Roundup: Standing for the Emergencies Act inquiry

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It’s now day one-hundred-and-twenty-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russian long-range bombers struck a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine that had over a thousand people inside, leaving 13 dead and over 40 injured. Further east, Russians are now advancing on Lysychansk, but because it is higher up the river banks, it is a more defensible position for Ukrainian forces, and that could tie up Russian forces for months.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with G7 leaders by video, and asked for more modern air defences, as well as even more sanctions as the ones that are in place are still not having enough of an effect. Zelenskyy also asked for assistance in unblocking Ukrainian ports so that they can get grain ships in, but this will mean de-mining work that could take weeks or months. Russia, meanwhile, looks set to default on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution, and here is an explainer of what that could mean.

Closer to home, Justice Paul Rouleau, heading up the public inquiry into the invocation of the Emergencies Act, has released the list of who he has granted standing to hear from, and lo, the Conservative Party is not on it. Citing precedents from previous inquiries like Gomery, Rouleau has basically concluded that the Conservatives had nothing substantive to add, other than to whinge that the Liberals were mean to them about their support for the occupation, and he’s not interested in partisan point-scoring.

Good reads:

  • At the G7 meeting, Trudeau announced the banning of certain Russian gold, while leaders discussed a cap on the price of Russian gas.
  • Trudeau will be heading to the NATO summit later today in Madrid, as Canada is in talks to bolster the number of troops we have stationed in Latvia.
  • The budget implementation bill has now received royal assent, meaning that Canada can now being selling seized Russian assets, but there are questions about it.
  • Canada is sending seeds and mobile grain silos to Ukraine to help farmers there stave off a global food shortage (as half the problem is getting grain out of Ukraine).
  • The government is delaying its Clean Fuel Standard for another year, but wants companies to make an even bigger cut to emissions by 2030.
  • The customs officer union wonders why CBSA didn’t start hiring new members before the current staffing crunch hit that is causing delays at borders.
  • A recent U of T report shows that Canada outperformed comparator countries during the first two years of the pandemic.
  • Doug Ford is defending his nepotistic appointment of his nephew to Cabinet saying he has more experience than most of the caucus. Erm, that’s a major own-goal.
  • Paul Wells ponders the announcement of a new Cabinet committee to look into service delays, and how it’s more of this government grading their own homework.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I look into the hurried passage of the extreme intoxication bill in spite of concerns that it will prove useless in court.

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One thought on “Roundup: Standing for the Emergencies Act inquiry”

  1. Justice Rouleau is simply doing the Canadian equivalent of not inviting Gym Jordan or Matt Gaetz to the January 6th hearings. Because the guilty party can’t and shouldn’t prosecute itself.

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