Roundup: Ministers don’t control committees

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In a bid to try and extend the Status of Women committee imbroglio story for another day, The Canadian Press tried to draw the Minister for Gender Equality and Youth, Marci Ien, into the fray to comment on what happened. Ien, who isn’t an idiot, refused, which was the right thing to do. Why? Because as a minister, she has no authority over committees, nor should she, because that’s how Parliament works.

Parliament exists to hold the government, meaning Cabinet, to account. Committees are tasked with holding ministers to account over specific subject matter areas, which is one of the reasons why ministers must come before their respective committees as part of the Estimates cycle (because one of the primary means by which Parliament holds the government to account is by controlling the public purse). Hence, the Status of Women committee is tasked with holding Ien to account for her department, and in fact, they should be doing a whole lot more of that accountability work because frankly, this government’s record on doing gender-based-analysis-plus (GBA+) is actually terrible, and most of the time consists of them just saying “GBA+” and not actually doing the work. A functioning committee would be addressing this, and even though Anita Vandenbeld wrote in her op-ed this week that the committee was functional and worked by consensus, this is a major issue that they have not been tackling like they should, not that this is a surprise. It is absolutely not Ien’s place to comment on what happened at that committee, and it would in fact be a major breach of decorum if she did.

It shouldn’t surprise me that a reporter couldn’t make this distinction for herself before writing the story, but honestly, this is basic parliamentarianism. It should be embarrassing for them to even make this basic error and not understanding the roles between ministers and committees, but this is also the state of political journalism, where actual knowledge of the system has become a rarity among those who are supposed to cover it.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian guided bomb killed two when it hit a schoolyard in the Sumy region. Ukrainian forces have confirmed that they have breached Russia’s Kursk region, sending Russians into disarray and panic, and have launched a massive drone attack further into Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls this proof of Ukraine’s ability to surprise on the battlefield.

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1821336708916347359

Good reads:

  • Bill Blair met with his Australian counterpart in Vancouver to discuss strengthening relationships to “avoid conflict,” particularly in the Indo-Pacific.
  • The Ethics Commissioner will be taking yet another look at Randy Boissonnault’s records after more text messages from his former company used his name.
  • The Ethics Commissioner also said that he’s not looking into any conflicts related to ArriveCan as the Act doesn’t capture civil servants at that level.
  • Oh, look—the Parliamentary Budget Officer pulled another costing methodology entirely out of his ass for a bill that hasn’t even been passed yet.
  • The Post talks to Special Envoy Deborah Lyons about the rise of antisemitism in Canada, that she is charged with addressing.
  • Court documents have revealed more about the Canadian who was convicted of terror charges in London.
  • A former Canadian UN official is allegedly being detained in being detained in Switzerland on suspicion of espionage.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal to Jordan Peterson’s challenge of his professional college’s admonishment, and required him to pay costs.
  • Liberal MPs Anna Gainey and Anthony Housefather are calling out Quebec’s health care language directive as something that causes confusion.
  • Here’s a deeper dive into the issue of bot farms that the Conservatives are being accused of engaging to promote Poilievre’s current tour.
  • Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay had to delete a video posted to her socials where she mused that CBC Radio might be saved from defunding.
  • Desperate to be relevant, the NDP are calling for Heritage committee meetings to look into the Canadian soccer drone spying scandal.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Ministers don’t control committees”

  1. About that Kursk incursion it seems one of the Ukrainian units involved is called Nachtigall after the Nachtigall battalion from WW2. It was organized by Nazi Germany in 1941 with Ukrainian nationalists in command to carry out large scale killings of Jews in Lviv and elsewhere.

    Pro Ukrainian commentators on social media are baffled by this incursion calling it wasteful and a kamikaze PR stunt. The Russians probably can’t believe their luck now that this Ukrainian invasion force have left their fortifications and are now out in the open.

    For historical reference the Kursk region was the scene of a major battle between Nazi Germany and the Soviets in 1943.

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