Tag Archives: Border

QP: Triple, triple, triple the bad math

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Even though the prime minister was in town, he was not in Question Period today, though his deputy was. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, worrying that housing prices have doubled, and that bills take up 60 percent of an average paycheque, while the government’s solution is to “triple, triple, triple” the carbon price. Steven Guilbeault reminded him that the carbon price is the most effective in the world, and that emissions have been reduced by nine percent and the revenues go back to households. Poilievre switched to English to decry the carbon prices, misleadingly talking about missed targets and insinuating that it was tripling overnight when it’s over a decade, and misquoted the PBO about the cost to households, before repeating his “triple, triple, triple” line, to which Guilbeault reminded him that O’Toole stated that pricing mechanisms were the best way to go. Poilievre repeated his assertions, and Guilbeault needled the Conservatives for constantly flip-flopping on their position on carbon pricing. Poilievre insisted that the Liberals “attacked” a woman in rural Newfoundland and called her a “polluter” for heating her home, and Guilbeault pointed out their programme to help people transition off of home heating oil. Poilievre mocked the government programme to help people afford a “tax,” accused the government of putting people into energy poverty, and demanded the carbon price increase be cancelled. Chrystia Freeland responded this time, saying Canadians understand that climate change is real, and that the global economy is in the midst of a transition to a green economy, which is why the government is helping Canadians and industry make that transition.

René Villemure led for the Bloc, and he accused the government of secretly giving contracts to Liberal donors around Roxham Road, to which Helena Jaczek read in French that they negotiated fair market value and publicly releasing the details would release commercially sensitive information. Villemure insisted this was just the government sowing doubt other contracts, which were not proven to be in any wrongdoing. Jaczek repeated a version of her statement in English. 

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and he demanded immediate EI for the Atlantic provinces in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, to which Carla Qualtrough says that Service Canada has waived the requirement for a record of employment. Alexandre Boulerice denounced Poilievre before repeating the same question on EI, and Qualtrough assured him that EI modernisation is on the way. 

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QP: More outrage clips about the carbon price

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While Justin Trudeau was in the Magdalen Islands to survey Hurricane Fiona damage there, his deputy was once again in the House of Commons for yet another round of the same talking points, back and forth. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and worried that the federal government was somehow hindering Quebec’s ability to build new hydroelectric dams to produce green electricity to power electric cars. Chrystia Freeland dismissed this as the Conservatives not having a plan for the environment. Poilievre shot back that the government doesn’t have an environment plan, but only a tax plan and that they have not met any reduction target (as though his government didn’t sabotage those efforts at every turn), and then complained about the carbon price in places like BC. Freeland reiterated that the Conservatives don’t have an environmental plan, but only a plan to plunder pensions and hurt Canadians. Poilievre tried his “JustInflation” line again and accused the government of raising taxes on paycheques, which are not taxes. Freeland said the Conservatives are only good for strutting but only want to drain pensions and keep kids from going to the dentist. Poilievre cited a poll that says that 51 percent of people are struggling to eat, and accused the government of being out of tough. Freeland said that the Conservatives were out of touch for a plan to raid pensions and slash EI, or to not have a plan for the climate as our customers—the US and the EU—will only buy our products if we have a climate plan. Poilievre tried again, trying to feign a tone of unctuous concern for people who can’t eat or find a home, but Freeland listed the actions they have taken which have reduced poverty, and finished off with a Bitcoin dig.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he worried about Roxham Road, saying the quiet part out loud in worrying about “cultural integration,” and wanted an Ethics Committee investigation on the CBSA contracts at the crossing. Freeland responded with a paean about the importance of immigration to our economy and in the strength of the refugee system. Blanchet chided her that Roxham Road is not about labour but humanitarian efforts—which is true—and demanded the contracts all be tabled publicly. Freeland said that as a border issue, they are working with the Americans, including on the Safe Third Country Agreement.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and said that he would be meeting with Autumn Pelletier about her petition about clean water for Indigenous communities. Freeland very slowly noted that as wonderful as Canada is, it has an original sin of our treatment of Indigenous people, and the government was working to rectify that. Singh repeated the question in French, and Freeland reminded him that they have invested heavily and there is still more work to do.

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QP: Those “heartless” increases to pensions and safety-nets

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The PM was in Newfoundland and Labrador to survey more damage from Hurricane Fiona, but his deputy was present today. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and once again, misleadingly insisted that deficits and government debt were fuelling inflation—not actually true—and demanded the government cap spending to fight inflation. Chrystia Freeland recited that the latest Fiscal Monitor shows the government is currently $6 billion in surplus, and that we have the lowest deficit and debt in the G7. Poilievre repeated the question in English, and Freeland repeated her answer extemporaneously rather than reading a script. Poilievre turned to the increasing carbon price, to which Freeland recited the rebates for Ontario, the lower taxes than under the Conservatives, and threw in things like childcare as other programmes to help the government. Poilievre cited food bank usage and a dubious statistic about students  living in homeless shelters, and wanted the carbon price cut, to which Freeland accused the Conservatives of either trying to cripple pensions or raise deficits. Poilievre tried yet again on the same talking points and Freeland returned with some quips about Bitcoin.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, made some comment about getting lemon wedges from the Governor General, before he demanded action on the situation at Roxham Road. Freeland responded with some scripted talking points about the strength of the asylum system., and workin with the Americans. Blanchet was not satisfied ,and point-blank asked why they didn’t just use existing ports of entry (as in suspending the Safe Third Country Agreement) than spending billions on new infrastructure at Roxham Road. Freeland said that the country is in need of labour, Quebec especially, and immigration was essential.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he once again trotted out his “greed-flation” attempt, demanding support for their committee study on grocery CEO profits. Freeland reminded him of their corporate tax increases. Singh repeated the demand in French, and got the same answer.

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Roundup: No breach of privilege for horse jokes

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Our long national horse-joke nightmare is over. The Speaker of the House of Commons ruled that said tweet didn’t impinge on Garnett Genuis’ ability to do his work, and was not a prima facie breach of privilege, and the matter is dropped. I’m just surprised that it took him three days to determine that, but here we are. I was able to return to the House of Commons without fear that I would be removed by security (because the privilege complaint got the Sergeant-at-Arms involved), and things went as they have for pretty much the past almost fourteen years. Sure, Andrew Scheer gave me a death stare, but he’s not going to keep me from doing my job.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1574767434145447940

With that in mind, a few notes and observations—while I might have preferred a stronger statement from the Press Gallery executive, I have come to learn that there was a lot of backroom pressure being exerted by certain Conservatives, so the Gallery didn’t relent to that, which is a positive sign, but still worrying about the overall implications. I am under no illusions—this was a targeted attack on me, and this was a test case for what the Conservatives hoped they could get away with in their attempt to go to war with the media. They figured that I was vulnerable, because I’m a freelancer without a corporation and a newsroom backing me up, and I’m gay, and they hoped it would count against me. It didn’t. The Gallery rebuffed their attempts, and I wasn’t about to let the Conservatives bully or intimidate me. But this was pure intimidation, and We The Media can’t kid ourselves. I was one of the first, but I will not be the last. We’re going to need to get a lot better at solidarity in the months and years to come. Am I going to recycle this horse joke yet again? Probably not. But I’m not going to stop calling out their bullshit, either in print or over Twitter.

The bigger warning sign is about what this says about the state of politics. For Scheer and Genuis, this is just a game, and they are more concerned with scoring points than they are in doing the work of being an MP, whether it’s actual accountability, or policy work, or any of it. And the sad reality is that this is where politics has been headed under the current generation for a few years now. Friends of mine who used to be staffers got so discouraged by this attitude about point-scoring—and this is from all parties, not just the Conservatives—that they wanted out. Their going after me was just another attempt to score a point, and that’s why I’m not going to laugh this off and say “It’s just politics.” Because it’s not “just politics,” and this is not a game. We need to break this mindset, and return to this being a serious place with serious people. Garnett Genuis and Andrew Scheer are not serious people. Oh, and if they couldn’t parse the grammar of that tweet, then they have no business scrutinizing legislation.

And finally, a big thank you to all of my supporters and followers over the past week. It was very heartening to get your messages of encouragement throughout, even as I dealt with an influx of trolls who apparently have nothing better to do with their time than stalk my Facebook, or click on my YouTube videos in order to down-vote them. (Guess what guys—the algorithm counts those clicks, down-votes and shitty comments as engagement in my favour).

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 216:

Russia is claiming to have won overwhelming majority votes in their sham-referendums (conducted at gunpoint) in occupied regions of Ukraine as a pretext for annexation, which no Western country is going to view as legitimate. Meanwhile, Russian men at risk of conscription are fleeing the country, and a Russian-backed disinformation network trying to spread propaganda about the invasion has been shut down.

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QP: Yet another day of misleading about CPP and EI

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While the PM was off to see the damage of Hurricane Fiona for himself, his deputy was in the Chamber in his seat. Pierre Poilievre led off, worrying that the current prime minister has fuelled inflation through deficits and debt, then decried EI and CPP as “tax hikes,” even though we have established that they are no such thing. Chrystia Freeland thanked the Conservatives for belatedly supporting the GST rebate, and said it wasn’t too late to support their other measures. Poilievre gave a grossly misleading accounting of EI and how it works, and Freeland reminded him that EI premiums are lower now than they were when Poilievre was the minister. Poilievre continued to falsely insist that EI wasn’t going to payouts but to government funds, and Freeland again repeated that premiums remain lower than when the Conservatives were in charge. Poilievre then concern trolled about the carbon price increasing, neglecting to mention that the rebates will also increase, and Freeland accused the Conservatives of planning to eviscerate pensions. Poilievre disputed this characterisation and tried again on the carbon price, to which Freeland said that he didn’t have a credible climate plan which means he doesn’t have a credible economic plan.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and accused the government of turning Roxham Road into a permanent facility, saying that the government wants it to last, and Freeland read a script about believing in the strength of the asylum system and working with the Americans on issues relate to the common border. Therrien accused this of being a racket benefitting Liberal donors, and Freeland insisted that they need to work together on immigration. 

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and demanded that the federal government force telecommunications companies to build robust infrastructure that won’t be cut off after a hurricane. (Really?) Freeland gave some assurances that they will help the Atlantic provinces rebuild, and they are working to help these companies restore cell service. Singh repeated the question in French, and got the same response from Freeland in French.

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Roundup: Threats only matter when it’s your family

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The chatter yesterday morning was that the Diagolon crew talked on their online show about raping Pierre Poilievre’s wife just to prove that they could, and lo, Poilievre got angry, referred this to the RCMP, and called the Diagolon crew dirt bags and insisted he had never heard of this group before, even though he very clearly had, and had been playing footsie with them like he has with a bunch of other far-right extremists. And yes, it’s horrifying that they would make these kinds of comments—which they insist were just “a joke” and that they meant no harm (far-right extremists are always “just joking” until they’re not), but Poilievre only seemed to care about rape threats when they were directed as his family, and not, say, the female journalists who reported on his connections with Diagolon, for whom Poilievre decried as a “smear” and sent his flying monkeys after them, who were again subjected to all manner of graphic rape and death threats, which he has never denounced. You see where this is going?

https://twitter.com/TedFriendlyGuy/status/1574412812574769152

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 215:

It is apparently the last day of Russia’s sham referendum in occupied regions of Ukraine, while their forces have conducted drone airstrikes on the port of Odessa.

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Roundup: No further comment

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In the event you have been cut off from the news cycle, I became the story yesterday as MP Garnett Genuis raised a point of privilege, and said that I made him feel “unsafe.” While I won’t comment much further until the Speaker makes a ruling on this, I have selected a few tweets from the day about the incident.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1573021640413548545

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1573043603072765952

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1573056388770988032

https://twitter.com/Garossino/status/1573056918389948416

https://twitter.com/Garossino/status/1573058396278099970

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1573087699262918656

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 211:

While the operational pause on Ukraine’s counterattack continues, they have been engaged in recovering bodies that have been unburied for months from earlier in the invasion. It also looks like a high-profile prisoner swap has been arranged, that will include some of the defenders of Mariupol.

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QP: Freeland steps up to call out Poilievre’s false tax claims

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While the prime minister was still at the UN General Assembly, his deputy was present today, so it was hoped we would get a better series of exchanges. Fingers crossed. Poilievre led off with his same talking points about the share of paycheques being devoted to housing, and demanded that “tax hikes” be cancelled. In response, Chrystia Freeland responded by reading a script about the role of the opposition in a Westminster system, but whatever point she was trying to make got lost. Poilievre switched to English to repeat same question, and Freeland noted that since EI premiums were mentioned, she pointed out that when Poilievre was the employment minister, premiums were $1.81, while they will soon be $1.61. Poilievre retorted with combined CPP and EI figures to show that they are higher overall, and Freeland lectured him that EI and CPP are deferred income, they don’t go to general revenue, they are the safety nets for Canadians. Poilievre insisted that the government was trying to raise CPP so its surplus could go to general revenue, and decried inflation and these so-called tax increases. Freeland said that it was irresponsible to talk down the economy, but Canada is better positioned than any country in the world. Poilievre insisted that thirty-year-olds in their parents’ basements would disagree with the rosy assessment of the economic picture, and Freeland pointed out that the government has measures for people in need, while the Conservatives have irresponsible plans, like investing in Bitcoin.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he congratulated Poilievre and gave a shoutout to Alain Rayes before saying that the prime minister should take Roxham Road on his way back to Canada because it is “faster.” Freeland read a response about respecting the rights of asylum seekers, and working with the Americans on border obligations including the Safe Third Country Agreement. Blanchet suggested that when Trudeau returns, he sing his responses before he demanded the Safe Third Country Agreement be suspended and Quebec be given its own immigration powers. Freeland pointed out that Quebec does get to control its immigration levels.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, decrying rising prices, while grocery profits have increased since 2020. Freeland assured him they are ensuring that big businesses pay their fair share, including higher corporate taxes, the pandemic dividend tax for banks and insurance companies, and the new luxury tax. Singh repeated the question in French, trying to introduce the term “greed-flation,” to which Freeland repeated her response.

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Roundup: The Convoy Party of Canada

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The CBC did the work of comparing the names on the leaked GiveSendGo data around donations to the occupation of Ottawa from back in February and compared it to the publicly available donor database from the Conservative leadership campaign, and lo, there was a lot of overlap, to the tune of $460,000 from 3,100 donors to both (a likely underestimate as they ignored close names and postal codes), and most of that went to Pierre Poilievre’s campaign. A lot of these names had never donated federally before, which shows that the occupation has galvanised a political movement. Now, this was only 4.2 percent of the donors to the leadership overall, but this gives you a sense of why Poilievre has decided to give up on the political centre and focus his hopes on these fringe elements who had previously been disaffected, hoping that they will be what is able to push him over the edge in the next election.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1570804839663415296

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1570805416250187776

This was something that I discussed with Stephanie Carvin in a previous video we did, and wrote a column about—this kind of political movement is catnip to parties, and they will try and ride this tiger in order to benefit from it, either in votes or donations. But that’s the thing about riding the tiger, is that almost all of the time, you can’t actually do it, and it will turn around eat you, and that’s exactly what Poilievre has risked his entire political party to do. And rest assured, a fringe group who are not rational actors will be very hard to control, and they risk easily turning on him when they find out that he can’t do most of the things he promised them he would, or that his economic theories are based on utter nonsense, and that his entire platform is built on a foundation of sand. We watched this happen when the Republicans in the US embraced the Tea Party, and it drove them further to extremism and to Donald Trump. Justin Ling details that, and other examples, in this op-ed, and the fact that Poilievre and his camp believe they’re cleverer than all of those other parties who tried to embrace the fringe and were consumed by it. That’s probably the most chilling part, because Poilievre is certainly not cleverer, and he has a higher opinion of himself and his abilities than anyone who has watched him for any length of period would see. Jason Kenney also suffers from the same affliction, and look where it got him. We are entering into dangerous territory.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 205:

Attention in the conflict remains on the discovery of the mass graves in Izium, where more have been discovered, and many with hands tied behind their backs and showing signs of mistreatment before they were killed. Meanwhile, it has been decided that president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska, will travel to London for the Queen’s funeral.

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Roundup: Meet Canada’s newest Supreme Court justice

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Prime minister Justin Trudeau announced yesterday that he will be appointing Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin to the Supreme Court of Canada, making her the first Indigenous justice on the top court. She will be replacing Justice Michael Moldaver, who retires on September 1st, a few months ahead of his mandatory date, and this is for one of the Court’s three Ontario seats. While it was a given that this appointment would be a woman in order to restore gender balance on the court, there has been pressure for an Indigenous justice for a while. This government has also mandated that official bilingualism should also be a requirement for appointment, which shrinks the pool of available Indigenous candidates a whole lot. And it’s not without controversy—it is true that, as many Indigenous activists point out, that kind of linguistic requirement is colonial, but it also has been pointed out that relaxing those kinds of requirements is generally done at the expense of French, which is also a very fraught notion with the insistence that French is “in decline” in the country (which is debatable, because use of French has been up in Quebec, but they are paranoid about the “mother tongue” statistics, which is generally about immigrants for whom French is not their first language).

While you can read O’Bonsawin’s application questionnaire here, it’s worthwhile noting that she comes to the Supreme Court directly from the Superior Court rather than the Court of Appeal. This isn’t a big deal, but it does speak to the pool of available candidates, because there are exceedingly few Indigenous judges at the appeal court level. This being said, it’s perfectly permissible to appoint people to the Supreme Court if they’re law professors, or even lawyers working in a firm—Justice Suzanne Côté was appointed directly from practice. This being said, O’Bonsawin has academic chops to add to her experience, with a PhD in the Gladue sentencing principles, which are about taking proper life circumstances into account during sentencing for Indigenous people. She also has done a lot of work around mental health, which is also important in the current legal environment, so it does look like she will bring a wealth of experience to the bench. The only thing I would say is that with Moldaver’s retirement, there is no longer a criminal justice specialist on the Supreme Court, which may be an issue in the longer-term, but there are enough bright minds on the court that I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

Meanwhile, here is some reaction from the president of the Canadian Bar Association, and several Indigenous leaders.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 177:

Ukraine has been making several drone attacks in the areas of Nova Kakhovka, near the occupied city of Kherson, as well as possibly the Crimean port of Yevpatoriya, which seems to be about Ukrainians showing their capabilities to Russian aggressors. Ukraine is also warning that Russia is planning a “large scale provocation” around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in an attempt to decouple it from the Ukrainian grid and attach it to the Russian grid, which is apparently a complex operation that could cause a disaster. Meanwhile, doctors talk about why they are staying in place in war-hit towns in Ukraine.

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