Good morning,
Today is expected to be the last sitting day for both the House of Commons and the Senate before the election this fall, notwithstanding a brief return trip this summer to ratify the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal. (The Speaker, commenting on MPs’ rambunctiousness in Question Period yesterday, said: “It is a bit more like the last day of school, it seems to me.”)
Despite the last-minute time crunch and the back-and-forth amendments between the two chambers on a few contentious bills, Parliament is expected to get through passing most of the Liberal government’s major bills today.
Left to die ignobly on the order paper, though, are a few private member’s bills that had passed the House with wide support only to be trapped in the legislative pipes by the Senate’s top plumber. One of those is a bill that would restrict the marketing of unhealthy food to kids. Another is a bill, introduced by former interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, that would require judges to get better training for handling sexual-assault cases. And a third – apparently the main focus of Conservative senators’ obstructions – is a bill that would pledge Canadian law adhere to the United Nations declaration on Indigenous rights. That last one, though, is set to get a reprieve if the Liberals are re-elected this fall – in commenting on the inability of the Senate to pass it in time, the government’s point man in the Senate, Peter Harder, said the UNDRIP pledge would find its way into the Liberal campaign platform.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Washington today to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and Congressional leaders. The main items on the agenda are getting the United States’ support in dealing with China and co-ordinating the ratification of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer finally unveiled his environmental policy yesterday, which includes a raft of regulatory changes and a pledge to export more clean Canadian energy sources to foreign markets. Mr. Scheer did not say his government would meet the Paris targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in an effort to curb climate change, but he said his plan was more likely to meet the targets than the Liberals'.
The ability of federal scientists to speak freely to the public about their research has been enshrined in their contracts, their union says.
Canadian security agencies now have the legal ability to launch cyberattacks against foreign threats, under legislation that is now awaiting royal assent.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expected to shuffle his cabinet today with what could be a major overhaul – including, if the Toronto Sun is right, booting his finance minister Vic Fedeli.
And coming to an election this fall: deepfakes, the name for convincingly false videos that make it seem like politicians are saying something they’ve never said.
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on the Conservative and Liberal climate policies: “Each side is already attacking the other’s plan viciously for being unfair and unworkable. But most people looking in from the outside would see little difference. If this is the state of political polarization in Canada, we should offer a prayer of thanks.”
John Ivison (The Globe and Mail) on the Conservative plan: “It should come as no surprise that the new Conservative climate plan is a Potemkin village of a policy, designed to give the impression of solidity to a fake, precarious construction. That’s because Andrew Scheer is giving voters what they want: expressions of concern about climate change, without the imposition of any financial pain.”
David Mulroney (The Globe and Mail) on Canada-China relations: “There are many smart reasons for engaging China, but flattering the leadership in Beijing isn’t one of them. Good ideas emerge from hard thinking about long-term Canadian interests. Even summoning the vision and courage to think strategically would mark a significant improvement over our current China policy, which appears to be conjured up from equal measures of wishful thinking and parliamentary politics.”
Sophia Lowe (Ottawa Citizen) on the plight of refugees and how to do something about it: “The scale of the issues we face, especially the global refugee crisis, and the current political climate make me want to crawl into a cave and cry, or maybe live off the grid in the woods and read books about gardening and pet kittens forever.”
RM Vaughan (The Globe and Mail) on Pride: “We have to stop fighting in front of straight people. Full stop. Because the dominant majority is always watching, always waiting for us to break ranks. And they don’t care if, among ourselves, the conceit of ranks, of queer unity, is considered at best questionable, at worst an illusion. Rather, they love our family squabbles because the fighting makes us distrustful and afraid of one another, and thus easy targets.”
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