Roundup: Filibustering their own motion

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The current privilege fight has ground business in the House of Commons to a complete halt, thanks to the tactics of the Conservatives, and they are trying to use this as some form of blackmail on the government, particularly as the government has been unable to move the legislation around the capital gains changes. Andrew Scheer even tried to be cute during the Thursday Question yesterday and said that if the government can’t conduct its own business, then they should call an election. Because of course he did.

While I won’t relitigate why this is an abuse of privilege that sets a terrifying precedent, it has been called out by the Government House Leader that the Conservatives are filibustering themselves because the whole point of this is that it’s supposed to go to the Procedure and House Affairs Committee so that it can be decided upon what should happen, but that’s inconvenient for the Conservatives. They would rather put up every single MP to speak to this issue to run out the clock, and so that they can all recite prepared scripts that scream “Liberal corruption!” even though that’s not what the Auditor General found. (Yes, there were conflicts of interest, but the government was not implicated in this at all). Gould asserts that the Conservatives are trying to keep it away from committee because the moment that committee starts calling witnesses, legal experts will point out the abuse of the parliamentary privilege powers and that this is banana republic behaviour, and she’s not wrong, but the bigger issue here is that the plan  of the Conservatives is to make the House of Commons as completely non-functional as possible through abuse of this privilege debate (which again, should have been over in a couple of hours at most with the matter sent to committee) so that they can claim further justification for an election.

If the other opposition parties wised up and stopped playing along with the Conservatives in their desire to embarrass the government for their own partisan aims, Parliament could be functioning a lot more smoothly and things they want to get passed could, but none of them seem to care much about the long-term implications of their actions (like the banana republic precedents) because scoring points is too much fun. There also remains that the government could prorogue Parliament for a day or two in order to kill the privilege motion, but that could set them up for bigger headaches, particularly as they want certain bills out of the Sente and prorogation would reset the clocks on them. In any case, the dysfunction is intentional, and the Conservatives need to be called out on the lies they are spreading to justify this behaviour.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched a major drone attack over Ukraine, targeting 15 regions; casualties included two adults and a child after a drone struck a fuel truck in Chernihiv. Ukraine did hit Russian radar stations inside the country with long-range missiles, while Ukraine’s top commander has ordered defences bolstered in the east after the loss of Vuhledar. New NATO secretary general Mark Rutte visited Kyiv as his first trip in his new role.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1841746253052321929

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau and Mélanie Joly have headed to the Francophonie Summit in Paris, and the subject of Lebanon will be one of the topics for discussion.
  • Mélanie Joly says they are adding resources to their mission in Beirut in order to process visas for the families of Canadians in Lebanon.
  • Senior Government Sources™ say the government will unveil their new plan for the CBC’s mandate within the next four weeks.
  • The government could be weeks away from making a decision on who will build the high-frequency rail/high-speed rail corridor between Toronto and Quebec City.
  • Canada is working with Nordic allies to create a coalition to counter Russian and Chinese threats to the Arctic (as Russia is on the Arctic Council).
  • There are questions as to why charges haven’t been laid in cases of Canadians skirting sanctions and sending banned electronics to Russia.
  • At the Foreign Interference Inquiry, the deputy commissioner of the RCMP admitted that they fail to follow up with diaspora communities that complain of interference.
  • The Ottawa Police say they will create a parliamentary unit because of the issues with the Asshole Brigade harassing people as they arrive and leave the Hill.
  • The pharmacare bill has passed committee stage in the Senate.
  • The Government Operations Committee continues to waste everyone’s time with the New York consul general’s residence purchase where there remains no scandal.
  • The Quebec government is moving a bill to create a new system to take down intimate images online, but it’s going to require a lot more judicial resources.
  • Wab Kinew reflects on his first year as premier of Manitoba.
  • Emmett Macfarlane walks through the illogic of a Charter challenge of MAiD laws by certain disability rights groups.
  • Paul Wells makes his observations on the second half of Trudeau’s interview on Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s podcast.

Odds and ends:

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