The Globe and Mail has a few more details about the Liberal caucus revolt that looks like it will kill the refugee reform bill. And then yesterday on CTV’s Question Period, Jane Taber prompted Jason Kenney to slam the Liberals over this, and to give a bunch of misinformation about their concerns on the bill. Kenney was full of praise for Bevilacqua and claimed that it was just partisanship and “demagoguery” that killed it, not a principled stand against unworkable proposals that would have not only disadvantaged a whole class of refugee claimants, but would have become a bureaucratic and diplomatic nightmare. Even more outrageous, Kenney claimed that not a single piece of legislation has passed. Not so! Kenney did, however, say that he was introducing a new bill to help combat unscrupulous immigration “consultants.” This one he’ll likely have little trouble passing – unless of course he puts some kind of poison pill in it.
During Friday’s Question Period, Scott Brison asked after the subpoena being attempted to be delivered to Dimitri Soudas, and whether the government thought it was above the law. Pierre Poilievre chose to attack the committee chair, Paul Szabo, instead of responding. A showdown, however, does appear to be looming over the fact that Soudas has been avoiding subpoenas, as his refusal to means he’ll be undermining the supremacy of Parliament to summon any persons or papers it needs in its role as the grand inquest of the nation.
On the topic of undermining our Parliamentary system, The Canadian Press examines the PMO’s use of “Message Event Proposals” to micromanage government communications and blur the lines between the non-partisan civil service and the party’s messaging system, essentially getting civil servants to do the party’s dirty work for them. This is an egregious breach of our parliamentary system, and yet this government is getting away with it.
After a couple of weeks of hysterical media speculation about the possibility of a coalition government (because apparently the media – and one CBC host in particular who shall remain unnamed – are all a bunch of fanboys who wonder why England can have a coalition but we can’t), Michael Ignatieff says he’d be willing to lead one after the next election if warranted – but it’s inappropriate for him to strike any deals before then. Also, talk of a merger with the NDP is “absurd.” And I’m sure that this will be spoken of breathlessly today by uninformed media pundit fanboys.
Experts agree – trying to stop soldiers from having sex with one another is not exactly realistic. The real question, however, is when they abuse their positions of power, or feel they have some kind of special permission to cross moral lines because they’re in that kind of a position. But at least we’re now talking about this rather than simply pretending that soldiers in the field are chaste and without needs.
Peter MacKay is once again a single man. Make of that what you will.
And there’s a great article about the connection between the new Pop Life exhibit at the National Gallery and the state of the economy (not to mention this government’s attitudes), which is well worth a read.
Why you can trust Xtra
