Roundup: A surprise substitution

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As the parliamentary calendar ramps up, the president of the Slovak Republic is making a state visit to Canada today, but there’s just one little hitch. The Governor General, Mary May Simon, has COVID, and can’t engage in the usual diplomatic protocols of the initial meeting, and hosting a state dinner. Normally this would then fall to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, who is also the Deputy to the Governor General—except he appears to be out of town, as he was most recently visiting the Hague where he spoke at the sixth Judicial Seminar of the International Criminal Court, and met with other judges from around the world.

So, who does that leave to do the diplomatic hosting? Supreme Court Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, as the senior puisne justice of the Court. As these things go, if the Chief Justice is unavailable, then it goes down the order of precedence in the Court (so if Karakatsanis had been unavailable, it would fall to Justice Suzanne Côté, followed by Justice Malcolm Rowe, and so on). There have been occasions where these justices have been called upon to do things that the GG would normally do, such as signing Orders in Council and so on, even though it’s fairly rare, but it does happen from time to time. Nevertheless, I have a feeling that the President of the Slovak Republic is in good hands with Justice Karakatsanis.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukraine’s strikes inside Russia are demonstrating that Putin’s assurances that his invasion isn’t “hitting home” aren’t true.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1751925683943534958

Good reads:

  • François-Philippe Champagne is disappointed in the grocery oligopoly’s lack of transparency around stabilising food prices, so he’s writing the Competition Bureau.
  • Mark Holland has decided to hold off on expanding MAiD to psychiatric disorders alone, citing a lack of preparation (which has been disputed by numerous groups).
  • Sean Fraser announced tweaks to the Apartment Construction Loan Programme to extend it to colleges and universities to build student housing.
  • Jenna Sudds is reminding provinces that they knew what they were getting into when they signed child care agreements (so they’re not getting more federal funds).
  • Senior Government Sources™ are admitting that the government has lost the communications battle on the carbon rebates and that they need a rebrand.
  • The foreign interference inquiry started its public hearings, and we learned that eighty percent of the materials they received are secret or top secret.
  • The National Council of Canadian Muslims cancelled a meeting with Trudeau, claiming he isn’t taking action on hate crimes or to protect Palestinians.
  • Here is an explainer on the international students issue.
  • Two Canadian Hell’s Angels members have been indicted in the US on charges of being part of an Iranian-backed assassination plot.
  • The Bloc have stated that they won’t fight with the Conservatives to restore the earlier version of Bill C-234 (in part because of their harassment).
  • Althia Raj finds the same toxicity in Question Period as we left it six weeks ago.

Odds and Ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks at the number of unsexy “housekeeping” bills piling up on the Order Paper, languishing for years, because MPs won’t do their jobs.

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