Roundup: Cabinet retreat missives

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We are starting to see the parade of ministers being trotted out to the media from the Cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, PEI, and first up on everyone’s mind is housing and what the federal government should do about it. And they did hear from experts like Mike Moffatt yesterday, which is good, so we’ll see if anything comes of it. But of course, legacy media has glommed onto the issue of international students and whether they will cap them, without also exploring how that has become a necessary revenue stream for universities after provincial cutbacks and freezes, or the fact that there are a plethora of private colleges that the provinces are supposed to be regulating who have been abusing their ability to bring in international students basically to defraud them of hundreds of thousands of dollars while providing them a substandard education. That should be where more attention is being paid, but we all know that legacy media loves to blame the federal government instead of the provinces, so here we are.

We also heard from Dominic LeBlanc who again gave assurances that a public inquiry into foreign interference is in the works, but they are now trying to find a sitting judge who can lead it, because apparently all of the retired ones and other eminent Canadians who could do the job have all told them no—because who wants to subject themselves to partisan character assassination day-in-and-day-out? Of course, I half suspect that they’re going to get some pushback from the chief justices of the provinces about who could be made available considering that the federal government has been slow to make appointments and it’s contributing to delays and backlogs in the system as is, and taking someone out of circulation for another eighteen months doesn’t help the situation any.

Other ministerial soundbites include Chrystia Freeland insisting that they remain focused on the economy.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces say they have retaken a strategic south-eastern village as part of the counteroffensive, which continues its southward push. In addition to advanced Western weapons, the Ukrainians have developed a “mini-Grad” rocket launcher made up of old Soviet parts. In Athens, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Balkan leaders, as well as European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen. Ukrainian media is reporting that a group of saboteurs coordinated with Ukrainian military intelligence services to carry out drone attacks on air bases deep inside Russia, destroying and damaging aircraft. In Denmark, eight Ukrainian pilots have begun their F-16 fighter training.

Good reads:

  • Mary Ng has filed for judicial review of the American’s latest imposition of duties on Canadian softwood lumber.
  • Documents show that Treasury Board resisted an external review of the failing Access to Information system in favour of an internal one, because of course.
  • The federal government has settled a land claim with Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation in Saskatchewan.
  • Police chiefs say there is a “balancing act” between stricter bail laws and not overrepresenting Indigenous and people of colour in prisons.
  • Jagmeet Singh is spending more time in Alberta hoping to capitalise on the results of the provincial election (which proves he can’t read the situation in the province).
  • The federal disaster assistance programme won’t help Maritime Electric for damage suffered on PEI in last year’s hurricane—for good reason.
  • The Ontario housing minister’s chief of staff resigned two weeks after being named in the Greenbelt scandal. (Now the minister also needs to resign, and yesterday).
  • Scott Moe implemented a policy in Saskatchewan about students who change names and pronouns, after New Brunswick’s was found to be unconstitutional.
  • Jessica Davis lays out why we should charge those women repatriated from Syrian detention camps with terrorism changes.
  • Susan Delacourt makes note of Trudeau trying to return to the conciliatory tone he struck back in 2015, versus Poilievre’s weaponizing issues to batter Trudeau with.
  • My column looks at the size of this government’s problem with making timely appointments, and the reasons at the heart of their operation that are to blame.

Odds and ends:

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