Roundup: Watering down a non-binding motion

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Much of the sitting day was consumed with a great deal of nonsense, some of it procedural, as the NDP moved a Supply Day motion that, among other things, called for the immediate recognition of Palestinian statehood. This was supposed to have been debated on the previous Friday that the House sat, before they decided to suspend because of the death of Brian Mulroney, and it got picked up today.

From the start of the debate, Mélanie Joly corrected pointed out that you don’t change foreign policy with an opposition motion (and one could argue that matters of foreign policy should perhaps be confidence measures), but behind the scenes, Liberals spent the day trying to negotiate amendments to the motion in order to find some shared language that more of them could support, because this was going to divide the Liberal caucus one way or the other (and one suspects that the NDP was fully trying to create some mischief and sow some discord, if only to try and claim a self-righteous position in the matter of Gaza). And at the very last minute, they did come up with an amendment that softened the NDP’s motion a lot, including the removal of the call for an immediate declaration of statehood, but it all went sideways at that point, as the amendment was moved before French translation had been provided, and there were howls of protest from both sides as MPs felt blindsided by them. Andrew Scheer got all huffy saying that the amendments were out of order because they essentially changed the fundamental nature of the motion, but the Deputy Speaker eventually decided that since the NDP, who moved the original motion, didn’t object, then the motion could be considered in order. There were then subsequent votes to adopt the motion, and when that passed, to vote on the amended motion as a whole, and it too passed.

In the aftermath, the NDP declared victory, and Jagmeet Singh crowed about what they “forced” the government to do. Erm, except it’s a non-binding motion and nobody is forced to do anything, and pretty much everything in the amended motion were things the government was doing already. Of course, the NDP watering down their motion in order to claim a hollow, moral victory is pretty much 100 percent in keeping with how they roll, particularly lately, while the Liberals dodged yet another bullet on this particular file where they cannot win no matter what they do.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian defences shot down 17 out of 22 Russian drones yesterday, but there was still damage to Kryvyi Rih from those that got through. Ukrainians continued to target Russian refineries, as drone warfare remains one of Ukraine’s best weapons against Russia. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are alarmed that Putin’s talk about creating a “buffer zone” inside of Ukraine means a likely escalation in the conflict.

Good reads:

  • After QP yesterday, leaders all paid tribute to Brian Mulroney (except for the Bloc Leader, as instead was Louis Plamondon, who was elected as a PC MP in 1984).
  • Marc Miller says the government will accept more Palestinian-Canadians’ family members than the initial cap (assuming they can actually get out of Gaza).
  • Steven Guilbeault is giving Quebec until May 1st to come up with a plan to protect endangered caribou before he invokes federal powers.
  • Canada and Germany signed an MOU regarding future sales of hydrogen.
  • Here’s a look at the “deepfake” ads with the prime minister purporting to hawk crypto scams with a bad Australian accent.
  • Sami Khoury, head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, talks about the rise in ransomware and what to do about it.
  • Telecom CEOs were at committee insisting that they are lowering prices, and that if they look like they’re going up it’s because of increased data usage.
  • Saskatchewan has signed their bilateral health agreement with the federal government, with a focus on urgent care and backlogs.

Odds and Ends:

For National Magazine, I delve into Bill S-231, which seeks to expand the National DNA Data Bank, and why there are a myriad of problems from privacy to racism.

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