Roundup: A foreign interference inquiry after all

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The announcement finally came down yesterday that the government will be launching a public inquiry into foreign interference, with terms of reference that include China, Russia, and any other state or non-state actors whom they see fit, and that this will be expected to have an interim report by the end of February next year, with a final report at the end of the year. Leading the inquiry will be Quebec Court of Appeal justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who has no national security experience, but says she is “honoured” to lead the exercise (though that is not what I would be feeling). The choice of judge and the terms of reference are apparently all unanimously agreed to by the government as well as the three main opposition parties, which is in part why it took so long, but there are still a few red flags, particularly around the timeline. It doesn’t seem either remotely possible or even plausible that the bulk of the work can be completed in five months (Hogue doesn’t start until the 18th), considering how much time it will take to stand up the inquiry’s infrastructure, and for her and her staff to be properly briefed on how to read top secret information and how to contextualise intelligence. This having been said, Dominic LeBlanc says the government will turn over any Cabinet documents she needs, and Justin Trudeau says he’ll willingly testify before said inquiry when asked to, so they’re certainly making a big show about cooperation.

As expected, the opposition parties fell all over themselves to take credit for this, and chided the government for why this took so long to get to this point, as though they weren’t a big part of the problem, most especially in trying to find someone to lead this process who was willing to do the job and subject themselves to the likelihood of daily character assassination in the process (because as much as they say they’re all in favour of this, the moment they think they can score points off of what is happening, they will have zero hesitation in being ruthless in doing so). Already Twitter was abuzz with her political donation history (Conservative), who appointed her to the bench (Peter MacKay), and her previous law firm (which has Liberal and China connections), so you can bet that there will be those who won’t hesitate to move into character assassination at a moment’s notice.

In related news, LeBlanc says he’ll be meeting with MP Han Dong in the near future to discuss his future and whether he’ll be able to re-join the party given the allegations against him, which David Johnston found to lack credibility in his report. It sounds like LeBlanc hasn’t had the time to deal with this with everything else going on over the summer, so we’ll see where that leads.

Programming note: It’s my birthday this weekend, so I’m going to make it a long-ish weekend on the blog. See you next week!

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians attacked the Danube port of Izmail for the fourth time in five days, damaging more grain silos and critical infrastructure. Ukrainian forces are gearing up air defences in preparation for another winter of attacks on their energy systems and power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has tasked his new defence minister with rebuilding trust after a series of corruption allegations in the defence forces, particularly around procurement. Ukraine is also calling for more international pressure on Russia to return the children they have taken from Ukraine over the course of the invasion.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau met with business leaders in Singapore and touted forthcoming trade deals, including with the ASEAN bloc.
  • Trudeau also said that there is currently no path for rapprochement with China so long as Xi Jinping remains in power with a difficult foreign policy.
  • Harjit Sajjan says the government is looking at changing how it deals with major disasters including wildfires after the increasing numbers over the past few years.
  • Processing delays at Immigration and Refugees Canada are blowing past the visas used by parents of overseas adopted children to get their paperwork completed.
  • The Public Health Agency of Canada is investigating Air Canada’s decision to allow flights with vomit-covered seats because it’s a biohazard.
  • The Business Council of Canada wants the government to amend CSIS’ enabling legislation so that they can proactively warn businesses being targeted.
  • King Charles III marks the one-year anniversary of his ascension to the throne today, and has spent the year quietly building his relations with Indigenous people.
  • Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem is reiterating that rates may still need to rise because of stubborn inflation and cautions against cherry-picking mortgage data.
  • The Conservative policy convention is now underway, and they have unveiled a new party logo that does away with Erin O’Toole’s RCAF-eque logo.
  • Nova Scotia’s advanced education minister is washing his hands of the issue of housing international students, saying those institutions are private businesses.
  • Ontario’s ombudsman released a report showing how long-term care inspections completely fell apart during the first wave of COVID, and did little enforcement.
  • Kathryn May gives some more context and expectation around what we’ll see from the government’s plans to cut spending without incurring job losses.

Odds and ends:

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