The day’s presser began with prime minister Justin Trudeau congratulating the winners of the UN Security Council seats, and gave an articulation of why it was important to Canada to try, and a promise that he would keep working to these laudable foreign development goals, even if we weren’t at the table. From there, he announced that the Canadian Digital Service, in cooperation with BlackBerry and Shopify, had been creating a mobile app to assist with contact tracing that was soon to be tested in Ontario, and this was a system that would collect no personal or location data – that it had a database of anonymized identifier numbers that could be triggered if someone tests positive – and that unlike other contact tracing apps, this one simply needed to be installed on the phone and it would run in the background, and not need to be open, which would drain the battery. (And Trudeau got really into it, because he is a geek about these kinds of things). Closing off, he spoke about new applications for the cultural industry and funds for national museums.

During the Q&A, Trudeau said that the late start to the Security Council race hurt us (and he’s not wrong there – many countries need the full eight to ten years to make a successful bid), for what it’s worth. He also made some fairly vague promises around trying to rein in the RCMP when it comes to their use of force, particularly against Black and Indigenous people. He also refused to condemn Jagmeet Singh’s outburst on Wednesday, saying it wasn’t for him to judge how a racialised leader perceived what happened.

On a completely different note, I was pleased to hear that the MPs in charge of the Centre Block renovations have decided to keep the existing footprint of the original Commons chamber, and didn’t take up the options to either expand into the lobbies behind or completely move the West wall and expand outward from there. They also say that the renovated Chamber could accommodate up to 420 MPs, but it also sounds like they may be leaning toward using benches, which would be terrific because desks are an Americanism, and simply encourage MPs to be doing work other than paying attention to the debates (and we’ve all seen the piles of Xmas cards that start showing up in the fall). I am less keen on the talk about physical distancing as part of the renovations, because they won’t be done for a decade, and we are likely to be over this pandemic by then, and we can work with the existing chamber and set-up perfectly well if we really wanted to.

Good reads:

• Some provinces are grousing that federal infrastructure dollars are too prescriptive for what they say their needs are (never mind that these shouldn’t be “stimulus.”)
• Here is an exploration of possible flight control issues with the Cyclone helicopters.
• It seems that the Canadian Human Rights Museum has been censoring its LGBT rights exhibit for certain guest tours, going so far as to block it off in cases.
• The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that people shouldn’t be convicted of breaching bail conditions when the was no intent for them to have done so.
• Some lawyers are concerned about the comments that Chief Justice Richard Wagner made about amending the Criminal Code around jury trials.
• Justice Wagner held his annual press conference, and made some comments on the need for a more diverse judiciary, but wouldn’t get drawn into any declarations.
• The Senate opted to have an emergency debate on structural racism, but the Conservative refused to allow the Black Parliamentarians Caucus letter to be tabled.
• Here’s a look at what economists were telling the Commons’ finance committee about how they see the economic recovery.
• Maclean’s has a look at everything that has been heaped on Bill Blair’s plate since the last election, and it’s a lot.
• The English Conservative debate was held, and while there were fewer attacks, it was still pretty cringey. Here are seven key themes; Sloan has gone anti-immigrant.
• Yves-François Blanchet is demanding that Jagmeet Singh apologise for calling his House Leader a racist, citing creating a bad precedent; Singh refuses to do so.
• Heather Scoffield believes that mandatory masking is a better solution to the pandemic than contact-tracing apps.
• Robert Hiltz points out the human cost of cheap produce in Canada.

Odds and ends:

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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