Roundup: Sloly, Day Two

Posted on by

It was another firehose of news out of the Emergencies Act public inquiry for the second day of former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly’s testimony. Sloly lashed out at RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and then-Public Safety minister Bill Blair for not giving him the resources he needed, even though they were reluctant to give over resources without any kind of coherent plan in place (which is, frankly, reasonable), nor was Sloly following proper procedure for requesting additional resources under the Ontario policing legislation. Sloly also repeatedly contradicted documentary evidence, and attributed attacks against him to be rumours. There was some pretty disturbing stuff about how Navigator was involved in the decision-making, and how they were essentially testing how different parts of the city would react to actions to clear the occupation, which is a really, really questionable way for police to make decisions about how they’re upholding laws.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1587096886388969472

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1587231274640490496

Meanwhile, we also got a look at the “intelligence” that the occupation was operating on, as a self-styled “expert” compiled these reports for organisers which are replete with fanciful notions of the Trudeau government trying to make this a Tiananmen Square-style event to crush dissenters. No, seriously. Other documents show that the RCMP union felt the decision to allow the trucks to park near Parliament Hill represented an unacceptable risk, and how they were preparing to respond to the request for their services. Other texts tabled with the inquiry show Marco Mendicino’s office trying to come up with a communications strategy before the convoy arrived and began the occupation.

Elsewhere, Doug Ford goes to court today to try and keep from testifying at the public inquiry. Justice Rouleau, who leads the inquiry, is seeking to have that application dismissed, saying that Ford is overstating his parliamentary privilege to avoid having to testify. But while Ford claims he’s too busy to testify, he spent yesterday putting out folksy pumpkin-carving videos, so yeah, that’s going to be a problem.

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1587114402851033091

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 251:

More heavy Russian bombardment of Kyiv has cut most power and water in the city, as the plan to try and demoralise the capital continues. Other cities were hit as well, and one missile that the Ukrainians shot down fell into a border city in Moldova, though no casualties resulted. Russia is claiming retaliation for attacks on their ships in the Black Sea, though Ukraine denies attacking them.

Good reads:

  • Mélanie Joly announced more sanctions on members of the Iranian regime.
  • The assessment team that Canada sent to Haiti has returned home and is now briefing senior officials before any decisions are made about how to help.
  • The chief justice of Ukraine’s Supreme Court is visiting Ottawa for the meeting of the International Organization for Judicial Training, and speaks of the court situation.
  • The Hill Times has a longread about the rise in abuse that MPs are facing from the public, and a lot of it seems to be driven by “Rebel Media.”
  • Some Canadian UAP/UFO reports have been declassified.
  • Bill Blair and Brenda Lucki appeared again at the public safety committee to insist that no, there was no political interference in the Nova Scotia shooting investigation.
  • Doug Ford’s government pre-emptively invoked the Notwithstanding Clause in back-to-work legislation for a strike that hasn’t happened yet. No, seriously.
  • After days of media criticism, Scott Moe has dumped MLA Lyle Stewart as his legislative secretary, and apologised for letting Colin Thatcher to the legislature.
  • BC has agreed to a major reform of how family doctors are paid and how they bill the system, which seems to address some of the major criticisms from doctors.
  • Roland Paris considers Canada’s recent statements about foreign trade, and the decisions we make with countries that are not really democracies.
  • Mike Moffatt points to constrained optimization as the likely reason Ontario has a greater percentage of children living with their parents into their thirties.
  • Susan Delacourt notices the conspicuous silence of Pierre Poilievre and other Conservatives the longer the public inquiry goes on and exposes the occupation.
  • Emmett Macfarlane declares the death of any legitimate use of the Notwithstanding Clause, now that Doug Ford and François Legault have made a habit of abusing it.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I profiled the new federal Privacy Commissioner, Philippe Dufresne.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.