Roundup: The Languages Commissioner goes rogue

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We appear to have another Independent Officer of Parliament who has decided to go rogue, as the Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, has announced that he plans to investigate the nomination process that selected Mary Simon as Governor General, given her lack of French. There are, of course, a whole host of problems with this, starting with the fact that the GG is not a federal bureaucrat and is not included in the Official Languages Act. Her office in Rideau Hall is certainly subject to the Act, and there is no question it will operate bilingually, but Simon herself is not. Furthermore, she is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the prime minister, and the advice that he gets from his appointments committee (as problematic as the current structure may be) is non-binding.

Théberge, in that case, has decided that he’ll investigate the Privy Council Office for their role in supporting said committee and providing advice, which…is a stretch. A very, very big stretch. The whole sham investigation is already outside of his mandate, and more to the point, it is hugely colonial at that, and certainly not exactly befitting the stated goals of decolonization and reconciliation. (There is, of course, the matter of this government’s apparent hypocrisy in how it treated the appointment of Simon and how it treats the appointment of Supreme Court of Canada justices, but that is also not exactly something that Théberge could investigate).

Meanwhile, Philippe Lagassé enumerates these points, explains the role of convention versus legislation in these kinds of appointments, and most especially points to the fact that Théberge might want to better familiarize himself with the Constitution, given that the appointment didn’t violate any Act of Parliament. What a gong show.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1417267990790279174

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Brampton to announced $120 million for affordable housing.
  • Trudeau also said that he would support a criminal investigation into the abuses at residential schools.
  • It is now official that fully vaccinated Americans will be able to enter Canada as of August 9th, and travellers from the rest of the world on September 7th.
  • Marc Garneau linked China to a series of hacks, backing the US in doing so, which is one of the first times Canada made such an accusation in public.
  • A Black civil servant is going public about comments a supervisor made about the “good old days when we had slaves.”
  • Parks Canada’s “National Historical Significance” page on Egerton Ryerson has no mention of his role in creating residential schools, one of many outdated pages.
  • The Chief Electoral Officer says he would like a longer writ period to run an election as safely as possible (which is straying outside of his lane).
  • A group of Canadian veterans is helping fund Afghan translators and their families’ being able to move to safety until they can be evacuated to Canada.
  • The National Council of Canadian Muslims has released 60 calls to action in advance of the National Summit on Islamophobia.
  • Annamie Paul says the threats to her leadership are over, but she still has no office staff or additional funds to fight her riding battle.
  • The Star’s investigation into lobbying and the Ford government looks at how he gave the investment-backed long-term care industry everything they wanted.
  • Indigenous leaders in Manitoba are calling on the government to change its approach to reconciliation or resign.
  • Heather Scoffield sees our caution around border re-opening as a selling feature, showing that we look safer and steadier than other economies.

Odds and ends:

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