Prime minister Justin Trudeau held his no-longer-daily presser at Rideau Cottage today, and finally unveiled the Canada Service Grant programme for student and recent graduate volunteers, where every hundred hours of volunteering earns them $1000. On top of that, he announced some $40 million for Mitacs internships, and 100,000 new summer job placements as the programme has apparently become fully subscribed, along with another 20,000 post-secondary job placements. While the Q&A touched on the problem with the rent subsidies where businesses re-opening can earn too much to qualify, and long-term care – where he bluntly stated that provinces failed to support seniors but that the federal government was happy to help where they could – it was the subject of China’s hostage diplomacy that dominated, as reporter after reporter kept asking him over, and over, and over again about that letter signed by prominent Canadians to essentially capitulate to the Chinese and end the extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in exchange for the release of the Two Michaels. In language that was almost uncharacteristically blunt for Trudeau, he said that he deeply disagreed with the letter-writers, citing that giving in now would send the message to everyone that they could simply kidnap Canadians in order to get diplomatic concessions going forward, and it would endanger the safety of those Canadians going forward.

But back to that Canada Service Grant announcement, because what wasn’t announced during the presser and only came out later was the fact that they have turned over the administration of this grant to WE Charities, which is…problematic, not only because of the personal connection that Trudeau and his wife has with the group. We don’t know what kind of cut WE is getting for doing the work, and the fact that one of their main sources of income – their big stadium events – is off the table for the sake of the pandemic, this almost has the feel of Trudeau doing them a favour because they’ve lost that revenue, which is poor optics. Trust this government to step on a rake and evaporate good will that they’ve accumulated by making this kind of dumb move. It happens over and over again (and yet nobody seems to lose their job over it).

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1276314924793450497

Good reads:

• It turns out that a group of former Canadian officials travelled to China in an unofficial capacity last year to try and argue for the release of the two Michaels.
• The CRA’s snitch line has received some 3300 tips about possible CERB fraud.
• There is an interesting quirk in the New NAFTA that allows people to avoid duties if they use private couriers and not postal services. Oops.
• Digital identity advocates are pushing the government to use the pandemic as a reason to start work on such a project.
• Here is a possible explanation for why Black Lives Matter protests didn’t turn into super-spread events for the pandemic.
• Boeing plans to push the Super Hornet as their replacement for the CF-18s, in spite of the rift they had with the government over a Bombardier complaint.
• Google will start paying some news publishers for content as part of new licensing deals, likely in an attempt to head off government interventions.
• The Senate has issued a formal “statement of regret” to the victims of former Senator Don Meredith’s harassment, and will arrange for compensation.
• One of Jason Kenney’s speechwriters has written about Indigenous people putting forward a “bogus story of genocide” around residential schools.
• Heather Scoffield explores why Black-owned businesses have been more vulnerable in the current economic climate and haven’t qualified for government assistance.
• Paul Wells and Marie-Danielle Smith get the backstory on that open letter to the government calling for Meng Wanzhou’s release.

Odds and ends:

My latest Loonie Politics video looks at what the Conservative leadership debates revealed about the state of the race and the party.

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