Tag Archives: PCO

Roundup: Silence on some un-apologies

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After Friday’s dubious denunciation of visiting far-right extremist MEP Christine Anderson by a proxy of Pierre Poilievre, and notably not Poilievre personally, either in front of a camera or on social media, and Colin Carrie’s completely insincere apology and lies that he didn’t know who Anderson was, well, the other two MPs doubled down. Despite the party-written apology, Leslyn Lewis used whataboutery in order to defend her meeting, while Dean Allison told a known white nationalist that he wasn’t consulted about the apology and didn’t agree with it, and found Anderson to be a “good lady.”

And Poilievre? Well, he was tweeting about a Black History Month event with Lewis, after she defended her meeting with Anderson, and has not distanced himself from Lewis’ meeting or her whataboutery in any way. So, it sounds like there’s a problem here.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives appear to be content to wink and nod to these extremists, and will simply issue more insincere apologies every time they get caught out, because that’s the whole game these days.

Ukraine Dispatch:

While battles continue to wage around Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for yet more sanctions on Russians, in order to keep ratcheting up the pressure on them. But with any sanction regime, compliance is key. Ukraine’s energy minister says half of the country’s energy infrastructure has been damaged by Russian attacks since October. And here is a look at how the war is impacting children in Ukraine.

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Roundup: Asking for a “special monitor”

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As case numbers continue to rise alarmingly in most parts of the country, Ontario Premier Doug Ford tried to get into a pissing match with the federal government over vaccines, and the federal government wasn’t playing ball, simply tweeting vaccine delivery numbers in response. This on the same day that Ford insisted that schools were safe, and hours later, Toronto’s chief public health officer issued a Section 22 order and closed all Toronto area schools as of today, so that’s a good look. (In Alberta, Jason Kenney also had to issue new restrictions, while still trying to take swipes at the federal government for vaccines well – distraction from their own failure to contain the virus).

In the middle of this, Erin O’Toole decided that he was going to promise a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic – which, to be fair, the government has also said they would be willing to hold once things were in the clear, because everyone wants lessons learned – but O’Toole loaded his particular desire for such an inquiry full of easily disproven allegations and conspiracy theories. Things like how there weren’t any vaccines even being considered last spring because everything was too new; or CanSino (which the government never “put all their eggs in one basket” with, and the vaccine task force didn’t give them any priority when they started compiling the vaccine portfolio), which he keeps referencing as though saying it often enough will make it true. That, and by focusing solely on vaccines, he is very conspicuously trying to avoid blaming his provincial brethren for their massive failures, for which a proper national public inquiry would probably be needed to enumerate (because I doubt that most of those provinces will call inquiries of their own).

More to the point, O’Toole’s demand for a “special monitor” to be appointed from the Auditor General’s office to examine decisions “in real time” is literal parliamentary insanity. What exactly an accountant knows about public health decisions I’m not entirely sure, but frankly, having them looking over the government’s shoulders is literally O’Toole abdicating his own responsibility for holding government to account for their decisions. Trying to pawn the job off to a non-partisan Officer of Parliament (or their proxy) as a way of using them as both a cudgel and a shield is the height of cowardice and a refusal to do his own bloody job. It’s also why I keep warning against the proliferation of these kinds of Officers – pretty soon, MPs won’t have a job left to do. This is a mess all around, and O’Toole continues to prove that his attempts at showing he is relevant only reiterate that he is trying to make himself obsolete.

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Roundup: Kabuki theatre around the Elections Act changes

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There are days when the state of our parliament achieves the level of farce, and we appear to be having another of those moments. Minister Dominic LeBlanc sent a letter to opposition party leaders – which seems to be a more common occurrence the days – urging them to pass the bill that would allow for pandemic-related changes to the Canada Elections Act per the request of the Chief Electoral Officer. This bill was tabled back in December, and we have just exhausted the sitting weeks in March, and it still has not even made it to committee, in part because the Conservatives have spent weeks using procedural tactics to delay debate on most every piece of legislation on the Order Paper.

LeBlanc apparently mentioned the upcoming budget in the letter, because that is a confidence measure and this is a hung parliament, so it is possible that the government could face a non-confidence vote and trigger an election at pretty much any point. And so during what debate there has been on this bill, the opposition MPs keep saying that there’s no imminent election unless the Liberals plan on calling one, and the NDP are going so far as to say that they simply need to work together to avoid one. Essentially, they get to accuse the government of opportunism for trying to do their due diligence at the request of the Chief Electoral Officer, which is cute for everyone involved.

But here’s the real kicker that makes this all a farce – the bill has an implementation period of 90 days after royal assent. The House isn’t sitting for the next two weeks, and even if they managed to have a Second Reading vote, speed it through committee and rush it to the Senate, I don’t image that it could be passed both chambers before the 23rd of April at the earliest, and only then would that 90-day clock start. That means that the changes couldn’t be fully implemented until the very end of July, meaning that even if the budget were the crux by which the government could fall (those votes would likely happen sometime in early May), there is no way that these changes could pass before a spring election could be called (considering the usual writ period of about six weeks). Any party pushing for an election without these changes would be suicidal. The government really has no interest in calling an election (seriously, and I’ve spoken to ministers who lament the number of items they have on the Order Paper that they need to see passed), especially because we are now into a Third Wave of this pandemic and there is no possible way we can vaccinate our way out of it without a time machine, so all of this chest-thumping by parties (and pleading by bored pundits) is for naught. This is all a bunch of Kabuki theatre for the sake of scoring points. We are not a serious country.

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Roundup: A lack of will is not an emergency

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With the spread of variants on the rise, and certain provinces still insistent on relaxing public health restrictions, we’re going to get another round of reporters demanding that the federal government invoke the Emergencies Act to force provinces to maintain lockdowns – which they can’t actually do. No, seriously – they can’t do it.

I cannot stress this enough – the federal government cannot just invoke the Act on a whim. It needs to meet the threshold – which I am hard-pressed to see how this situation does – and it needs provincial consent, and if it doesn’t it is essentially declaring war on the provinces, and is going to poison the well of federalism. And even more to the point, keeping the focus on the federal government continues to give premiers who aren’t doing their jobs a free pass when we should be holding them to account for their failures.

Speaking of which, the math on these variants is scary, and premiers need to so something about it rather than feigning helplessness, which is what they’re oh so good at. They have the power to do something about it, rather than shrugging and blaming the federal government for not making vaccines appear out of thin air. But that’s what they’re doing, and that’s what the vast majority of the media are letting them get away with. We shouldn’t let them.

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1363532149832310784

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Roundup: O’Toole’s risky, ideological experiment

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Erin O’Toole met with the Toronto Star’s editorial board yesterday, and indicated that any election won’t be his doing, which would indicate that he’s in no rush to call non-confidence with this government – and why would he? Should he topple the government (in a pandemic), he would not only have to wear that decision, but also try to explain how he would do things differently around things like vaccine procurement – something which he won’t actually do because he knows that we don’t have the domestic capacity to produce them, and that the current delays are outside of this government’s control. He won’t say those things out loud, because he needs to create a narrative about this government “failing,” even though he couldn’t do any better, but the truth has apparently never been a barrier for O’Toole (nor his predecessor).

What O’Toole is trying to do is set up a competing narrative for the post-pandemic recovery, where he gets to frame the Liberals’ plans of “build back better” – focused on green and inclusive growth – as being some kind of risky, ideologically-driven “experimentation.” The problem with this, of course, is that his plans for getting the economy back to status quo is that the old normal led us to this point – including the thousands of deaths that happened as a result of this pandemic. It would seem to me that trying to get to the old normal is risky and ideological, because they have proven to have failed, and were stifling growth – remember that calls for inclusive growth predate the pandemic and were highlighted by those radical ideologues at the Bank of Canada as a necessary pathway if the Canadian economy was to continue growing at a point where we had reached “full employment” and future growth was going to be constrained. Nevertheless, O’Toole is pandering to a voter base (and, frankly, a pundit class) that fails to see that the future economic drivers are going to be the green economy and ensuring that we get more women and minorities into the workforce. For a party that likes to fancy itself as “good economic managers,” they seem to be completely blinkered on where the market is heading, and are trying to chart a path that everyone else is rapidly abandoning.

Meanwhile, O’Toole’s finance critic, Pierre Poilievre, has been putting on a big dog and pony show about our unemployment rate over the past few days, and thinks he has a winning line in talking about “paycheques versus credit card debt,” but he’s basing it on a false premise that unemployment figures are directly comparable – they’re not, and as a former employment minister, he knows that and is lying to you. (He also knows that places like the US have their economies opened with massive death tolls as a result, but those are just details, right?)

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Roundup: Demanding a de facto death penalty

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It shouldn’t surprise me that Erin O’Toole would stoop to some pretty low places in order to score points with his base, and yet here we are, as he declares that the federal government’s plan to start vaccinating prisoners in federal institutions to be unpalatable.

There is so much wrong with this particular shitpost that one barely knows where to start, but let’s begin with simple logistics. The federal government has their own allocations of vaccine for people under their healthcare delivery jurisdiction, and that includes prisoners in federal penitentiaries. While O’Toole objects to them getting vaccines head of “any vulnerable Canadian,” he is ignoring that prisoners are absolutely a vulnerable population in a congregate living situation where there are currently outbreaks that are ongoing. Withholding vaccines from them is cruel, unusual, and unconstitutional. The Correctional Service of Canada has not handled the pandemic well. They’ve lied about the “extra sanitation” they’re doing, they have not provided adequate PPE for inmates or staff, and people who are exposed to the virus tend to be sent to solitary confinement, which we know has been declared a form of torture and a human rights violation. Not to mention, none of these prisoners were given a death sentence, which is what leaving them exposed in an outbreak could amount to.

This is the part where the usual right-wing commentariat starts trying to distill this into a false binary, that if you think prisoners should start getting vaccines right away, you “hate healthcare workers” and support “rapists, murderers, and paedophiles.” Never mind that for the vast majority of prisoners, their only real crime was being born poor, Black, or Indigenous, or some combination thereof. We know about over-policing and systemic racism, and that’s why a lot of them are in the system. Don’t fall for this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, because it’s designed to provoke – much like O’Toole’s shitpost.

And that’s the other part – vaccinating prisoners helps prevent community spread, from the guards, to the staff, and the surrounding communities. It’s a prison, but nothing is actually contained to the building. I would say it’s unbelievable that O’Toole doesn’t get it, but I’m sure he does – he’d rather provoke and throw some red meat to his “law and order,” “tough on crime” base who will reduce this to a simple binary and call it a day. But who needs facts, context, or nuance when you can shitpost your way to angry voters, right?

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Roundup: Consulting the caucus

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Yesterday the Star reported that Justin Trudeau has been so weakened by the WE Imbroglio that he is *gasp!* asking his Cabinet ministers and caucus for ideas about the upcoming Speech from the Throne. I find the fact that this is a news story to be pretty distressing because this is supposed to be how governments work in this country – it’s not supposed to be a one-man-show with the leader and his or her office running the whole party’s platform and policies.

This criticism certainly extends to what we just saw out of the Conservative leadership race, where each candidate had a policy book that they were running on – something that should never happen because it’s not leaders who are supposed to come up with policy, but the party’s grassroots members, and the Conservatives especially like to crow that they are a “grassroots party” that respects its members, and so on. If that was the case, why would your leadership candidates be trying to run on different policy platforms? And you can’t say that this is about what the leader believes in – policy platforms are not beliefs, and the party shouldn’t be contorting itself to fit the leader because it’s not supposed to be a personality cult, but sadly we’ve missed that boat, and that’s exactly what parties have become in this country.

As for the notion that Trudeau should be consulting with the Conservatives on his Throne Speech, as raised in the Star piece, he really has no obligation to – it’s not O’Toole’s job to prop up the government, even if Trudeau wants to project some kind of “all in this together” message about the economic recovery. That’s not how our system works – we need opposition to hold the government to account, and trying to co-opt the opposition with promises in exchange for co-operation weakens that accountability. There are two other dance partners that the government can tap to maintain confidence, but subverting the official opposition is not a viable course of action.

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QP: Who is the better feminist?

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For the first time this week, and after all of the drama that has happened thus far, all of the party leaders were present, just in time for PMQs. Andrew Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, and he stated that everything that Wilson-Raybould was true, everything the PM was false, and wondered why telling the truth got one kicked out of the Liberal Party. Justin Trudeau stood up and extemporaneously stated that being in caucus comes with rights and responsibilities, that he listened to the members of his caucus, reflected on it, and decided to take this difficult action in order to move forward. They went again on the very same in French, and then Scheer disputed Trudeau’s statement, and Trudeau pointed out his party’s record when it come to strong women. Scheer said it was “unconscionable” go kick out someone who speaks truth to power, and Trudeau deployed his line that the Conservatives will do anything to not talk about the budget. When Scheer tried again, Trudeau said that when it comes to talking about falsehoods, Scheer shouldn’t throw stones. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and he raised Grassy Narrows, and demanded that Trudeau head there immediately. Trudeau apologised again for his comments last week, and said the minister of Indigenous services was in touch with the chief. Singh raised the message Trudeau was sending to Daughters of the Vote, and Trudeau talked about how they won’t always agree but that’s why this place exists, and they need to defend their principles. When Singh tried again, Trudeau raised reconciliation and how they are acting for Canadians instead of playing politics. Singh tried again in English, and Trudeau concern trolled that Singh hopefully didn’t mean to disparage the other women in Cabinet and caucus. 

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QP: The “proof” of the tape

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The first day back after a week away, the release of the tape, and with the federal carbon price backstop now in effect, it was likely to be a complete dog’s breakfast in QP, but none of the leaders were present to take part — Justin Trudeau meeting with the president of Israel, and Andrew Scheer in New Brunswick to shake his fist performatively at said carbon price. Candice Bergen led off, saying that the tapes “proved” that there was orchestrated pressure on Jody Wilson-Raybould, and said that since she couldn’t ask if the prime minister lied so she tried to word around it — and got a warning from the Speaker. Bardish Chagger reminded her that the prime minister took responsibility, the justice committee held five weeks of hearings, and everything was in public, and the Ethics Commissioner was investigating it. Bergen demanded the truth from the prime minister, and Chagger largely repeated the response. Bergen demanded that the prime minister instruct the justice committee to reopen the investigation, to which Chagger said the committees are independent and the system is working. Alain Rayes took over in French, repeated that the tapes “prove” interference, and demanded the truth. Chagger reminded him that they always tell the truth, and that it all happened in public so that people could hear for themselves. On a repeat of the same, Chagger said that the opposition hasn’t been listening to witnesses. Peter Julian led off in French for the NDP and demanded a public inquiry, and Chagger listed off the work of the committee and the Ethics Commissioner. Julian switched to English to repeat his demand for a public inquiry, and Chagger reiterated her response. Georgina Joilibois raised the issue of the Grassy Narrows protester at the Liberal fundraiser last week, to which Carolyn Bennett reminded her that they are working with the community and are moving forward on the promised health facility, and capped it off with a shot at the Conservatives. Brigitte Sansoucy repeated the question in French, demanding the PM visit Grassy Narrows immediately, and Bennett read the French version of her previous response.

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Roundup: Backlash from the tape

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Following Friday’s release of the documents and audio tape provided by Jody Wilson-Raybould, and now comes the backlash. Which at this point I think is the backlash to the backlash to the backlash to the backlash, or something. It’s like they’re ships firing broadsides at one another endlessly, and they’re all taking on water, but nobody will stop, and it’s just so exhausting. But here we go (again).

To begin with, Bill Morneau’s office is disputing the characterisation of conversations their staff had with Wilson-Raybould’s staff, and Gerald Butts tweeted that he’s submitting more of his documents to the committee, which will be released publicly when they too are translated. Michael Wernick’s lawyers are saying that Wernick didn’t brief the PM on the call with Wilson-Raybould because of holidays and the fact that Scott Brison’s announced resignation consumed matters subsequently, and that they didn’t talk about SNC-Lavalin until the Globe and Mail story came out (which one former staffer says is entirely plausible, though not everyone is buying it). Patty Hajdu went on television to say that Wilson-Raybould’s recording of that conversation was unethical, and that she doesn’t think she can trust her in caucus not to record their private conversations any further, though she’ll leave any decisions about ousting her to the caucus itself. And then there was a whole tangent arising from those documents about whether Brian Mulroney directed Kim Campbell as justice minister regarding the David Milgaard case, which led to competing versions of what happened in Mulroney’s memoir’s versus Campbell’s (and she tweeted out more clarifications over the weekend).

As for Wilson-Raybould, she says she’s “absolutely ready” for whatever happens next, and insists she was doing her job and “speaking her truth.” She also stated that Jane Philpott didn’t resign for her benefit, but because of Philpott’s own sense of integrity (which may be a way of trying to shield Philpott from the inevitable calls to have the pair of them booted from caucus, which will only intensify after the revelation of the recording). But a lot of things will now circle back to that recording, something that BC’s former Attorney General says speaks to a “deep fracture” at the heart of the Liberal Party. And he may be right, and it may also be a consequence of doing politics differently, given that one former national director of the party says has a lot to do with Trudeau’s refusal to put any heads on (metaphorical) spikes, which may now cost him in the long run.

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