We’re not on or about day forty-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and yesterday’s particular war crime of note was an attack on a train station in Kamatorsk that killed fifty-two Ukrainians fleeing to safer parts of the country. More chilling was the fact that the remains of the rocket had “For the children” spray painted on its side. Meanwhile, an international organization formed in the 1990s to identify the dead and the missing in the Balkan conflicts is preparing to send a team of forensic experts to Ukraine to help identify their dead as a result of Russian atrocities.

The Slovak Prime Minister, Eduard Heger, is meeting with President Zelensky in Kyiv right now.

Slovakia announced earlier today that they have donated their entire S-300 air defense missile system to Ukraine.

This is what Central Eastern European solidarity looks like.

🇸🇰🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/OY8Mehi1HY

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 8, 2022

Closer to home, there is more reaction to this week’s budget, and in particular, some of the sour notes coming from provinces. It’s not just the current bit of confusion around just what the dental care programme is going to entail, because we don’t have any implementation details yet, and it sounds like the federal government may try to leverage existing provincial programmes for low-income earners. But more to the point, it’s about health transfers, and the fact that premiers aren’t getting their way with their demands for increased unconditional transfers, ostensibly to ensure that the federal government pays 35 percent of the share of health costs—a figure which is distortionary because since the 1970s, provinces were given tax points instead of direct transfers, so the true cost to the federal government would be far, far higher than the 35 percent figure they like to float. Not to mention, we saw that when federal transfers were higher for a decade, provinces used much of that money on other things, as certain provinces also did during the pandemic. So frankly, I wouldn’t expect the federal government to just hand over more unconditional money in the budget, particularly as they are negotiating with provinces for specific outcomes around mental health and long-term care.

Those demands for higher transfers are also raised in this op-ed by economist Trevor Tombe and professor Daniel Béland, which accuses the federal government of being uninterested in reforming those health care arrangements. I would dispute that because they have made it clear, during the election and since, that they are very interested in reforming those arrangements, and that those reforms mean strings attached to federal dollars, and those negotiations are ongoing. I’m also troubled by the notion that the federal government should be doing something about provincial debt, which is far more unsustainable than the federal government’s. Is the suggestion that the federal government upload more costs or programme responsibilities? Because I don’t see premiers clamouring for that (though they do want more money). Is the suggestion that the federal government simply pay for everything? Because that’s absolutely not sustainable either. It also ignores that most provinces have the ability to raise revenues the old-fashioned way—raising their own taxes. (Some provinces are admittedly screwed demographically, but again, what levers are we proposing the federal government employ?) Tombe and Béland want an open and collaborative process to rethink the fiscal relationships between levels of government, but we’ve all seen this movie before, and it always winds up with the provinces demanding the federal government give them more money. I’m not sure how that helps.

Good reads:

• David Lametti was before the Commons justice committee to defend the bill to reduce or eliminate certain mandatory minimum penalties.
• Steven Guilbeault called out misinformation from his Alberta counterpart on the emissions reduction plan.
• The government plans to outlaw Holocaust denial.
• The federal government is donating another $220 million to COVAX for COVID vaccines for the developing world, particularly to build vaccination capacity.
• The proposal for a new Canada Financial Crimes Agency raises questions about whether the RCMP will (or should) be doing these kinds of investigations.
• The Star calculates that it cost about $10 billion in spending for the NDP’s support.
• A computer problem at Veterans Affairs means that T4A slips were mailed out to the families of hundreds of deceased veterans around the country. Good job, guys!
• The Official Languages Commissioner says the complaint about the unilingual speech by Air Canada’s CEO is founded, but the finding is not yet formal.
• Some MPs are calling for an all-party parliamentary group on the prevention of genocide to be reconstituted in order to examine Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.
• Candidates for the Conservative leadership need to complete a 44-page questionnaire and have their social media footprints probed.
• Jean Charest took aim at Pierre Poilievre and his support for the illegal occupation.
• A wrongful dismissal trial in Alberta has gone off the rails as the former justice minister is threatening to sue the complainant for defamation.
• Stephen Saideman points to the need for greater civilian oversight of the military, and why Parliament needs to take a bigger role.
• Matt Gurney warns of the normalcy bias and wishful thinking that leads people to think that the world “changed” with the invasion of Ukraine, when it didn’t.
• Kevin Carmichael sees a maturity in this week’s budget that has been lacking from previous Liberal budgets (and the column has a few home truths that need saying).
• Carmichael also delves into the job numbers, and what they will signal for the Bank of Canada’s rate decision next week.
• Althia Raj echoes Carmichael’s point and sees the budget as Freeland putting a fiscally responsible stamp on her record.
• My weekend column delves into the housing measures in the budget, and finds them incredibly wanting.

Odds and ends:

From me in the CBA’s National Magazine, a look at what is in the budget for the legal community.

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