Roundup: No political interference, and an incompetent commissioner

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The final report of the Mass Casualty Commission, arising from the Nova Scotia mass shooting, was released yesterday, and it is wholly damning on the RMCP, as well as on the state of gun control measures. While I have a column about RCMP reform coming out later today, there were a couple of other threads that I wanted to pick up on here. One is that Trudeau says that they’ll make changes to the RCMP, but I’m dubious. Like the column will point out, there’s almost nothing left to save, and I fear that inertia will carry the day—especially when Saskatchewan starts bellyaching about recommendations to phase out training at Depot in Regina, and provincialism will win the day.

The other is that the whole drama around allegations of political interference in the investigation have been resolved, and unsurprisingly, there wasn’t any. “[Commissioner Brenda] Lucki’s audio recorded remarks about the benefits to police of proposed firearms legislation were ill-timed and poorly expressed, but they were not partisan and they do not show that there had been attempted political interference,” the report concluded. Because the claims never made any sense. The gun control changes were not drawn up on the back of a napkin in the wake of the shooting—they had been worked on for months at this point, and were being finalised, and Lucki would have known that because she would have been consulted the whole way through. And there was no reason for the local detachment not to release that information because they knew where the guns came from, and there was no investigation to jeopardise. The report had a lot of things to day about the RCMP needing to be more transparent, and to learn how to admit mistakes, and yes, it did call out that they were actively lying to the public throughout the incident and its aftermath.

One of the other aspects yesterday that deserves to be called out even more is that the interim RCMP Commissioner was given the report the day before, and he couldn’t be bothered to read it, or to have an adequate briefing on its contents, before he went before the media. It’s rank incompetence, and all the more reason why the Force needs to be disbanded.

Ukraine Dispatch:

At least six Russian missiles hit the city of Kharkiv yesterday. Here is a look at Bucha, one year since its liberation.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says he’s “open” to talks with Quebec about their demand to opt out of the federal dental care programme (but they want compensation, of course).
  • Chrystia Freeland says that this year’s budget didn’t have any housing measures because last year’s funds are still being spent.
  • Mary Ng says that the UK joining the CPTPP will help speed up a bilateral trade deal between Canada and the UK.
  • Canada is joining other Five Eyes partners in backing the Americans’ proposed limits on “mercenary” spyware tools.
  • The federal government will begin mediated negotiations with the large public service unions this weekend.
  • As has been raised in Question Period, the interim Ethics Commissioner is Dominic LeBlanc’s sister-in-law (because there’s not a lot of choice on offer).
  • A recently passed Senate public bill would obligate the federal government to create a national framework for supporting people with autism (provincial jurisdiction).
  • The federal carbon price backstop increases this weekend, as the PBO released a report full of misleading statistics that the Conservatives have leapt onto.
  • Ottawa police have been investigating break-ins and attempted break-ins at the homes of Katie Telford and Jody Thomas, the National Security Advisor.
  • The Vatican has formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery” used to justify the theft of Indigenous land over the centuries.
  • Here is an explainer about the carbon “contracts for difference” in the budget.
  • The Canadian Judicial Council is moving onto next steps in their examination of the complaint against Supreme Court of Canada Justice Russell Brown.
  • Candice Bergen will help run the PC campaign in the upcoming Manitoba election.
  • Doug Ford called Steven Guilbeault “a real piece of work” after he called out the province for not having a real climate plan. (Because they don’t).
  • Jen Gerson boggles at the incomprehensibility of Danielle Smith’s interacting with Art Pawlowski, let alone trying to interfere with his prosecutions.

Odds and ends:

https://youtu.be/pP7D_jVsV4w 

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