The heads of CSIS and the RCMP went to committee to say that while ISIS is not an imminent threat to Canada, we have to be vigilant about domestic terrorism threats. Well, sure. And then Stephen Blaney talked about arresting these people and throwing them behind bars, because you know, due process and stuff. Blaney also said that they won’t be implementing exit controls, because those belong to totalitarian countries – but they do share entry data with the Americans, which is a de facto exit control system because if one enters one country, they had to exit the other. But that’s not totalitarian. Incidentally, the government has also announced funding for a bunch of new studies on finding the root causes of domestic terrorism and radicalization. And here Pierre Poilievre assured us that the root cause of terrorism is terrorists.
Tag Archives: Shelly Glover
Roundup: Distraction sauce on the satellite offices
The Commons Board of Internal Economy met yesterday, briefly, but came to no resolutions about NDP satellite offices because an hour before the meeting, the NDP delivered more documents that the committee didn’t have time to consider. And meanwhile, Peter Julian put on a big dog and pony show about the “Kangaroo Court” that is the Board, and how they want it opened up, and so on. And that’s really where the whole narrative falls apart. This tactic of releasing more documents just before the meeting smacks to me of the same thing they tried when Mulcair was called before committee, where they produced untranslated documents – something they know won’t be distributed (and usually they are the first to complain, given their Quebec-heavy caucus). And then they want the doors thrown open, so that they can put on the same demonstration of obfuscation and bafflegab that Mulcair did at committee, where he not only talked around his answers, but made untrue allegations under the protection of parliamentary privilege (lest we forget the falsehoods about Conservatives co-locating party and MP offices), all the while every NDP staffer was on Twitter proclaiming that “this is what transparency looks like.” Indeed it was. That they rather transparently want to do the very same thing at Internal Economy makes it seem all the more reasonable for the other parties to say no. Thrown into this are their demands that the Auditor General audit everybody – in order to spread blame around – and demands that Internal Economy be blown up and replaced with a more open body (thus providing yet another ground for partisan showmanship, and depriving MPs and administration a place for full and frank discussion about administrative matters) all smacks of one thing – distraction sauce. Delicious, delicious distraction sauce. You’ll pardon me if I prefer my sauce on the side.
QP: A dig about veterans’ mental health
With all of the leaders in the House, it promised to be an exciting QP, but first, there were many Members’ Statements touching on the topic of Bell Let’s Talk Day. Thomas Mulcair began by asking about keeping the veterans service centres open, to which Stephen Harper assured him that they increased the number of centres — the over 600 Service Canada centres across the country. Mulcair brought up the eight recent military suicides to drive home the point, and Harper insisted that the centres being closed were hardly being used. Mulcair hit back by saying that Harper’s commitment to Bell Let’s Talk Day was cutting mental health services for veterans, before asking about his “affordability” proposals. Harper was not amused, and amid cries of “Shame,” pointed out the support they were giving to mental illness which was one of the reasons why he appointed Denise Batters to the Senate, given her advocacy work. Mulcair tried to ask about Senator Mac Harb’s alleged mortgage fraud, but the Speaker rightfully pointed out that it was not a question related to government business and shut it down. For his last question, Mulcair demanded that Harper ask the Government of Brunei to order their former diplomat to cooperate with the RCMP about Harb’s mortgage — because he apparently doesn’t recognise diplomatic immunity. Harper assured him that he had confidence in the RCMP to do their jobs. Justin Trudeau brought up a First Nations youth training centre in Whitehorse that is funded by the Labour Market Agreement that the government proposes to cut in favour of the Canada Job Grant. Harper insisted that youth unemployment was lower now than the average under the whole of the last Liberal government. Trudeau brought up a similar centre in Sudbury, but Harper said that they were making provincial transfers that benefitted these trainees. Trudeau closed by up the PM’s previous statements about provincial responsibility in this area, to which Harper responded that they recognised that job creation was the responsibility of the federal government.
QP: Undaunted in 2014
The first QP of 2014 was ready to get underway, and Members’ Statements were dominated by Holocaust Remembrance Day statements and condolences for the lives lost in the Quebec nursing home fire. Before things got started, the four new MPs got marched into the House by both Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, and they took their seats. Mulcair started off by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and asked his first question about the situation in Ukraine. Harper assured him that they too were concerned about it. Mulcair moved onto the suicide crisis within the Canadian Forces, and wondered if the PM would make this a personal priority. Harper assured him of the quality of mental health programmes available to members of the Forces. Moving on, Mulcair asked banking and ATM fees — a topic of his “affordability tour.” Harper gave some bland assurances, before Mulcair moved onto a question of Access to Information documents around the Senate scandal that the Privy Council Office refused to release — which makes sense as they are almost certainly legal opinions, given that the Senate is not a government department, and legal opinions are protected information. Harper insisted that the ATIP process is independent of government. Mulcair’s last turn was to bring up the alleged mortgage fraud perpetuated by retired Senator Mac Harb, which has absolutely nothing to do with government business. But rather than the Speaker shutting down such a blatantly out of bounds question, Harper got up and noted the independence of the RCMP’s investigations. Justin Trudeau was up, and noted that the provinces had rejected the Canada Job Grant programme, and wondered if the government would abandon it. Harper said that they remained committed to closing the skills gap across the country. Trudeau hammered away at the issue with his remaining questions, but Harper insisted that they were doing their part for job creation.
Roundup: The million-dollar shot
The crass politicking of Harper’s trip to Israel was laid bare yesterday with an incident at the Western Wall when Conservative MP Mark Adler was caught on tape haranguing a PMO staffer about getting past the security line to get a photo with Harper at the wall. “It’s the million dollar shot,” he complained, and reminded him of the re-election coming up. Adler, as it happens, has a large Jewish vote in his riding, and he narrowly took the long-held Liberal seat, so he has reason to be worried. But that said, it demonstrates just how much this trip is more about domestic politics than it is about an actual commitment to international engagement in the region. Speaking of those domestic politics, an anti-gay pastor is a member of the Harper delegation. Naturally. And then there’s the question of Canada’s position on the settlements, to which Harper said our position is well known – that we’re opposed to them – but refused to articulate it, saying instead that he wasn’t going to “single out” Israel for criticism.
Roundup: Shelly Glover and Joy Smith, concern trolls
Shelly Glover, police officer “on leave and planning to return to it once she’s out of politics,” is currently peddling in hysterics and trading upon her time as a police officer that worked undercover on the prostitution beat. Glover says that the laws that were struck down will make it more difficult for police to help exploited women and children – err, except that the laws against human trafficking and child exploitation remain in effect. The laws that were struck down were the ones that made women in those situations be afraid to go to the police for fear of self-incrimination, which seems like a bigger deal than police using those laws to arrest those same women, criminalise them, and hope that it might instead put them in touch with social services agencies while they were locked up. And then there’s her caucus colleague, Joy Smith, who a) doesn’t actually read the literature on the Nordic Model of prostitution laws except for the ones that are devoid of fact and tell her what she wants to hear, and b) conflates all sex work with human trafficking, and all human trafficking with sexual exploitation, which anyone with an inkling of how things work can tell you is a gross overreach. I’m glad that Smith thinks that it’s easy enough to criminalise the buyers of sex to curb demand – because that totally worked with things like alcohol during the prohibition era or illicit drugs today, right, and criminalising those very same drug users is totally saving lives in places like Vancouver’s Lower East Side, right? Oh, wait… Terri Jean Bedford, one of the plaintiffs in the case, says that any new laws need to take consenting adults into account, which may be difficult when faced with an ideology that the exchange of sex for money is inherently bad (while ignoring the other transactions for sex that occur as part of everyday dating and marriage). CBC looks at five questions arising from the Supreme Court decision.
Roundup: Premiers still saying no to Kenney
The premiers met in Toronto yesterday, and the Canada Jobs Grant programme was again up for discussion, and it should be no great surprise that the premiers are still united in their opposition. In fact, they said that they are looking for some clear alternatives from Jason Kenney, if he is serious about there being flexibility in the programme. The premiers also wanted some clarity around foreign investment rules, never mind that Harper has previously said that he doesn’t want too much clarity in order to have wiggle room in the event that they want to block any acquisitions they find to be undesirable.
Roundup: About those “robust” audits
Two new reports from the Auditor General show that the honour system is alive and well in both the Commons and the Senate, and it was all just a cursory look without digging into any MP or senator’s expenses. While the Senate has been making reforms to their internal processes before the current spending scandals erupted, the Commons has not, and it seems that only Justin Trudeau has been championing a more robust audit process by the AG. To hear Thomas Mulcair tell the tale, as he was all spring, the AG did a thorough and comprehensive audit and found no problems, which clearly is not the case.
Roundup: Heir to the Canadian throne
So there we have it – a future King of Canada has been born, and everyone’s delighted. No, seriously – everyone, though the NDP’s official statement of “warmest congratulations” was pretty lukewarm. And it was even more disappointing that the official Canadian Crown Twitter account was using the #BritishMonarchy hashtag rather than, you know, the Canadian Monarchy, which this baby is also heir to. Also, it seems that royal babies are good for business. Who knew?
Quebec’s attorney general has decided to weigh in on the challenge of the royal succession bill at the Quebec Superior Court, and he too believes that the provinces have a role in making such a change, as the constitution would otherwise indicate. The federal government says it will fight the challenge, since they would rather let political expedience trump the constitution.
Roundup: Another day of the Senate doing its job
The Senate did its job, and sent the union transparency bill back to the Commons. Sixteen senators voted in favour of Conservative Senator Hugh Segal’s amendment, which raised the disclosure level in the bill (to the same level as the government changed Brent Rathgeber’s bill to, as it happens). Oh, and another six Conservative Senators abstained, which pushed the vote over. This has shown the rifts opening up in the Conservative caucus – MPs griping about Senators doing their jobs (because MPs of course never draft and then pass bad bills), and Senators in the caucus who are tired of being bullied into supporting bad bills. And in this case – a bill that was entirely dubious constitutionally – well, it was intolerable for most of them to support it, and yes, numerous Harper appointees voted for the amendment, including one of the “elected” Senators from Alberta. And while some Conservatives are grousing that this is just the Senate trying to justify their existence, it’s really just them doing their jobs. This shouldn’t be dramatic because the Senate is not a rubber stamp, and it never has been. Just because people expect them to be – out of civic ignorance – and are suddenly shocked that the system works the way it’s supposed to, it should be a reminder and a teachable moment. Instead we’re seeing complete butchery of civic literacy among the political talking heads, which is distressing to say the least.