It appears that the lack of seriousness around getting Bill C-6, which would ostensibly ban conversion therapy in Canada, through the Senate has reached its peak, as the Government Leader in the Senate, Senator Marc Gold, claims that negotiations have collapsed and he can’t bring the Senate back to deal with it. Which is nonsense. He has the power to petition the Speaker to recall the Chamber, and that request would almost certainly be granted. They can sit as long as necessary to pass the bill, and if they can’t get unanimous consent for hybrid sittings, well, by now most if not all Senators should be double-vaxxed and can attend in person. There are no actual impediments to them actually doing this.

Part of the problem is Gold himself – he doesn’t seem to grasp how the Senate works procedurally, and that he has a lot more power than he claims to. He also, for no good reason, proposed a date for the Senate to rise at the end of June when he could have kept it sitting into July with no actual problem. He also seems to be enamoured with the idea of agreeing on a timeline to pass the bill, which he doesn’t need, but ever since the Senate agreed to timelines around some major pieces of legislation in the previous parliament, there is a romance with doing this all the time in the Senate, which is unnecessary and in some cases counter-productive.

The other part of the problem is Justin Trudeau. And while it has been suggested that he has ordered Gold to let the bill die so that he can use it as a wedge in the election – frankly, the dynamics in the Senate don’t really support this line of reasoning – it’s more that Trudeau has a case of not-so-benign neglect when it comes to the Senate. By cutting it loose, so to speak, he gives it no mind rather than making it part of his strategy. There’s no reason why Gold is not a Cabinet minister who can answer for the government in the Chamber, rather than his current half-pregnant quasi-governmental role while still claiming independence, which doesn’t work in theory or practice. He clearly needs the support of PCO because he’s not able to do a reasonable enough job as it stands with what support he does get, and there frankly needs to be an actual government (meaning Cabinet) voice in the Chamber. But in insisting on “Senate independence,” Trudeau simply expects things to go through the Chamber and he can forget about it, which is a mistake.

Gold needs to fix this situation, and fast. If that means recalling the Senate in person, so be it. But claiming negotiations “collapsed” and he can’t do it is both untrue and against procedure. This is on him.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau was in the Gaspé yesterday to announce plans to expand a wind turbine plant in the region, as well as upgrades to local wharfs.
• The government announced a task force to make recommendations on modernising the Employment Equity Act, to update its classes of underrepresented workers.
• A global task force (including three Canadian MPs) say that social media companies need to be held to account for algorithms driving people to extremist content.
• National Defence is putting together a team to start a procurement process to replace our submarine fleet.
• The number of claims in a military class action lawsuit around sexual misconduct has jumped by 170 percent since December.
• As part of their proposed class action lawsuit, Black civil servants are looking for the creation of a mental health fund to help them deal with ongoing discrimination.
• The Conservatives are trying to get the Ethics Commissioner to look into the Liberals’ contracting Data Sciences for database services.
• Jagmeet Singh unveiled a hand-wavey policy of job creation focused on things in provincial jurisdiction and “Buy Canadian” protectionism.
• The disintegration of the Greens continues as its federal council is now considering revoking Annamie Paul’s membership, allegedly for a cease-and-desist letter.
• Manitoba’s Indigenous relations minister resigned from Cabinet following comments from Premier Brian Pallister defending colonialism.
• Robert Tay-Burroughs explores the tensions inherent in Mary Simon’s appointment as the first Indigenous Governor General.
• Kevin Carmichael parses the Bank of Canada’s policy rate announcement, and their decision to let inflation run a little hotter if it helps restore economic growth.
• Andrew Coyne posits that the Conservatives’ biggest problem is not their leader or their policies, but their constant petulant defensive mood that puts people off.
• Susan Delacourt remarks on how unprecedented the current siege facing Annamie Paul is in Canadian political history.
• Robert Hiltz decries the federal and Alberta governments’ continued subsidization of pipelines, losing money on them, rather than using it to fight climate change.
• Hiltz also zeroes in on the cynicism of the likely coming election, and how it is really only about one thing, in spite of cases being made to the contrary.

Odds and ends:

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