Roundup: Ad hoc panel assembled to review documents NSICOP should have handled

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After months and months of delay, the government has finally unveiled the ad hoc panel that will examine the Winnipeg Lab documents, and that panel will comprise of four MPs and three former judges—two former Supreme Court of Canada justices, and one from the Federal Court of Appeal. Allegedly it took so long to set up because they needed to convince the judges, and then it took forever to get the Bloc and finally the Conservatives on board.

Of course, this whole exercise is completely unnecessary because this should have all been done by NSICOP. This is exactly the kind of thing that it was created for, but the Conservatives have been bad actors about this entire affair (and Michael Chong being among the worst of said bad actors), turning this whole thing into a needlessly drawn-out affair that has involved the government suing the House of Commons over a production order, and years of absolutely unhinged conspiracy theories as to what happened (again, with Chong being among the worst offenders).

I can pretty much guarantee you that this committee is going to find nothing to write home about. There has been plenty of reporting as to what happened. It wasn’t Chinese espionage. It was almost certainly a policy breach related to intellectual property, but this being a highly secured facility, you can imagine that has complicated matters. In any case, this whole thing is going to wind up being one giant waste of everyone’s time and resources because they decided to make a dog and pony show out of it for the sake of trying to embarrass the government rather than being responsible and just letting NSICOP read the unredacted documents that were provided to them in the first place.

Ukraine Dispatch:

There have been more early-morning missiles fired at Kyiv, and falling debris has set fire to one non-residential building, while at least one person was killed in a missile strike on Odessa. While Ukrainian forces continue to make gains around Bakhmut, the Russians are still sending people into the fighting, and there doesn’t appear to be any ammunition shortage, in spite of those Wagner Group videos.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1658751950165356544

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1658800755946528774

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau addressed the National Assembly in South Korea and spoke about closer ties (in spite of their president’s anti-feminism platform).
  • As Trudeau wraps up that visit, deals have been signed around critical mineral supply chains and youth mobility.
  • The federal and Ontario governments are each pushing the other to do more to resolve the Stellantis blackmail situation.
  • Steven Guilbeault says that Scott Moe’s plan to keep coal plants in operation past 2030 would be a criminal offense (without full carbon capture).
  • The government appears to have downgraded their Africa strategy to a “framework” (likely because they have difficulty walking and chewing gum at the same time).
  • The expected criticism of the bail reform has arrived, pointing out that it may violate the Charter and would be of limited use (because the problem is the provinces).
  • The delivery of two new Airbus A-330s to the Canadian Forces is delayed, naturally.
  • The media’s track record of enforcing party discipline remains unbroken, as ever.
  • Pierre Poilievre declined a meeting with David Johnston and justified it with a litany of character assassination (because he’s all about getting those clicks).
  • A UCP candidate compared trans students to feces in cookie batter, because homophobia and transphobia is always right there with these guys.
  • The Literary Review of Canada has a brilliant longread that carefully eviscerates Bill Morneau’s book and his self-aggrandisement of his time in office. Don’t miss this.
  • Althia Raj calls out the Conservatives’ willingness to play into the Bloc’s anti-immigration rhetoric for the sake of Quebec votes.
  • Colby Cosh gives his own proper savaging of Daniel Blaikie’s stupid and useless motion to try and limit prorogations and confidence votes.

Odds and ends:

https://youtu.be/Zz8dZiTYizM 

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