond the pale. But this is what the party has become under Andrew Scheer – a haven of liars who will say anything, no matter how outrageous, in order to try and score points. The fact that people saw through this and kept him from forming government should be a lesson, but no. They are barrelling ahead with this tactic, and it boggles the mind why they think this a winner for them. Poisoning the well hurts everyone in the end – most especially Parliament as an institution, which they suddenly claim they cherish and are trying to defend.

Good reads:

• David Lametti is proposing a bill that would suspend or extend certain statutory or regulatory deadlines that affect court proceedings, like divorces or bankruptcies.
• Mary Ng says that the government is working as fast as it can to tweak one of the loan programmes for small businesses to capture those currently excluded.
• The number of Canadian Forces personnel working in long-term care facilities who have since been infected with COVID-19 has skyrocketed to 28.
• Here’s a look at Canada’s ambassador to the UN and his push to get us onto the Security Council even during the global pandemic.
• Outgoing Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz says that the CERB could be a good policy tool for future economic crises.
• Senator Pierre Dalphond has defected from the ISG to the Progressives, returning them to official status. (More to come in my weekend column).
• The Conservative Party has disqualified Jim Karahalios from the leadership contest a second time, this time using the proper mechanism (so he can’t appeal it).
• Former CSIS analyst Jessica Davis explains why classifying the “incel movement” as terrorism is justified and necessary to combat it. (More context in this thread).
• Heather Scoffield observes the warnings of the CEO of CMHC, and suggests that governments will need to be agile as part of their economic re-opening plans.
• Kevin Carmichael points out the Bank of Canada keeping the oilsands afloat with their quantitative easing, and how that can give the industry time to clean up.
• Susan Delacourt suggests that the federal Conservatives could take a lesson from Doug Ford during these pandemic times. I’m…dubious.

Odds and ends:

For the CBA’s National Magazine, I write about the Supreme Court’s granting leave to appeal on the matter of the government’s elimination of peremptory challenges.

Hey tweeps! Want to read #UnbrokenMachine while you’re social distancing? Here’s your chance to get it at 25% off. https://t.co/PpC4ovVe7S

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 23, 2020

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