The mass of WE-related documents were the subject of yesterday’s news fodder, and the fact that they largely corroborated the government’s assertion that the civil servants were the ones who suggested WE Charity be the vehicle to deliver the Canada Student Service Grant programme. They did, however, make a couple of notes that raised eyebrows – one was another communication between Bardish Chagger and the Kielbergers (though she has responded to dispel those concerns, saying it was a general comment she had made as the CSSG was not on her radar at the time), and the other were communications between Bill Morneau’s office and the finance department officials where Morneau’s office were described as “besties” with WE – which doesn’t necessarily prove that this was some orchestrated campaign to benefit WE. There were also documents wherein Jean-Yves Duclos was clearly not comfortable with WE being the only delivery vehicle for the programme because they don’t have sufficient depth in Quebec, though he was being assured otherwise.
To these revelations, and the fact that some of the pages had redactions on them (which is standard for both Cabinet confidences and instances where privacy is involved), the Conservatives and Pierre Poilievre in particular put on a melodramatic press conference full of air quotes and flung pages, and the howling accusation that there was a cover-up in the works. Because we all know that when you don’t find the answers you want, there must be a conspiracy at play. It’s not unexpected, and I’m not sure he won over any converts among the Canadian public, but hey, this is all theatre for him, like so many things in Canadian politics.
3/ My reading of these excerpts is that they just move this exact story forward by three days, from 22nd to 19th. And if you think the date of the program announcement means something, yes that makes it look like the fix was in. But it's an interesting question: does it?
— Alex Usher (@AlexUsherHESA) August 19, 2020
5/ But read those excerpts: on the 19th, you have public servants acting *as if a decision has already been taken* and they are just there to figure out how to make it work. For them the discussion about the basic parameters (if not all the details) of CSSG are already set.
— Alex Usher (@AlexUsherHESA) August 19, 2020
7/ And yet public servants have to march to the beat of the policy directions, because only they can "make it happen". They deliver the details. They write the memos to cabinet. And only once they are done does the public find out about anything.
— Alex Usher (@AlexUsherHESA) August 19, 2020
9/ So don't assume these revelations mean "they rigged the CSSG to give it to WE" (they might have, but no proof yet). There is still a need to understand where the policy direction came from and how the thinking about CSSG came about. Look pre-19/4. That's where the prize is.
— Alex Usher (@AlexUsherHESA) August 19, 2020
2/2 Doesn’t mean politicos have predetermined details of design/implementation. But does mean nature of pressure on PS is to deliver, quickly, on what the government has already announced.
— Dr. J Robson (@JenniferRobson8) August 19, 2020
Good reads:
- With Chrystia Freeland now in the finance portfolio, Canada-US relations are being shaken up in terms of which ministers are responsible for aspects of it.
- Senior Liberal Sources™ are saying that Trudeau and Freeland are planning sweeping reforms of social welfare programmes, which likely means big spending.
- Government sources are also saying that the transition from CERB to other income supports like EI will happen through regulation and not legislation.
- François-Philippe Champagne has condemned the coup d’état in Mali.
- There are questions whether the Canada-China committee will be allowed to re-form when Parliament returns, though some Liberals are seeing its value.
- The Director of Public Prosecutions has issued directives not to pursue charges for simple drug possession cases, unless there is a major public safety concern.
- Here’s an interview with Senator Lillian Dyck about her work in the Senate, as she approaches her mandatory retirement date.
- Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the problems with Trudeau triggering prorogation as early as he did.
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Justin Trudeau has been vindicated. The *worst* he did was forget to opt out of a Zoom call, and take bad advice from people who ought to know better. The press has been abhorrent in their coverage of this, willfully misleading the public and damaging people’s reputations, like Global did last night with their “error” about the RCMP “examining” the situation that now raises public suspicion there’s criminal activity afoot. Or Angus and his misogynistic pitchfork mob smearing Margaret as a gold-digger who rode the coattails of her husband and son’s name. Lawsuits galore should be filed against ALL these people. It sounds like this was another c*ckup from Morneau’s office, but he’s gone and Chrystia should probably do a better job. I just hope it’s not too late to “reset” from this ugly fiasco. I really just want to move on from all this and get to the throne speech already. They got their pound of flesh. Enough already. There’s a pandemic. Get it over with. I for one hope there’s an election and the Liberals win a majority so as to shut up these overdramatic rabble rousers like Poilievre once and for all. Shame on them for what they’ve done!!!
Agree totally.