Roundup: Abusing a committee’s mandate

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Because our Parliament is made up of deeply unserious people, the Conservatives on the Procedure and House Affairs committee, led by Garnett Genuis, are trying to push investigations of the Trudeau Foundation. The problem? This is far beyond the remit of this committee, and they have absolutely no authority to do what they’re attempting to do. The opposition members of the committee have been blocking Genuis’ motions, but this is absolutely abusing the parliamentary process in order to pursue a bullshit vendetta and conspiracy theory.

For the record, the committee is charged with dealing with the reports of the Auditor General, and ensuring that the government is accountable for implementing them. It’s actually one of the low-key best committees in the House of Commons, which largely does serious and valuable work and has been known to put ministers and deputy ministers on the hot seat in a serious way.

But there is absolutely no connection between the reports of the Auditor General and the Trudeau Foundation. The only government connection that the Foundation has is the endowment, which they remain accountable to the industry minister for maintaining intact. That’s it. Their donations have nothing to do with the government’s business. The Auditor General has no authority to audit the Foundation, and the CRA operates at arm’s length from the government, so the government and certainly not this committee can’t bully them into auditing the Foundation beyond the compliance measures they are already subjected to in order to maintain their non-profit status.  This is simply an attempt to weaponise the committee for the Conservatives’ political gain, and it’s damaging one of the few good committees in the Commons for a bullshit purpose.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces launched an air raid of “exceptional intensity” on Kyiv in the early morning hours, but damage was limited, mostly because air defences have been working. Over near Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces continue to push Russians back. Meanwhile, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy stopped in London at the end of his brief European tour to get a pledge of more drones and missiles from the UK. Anti-corruption forces in Ukraine seem to have found evidence of bribery in the country’s Supreme Court.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1658033675072598017

Good reads:

  • While on his way to South Korea and then the G7 in Japan, Justin Trudeau stopped in Edmonton to visit wildfire evacuees and Canadian Forces members there.
  • David Lametti has given notice that the bill on targeted bail reforms will be tabled as early as today.
  • Stellantis wrote to the prime minister a month ago warning them about their threat to pull out, claiming they haven’t lived up to their promise around subsidies.
  • The House of Commons passed the official languages bill, with only Liberal MP Anthony Housefather dissenting (because of its effect on Anglophone Quebeckers).
  • As I have noted previously, the office of the Ethics Commissioner says that they can’t conduct any investigations until a Commissioner is appointed (whenever that is).
  • The number of irregular crossings at Roxham Road has reduced significantly since the updated Safe Third Country Agreement (which doesn’t solve the problem).
  • Here is a look at the brewing fight over natural gas electrical generation, and where it fits in with federal clean electricity regulations.
  • A Facebook executive (and former UK deputy prime minister) ignored a summons to the Heritage committee to testify about the online news bill.
  • Green Party deputy/co-leader Jonathan Pedneault is running in the Montreal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount by-election.
  • Susan Delacourt notices some of the American rhetoric leaking over the border in particular in Conservative slogans and advertising.
  • Colin Horgan calls out the bullshit pearl-clutching around the passport changes, and the cleansed version of history the previous images presented.
  • My Xtra column notes that a Danielle Smith victory in Alberta could further embolden extremist rhetoric by the federal Conservatives.

Odds and ends:

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