Roundup: Not recognizing one of our most important events

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Yesterday was Statute of Westminster Day, but you wouldn’t actually know it given how little attention it receives. My Apple calendar does mark the occasion, but how many people understand its significance? And they should, because it was probably the most significant development in our country’s constitutional history—arguably more significant than confederation itself, or of patriation in 1982. Why? Because the Statute of Westminster in 1931 was the creation of the Crown of Canada, as a separate and distinct entity from the Crown of the United Kingdom.

https://twitter.com/Canadian_Crown/status/1601987723476275202

This matters because it gave us control of our own foreign policy, and domestically, it centred the Governor General as taking advice only from the Canadian prime minister, no longer reporting to the UK’s foreign office like they used to do. There are fewer developments that are more important in how we have been able to operate independently as a sovereign country with our own sovereign at the head. So how did the various political parties mark the occasion, particularly in a year where the Crown of Canada has been in focus because of the transition to the new King?

Only the Conservatives put out a statement, and it didn’t even mention the Crown of Canada. So, that’s where we are. One of our most important constitutional developments as a country, left by the wayside. It’s a sad indictment of our history and civics knowledge that this happens year after year.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 292:

Odessa is mostly in the dark after Russian attacks, and it could take a month to restore their power grid. As the battle in the eastern part of the country grinds on, the city of Bakhmut is essentially destroyed. And a month after being liberated, Kherson is still in the process of clearing the booby-traps Russian forces laid for civilians in the area.

https://twitter.com/strategywoman/status/1602012251543982080

Good reads:

  • At the COP15 biodiversity summit, there is discussion on the role of cities and of Indigenous people in the protection of biodiversity.
  • There are concerns about how the new Indo-Pacific Strategy will deal with human rights abuses in other autocracies that we now want to do business with.
  • Here’s an explainer of the Canada Housing Benefit top-up for certain low-income renters that becomes eligible today.
  • The Canadian government appears to be ready to help subsidise the EV battery manufacturing sector in Canada in order to keep pace with US subsidies.
  • Now that the Canadian Forces have opened up recruitment to permanent residents, half of new applications have come from them.
  • CBC has a longread about a failed investigation into a military sexual assault, where the survivor is now attempting a private prosecution.
  • Here’s a look at what the Canadian space industry is up to over the coming year.
  • What could today’s byelection in Mississauga—Lakeshore say about Poilievre? Probably nothing, but that won’t stop every pollster and talking head from trying.
  • One Liberal MP on the public safety committee says that some hunting rifles may still be banned because of crimes they have been used in, such as cop killings.
  • Chantal Hébert blames the federal government’s unwillingness to engage in constitutional negotiation for Quebec’s unconstitutional bills. (I am dubious).
  • Althia Raj gets commitments from opposition parties to work together to delay extending MAiD to mental disorder cases, (making hypocrites of all of them).

Odds and ends:

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