Roundup: Honest mistakes and sticking points

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s daily presser was far more lacklustre yesterday in terms of announcements – mostly just an update on how many more shipments of personal protective equipment have arrived, and contracts that have been signed with domestic producers in order to supply more. There was a little more action in the Q&A – on the question of proposals when it comes to punishing fraud for CERB, Trudeau insisted that this was only about people for whom there was demonstrable intent for fraud and not honest mistakes, though that is not reassuring to everyone. On the lack of a fiscal update, he insisted that things were still too much in flux because we have no idea how the economic restart is going to look like, but then went into his song and dance about just how open and transparent they’ve been because they take questions from the media every day and at the special COVID committee in the House of Commons, except that those are more about the performance of asking questions and less so about providing substantive answers (but being performative on transparency is on brand for this government). Part of the fiscal update measures was wrapped up in a “but the deficit!” moans from one reporter, whom Trudeau did rebuke a bit given that we are in an era of historically low interest rates. On MP Marwan Tabbara, he reiterated that he only found out about the arrest on Friday (and while people don’t believe that, we have to remember that the leader’s office doesn’t track every MP like a convict, and they’ve all been somewhat preoccupied with the pandemic – and it was up to Tabbara to disclose to them). On body cameras for the RCMP, Trudeau said that the was only one measure among many they were discussing, which gives him a bit of wiggle room as this becomes an issue of debate.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1270384288601567233

https://twitter.com/twitscotty/status/1270506759153766400

The issue of the penalties for fraud with CERB look like they will be a sticking point with the NDP, no matter Trudeau’s assurances that this is not about people who made good-faith mistakes, and that it aligns the penalty regime with people who defraud EI (but without all of the same accountability measures for defence – and it should also be noted that the EI fraud rate is about two-to-three percent). And funnily enough, it seems like some of his own MPs aren’t keen on this either. This could be the kind of punitive measure that will get the Conservatives on-side, but they will be objecting to the fact that the bill will be attempted to get passed in one fell swoop today rather than with a proper legislative process, and the Bloc don’t appear to want to play ball because they want even more measures for seniors, so this could start getting sticky for the government. I guess we’ll have to see what compromises got made, and what deals were cut.

Good reads:

  • It looks like the partial closure of the Canada-US border is about to be extended yet again, though we now have those loopholes for immediate family members.
  • Marie-Claude Bibeau says the plan to buy surplus food and distribute it to food banks should be up by Friday (but I have questions about processing capacity).
  • Bill Blair says that police misconduct is indefensible and that they are working on a legislative framework for Indigenous policing (but he has a history with carding).
  • The government has launched an online portal to help connect suppliers of personal protective equipment in the country with buyers.
  • There has been an upswing in workplace health and safety compensation claims across the country for COVID-19 infections.
  • The Canada Infrastructure Bank is partnering with an Alberta firm for a feasibility study on a plan to build a Calgary-Banff rail line.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada held their first virtual hearing yesterday (which had some hiccups), while the Chief Justice hopes to move to a paperless court.
  • Kevin Carmichael is concerned about the optics of Stephen Poloz taking on corporate directorships within a week of his retirement of the Bank of Canada.
  • My column looks at how a certain senator’s public pronouncements about committee chair distribution and remuneration doesn’t understand the system.

Odds and ends:

Maclean’s has updated their anthology of provinces’ reopening plans based on the latest announcements.

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Honest mistakes and sticking points”

  1. Has it ever been reporter why Geoff Regan lost to Anthony Rota for Speaker of the House? I know this is an old issue, but I’ve never seen a good explanation for it.

    • It’s hard to say, because Speaker elections are done by secret ballot, so you’d have to be asking MPs why they voted the way they did, which would betray how they voted.

  2. Singh is going all cosplay Bernie Bro revolutionary again. The hashtag politician probably wants to “abolish the police” and reallocate the monies away from the RCMP to provide universal CERB and a unicorn in every pot. Then he’ll need someone explain to him that you can’t actually be down with O.P.P. because Ontario has provincial jurisdiction. Blanchet will want to make sure that Quebec gets its own special chocolate cake without dirty federalist codfish oil. Besides defunding the CBC (aka defunding the “Liberal thought police”) to pay down the Marxist socialist Trudeau deficit, Scheer just wants to make sure he doesn’t get a phone call from the barbaric tax practices hotline threatening to jail him for pilfering $900,000 worth of chocolate milk and free airtime. But only after he pushes Trudeau to recall parliament to have regular sittings where he can be held accountable for an alleged attempt to grab unlimited spending on doughnuts, socks, and the U.N. globalist carbon tax until 2021. Way to sock some dingers, guys.

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