Roundup: Trudeau takes the stand

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It was prime minister Justin Trudeau’s long-awaited appearance on the season finale of the Emergencies Act public inquiry, and he defended the invocation of the Act, and he sat and answered questions for over five hours, and from the sounds of it, managed to acquit himself fairly well. He seemed to have a much better memory of events than beleaguered RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, and dismissed the so-called plan that was in the works on the 13th before the Act was invoked as not being an actual plan. There was a detour through the sub-drama about Candice Bergen, and Trudeau produced a transcript of the call where she did express concerns about setting a bad precedent around demands he meet with the occupiers—Bergen had previously told the media that the PMO description of the call was different than she recalled. (Bergen? Not being honest? Perish the thought!) In all, Trudeau says that he’s “serene” with his decision, and now it’s up to the Commissioner if that’s enough.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1596178220701077505

And with that, the testimonies portion of the inquiry wrapped. The parties all gave closing summaries of their arguments (though the one lawyer representing the occupiers’ read like it was coming from an alternate reality and ended with a demand for Trudeau to resign), and the judge gave his thanks to all of the participants.

Additionally, Shannon Proudfoot offers her sketch of the day’s events. Paul Wells runs through Trudeau’s testimony and sees particular places where he seems to be trying to be clever about certain things like the dismissal of the previous plan, and it’s a good read throughout.

And then, by sheer coincidence, it also happened to be the night that Trudeau made his appearance on Canada’s Drag Race, and yeah, as with any political appearance on the show, it was slightly cringe and not terribly critical, but that’s pretty much how these shows happen these days. Still, good on him for making the appearance at a time when drag is being heavily politicised (though drag is by its nature political), and where it is under attack in certain American states. Having a world leader show support does help.

https://twitter.com/canadasdragrace/status/1596332148297912320

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 276:

Russians bombarded Kherson again, killing ten civilians and wounding more, damaging more power stations, though most were back online in much of the country by the end of the day.

https://twitter.com/kovaliv_y/status/1595861029514256384

Good reads:

  • The fiscal monitor shows that the government is still in a surplus position this calendar year (but that tends to change in the last quarter).
  • The one million units of Children’s Tylenol has started to arrive in the country, with another 500 million on the way.
  • Carla Qualtrough has formally announced that EI sickness benefits are being extended to 26 weeks from the previous 15.
  • After being criticised for participating in Qatar’s sportswashing, Harjit Sajjan tweeted that he raised human rights concerns—but didn’t criticise Qatar doing it.
  • The federal government is spending $39.4 million to support Indigenous languages in the territories.
  • Here’s a look at why the new Sports Integrity Commissioner may be a paper tiger, as privacy laws and a lack of indemnity may hamper her effectiveness.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that an airplane’s black box can be used as evidence in a class-action lawsuit around a flight that missed the runway.
  • Danielle Smith has banned mask mandates in schools and mandatory online learning, because she is really going hard on pandering to the antivaxxer crowd.
  • Brett House lays out the massive challenge around rebuilding Ukraine, and why the aid that Canada is providing needs to be bolder than it is now.
  • My weekend column on why Trudeau may be the only one who can fix 24 Sussex, so long as he can summon the political courage to do so.

Odds and ends:

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