There is going to be a looming showdown over the duelling motions on special committees, and it’s the Conservatives’ Supply Day today, and their demand for an “anti-corruption committee” is going to be the motion they put forward, barring any last-minute climbdowns, with Erin O’Toole planning a press conference early in the morning to justify the position. The Liberal House leader, Pablo Rodriguez, has been more than hinting that this could very well be considered a confidence motion, as he describes said committee as an attempt to “paralyze” the government. The Bloc are on-side with the Conservatives, but the NDP are undecided, though they had a bit of a climbdown of their own yesterday as Charlie Angus said that they would limit their demands for the records of the speaking fees of the prime minister and his family to just him and his wife – documents which the Liberals provided yesterday (despite the fact that they were already in the public domain). So we’ll see how much of a performance all of the parties put on regarding these competing motions later today.
Meanwhile, WE Charity turned over a bunch of new documents on the speaking fees of the Trudeaus, and well, they don’t all match what had been disclosed before. Here’s Janyce McGregor with more:
Just pulled out what WE told me about Margaret and Alexandre Trudeau's speaking fees on July 9, and what the Kielburgers said during their July committee testimony about the expenses reimbursed to members of the Trudeau family.
SPOILER ALERT: the figures don't match today's post— Janyce McGregor (@janycemcgregor) October 19, 2020
Her reimbursed expenses, as detailed in today's new disclosure from we are also lower.
When the Kielburgers testified before cmtee, the amount cited for Margaret Trudeau's expenses was: $167,944
Now, apparently it's actually $163,654.74.— Janyce McGregor (@janycemcgregor) October 19, 2020
And finally, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
We knew previously there was only a speaking fee for 1 appearance in 2012.
But in Kielburger cmtee testimony, WE said it had reimbursed about $25,326 in expenses for her volunteer work.
Now today's post says that figure is $23,940.76.— Janyce McGregor (@janycemcgregor) October 19, 2020
Math can be hard, numbers can be mis-transposed, and it's possible that my cross-referencing is imperfect here.
But this is what I have. Let me know if you spot errors.
Today's update from WE that includes these figures, if you missed it earlier, is here:https://t.co/VhJn6MnNwH— Janyce McGregor (@janycemcgregor) October 19, 2020
There were also a couple of new revelations about the trip with WE that Bill Morneau repaid, for what it’s worth.
When Bill Morneau paid WE $41K the day before his testimony to discuss his involvement in the CSSG, he wasn't given a physical invoice. WE just estimated what the cost of the trips were, and told his staff #cdnpoli
— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) October 19, 2020
When Morneau and his family were in Ecuador, they took a "motorized canoe from Coca to Minga Lodge."
Here is the WE brochure on Minga Lodge #cdnpoli https://t.co/UGY8WVzC89
— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) October 19, 2020
Good reads:
- A bit of intra-Cabinet tension as the Indigenous Affairs minister says the RCMP have let down the Mi’kmaq, while Bill Blair has been praising their efforts. Awkward…
- Bernadette Jordan says that the lobster stocks are strong, so there shouldn’t be a conservation issue underpinning the dispute with the Mi’kmaq.
- The Canada-US border remains closed to non-essential travel for yet another month (but by late November, it could be a very different landscape there).
- An internal review of the Express Entry immigration system is finding better outcomes for those immigrants who came through that process.
- Susan Delacourt looks forward to the upcoming by-elections and what insights might be gleaned from them.
- Colby Cosh delves into some of the tragedy-of-the-commons problems within the Nova Scotia lobster fisheries dispute.
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So they were off by a few hundred bucks. Who really cares at this point. There’s a pandemic going on, a race war in Nova Scotia, and chaos in the U.S. This conspiracy theory circlejerk is getting so tiresome it’s a wonder the opposition’s palms aren’t raw.