Roundup: O’Toole claims privilege over foreign interference

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Yesterday in the House of Commons, Erin O’Toole rose on a point of privilege to say that his briefing from CSIS warned of “active” campaigns against him from China in four categories—that they are funding operatives to build propaganda campaigns against him, funding networks to amplify it, using WeChat for that purpose, and run voter suppression against his party and one MP in particular. His claim is that the government’s inability or unwillingness to act on the intelligence of foreign interference impacts his privileges as an MP.

I’m dubious that this constitutes an actual breach of privilege, because frankly, if disinformation campaigns, social media amplification and voter suppression are happening, well, his own party is just as guilty as the Chinese regime of doing exactly the same thing. I also fail to see what the House of Commons can do about addressing this supposed breach of privilege other than vote on sending a strongly-worded rebuke to the regime in Beijing. I also don’t necessarily trust that O’Toole is giving us all of the relevant details because he seemed to be very selective with what he wrote about his meeting with David Johnston on his Substack, and I cannot stress this enough, Erin O’Toole is a serial liar. Unfortunately, because he does it with a solemn tone and not, say, a clown nose and a unicycle, he manages to bamboozle a swath of the pundit class who are convinced that he’s the upstanding guy that they all want him to be rather than who he proved himself to be during his leadership, and that somehow, now that he’s no longer the leader, he’s gone back to being the guy they all want him to be. I don’t get it.

Meanwhile, the NDP used their Supply Day to call on David Johnston to step down so that the government will call a public inquiry. This while Pierre Poilievre is daring Singh to bring down the government, and Singh saying he won’t until trust is restored in elections (which is tactically stupid). The government insists they have confidence in Johnston, but it does raise the point that if everyone but the Liberals vote for this, it becomes politically untenable for the government to maintain the current course of action, even if it’s the right thing to do (because I remain unconvinced that a public inquiry will do absolutely anything more in this situation other than take three years, cost $180 million, and create a media circus with a daily drip of “revelations” that will amount to nothing but will nevertheless fuel said media circus). But this may wind up backing the Liberals into a corner and forcing them to call an inquiry, lest the damage get worse.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Amidst more Russian attacks against Kyiv and elsewhere, there was an alleged drone attack over a Moscow suburb, and Russians are blaming Ukraine, never mind that Ukraine denies the attack, have no interest in striking into Russian territory, and that there are disaffected Russians striking against the regime—and also presuming this isn’t some kind of false-flag operation.

https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/1663423170219589632?s=61&t=X0CbKI167no95sSzOC5eEQ

Good reads:

  • Federal ministers spent the day insisting that they will move ahead with climate action despite Danielle Smith saying she won’t abide by federal rules.
  • Jonathan Wilkinson says the government will amend the Atlantic Accords to include offshore wind power development.
  • Marco Mendicino is hoping the CBSA “oversight” bill will pass before the summer. (It’s a terrible bill that doubles downon a broken model).
  • Pascale St-Onge is attaching new governance strings to Canada Soccer’s funding.
  • Clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette announced her retirement before the end of the month; John Hannaford will be appointed the new Clerk at that point.
  • Military leaders have been warned that special forces members have become “untouchables” in that they can get away with sexual misconduct.
  • The used Airbus A-330s being purchased to replace our aging VIP aircraft won’t have the PM’s traditional quarters until retrofits that could be two years out.
  • The Official Languages Commissioner has once again found that Air Canada continues to fail in its requirement to offer services in both official languages.
  • Outgoing federal staffers won’t be able to move onto certain jobs because they can’t get sign-off from the non-existent Ethics Commissioner (which could take forever).
  • AFN national chief RoseAnne Archibald says the workplace investigation is a distraction from her attempts to reform the AFN, and that she has been exonerated.
  • Here is a look at what the government is hoping to get passed before they rise for the summer break.
  • News publishers told the Senate’s transport and communications committee that Facebook and Google blocking news could cost them millions of dollars in revenue.
  • Pierre Poilievre is refusing a meeting with harm reduction advocates Moms Stop the Harm after his alarming comments about safe supply.
  • The Auditor General found alarming shortfalls in child and family services in Nunavut, and called it an urgent call to action.
  • Jason Markusoff notes the very different version of Danielle Smith that campaigned in this election that previous versions of her we have seen.
  • Colby Cosh makes the point that provincial parties across the Prairie provinces are entirely dissociating themselves from those in Central Canada.
  • My column looks at Alberta’s election results, and gets a sense of what could be next for both Danielle Smith and Rachel Notley.

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/HoCSpeaker/status/1663633349536096256

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