Tag Archives: Labour

Roundup: More security, no more oversight

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The new anti-terrorism bill was unveiled today, but in the government’s singularly dickish fashion – sending journalists to a lock-up off the Hill where they couldn’t even see the bill for the first hour, while Harper made the announcement in a pre-campaign stop in a suburb of Toronto. While the bill would largely expand the powers of CSIS greatly, it lowers the legal thresholds for preventative arrest and peace bones, criminalising the “promotion” of terrorism, allowing CSIS to “disrupt” would-be terror activities, removing terrorist materials from the web, sealing court proceedings, and overhauling the national no-fly list. Oddly enough, nobody would say how any of these measures could have prevented the October 22nd shooting in Ottawa. What it doesn’t do is provide any new or additional oversight to the agency, unlike all of our allies (but hey, they finally filled one of the empty seats on SIRC yesterday, but it’s still not up to full strength and there’s no permanent chair. Yay oversight!). It’s a strange kind of obstinacy, and only serves to make it like the government has something to hide. And then of course there are the concerns from civil liberties groups and the Privacy Commissioner, which goes to the breadth of activities and again the lack of proper civilian oversight. Tyler Dawson writes that the need to criminalise that “promotion” of terrorism is an admission of being afraid of these terrorists.

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/561220364957933569

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QP: Junk food proposals

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With Harper jetting off to the Francophonie Summit, and Justin Trudeau elsewhere, Thomas Mulcair was the only major leader in the House, where he led off by asking about junk food advertising targeting children — his latest policy proposal. Rona Ambrose responded that the government is concerned about child obesity, and they are investing in research and programmes on the ground. Mulcair insisted that his idea has proven effective in Quebec, to which Ambrose insisted that the real issue is getting children off the couch, no matter how healthy they eat. Mulcair moved onto thalidomide victims and his party’s motion on support for them. Ambrose noted that the government would support the motion. Mulcair then moved on to the issue of domestic violence and the need to find concrete solutions. Kellie Leitch started off going on about workplace safety and somehow weaving in violence against women, but confusingly. Mulcair asked if she would sit down with unions and employers about the issue of domestic violence, to which Leitch responded about meetings on mental health in the workplace. Marc Garneau led off for the Liberals, returning to the theme of the week about veterans, to which Parm Gill noted there were some concerns, but the government did offer support. Frank Valeriote picked it up, and Gill assured him that the minister works hard to consult veterans across the country. Joyce Murray recalled her question on a tragic veterans case that she raised yesterday, asking for an answer. Rob Nicholson noted how much they’ve increased the budget for veterans and to help those in need.

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QP: Colin Carrie reads some statements

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With Stephen Harper entertaining the president of South Korea just down the hall, and Justin Trudeau, well, elsewhere, Thomas Mulcair was once again the only major leader in the Commons, not that this is uncommon for a Monday any longer. Mulcair began QP with a short question about why the PM is boycotting the UN climate conference this week. Colin Carrie responded by praising the government’s action on GHGs in a ridiculous prepared statement. Mulcair decried the embarrassment of the government withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, and wondered if the government believed in a healthy environment, to which Carrie read another lengthy statement. Mulcair referenced his time as Quebec environment minister, and wondered if the government would include a right to clean air and water in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Carrie noted that Mulcair once had a smog day named after himself — and read another statement. Megan Leslie was up next, and spoke about the climate March in New York, and asked about regulations on oil and gas emissions. Carrie, undaunted, read yet another prepared statement. Leslie tried one last time to persuade the PM to head to the climate summit, but Carrie reminded her that the environment minister was attending. Rising for the Liberals, John McKay tried to keep up the pressure on the climate summit file, to which Carrie — once again — read a statement prefaced by the fact that the former Liberal leader named his dog Kyoto. Marc Garneau asked again in French, to which Carrie read a statement in French. Scott Brison closed the round asking about the problems with the EI tax credit, and Kevin Sorensen gave Carrie a break by reciting that the Liberals didn’t understand small business.

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Roundup: Buh-bye once more, Rob Anders

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And it’s buh-bye once again to Rob Anders, as he failed his second attempt at a nomination race, this time in the Southern Alberta riding of Bow Valley. There, the mayor of Brooks won the race, in spite of his questionable choices in haircut, beard and waxed moustache (seriously?), after he labelled Anders a “drop-in candidate.” Anders must have secured the party’s consent to contest a second nomination, but now it remains to be seen what he’ll do next. Oh, and he didn’t even bother to show up at the nomination meeting that he ended up losing in. Apparently Alberta has tired of him and his antics. I just can’t wait for him to denounce that riding as having been infiltrated with liberals and communists, as he tries to find the last vestige of a people who wear their prejudices as proudly as they drive their pick-up trucks.

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Roundup: Voices from the past

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A number of has-been pro-life (and homophobic) former Liberal MPs sent out an open letter to Justin Trudeau decrying his decree that a woman’s right to choose is a Charter issue and not a matter of conscience. They decried it as “anti-democratic,” never mind the fact that this was the policy voted on by the party’s membership during the policy convention before Trudeau won the leadership. Oops. The pedigree of these former MPs is also worth mentioning, as several of them quit the party to join the Reform Party, while others left over the same-sex marriage issue. Not surprising, most Liberals simply shrugged off the whole thing, while Trudeau tweeted out a fairly decent comeback.

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Roundup: “Stolen” land for a memorial

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An Ottawa architect is raising the alarm about the plans for the site of the “Victims of communism” memorial, saying it’s been “stolen” by the current government. The site, between the Supreme Court and Library and Archives, was supposed to be the future site of a building to house the Federal Court, but the current government has quietly scuppered those plans. That Federal Court building would have completed a triad of national buildings – the Justice Building, the Supreme Court, and the Federal Court building (which had approved designs and was ready to go before the Liberal government delayed the plans). The fact that the plans for that building to have been disappeared without explanation deserves explanation, but none are forthcoming. That such a prominent site is going to host a memorial (and one that is politically driven and is fairly controversial) rather than a significant national building should be concerning, however I fear this is going to be shrugged off like so many of the ways in which the national capital is being constantly denigrated and undermined by the current government.

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Roundup: Four new workers!

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It’s a special kind of desperation for a good news story when the government holds a press conference to announce four new jobs being filled. Specifically, four jobs on the Irving shipyard refurbishment in Halifax, which will be filled by Aboriginals. I’m still not sure the point of the announcement other than Peter MacKay saying “Look, we’re being diverse!” only they’re not even government positions (though they are getting a lot of government money). Sure, it’s nice that Irving has an Aboriginal employment strategy as part of its contracting procedures, but this was worthy of a government press conference? Sorry, but the news cycle isn’t that slow.

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Roundup: A dramatic exit for Dimitri

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In a bit of drama, late Sunday evening saw the departure of Dimitri Soudas from the post of executive director of the Conservative Party, following the nomination drama in the Oakville–North Burlington with Soudas’ fiancée, MP Eve Adams. Soudas had pledged to stay out of the nomination fight, but word has it that a doorknocking campaign for Adams was being run out of Soudas’ office, and that simply couldn’t do, especially with the allegations that he was being seen to interfere in the race already. Soudas had only been in the post four months, and already people are making the Helena Guergis comparisons with Adams. Apparently there was already some discontent in the party with Soudas when he was appointed to the position, as other members of the national council had other preferred candidates. Paul Wells looks back on those four short months, and how Soudas was supposed to be the adult supervision in the post-Nigel Wright era, only to become one more person through the revolving door of the PMO.

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Roundup: The minister of state who could not be shamed

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Pierre Poilievre once again affirmed his complete and utter shamelessness yesterday, as Harry Neufeld, the author of the report that Poilievre likes to cite, appeared before committee and said flat out that Polievre is misquoting the report, that he never said anything about voter fraud, and that the portions of the elections bill that remove vouching as an option should be scrapped, and if they’re not, the bill as a whole should be. But never mind that, Poilievre not only carried on selectively quoting Neufeld, and then said that Neufeld may have written the report but he couldn’t write the law. No, seriously. Because the best response to being caught out misquoting is to double down and insist that the author is wrong. Well done.

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QP: No intention of giving a detailed analysis

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With Stephen Harper now in Germany as his European trip carries on, and with Thomas Mulcair in Winnipeg, the only leaders present were Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May. Deputy leader David Christopherson led off by asking about the vouching provisions in the elections bill, to which Pierre Poilievre gave a soliloquy about voter irregularities. Christopherson brought up the robocall registry requirements, to which Poilievre said that the current requirement is zero, so the one year requirement was better. Christopherson moved onto the party fundraisers riding government jets, to which Paul Calandra insisted that the value of the flights were reimbursed, though he neglected to say that the rate of reimbursement was lower than that of an economy flight during a seat sale. Nycole Turmel asked the same again in French and got the same answer, and same with a boilerplate question about the elections bill. Justin Trudeau was up for the Liberals, and asked about cuts to climate change offices in Environment Canada. Leona Aglukkaq responded that they had cut projected emissions without a carbon tax, which basically meant nothing at all. Trudeau brought up the cuts to the Building Canada Fund, to which Peter Braid responded with a weak sauce “thousands of billions” quip before touting all of their infrastructure investments (neglecting to mention that those funds are back-end loaded).

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