Roundup: Support on a closure motion

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There appears to be some marginal progress with the government attempting to move legislation in the House of Commons, now that the NDP and the Bloc are starting to realise that something needs to be done. To that end, the Bloc have agreed to support a motion on closure for Bill C-7 on assisted dying – as there is a court deadline and only eight more sitting days between now and then – with tentative NDP support. And the NDP are also starting to realise that the current impasse could give the government ammunition to call an election (even though the only people who want said election are bored pundits), and want other bills to move.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, did pass a motion yesterday to fast-track debate on the Canada-UK trade agreement implementation legislation and MPs sat until midnight as a result, but there will be a battle over the assisted dying bill. From there, it becomes a contest of wills as to which bills are getting prioritised. The government has been trying to pass Bill C-14, which implements measures from the fiscal update back in December, before the budget is brought down (likely next month). And there is another bill to close loopholes in pandemic supports, which the Conservatives have refused to fast-track, while complaining about said loopholes. But the NDP want other bills fast-tracked instead – the creation of a Day of Reconciliation with Indigenous people, the UNDRIP bill, and finally passing the conversion therapy ban bill, which is at third reading whenever it can be brought forward. The government is also trying to get some bills past second reading so that they can get them off to committee, which you’d think opposition parties would relish.

I do find the Conservatives’ complaint that the government keeps introducing bills to be somewhat ludicrous, as though the government doesn’t have a legislative agenda that they laid out, and that they can’t try and walk and chew gum at the same time. The parliamentary calendar is finite, and there are a lot of things that this government needs to be able to do, and the Conservatives have been putting a damper on much of that for weeks now. Now that the Bloc and NDP are looking more willing to play ball with the government, one presumes that we’ll see some time allocation motions upcoming to prioritise more bills, and get them through the process, rather than give the government “more ammunition” for the election nobody actually wants.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau warned that Johnson & Johnson are having manufacturing issues with their vaccine, so we don’t have a timeline for when it will arrive in Canada yet.
  • Trudeau also shrugged off calls to rethink the role of the monarchy in Canada.
  • There is pushback in the scientific community over the guidance that second doses of vaccines can be delayed up to four months.
  • The government has yet to bar any shipments that fall under new regulations about forced labour in China, but they are “monitoring problematic supply chains.” Erm…
  • The head of human resources in the Canadian Forces was investigated for sexual misconduct in the late nineties, but was never charged or disciplined.
  • Not only was a new vice-chief of defence staff appointed, but there was a major shake-up in senior leadership roles in the Canadian Forces.
  • A new independent report that included contributions from Irwin Cotler, Allan Rock and Lloyd Axworthy finds that China is perpetrating a genocide against Uyghurs.
  • Here is a fact check from That Interview about the security claims Harry and Megan were making, and a deeper look into the brief response from Buckingham Palace.
  • In advance of the abortion question coming up at the Conservative policy convention, Erin O’Toole reaffirms that he is pro-choice (but I have questions).
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column dives into the procedures behind the summons that almost happened for the Kielburgers to committee.
  • Robert Hiltz looks at the situation of police talking Alberta NDP MLA Shannon Phillips as a sign of how unaccountable police are in this country.
  • My column looks at how Alberta’s one-party-state mentality has warped its political culture, and why it needs to return to being a functional democracy.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Support on a closure motion”

  1. O’Toole is “pro-choice” all right. He’s gung ho about giving leeway to bigoted religious fanatic MPs’ right to choose to vote against other people having the right to choose. The best option would be for Canadians to exercise their right to choose to reject the pretzel logic of his big blue tent revival party en masse, whenever an election does finally arrive.

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