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BY NEIL MOSS

Opposition MPs say the Liberal government is ignoring an

agreed-upon change that gives Parliamentarians more trans-parency over trade deals by not alerting the House of the start of trade negotiations with the United Kingdom after the top U.K. trade official said those talks have “commenced.”

BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN

After a nine-month leadership race and a crowded field of

eight candidates that members took eight ballots to narrow to

BY NEIL MOSS

With laborious voting sessions leading to MPs conducting

parliamentary work into the early morning, the NDP says more work should have been done by the government to get the voting app

ready for use as it is still “months away” from being ready.

The current hybrid voting set-up has caused some MPs to miss

votes due to technical issues and led to early morning sittings. On Sept. 29, MPs sat in the Chamber and remotely into the next day at 3:16 a.m. to pass Bill C-4, with individual votes taking upwards of an hour to complete.

BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN

When the Red Chamber returns Oct. 27, the gov-

ernment’s representative in the Senate promised swift action to finalize hybrid sittings, but did not commit to a date when they’d be up and running.

On Oct. 2, more than a week after the House returned and unanimously approved hybrid sit-tings, Senator Marc Gold gave no-tice of a motion to bring the same to the Upper Chamber, granting

Liberals ignoring promise for trade transparency as U.K. talks ‘commence,’ say critics

NDP says Liberals at fault for slow progress on testing voting app that is ‘months away’ from being ready

Senate leaders expect quick vote on introducing hybrid sittings when Red Chamber returns 

New Green leader must unify party after crowded race, members say, as Paul marks historic win

Continued on page 14

Continued on page 13

Continued on page 12

Continued on page 5

News

News

News News

THIRTY-SECOND YEAR, NO. 1769 Canada’s PolitiCs and Government newsPaPer WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 $5.00

‘I think there’s a lot of healing to be done and if we approach it in this spirit of mutual respect, I think we can emerge from this difficult period a much stronger party,’ says runner-up Dimitri Lascaris.

LisaVan Dusen

p.7

COVID ad buy pushes Fragiskatos

to top of MP-

spending list p.4

Setting the record straight on the October Crisis

Andrew Caddell p.7

From the Troubles to trade: new Irish envoy touches down

Diplomatic Circles p.11

ScottTaylor

p.3

New Green Party Leader Annamie Paul, pictured during her second parliamentary presser on Oct. 6 in the West Block, says she's confident she can be a leader for all in her party. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Canada’s top diplomat is headed to Europe to meet with allies to discuss a

path to de-escalation in the revived conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I’ve asked the foreign minister to travel to Europe to discuss with our allies the developments in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, particularly in the Nagorno-Karabakh,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Oct. 5 in a press conference.

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters the same day that Canada brings “credibility when it comes to speaking for the protec-tion of civilians, the protection of human rights, and making sure that we work with the presidency of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe].”

“I’ve been in touch with my colleagues from Albania, which currently holds the presidency, to see how Canada can play a role,” he said, noting the role Canada has played during the Belarusian protests.

Mr. Champagne said that he wanted to see both sides go back to the negotiation table and to prevent civilian casualties.

He also announced that Canada is suspending the export permits of drone technology to Turkey after Armenia alleged that Ankara was using drones to support Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia.

“We are concerned by allegations of external influence,” said Mr. Champagne, remarking that he hopes to develop a “common response” with European allies to de-escalate the conflict.

Ralph Goodale to be named Canada’s next U.K. high commissioner: report

One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s most trusted cabinet voices until his defeat in the 2019 federal election is set to be named as Canada’s next envoy to the

United Kingdom, according to a report.Citing unnamed sources, CBC reported

that Ralph Goodale will be given the keys to Canada House in London’s Trafalgar Square where Canada’s High Commission in the United Kingdom has been located since the 1920s.

Mr. Goodale was a Liberal MP from 1974 to 1979 and 1993 to 2019. He has served in the cabinets of prime minis-ters Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, and Mr. Trudeau, taking charge of the public safety, finance, and public works and government services portfolios, among others. He lost his Regina-Wascana, Sask., seat to Conser-vative MP Michael Kram.

Since his defeat, Mr. Goodale has been the government’s special adviser to the downing of Ukrainian commercial airline Flight 752 by Iranian authorities, which killed all 176 on board, including 55 Cana-dians and 30 permanent residents.

The appointment continues a tradition of filling Canada’s most important diplo-matic posts with political appointees. Mr. Goodale will be the third former cabinet minister to be appointed as an envoy by

Mr. Trudeau—former foreign affairs minis-ter Stéphane Dion is Canada’s ambassador to Germany and envoy to the EU and past immigration minister John McCallum was an ambassador to China.

Canada’s high commissioner post to the United Kingdom has been filled by both political appointees and career diplomats. The last career foreign service officer was James R. Wright, who served in the role from 2006 to 2011. More recently, past B.C. premier Gordon Campbell was the high commissioner from 2011 to 2016. The post is currently filled by former Privy Council clerk Janice Charette.

Global Affairs announced a handful of appointments last week.

Louis Dumas, an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) bureau-crat, was named Canada’s next ambas-sador to Egypt. Previous ambassador to Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua Mi-chael Gort is Canada’s new envoy to Chile. Annick Goulet becomes Canada’s repre-sentative to Romania. Christine Laberge will be ambassador to the Dominican Re-public. Former ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Denis Robert is becoming ambassador to Denmark. IRCC’s Emina Tudakovic has been named high commis-sioner to Jamaica. Behzad Babakhani and David Verbiwski have been named consul generals to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, respectively.

Jagmeet Singh joins in on Dreams TikTok trend

The NDP leader is taking part in the TikTok trend that ballooned after an Idaho man videotaped himself skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice and lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s hit Dreams.

Jagmeet Singh posted his own version to TikTok on Oct. 5.

“Autumn vibe,” the video’s description reads, which shows Mr. Singh skateboard-ing while drinking Zevia Cola and lip-syncing to the 1977 classic.

The video had nearly 700,000 views after only four hours of it being posted.

Mr. Singh used the social media plat-form during the 2019 federal election to highlight his party’s platform.

Trudeau had COVID-19 test in August after ‘throat tickle’

With news of U.S. President Donald Trump testing positive for COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told re-

porters he had a test in the summer after having a “bit of a throat tickle.” The test was negative.

“Earlier in September, I had a bit of a throat tickle is the best way I could say, a bit of a raspy throat. I checked with my doctor and he recommended I get tested. I got tested. It was negative and I went back to work a few days later when the doctor told me I was cleared to do it,” he said. The Prime Minister’s Office later clarified the test happened in late August, according to media reports.

Near the beginning of the pandemic hitting Canada, Mr. Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, tested positive for the virus, but Mr. Trudeau wasn’t tested at the time, he said.

“The best public health advice at that moment was since I was asymptomatic I needed to isolate but shouldn’t get tested,” he told reporters on Oct. 5.

Mr. Trudeau, nor the PMO, did not previ-ously release that he had been tested for COVID-19.

Past foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy to talk COVID-19 and refugees on Oct. 7

As the pandemic threatens the most vulnerable, former foreign affairs min-ister Lloyd Axworthy will participate in a Pearson Centre chat about refugees in COVID-19 times.

Mr. Axworthy, who currently serves as the chair of the World Refugee Council, was Canada’s top diplomat from 1996 to 2000 in then-prime minister Jean Chré-tien’s cabinet.

In recent months, Mr. Axworthy has highlighted (alongside Sen. Mobina Jaffer) the human rights crisis in Northern Iraq where Yazidi people are returning to Sinjar, where they were forced to flee after ISIS took control of the town and committed genocidal attacks against the local popula-tion.

The webinar will be hosted by Pearson president Andrew Cardozo, a contributor to The Hill Times. It will take place on Oct. 7 from 2 to 3 p.m.

nmoss@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES2

by Neil Moss

Heard on the Hill

Champagne popping off to Europe in hopes of quelling Armenia-Azerbaijan clash

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne says Canada has 'credibility' on the international stage in speaking up for human rights and the protection of civilians. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Ralph Goodale was the public safety minister from 2015 until his electoral defeat in 2019. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s Dreams video has nearly 700,000 views after four hours of being posted. Screen capture courtesy of TikTok/Jagmeet Singh

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s August COVID-19 test wasn’t revealed publicly until this week. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Lloyd Axworthy was foreign affairs minister from 1996 to 2000. The Hill Times file photograph

3

OTTAWA—At the Sept. 29 U.S. presi-dential election debate, Donald Trump

propelled the hate group the Proud Boys into the international spotlight. When asked by the moderator to denounce white supremacists, Trump balked and asked for the name of a specific group. Former vice-president Joe Biden suggested the Proud Boys, to which Trump stated, “Proud Boys … stand back and stand by.”

Within minutes, members of the Proud Boys took to those social media platforms,

which they can still access, to assure Trump they are indeed “standing by” for the president.

By the following morning, the alt-right hate group had begun merchandising clothing adorned with the Proud Boys logo and Trump’s phrase “stand back, stand by,” which is now their adopted slogan.

In the days following the debate, Trump tried to assert that he did not know anything about the Proud Boys and their beliefs prior to his public shout out to the hate group on all national TV networks. This claim of ignorance—like many things Trump has said to date—seems unlikely to be true.

The previous week, the Proud Boys staged a protest rally in Portland, forcing the Oregon governor to declare a state of

emergency. Several hundred Proud Boys, decked out in body armour and helmets, with many brandish-ing assault rifles, assembled to counter the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests that have gripped Portland’s streets for weeks on end.

Almost as promi-nent as U.S. flags among the Proud Boys were Trump election banners.

While the Proud Boys’ leadership denies they are white supremacists, the

FBI considers them to be an “extremist group” that has “ties to white nationalism.” They are a male-only organization of self-proclaimed chauvinists who are preserving what they call “western culture” and they refuse to accept any guilt for the current state of the modern world.

While they do allow non-white member-ship, their basic mantra is to hate Muslims, Jews, and transgendered people. On the flip side, they love Donald Trump and they love to fight.

One of the initiation rituals for the Proud Boys is to have several members punch the candidate while he recites the names of five breakfast cereals. I could not make this stuff up. The reasoning behind

this cereal-pummelling stunt is that a Proud Boy must be able to keep a clear head in a fistfight.

Which brings us to the next level of ini-tiation rites: to actually fight with members of the “radical left.” The Proud Boys have therefore figured prominently in the heated clashes that have occurred this past sum-mer across numerous U.S. cities.

Last year, two Proud Boys were convict-ed of assaulting left-wing protestors and sentenced to four years in jail in the U.S.

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, a self-styled provocateur with dual British and Canadian citizenship. McInnes has subsequently distanced him-self from his creation, but the Proud Boys movement now has chapters across the U.S, the U.K, Australia, and Canada.

In 2017, the Proud Boys maritime chapter confronted a Canada Day Mi’kmaw ceremony in downtown Halifax. There was no violence, but once it was discovered that the five par-ticipants in Proud Boys black-and-yellow polo shirts were members of the Canadian Armed Forces, it became national headline news.

After a brief suspension and some coun-selling, four of the five service members returned to active duty, while the fifth had already been in the process of obtaining his release at the time of the incident.

When it was announced that the CAF was fully reinstating these personnel, Proud Boys Canada chapters celebrated on social media. “We win, our brothers the Halifax 5 are returning to active military duty with no charges, let the [social justice warriors] tears pour. Proud of our boys.”

One has to wonder if the Proud Boys membership has increased throughout the CAF since the 2017 incident. If so, are they, too, “standing by” for whatever it is that Trump intends to use the Proud Boys?

Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine.

The Hill Times

Comment

Potential Proud Boys proliferation in Canada’s military deserves a closer look One has to wonder if the Proud Boys membership has increased throughout the CAF since the 2017 Halifax incident, and, if so, are they, too, ‘standing by’?

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

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A right-wing rally in Columbus, Ohio, was held on Aug. 29. Members of the Proud Boys love U.S. President Donald Trump, and they love to fight, writes Scott Taylor. Flickr photograph by Paul Becker

Scott Taylor

Inside Defence

4

BY BEATRICE PAEZ

An ad blitz to amplify the government’s efforts to help

Canadians struggling amid the pandemic vaulted Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos to the top of the list as the House of Commons’ biggest spender in the first fiscal quarter.

Mr. Fragiskatos said he paid for a series of billboards to run across his riding of London North Centre, Ont., in an effort to ensure that his constituents were aware of the various government pro-grams that have been launched to help mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. Of the $123,167 in expenses he claimed, $37,175 was spent on advertising and $10,000 on householders.

“In the midst of a crisis, people are going to have questions. I wanted to provide assurances there was an easy way to reach [me],” he told The Hill Times. “Simply putting up a tweet does not achieve that. All of this is per-fectly in line with budget rules.”

The Liberal MP, who was first elected in 2015, noted the Board of Internal Economy—the committee that oversees House spending—recently approved a 20 per cent budget change to be used on public messaging. With that change, MPs can spend a maximum of $80,628 on advertis-ing over the fiscal year. The red billboards, which feature Mr. Fragiskatos and are still up, invite constituents to contact him if they have questions about the feds’ COVID-19 Economic Response Plan—a multibillion-dollar pack-age designed to provide support to Canadians and businesses fac-ing financial hardship.

He also incurred additional ex-penses tied to his move to a new

office downtown. He disclosed $10,744 in related costs, noting that the change in location means he will be paying higher rent and utility costs.

Conservative MP Greg McLean, who was first elected to represent Calgary Centre, Alta., in 2019, came in second, disclosing $119,288 in expenses from April to June. Mr. McLean attributed the higher-than-normal costs to an office move. He told The Hill Times that he opted to keep his predecessor’s old space for the four-month grace period landlords are typically given when MPs leave office to save the cost of paying rent—roughly $40,000—for two locations. Mr. McLean said he ended up pay-ing the relocation costs to his landlord upfront, noting he gave a deposit that includes first and last month’s rent worth about $17,516. He said those costs would be recouped whenever he vacates the space.

Coming in third among the highest spenders was Bloc Québé-cois MP Marilène Gill (Manicoua-gan, Que.). Ms. Gill, her party’s deputy whip, logged $117,001 in expenses, with the largest amount ($22,976) tied to office costs. In an email response to questions about her first-quarter expenses,

Bloc spokesperson Joanie Riopel said in French that the spending changes were due to the hiring of more constituency staff and efforts to rearrange the office to adhere to physical distancing re-quirements. Ms. Riopel also noted that Ms. Gill’s deputy whip role has her travelling to Ottawa more frequently than other caucus members.

The most frugal MP, mean-while, was Liberal MP Patricia Lattanzio (Saint-Léonard–Saint-Michel, Que.), who disclosed $42,149 in expenses, about half of which ($21,187) was spent on employee salaries. Following closely behind her were Liberal MPs Kody Blois (Kings-Hants, N.S.), who only spent $49,175 and Peter Fonseca (Mississauga East–Cooksville, Ont.), who spent $51,659. The largest expense Mr. Blois and Mr. Fonseca both disclosed was for staff salaries at $27,661.65 and $28,272.43, respec-tively. Ms. Lattanzio, Mr. Blois,

and Mr. Fonseca were all unavail-able for comment.

Overall, MPs disclosed $26.92-million in expenses, a dip from the $33.31-million logged the year before and the $31.26-million disclosed in the same quarter in 2018. This year’s decrease can likely be attributed

to the slowdown in travel for MPs and their designated travellers because of the pandemic.

The first quarter coincided with the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, which forced Parliament to temporarily shut down in mid-March, with all par-ties unanimously agreeing to limit presence their in the Chamber to a quorum proportional to the distribution of party seats. All travel plans related to the work of committees and parliamentary associations were also scrapped. In the first quarter, MPs spent a total of $2.25-million on travel, an amount that also covers trips taken by their designated travel-ler, staff, and dependants, along with costs related to accommoda-tion and secondary residences. Over the same period last year, MPs logged about $7-million in travel expenses, and in 2018, they disclosed $5.8-million.

Travel costs may continue to be lower than normal, with most MPs still confined to their ridings at least for the rest of the year. Parties struck a last-minute deal on Sept. 23 to temporarily change the Standing Orders—or House rules—to allow for hybrid parlia-mentary sittings during the global pandemic, with the terms agreed to expiring on Dec. 11.

House officers bill $3-million in first quarter

Over the same fiscal period, House officers—from the Speaker to party whips to House leaders—spent a total of $3.28-million. Of that amount, some $3-million was spent on employees’ salaries, while the rest went towards service contracts, travel, and hospitality. The year before, which featured a different crop of MPs, officers spent a total of $3.24-million.

The office of then-Conserva-tive leader Andrew Scheer (Re-gina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.), who left his post in late August after the election of successor Erin O’Toole (Durham, Ont.), disclosed the most in expenses at $707,901. His party’s National Caucus Research Office expensed the second high-est, spending half a million, with the bulk covering salaries.

The lowest-spending office this year so far is that of as-sistant deputy Speaker Carol Hughes (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, Ont.), which logged nearly $6,000 in expenses, most of which—$5,668–was earmarked for staff salaries. Ms. Hughes shares duties as assistant deputy Speaker with Liberal MP Alex-andra Mendès (Brossard–Saint-Lambert, Que.), who had no expenses to report, according to disclosure filings.

The Bloc Québécois, which recouped its official party status last October, accounted for about half a million of the expenses, with $220-million spent on its research office. In the last Parlia-ment, prior to the 2019 election, the Bloc’s House officers were unable to expense costs related to running the leader’s office, paying for the salaries of research staff, hospitality, and travel, because it did not meet the threshold to qualify as a recognized party.

More detailed spending re-ports breaking down committee travel and hospitality costs are expected to be released for the first time this year, thanks to Bill C-58, which amended the federal Access to Information Act and introduced new proactive disclo-sure requirements for Parliament. At the same time, the first report, which was expected by the end of September, might not be released because there would be no com-mittee travel, which has been all but halted amid the pandemic, to report. MPs themselves have mainly been meeting over Zoom.

Heather Bradley, communica-tions director at House Speaker’s office, also noted in an email that, with prorogation, the Liaison Committee was unable to meet to “adopt the usual report on com-mittee expenses.”

The legislation took effect June 21. Under the legislative changes, the “Activities and Expenditures” report will now include detailed breakdowns of hospitality costs, and will be ac-companied by new travel-expense reports for each committee. — With files from Laura Ryckewaert

bpaez@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Liberal MP Fragiskatos’ tops first-quarter spending thanks to pandemic ad blitz The Board of Internal Economy Committee recently approved a 20 per cent budget change to be used on public messaging.

News

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos, left, Conservative MP Greg McLean, and Bloc Québécois MP Marilène Gill topped the list of biggest spenders in the first quarter. The most frugal MPs that period were Liberal MPs Patricia Lattanzio, Kody Blois, and Peter Fonseca, right. Photographs courtesy of the House of Commons

A red billboard paid for by the office of Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos invites constituents to contact him for questions about the feds’ multibillion-dollar COVID-19 Economic Response Plan. Photograph courtesy of Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos

5

Senators the ability to participate in sittings and votes remotely.

“When we return on [Oct.] 27, I’m confident our motion will be passed very quickly so we’ll be ready to transition to a hybrid sitting as quickly as possible. This is going to be my very first order of business,” said Sen. Gold (Stadacona, Que.) told The Hill Times in an interview after the motion was tabled, noting that discussions have continued since he first shared the draft on Sept. 29 with the four leaders.

“It will be voted on in a timely fashion and there will not be delays and grandstanding, of that I am convinced,” he said, and that after the motion’s expected speedy passage, hybrid sittings will begin “as soon as we can.”

He’s said there’s broad agree-ment that it’s a “good framework” to proceed with and there’s over-whelming desire among Senators to begin working. Since mid-March, the Senate has met only a few times to pass emergency legislation with a fraction of the Senators in the Chamber and under an agreement that there would be no formal votes.

Now that the House of Com-mons is resuming the pace of legislative business, he said the Senate must be ready to receive the bills to review them prop-erly and critically. Asked if he’s confident the technology will be ready, Sen. Gold said that’s the purview of the Speaker’s office. Senate administration is working to have the system in place and operational as soon as Senators make a decision, said Ross Ryan, press secretary to Senate Speaker George Furey (Newfoundland and Labrador).

The administration has been working towards an end of October launch date with the pos-sibility that Senators would want to proceed with a hybrid format from “the get go,” as soon as the motion is approved, he added, but

said the exact date when the sys-tem would be ready has yet to be determined. The Senate adminis-tration has dedicated “substantial resources” to get the Chamber ready for hybrid proceedings, he added.

The draft motion said that “as soon as practicable,” the Senate should begin hybrid sittings and sets Dec. 18 for when the terms of the agreement end—a sunset clause group leaders said was im-portant to give them a chance to review and see how the Chamber is running under the new rules.

Under the draft rules, Sena-tors can participate by video-conference, and are required to use equipment provided by the

Senate, including a desktop or laptop computer and headphones with an integrated microphone. Senators must have their video broadcasting when speaking and aren’t required to stand, but are banned from using other devices to participate, like tab-lets or smartphones. It sets out procedure for voice votes, with standing votes only able to be re-quested by those in the Chamber, and requires Senators by video to hold a card up to signify their yea, or nay. Senators and the govern-ment can also submit documents electronically.

On every day but Friday, sittings should last until 9 p.m., and the Speaker can suspend the sitting if there are technical problems.

It’s intended as much as possi-ble to mimic regular proceedings, said Canadian Senators Group Leader Scott Tannas (Alberta), who, with support from the Inde-pendent Senators Group (ISG), forced Sen. Gold to bring forward the motion last week. With Bill C-4 before the Senate Oct. 1, the CSG and the ISG denied unani-mous consent to pass the govern-ment’s changes to employment

insurance and the creation of new COVID-19 benefits, with Sen. Tannas decrying the quick pas-sage without study of legislation, and the fact the Senate had no agreement on how to sit so it can properly review such bills.

His group’s 13 members have been “incredibly frustrated” at the pace of getting a plan, especially those who couldn’t come to Ot-tawa due to travel and health restrictions, said Sen. Tannas.

“It, in my mind, is and was disrespectful to those people to not have moved faster on this,” he said, and technology is not a good excuse with the Senate “flounder-ing around for months” on a plan.

“For a number of us, this was the week to show that it was time to get on with this and so, mission accomplished, we’re pleased that the government leader stepped forward with a resolution we can vote on literally within minutes of us getting back,” said Sen. Tannas, who said the draft looks good, but he expects there will be some tweaks over the next three weeks as leaders compare notes.

ISG facilitator Yuen Pau Woo (British Columbia) said his group was “fully aligned” with the CSG, and “the pressure that was exerted [last] week has borne some fruit.”

The draft is a culmination of multiple meetings with lead-ers and the Speaker over many months, and already has wide-spread support among the 44 ISG Senators, said Sen. Woo, as this version has taken into account some of their suggestions.

“We’ve delayed for too long already,” he said, adding the Con-servatives have obstructed the Senate’s movement towards hy-brid sittings. The way the Senate has been operating has “created a two-tier Senate,” with those in Ottawa able to participate and all others left out.

Draft motion flawed: Conservative Sen. Plett

Though Conservative Senate Leader Don Plett (Landmark, Man.) said he doesn’t like the idea of hybrid sittings, he said he won’t vote against it, and will reluctantly accept a motion with a clear end date. He’d like to see more Senators in the Chamber, which he said can accommodate up to 84 if both the floor and gal-lery are used.

Still, he said the 21 Conserva-tive Senators and their staff will be combing through the motion and he expects a number of changes will be made.

“When we come back on 27th, I really suspect you will see quite a different iteration of this motion, and, who knows, maybe to the point where it will be withdrawn and a new motion presented. There are a number of instances in motion that would be more appropriate for a virtual sitting than for a hybrid sitting,” said Sen. Plett.

A “glaring” example, he said, is the motion currently reads for the Senate to sit five days per week, when the Chamber typi-cally sits three days per week and leaves Monday and Friday for committees and travel. He said he’s worried that’ll leave no time for Senators who make the trek to Ottawa and are also dealing with extended travel times amid COVID. For instance, he can no longer get a direct flight home to Winnipeg, Man.

Sen. Tannas said these points are worth considering, but the Senate is already empowered to sit five days, though by conven-tion it doesn’t. Sen. Plett also pointed out that it calls for the sit-tings between 2 and 9 p.m., which might work for those at home, but seven straight hours isn’t practi-cal for those in the Chamber, and leaves “virtually no time” for committees.

“None of that is taken into consideration,” said Sen. Plett.

Though Sen. Tannas said it was important to bring the draft motion forward last week, fear-ing more delays, Sen. Plett said it didn’t make a difference if the draft motion came forward last week, as he said Senate adminis-tration has said it won’t be ready to “flip the switch” until Nov. 1. Sen. Tannas said he’s wary about any more delays, but a few days

after the Senate returns won’t make a big difference.

Still, Sen. Plett is skeptical the hybrid system is the best, citing the House’s experience with lengthy voting delays and calling it a “joke” to see some MPs appearing with children or dogs in the picture, or in their cars.

“What happens in the middle of a sponsor speech or the middle of a critic speech, and he or she loses their internet services?”

For Progressive Senate Group (PSG) Leader Jane Cordy, hybrid sittings can’t come soon enough. The PSG leader returned from Nova Scotia last week to the Upper Chamber for the first time since March. It was “unnerving” coming to Ottawa, a “hot spot” in the grips of a second wave com-pared to the Atlantic bubble, said Sen. Cordy, who’s not sure she’s comfortable returning.

The draft is “a good working document” and has been sent to all 11 PSG members for feed-back, said Sen. Cordy, adding she understands the delays, given the amount of work Senate adminis-tration has to do to get each and every Senator supported.

“Everyone needs a laptop, everybody needs the headset, interpretation, there’s been work putting cabling in the gallery, so if more Senators start showing up, some can sit upstairs in the gallery because we still need safe distance,” she said, and because it’s a shared network with the House of Commons, it makes sense the Lower Chamber would be up and running first and it’s expected there will be glitches.

“Just because it’s a sunny day in Ottawa doesn’t mean it’s a sunny day in Nova Scotia or in Calgary or across the country.”

Before the motion came for-ward, Independent Nova Scotia Senator Colin Deacon said hybrid sittings were taking too long to finalize and while the Atlantic remains in its bubble, it’s the dif-ference between whether he can participate or not.

“It doesn’t worry me that there might be a bumpy start. Any time you change a system, you’re going to have bumps,” he said, and that shouldn’t be a reason to delay getting Senators online. “Perfection is, without a doubt, the enemy of progress.”

swallen@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Senate leaders expect quick vote on introducing hybrid sittings when Red Chamber returns  ‘We’ve delayed for too long already’ on creating hybrid sittings in the Senate, says ISG facilitator Yuen Pau Woo.

News

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

Continued from page 1

Canadian Senators Group Leader Scott Tannas says his group was frustrated it took so long for the government to bring forward a motion on hybrid sittings. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

On Oct. 2, the government's representative in the Senate, Sen. Marc Gold presented a draft motion setting out potential rules for a hybrid model that Senators will vote on when they return Oct. 27. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

6

We have just lost a fine Canadian. I was blessed to get to know him. His wis-

dom, his passion for Canada, his deep com-

mitment to our beautiful environment—all this became clear through lengthy tapings on his life and times at the National Ar-chives of Canada.

This giant of a man, a great warrior on behalf of Canada and Canadians over his long lifetime, was renowned to friends and colleagues for his spiritual power, an inde-finable inner light that guided him through the best and worst of times. This was the spirit the Huron people called orenda. The stuff of all great chiefs and leaders. A vital spirit. Mystical.

When Huron and Algonquin chiefs first met Samuel de Champlain, they recog-nized that spirit in him. They came to Que-bec in multitudes at the time of his death in 1636. Portaging, canoeing the great rivers to be with this honoured man.

The Rt. Hon. John Turner bore that spirit within him. The orenda power to effectu-ate change for the better. The indefinable inner light in a man whose vision and love of country and all the lonely spaces of Canada was legendary.

“I love what we have built as a nation. I love what we stand for and, above all, I love that it is ours.” As he prepared for the “fight of his life” in 1988, these words were the anchor of the campaign. The moral compass.

In fact, this life-long love affair with Canada began when he was a boy. Turner lost his English father at the age of three, and was raised by his mother, a miner’s daughter from Rossland, B.C., who would rise to become the most senior woman in the federal civil service during wartime. Phyllis Gregory Turner was a single mom who fought hard to raise her children dur-ing the Great Depression. As she sought excellence in herself, so she did with her children.

At this time, young Turner came under the wing of the late A.L Cochrane, who became his mentor and father figure. In one of our taping sessions, I had the great privilege of hearing him speak about Cochrane’s pivotal importance in his life. He taught him to canoe and survive in the Canadian wilderness. It was the great Cochrane who unleashed a mystical bond with the beauty of this vast country that lasted throughout a lifetime.

There was such poetry in Turner. Find his words in his little red field books, re-corded during lengthy northern inspection tours with his northern affairs minister, Arthur Laing (1963-65). Treasures. Read his emotional speech at Pond Inlet in 1969, giv-en when he was minister of justice, upon his admission to the Bar of the Northwest Territories. A “land of glacial wonder,” he said. Bright, white clad. Here was the soul of the Canadian identity he so loved.

As I read the proceedings over the Columbia River Treaty in 1963, I could virtually hear the government’s lead ques-tioner thinking through the testimony and questioning the witnesses as the very fine lawyer he was. The treaty was ratified by both countries in 1964 but was, for Turner, an education in the peril Canada faced if we began to surrender our resources to the enormous appetites south of the border.

The late Blair Fraser, one of Canada’s leading journalists at the time, recorded the evolution in his thinking as Turner became the foremost defender of the position that water is a priceless resource

and that no Canadian government could consider surrendering its birthright. He took his message to Washington, D.C., in 1965, telling Americans that continentalism was foreign to his vocabulary and warned that Canada would not consider exporting surpluses without pledges of guaranteed access to American markets.

Striking words this great Canadian would carry into the historic 1988 cam-paign.

“We wanted to change the world and that’s why we were there,” the newly elect-ed Member of Parliament from St. Law-rence-St. George, Que., said in June, 1962, reflecting on the boisterous, brainy flock of talented young liberals who accompanied him into Parliament, an institution he so revered, and whose traditions he fought for all his life. Duty. Commitment to county. The honour of public service. Character, yes, always character.

It has been said that Canada is a su-preme act of faith. No one understood that better than Turner. His legacy to Canadi-ans? Protect our country. Defend it. Travel every byway. Canoe every river. Love every part of our country. Keep our democracy strong. Young people? We need you more than ever in this lonely, this difficult, unpredictable world of 2020. We need your leadership and your strength. We need you to change the world. We need your orenda spirit.

Elizabeth McIninch is an international business consultant who, earlier in her career, had the privilege of serving as John Napier Turner’s archivist. She recorded eight interviews with him at the National Archives of on his life and times (1998-2003). Elizabeth is co-editor with Arthur Milnes of Politics of Purpose, 40th Anniver-sary Edition, published by the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, 2008. She served as adviser and researcher to Paul Litt in his compelling biography Elu-sive Destiny, the Political Vocation of John Napier Turner, UBC Press, 2011.

The Hill Times

Opinion

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Elizabeth McIninch

Opinion

The orenda factor in the wonderful life of John Napier Turner This giant of a man was renowned to friends and colleagues for his spiritual power, an indefinable inner light that guided him through the best and worst of times.

Find out how you can support

Canadian brewers.

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Former prime minister John Turner, pictured in 2019, whose Sept. 19 passing was marked with a state funeral in Toronto on Oct. 6, possessed the orenda power to effectuate change for the better, writes archivist Elizabeth McIninch. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia

7

During the last two major global clashes between de-

mocracy and totalitarianism—un-leashed by the rise of fascism that produced the Second World War and of communism that produced the Cold War—ideology was at the core of the battle, at least in theory.

The process of seducing hu-man beings as adherents until the obliteration of democracy makes those same human beings redun-dant, enslave-able, or dispensable hasn’t really changed much. This time around, there’s more corrup-tion than seduction involved in the wooing of human assets who’ve enabled and expedited outcomes, but the element of sticker shock on the other side of functioning democracy, should it come to that, promises to be just as acute.

The political, geopolitical, and institutional players who’ve been degrading democracy for the past two decades are not interested in ideology beyond the degree to which it can be selectively exploited to rationalize corrupted outcomes. In the current war on democracy, the Trojan Horse of ideology has been stabled except where, depending on the dateline, white supremacy or populism are used as narrative rationales.

The rise of China and Russia as dictatorships deploying 21st-century cyberwarfare to control events within their own borders and disrupt them elsewhere was not about ideology. China’s leveraging of its economic power to produce anti-democracy out-comes in debt-trapped countries is not about communism. The massive migration of covert nar-rative warfare tools and tactics to politics in democracies is not about ideology. And the agenda of the political players invested

in this war who have their own reasons for abhorring democracy has absolutely nothing to do with ideology. The political, geopo-litical, and intelligence interests currently using Donald Trump, among other tools, to undermine and discredit democracy care about one thing: power. And because they have no agenda that can be articulated overtly, democ-racy, as an obstacle to power, is their enemy.

In this war of the worldviews, old school, ends-justify-the-means tactical politics scaled up by tech-nology is the ideology. In this war, the chaos, confusion, corruption, industrialized bullsh*t, misrepre-sentation, misdirection, previously

unthinkable headlines and relent-less assaults on normalcy, peace, and authentic reality are the means justified by the end of democracy.

Trump’s presidency has been a deception operation that has wea-ponized the pre-existing grandi-osity, narcissism, unpredictability, and self-styled showmanship of the man to rationalize otherwise imponderable change—the isola-tion of America, the degradation of multilateralism, the corrosion of public trust, the obfuscation and subjectification of truth—washed down with the ludicrous propaganda trope that Trump is a lone, megalomaniac actor.

That mission is now colliding with the core element of democracy

that informs outcomes: electability. You can’t spend every hour of your 35,000-hour presidency acting like a rampaging, vulgar, asinine clown—you can’t preside over the mortal amplification of a pandemic—and believably win re-election unless the entire electorate is more insane than you are. Trump has gone to the to-talitarian mattresses and threatened to bulldoze an election because his own anti-democracy scorched-earth presidential performance has made it impossible for him to convincingly rig one over the top.

The good news is that, this time, the interests closing in on democ-racy are not even pretending to trick out their barbarism as a cause. They’re just hoping that a firehose of rubbish and toxicity will cause such disorientation and disgust that people won’t know what hit them.

“Plunging people into despair closes a perfectly perverse circle,” writes Pope Francis in his latest encyclical, which, whether you’re churchy or not, is well worth the read as a treatise on our current calamity. “Such is the agenda of the invisible dictatorship of hidden inter-ests that have gained mastery over both resources and the possibility of thinking and expressing opinions.”

Not entirely. Not yet.Lisa Van Dusen is associate

editor of Policy Magazine and was a Washington and New York-based editor at UPI, AP, and ABC. She writes a weekly column for The Hill Times.

The Hill Times

KAMOURASKA, QUE.—Fifty years ago, I was a student in

CEGEP in Montreal, sitting in my grandfather’s living room in

lower Westmount, arguing about Quebec nationalism.

Then, a radio bulletin inter-rupted our argument: British Trade Commissioner James Cross had been kidnapped that morn-ing by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). I thought it was a reflection of revolutionary move-ments elsewhere. And of course, we had been living with FLQ bombs in mailboxes since 1963. A few days before, the Montreal Gazette ran an article indicating the police knew the names of al-most all the members of the FLQ, perhaps 60 people.

I figured this would end quickly. How wrong I was.

As the 50th anniversary of the October Crisis is marked, the news media is as much in error as I was that first Monday in October. And Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet is demanding an apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his father’s actions at the time.

Looking back, as someone who was there and both reported and participated in Quebec politics for decades, it annoys me when journalists who were not there get it wrong about the period.

So, let’s set the record straight.In every story, Pierre Elliott

Trudeau is blamed for invoking

the War Measures Act (WMA). In fact, Trudeau was reluctant to invoke the Act, given it could only be applied “in a state of war or in-surrection, real or apprehended.” It was done at the insistence of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau and Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa.

This is confirmed by Victor Goldbloom, who was a member of Bourassa’s cabinet. In his memoirs, he writes, “The [cabinet] discussions were stressful and decisive … Finally, [Bourassa] agreed, and a special messenger was sent to Ottawa, carrying the formal request that the WMA be invoked.”

Pierre Trudeau, meanwhile, recounts, “That Oct. 15, I ended up giving in to the representations of my Quebec counterpart and of the mayor of Montreal. ‘But be careful … are you, Bourassa, and you, Drapeau, ready to declare, in writing, that you are under such an apprehension (of insurrec-tion)?’ Their affirmative response was immediate.”

At the time, Mayor Drapeau was desperate to scuttle the left-wing FRAP opposition in the November municipal election. And Bourassa was a 37-year-old neophyte, whose position was being undermined by others: in an Oct. 15 advertisement in Le Devoir, dozens of Quebec

intellectuals called upon him to negotiate with the FLQ and free the “political prisoners”—who had murdered, robbed banks, and stolen dynamite.

Then the Montreal and Quebec Provincial Police got into the act, drawing up an enemies list of so-called FLQ sympathizers. When Trudeau’s colleague, Gerard Pel-letier, saw them, he was shocked to see the names of moderate left-wing friends and insisted they be struck from the lists.

Almost 500 people were de-tained without due process, and few ever faced trial. I knew two of them, Montreal journalist Nick Auf der Maur and poet and later PQ minister Gerald Godin. Nei-ther was charged, and both were arrested because of journalistic contacts in the FLQ.

Meanwhile, Montreal was said to be under “martial law.” For the average person, that wasn’t true. In our CEGEP, there were frequent assemblies. Out in the streets, the military was directing traffic and protecting high-profile Montrealers. We went to classes, had parties, and continued to play football.

We were not inured from events, however; when Labour Minister Pierre Laporte’s body was found late on Oct. 17, very few of us slept. A few days later, a group of us paid our respects to

Laporte, lying in state in an open coffin at the Palais de Justice in Old Montreal.

As everyone now knows, Cross was freed and Laporte’s killers tried and jailed. There was no recurrence of FLQ vio-lence. New legislation was soon passed to replace the War Mea-sures Act, without its draconian provisions.

The events of October 1970 will always resonate with those who experienced them; and we have to recognize there were abuses of personal freedoms by the police. But we live in a peace-ful country, where the shared re-vulsion of an assassination forced the majority to seek recourse at the ballot box.

We should ensure our history is written with facts, not con-jecture. And simply because an-other Trudeau is now in power, the events of half a century ago should not be used as a cudgel to attack him or his father’s legacy.

Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com.

The Hill Times

Comment

Donald Trump, power tool of the new barbarians

Let’s set the record straight about October 1970

With election day in America looming and a previously unthinkable coup threatened by the incumbent, let’s note the significant difference in this latest epic assault on democracy.

Looking back, as someone who was there and both reported and participated in Quebec politics for decades, it annoys me when journalists who were not there get it wrong about the period.

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump is pictured at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Oct. 3. The political, geopolitical, and intelligence interests currently using Trump, among other tools, to undermine and discredit democracy care about one thing: power, writes Lisa Van Dusen. White House photograph by Joyce N. Boghosian

Lisa Van Dusen

What Fresh Hell

Andrew Caddell

With All Due Respect

8

Eight years after the scandal that rocked the Upper Chamber, Senators

have finally made headway on oversight to Senate spending.

On Oct. 1, the Senate agreed to the creation of the Audit and Oversight Committee, bringing to an end years of debate, negotiation, and outright argu-ment over how such a group could come into existence.

The late auditor general Michael Ferguson, in a June 2015 report on Senate expenses, recommended the establish-ment of an independent body to oversee Senate spending.

The Senate expense scandal began in 2012, eventually resulting in the Senate asking Ferguson to conduct the audit in 2013 after numerous media reports al-leged that some Senators on both sides of the aisle claimed about $1-million in ineli-gible housing, travel, and office expenses. In the end, Senators paid back tens of thousands of dollars, though no one was found guilty of a crime in court.

A key conflict in getting this com-mittee off the ground has been whether it should be composed of Senators or outside third parties. In late 2017, there seemed to be some movement on the file, with the Senate’s Internal Economy Com-mittee forwarding a recommendation that a committee, made up solely of Senators, be created.

That recommendation then got bogged down in the Rules Committee for months before finally returning the Chamber, where the Independent Senators Group hit the pause button in a bid to convince

colleagues that external membership was the way to go. In the interim, the Senate did take a number of steps to improve its financial accountability, such as improv-ing the quarterly expense disclosures published online with Senators’ office, living, travel, and contract spending; reviewing Senate policies to eliminate redundancies; and having annual budget reviews with the Senate’s administrative directors. However, the inability to make progress on this key recommendation in some fashion was frustrating to watch and chipped away at any goodwill the Chamber had managed to generate on the file.

In the end, a compromise was finally made, and the motion passed last week creates a committee which includes mem-bers of the public.

Though it was the Senators’ individual spending that made headlines, Conserva-tive Senator David Wells, who has been working on the creation of this committee for nearly five years, noted in the Cham-ber on Oct. 1 the new committee looks at more than the “mere 12 per cent” of office and travel expenditures that the auditor general chose to focus on years ago.

“This is a modern institution and one of the founding institutions of our country,” he said. “Canadians have valid expectations and we must meet those expectations. It has been a long road to get to this point and the Canadian Senate will be a world leader with this structure in place.”

Let’s hope he’s right.The Hill Times

Re: “If we are truly ‘strong and resilient’ the government should act on the

debt,” (The Hill Times, Sept. 30, p. 10).Though many fret about the govern-

ment’s COVID-induced spending, the debt-to-GDP ratio of the U.S. is twice that of Canada, and Japan’s is more than four times as much. These two countries have low inflation, relatively stable currencies, and no problem issuing bonds. Japan has even successfully issued bonds with nega-tive interest rates. When a country has its own floating, non-convertible fiat cur-rency, it can always order payout money from its central bank and can never go broke, a fact that risk-averse investors clearly understand.

Since a monetarily sovereign country like Canada cannot have a public debt crisis in its own currency, what was the actual effect of imposing austerity 25

years ago? Under Paul Martin’s 1994-96 watch, severe budget cuts decreased our economic growth by 3.5 percentage points, downloaded costs onto provinces, and led to an explosion of homelessness that still troubles us today.

Managing COVID-19 will require a more vigorous injection of monies to support the health of families and busi-nesses today, and to fund a just transition that deals robustly with climate change that threatens our children tomorrow. The Canadian minister of finance can spend whatever amounts are required because she owns all shares of the Bank of Canada, which according to its annual report, “has the power and operational ability to create Canadian-dollar liquidity in unlimited amounts at any time.”

Larry Kazdan Vancouver, B.C.

We are in the middle of a global pan-demic, a climate emergency, and an

economic recession. These compounding crises demand a bold response. We need a plan to retool our economy so that it works for people and the planet.

The best way to do this is by invest-ing in a Green New Deal that generates millions of decent jobs in a low-carbon economy.

There is a historical precedent in Canada. In the 1930s and 40s, Canada mobilized at an unprecedented scale for the Second World War. The government created 28 new Crown corporations to meet the urgent needs of that time. We need to mobilize at the same scale for

the climate crisis. We could create pub-licly owned renewable energy provid-ers, a high-speed rail service across the country, institutions to retrain workers in the fossil fuel sector, and so much more.

That’s the kind of action we need, not for the government to spend billions of dollars on industries and projects, like the Trans Mountain pipeline, that endanger our future. Instead of investing tens of bil-lions of taxpayer dollars on this project, the Trudeau government should defund Trans Mountain and invest in a Green New Deal.

Tanya Bucknor Ottawa, Ont.

New Senate audit and oversight committee is a long time coming, so make it count

More money, not austerity, needed to tackle COVID crisis, letter writer says

Trudeau government should defund Trans Mountain pipeline,

invest in a Green New Deal: reader

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The Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, pictured in the West Block on Sept. 24, can spend whatever amounts are required because she owns all shares of the Bank of Canada, writes Larry Kazdan. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

9

OTTAWA—So President Donald Trump, who has sought for months to play

down the extent and dangers of COVID-19 and ridiculed mask wearing, allowed a super-spreader environment to be created among his own White House staff.

It’s another of the upside-down realities of Trump’s tenure that are so bizarre that they somehow get underplayed in public discourse—like the president encouraging white supremacists, his cozying up to dic-tators, fundamentally undermining trust in elections, and denigrating America’s allies.

Now, the hospitalization of the presi-dent himself with the virus he has often said was on the way out has put an excla-mation point on the astonishing story of the U.S. administration’s response to the health crisis. One might have assumed back in the winter that, facing a deadly pandemic, the leader of the most medi-cally capable country in the world would have taken a position of pronounced responsibility based on science, always erring on the side of caution to protect U.S. citizens and their health system. In-stead, as we all know, Trump chose to treat COVID-19 as a minor problem, dodged responsibility for a death toll among Americans now above 200,000, and relent-

lessly obscured medical developments as the virus flourished.

And Trump’s cavalier attitude toward the need to wear masks as a civic duty seeded the polarization of the mask issue into a grotesque political dispute based on some false notion of oppressive govern-ment interference in peoples’ individual rights. This has supercharged the unhinged anti-government sentiment that has grown in the U.S. during the pandemic among paranoid conspiracy buffs, extremists, Trump cultists, and gun-toting Americans looking for an excuse to blatantly threaten those they disagree with.

Thousands have died in the U.S. because of this crazy culture war, which has seen people rampaging through stores in defiance of mask rules and store clerks shot in a few instances. The reasoning behind this revolt? Here’s a typical rant during a local govern-ment discussion on mask rules in Florida: “You’re removing our freedoms and stomp-ing on our constitutional rights by these communist dictatorship orders or laws you want to mandate,” said one woman. The anti-mask movement in the U.S. is all the more disturbing because of the related upsurge of violence by right-wing racist militia groups who now rank as the most serious terrorist threat in their country.

In Canada, the picture has been thank-fully much less fraught. Polls, for the most part, show public support for mandated mask-wearing. But there is opposition. Be-sides a general weariness of the pandemic, opponents of facial cover-up laws appear to be driven generally by distrust of health authorities and government. This attitude is shaped in part by anti-vaxxers and also by imported American conspiracy thinking, in particular the rampant QAnon gibberish.

While mild, the echo in Canada of the COVID revolt in the U.S. has its troubling elements. For one thing, it may make defeating COVID with a vaccine more difficult. And the mindless resentment of activist government, even of leaders trying to save lives, reflects potentially very divi-sive partisan characteristics. Self-identified right-wingers, according to the polls, have been much more likely to distrust govern-ments in Canada on this and to refuse to wear masks as part of the public defence against the pandemic.

This may explain why Ontario Premier Doug Ford, for instance, has been issuing mixed messages for months about how to fight COVID-19, specifically refusing until last week to declare a province-wide mask rule. On a wider basis, echoes of the Trump-fed culture war have filtered into

the narrative thread of the Conservative Party. Derek Sloan, the Trump-loving MP, has called mandatory masks a means of political control by “power-hungry” govern-ments. And, more generally, the efforts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s govern-ment to move quickly to dispense massive financial support to help Canadians and the economy survive the pandemic have been linked by Conservatives to totalitari-anism.

In the midst of the pandemic, in his final speech as Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer compared the Liberals’ intervention to communism as practiced in Cuba and the former East Germany. And Leslyn Lew-is, the surprisingly popular novice Conser-vative leadership candidate, says that “ever since Justin Trudeau tried to grant himself king-like powers at the beginning of the

COVID crisis, what we have been witness-ing in Canada is a socialist coup that we, the taxpayers, are funding.” Lewis admits this might once have sounded like conspir-acy thinking, but not now.

It goes without saying that, with the sec-ond wave of the pandemic roaring ahead, Canadian leaders need to work much hard-er to reinforce the message that individual responsibility is the key to holding back COVID-19. And Canadians must shelve the anti-social, destructive mindsets associated with mask rejection and COVID conspira-cies and instead pull together in a genuine, concerted effort to work collectively for the good of all against a virus impervious to political abstractions of any kind.

Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times.

The Hill Times

Comment

Of culture wars and cranks: how COVID became a deadly test of our collective responsibility It goes without saying that, with the second wave of the pandemic roaring ahead, Canadian leaders need to work much harder to reinforce the message that individual responsibility is the key to holding back COVID-19.

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

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A pedestrian walks past a sign advertising face masks on Bank Street in downtown Ottawa on May 15. Canadians must shelve the anti-social, destructive mindsets associated with mask rejection and COVID conspiracies, writes Les Whittington. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Les Whittington

Need to Know

10

Perhaps it was the release of Bob Woodward’s book on U.S.

President Donald Trump, Rage, and its detailed telling of the story of when Trump was warned of the

seriousness of the coronavirus. Or maybe it was the beginning of long lines of those awaiting tests and then the results, that brought into question the leadership of the Trudeau government in dealing with the fight against the virus.

Until these events, the govern-ment had relatively escaped close scrutiny.

The connection between what Trump knew and what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Health Minister Patty Hajdu knew is set out in detail by CBC’s J.P. Tasker in a mid-September ar-ticle. Tasker’s story suggests that as much as we ridiculed Trump for ignoring stark warnings of the seriousness of COVID-19, we weren’t doing much better on this side of the border.

Hajdu played down the virus, saying there was low transmis-sion in Canada and Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, warned against closing the borders, as that would cause more harm than good while the failing to replenish the emergency stockpile of personal protective equipment.

As we know, the government’s view changed and the border was closed.

While Trump was being told on Jan. 28 that COVID-19 would be the biggest national security

threat of his presidency, military intelligence briefed the Canadian defence minister on Jan. 17 of the seriousness of the situation.

But all along this journey, the word from the Trudeau govern-ment, as conveyed by Hajdu, was “Canada will take its cues from Dr. Tam.”

The statements from Hajdu and Trudeau about reliance on science and experts without add-ing their own political gloss or views perhaps finds their source in the many criticisms the Liber-als levelled at the Harper govern-ment when in opposition.

But what happens when the scientists or government experts are possibly wrong? This was the situation in 2007, when the Chalk River nuclear power plant was closed for routine maintenance, but the then-head of the Nuclear Safety Commission, Linda Keen, refused to allow it to reopen until a number of issues were resolved.

This created a well-publicized confrontation between the Harper government and Keen. During this period, the government discovered that Chalk River manufactured more than half of the medical isotopes in the world and, as luck would have it, one of the other ma-jor plants was shut down as well.

The dilemma for the govern-ment was that if Chalk River

remained closed, the stock of medical isotopes necessary for the treatment of a number of diseases, including cancer, could run out and patients awaiting life-saving or -extending treatment may die. This was not a position the prime minister was willing to tolerate.

The advice from the com-mission was not followed and legislation to reopen the plant was passed by Parliament. It was determined that there are times when advice from the bureau-cracy has to be countered by the political.

This led to a view that the Harper government was anti-public service and anti-science, which was only exacerbated by the Harper government’s rejec-tion of the long-form census.

Canadians need rapid CO-VID-19 tests as the second wave of the virus hits when schools and businesses are reopening. In fact, it has been one of the main issues raised in Question Period since Parliament resumed sitting after the Speech from the Throne.

These tests are being deployed in other G7 countries, while Ca-nadians wait on the sidelines.

On Sept. 29, Trudeau an-nounced 7.9 million of these tests had been purchased from Abbott

Labs; tests that will provide re-sults in 13 minutes. Surprisingly, the next day, Health Canada ap-proved the tests for use.

Dr. Supriya Sharma, senior adviser at Health Canada, has said that even with this approval, only hundreds of thousands of the tests will be available in the next two to three weeks and 2.5 million tests arriving “into the early part of 2021.”

It isn’t good enough for the prime minister or health minister to say that Canadians must wait.

As the National Post noted, “Health Canada needs find ways to prevent potentially life-saving equipment from getting bogged down in bureaucracy.”

Canadians elected MPs to act in their interest, or, at the very least, protect their interests. They are accountable and should be pressing to solve this problem and get rapid tests to Canadians.

It is time the government acted to attract other rapid test manu-facturers to Canada and increase the focus on gaining results from Health Canada.

Sitting in the bleachers and watching is not the role our repre-sentatives were elected to play.

Bruce Carson was an aide to prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper.

The Hill Times

OTTAWA—The early days of Erin O’Toole’s leadership of the

Conservative Party of Canada seem to be going well. The roughest patch he has had thus far, and it is one many Canadians can relate to, was catching COVID-19, along with his wife. Thankfully, they recovered.

When evaluating the begin-ning of a Conservative leader’s

tenure, you must first look at the state of the party they govern. Is there any post-leadership tur-moil? To date, nothing obvious at all. No Maxime Bernier-type char-acter sulking and plotting in the wings. If anything, there seems to be harmony in the party. If Peter MacKay is hurt and disappointed, you would never know it. Caucus is calmer and focused now that Andrew Scheer is no longer in charge. Scheer himself seems to be content in his critic role. Again, on the surface, it looks like O’Toole and his team have handled the transition well.

Money. Money. Money. To run any organization, you need money. The Conservative Party has, for years, been known as a fundraising juggernaut. There is no evidence to suggest that is abating under O’Toole’s leader-ship. Conservative Party donors remain enthusiastic and keep fir-ing back dollars to never-ending party appeals. The only concern on the money front is MacKay’s $1-million campaign debt. The party would be wise, particularly if they want MacKay to run in the future, to help pay that down in whatever manner is appropriate.

While O’Toole and the Con-servatives have not seen any big post-leadership bounce in public opinion polls, in some early

samplings, O’Toole is demonstrat-ing he can expand the pool of potential voters. That is vital if the Conservatives want to win the next election. For example, a Sept. 7 Nanos Research poll found that O’Toole was attracting more sup-port in Ontario and Quebec than the Conservatives had garnered there in 2019. The Conservatives need to do more work here, but those vote-indication changes in Canada’s two most populous provinces will be welcomed in Tory Town.

Though it got off to an early-morning start after the leader-ship-reveal event vote-tabulating mess, O’Toole’s introduction to Canadians has gone reason-ably well. He has not stepped in

any big piles of dung nor had it smeared all over him by his capable Liberal opponents. No stinking albatrosses so far. In-stead, through formal events and social media, he has started to tell his story to Canadians. Middle-class guy from Ontario. Suffered the loss of his mother at an early age, which had a pronounced impact on him. Community-minded fellow who loved his military experience and it helped keep him grounded. A family man not taken with the trappings of power. That is the story. It is up to the audience to connect with it and him—or not.

Unlike Scheer—and this may matter more than the details of his personal narrative—O’Toole

looks comfortable in his own skin. He is a Conservative leader who does not go spasmodic when talking about same-sex marriage or LGBTQ2 rights. He comes across as a human being, not an-other tightly wound Tory chieftain from a galaxy far, far away.

The one obvious misstep O’Toole had in the first days of leadership was when he was care-ful about not admitting systemic racism exists. That is an obvi-ous and important admission to make. If there are still people out there who do not get that, O’Toole ought not play it cute to get their vote. O’Toole himself has been at ease in other settings on speaking about all manner of discrimina-tion, including those with mental health and wellness challenges. He is a thinking person, and he must showcase that.

One and half months into his leadership and no one is calling for his head—that is pretty good by Conservative Party standards. If you can keep the streak going, Erin O’Toole, you might have a shot at a strong election perfor-mance.

Tim Powers is vice-chairman of Summa Strategies and manag-ing director of Abacus Data. He is a former adviser to Conservative political leaders.

The Hill Times

Comment

Trudeau’s government needs to take control of the rapid COVID-19 test debate

Erin O’Toole, you might just have a shot at this

Canadians elected MPs to act in their interest, or, at the very least, protect their interests. They are accountable and should be pressing to solve this problem and get rapid tests to Canadians.

One and half months into his leadership and no one is calling for his head—that is pretty good by Conservative Party standards.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Bruce Carson

Comment

New Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole, left, and his team look like they’ve so far handled the transition into the Opposition Leader’s Office well, writes Tim Powers. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Tim Powers

Plain Speak

Helping negotiate the 1998 peace treaty in Northern Ireland is among the

proudest achievements for Ireland’s new top diplomat in Ottawa, and one that has a notable Canadian connection.

As a member of the Irish government’s team involved in the negotiation, and later implementation, of the Good Friday Agree-ment bringing to an end decades of conflict in the region, Eamonn McKee said one of his biggest gets was recruiting to the peace process former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory.

Calling him an “amazing man,” he said the judge was among a group of leading Canadian figures who played a crucial role, with Mr. Cory being tasked with review-ing controversial cases where there were allegations of collusion and murder by the state.

One of the untold narratives of North-ern Ireland is of a society traumatized by that violence, he said, recalling the sudden relief he felt when he finally crossed the border back south before the ceasefires.

“You were just conscious of tension and threat,” said Mr. McKee, who worked on the Anglo-Irish division from 1986-89, 1996-99, and 2002-05, on security issues, conten-tious parades, policing and confidence in the rule of law, the use of lethal force, the Cory process and criminal justice reform. But he also took to heart the advice of one colleague at the time: “you have a duty of hope.” He has vivid memories of the long nights, and finally, the euphoria when it sunk in they had an agreement.

“It was at night and we looked out the window at the lights below on the trip from Dublin to Belfast, and it was sinking in that we pulled off the deal,” he recalled.

Some of that peace and conflict work continued during his ambassador postings in South Korea, from 2009 to 2013, and Israel, from 2013 to 2015, though he said it’s more coincidental than a theme in his diplomacy. Long ago, when he began his work in conflict, he said he believed that every conflict is different and it’s important to be careful of the distinctions. Eventually, he came to the opposite conclusion—that fundamentally, all conflicts with the state hold some essential similarities.

“They’re all like a car crash,” said Mr. McFee, who negotiated the text on policing and later, in 2006, served as UN Director and Director of the Conflict Resolution Unit. “The fundamental truth, I think, is the legitimacy of violence. That a state, that is regarded as legitimate, has earned the moral monopoly on violence through its police and its soldiers. So, those people who live within a jurisdiction that they don’t regard as legitimate for whatever rea-sons, feel that that state has lost the moral monopoly to that violence. So a peace process is about restoring the integrity of that monopoly on violence.”

A history buff and avid writer, Mr. McKee records observations like these and more on his blog, which also touches on his diplomatic postings and he already has one in the works for Canada.

He arrived Sept. 10 in Ottawa with his wife, Mary McGillis-McKee, his white cat Coco, and one of their three children, who is finishing her final semester remotely. It doesn’t always happen for diplomats, but Ireland granted Mr. McKee’s request to be posted in Canada, a spot that he and his wife agreed would be the “ideal place,” just a few hours away from two of their daughters and seven hours from family in the United States.

Relationship ‘rapidly developing’Just weeks from stepping off the plane

and not yet officially in the role, Mr. McKee said the bilateral relationship is “ripe for development.” It helped that during his predecessor Jim Kelly’s posting, there were more than 20 high-level visits, including between prime ministers.

“That the level of engagement was unprecedented, but that revivifies the whole bilateral relationship because every minister that comes along, meets his counterpart, and they think of something to do. And that’s how this develops,” said Mr. McKee from his Rockcliffe residence on Oct. 1, about a week after ending quarantine. He’s the ambassador designate at the moment and can’t yet participate at the political-level until he presents his credentials. He said he doesn’t yet know when that will happen as he heard Gover-nor General Julie Payette doesn’t like the remote ceremonies—there’s been one to date—but plans were interrupted by Ot-tawa’s recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

The challenge is how to continue that pace in the context of COVID-19, but Mr. McKee said there’s also opportunity with virtual diplomacy.

“COVID, in a way, is an accelerator. It exploits all the things you should have done,” said Mr. McKee, who spent the last five years in Ireland’s trade division, which he said will be a big help with his work in Canada.

“I know the the players on this, the state agencies back home, which [is] a real asset, because very often diplomats don’t get that exposure,” said Mr. McKee.

“I’m very interested in how to build trade. And of course, with CETA [the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement] and the rapidly developing relationship,” he said of the pact, first implemented in 2017. In 2019, Canada exported $843.1-million worth of products to Ireland, a steady increase from 2016’s $495.9-million, while imports from Ireland also climbed from $1.9-billion in 2016, to $3-billion last year.

To start, he said, he hopes to build a richer “sense of Ireland” in Canada, and “sharpening people’s knowledge.”

That’s a two-way street with Mr. McKee, who before landing in Ottawa started an online course on Indigenous people in Can-ada offered by the University of Alberta,

which he joked makes him a classmate of Canadian actor Daniel Levy.

A recent week of the course has inspired his first Canadian blog post, looking at different interpretations of law and compar-ing the Western approach to that of First Nations. That resonated, he said, because he could see the parallels between the Indige-nous and Gaelic views of the world and law.

That research is part of the early days of any posting, he said, “surveying the land-scape,” getting to meet people, and under-standing where there are opportunities to grow diplomatic ties.

“If you connect the right people, things happen. You can’t artificially create a proj-ect; you know something that’s going to work by following the energy. My kind of working philosophy is ‘if it ain’t fun, don’t do it.’”

swallen@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Eamonn McKee, Ireland’s ambassador-designate to Canada, was one of the negotiators who helped bring about the Good Friday Agreement to end conflict in Northern Ireland.

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 11

Canada-Irish relationship ‘ripe for development,’ new envoy says

Diplomatic Circlesby Samantha Wright Allen

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Ireland’s ambassador-designate to Canada Eamonn McKee says he requested Canada for his third of head of mission posting as the ‘ideal’ location for his family. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia

12

NDP Whip Rachel Blaney (North Island-Powell River, B.C.) said there was no leadership from the government to move forward on testing the app before Parlia-ment returned on Sept. 23.

A spokesperson for the House Speaker’s office pointed to the Sept. 23 unanimous consent mo-tion when asked about the status of the app.

Heather Bradley noted the mo-tion asked the House administra-tion to work on the app.

“Work is underway,” she said in an email. “Still months away.”

A House administration offi-cial previously told the Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) in July that a voting app could be ready for September.

A July 21 report endorsed by the majority of PROC members recommended that a voting app system be looked at by the House administration.

The Sept. 23 motion directs the House administration to “develop and test a secure remote voting application.”

Ms. Blaney said she and NDP House Leader Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, B.C.) sent a

letter to House Speaker Anthony Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming, Ont.) requesting an update on the status of the app and House vot-ing. Mr. Rota’s office told the two NDP MPs that the government had to direct the House to move forward, they said.

She said until the NDP sees the format of a tested app, it is “hard” to see whether it would ad-dress security concerns.

Chief Government Whip Mark Holland (Ajax, Ont.) told The Hill Times that progress was being made on the app before the new session.

“The House is going full tilt, but they want to make sure that whatever solution they implement can’t be tampered with,” he said. “That takes time, but the good news is that we are almost at the finish line of it being ready.”

The Conservative Party has stuck with its position that voting by app would be a mistake. Con-servative Whip Blake Richards (Banff-Airdrie, Alta.) previously compared it to Tinder on CBC’s The House.

Neither Mr. Richards, nor Conservative MP Todd Doherty (Cariboo-Prince George, B.C.), his party’s vice-chair on PROC, responded to interview requests.

On Sept. 23, all parties agreed to proceed with the current hybrid voting model until at least Dec. 11, with the option of an extension.

In the meantime, Mr. Hol-land said he has been “extremely happy” with the current voting model in the House.

“It’s getting more efficacious as we go along,” he said, noting the app “might make things even more efficacious.”

Despite feeling things are “work-ing well,” he said there could be “things on the horizon that poten-tially could have it working better.”

Some MPs expressed their frustration over the long dura-tions for a single vote.

Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont.) said it should only be a temporary measure and hopes the app would be ready for December.

“It does do the job as a temporary measure,” he said. “I would be very discouraged if, in fact, we’re still us-ing the same system in December. I rather hope that all of the parties can come together and agree on the app and the security to surround that.”

He said the current system could hamper debates and com-mittee work.

Conservative MP Michael Coo-per (St. Albert-Edmonton, Alta.)

said the system can’t be “perma-nent,” as it diminishes the institu-tion of the House. But disagreed with the idea of the app.

NDP MP Lindsay Mathyssen (London-Fanshawe, Ont.), her par-ty’s deputy whip, said MPs are used to marathon votes, saying it is part of the “glamorous life MPs lead.”

Liberal MP Adam Vaughan (Spadina-Fort York, Ont.) said although the speed of the pro-ceedings isn’t as fast as desired, it allows MPs from across the country to participate.

“I think the committee work we did in the spring set us up to manage the technical challenges well. It’s not as quick as we’d like, but all in all, it’s allowed us to represent our constituents and participate in debates,” he said.

It is still an open question what would happen if a party decides to weaponize the current process to slow down parliamen-tary proceedings, as was done amid the SNC-Lavalin affair when the Conservatives initiated a more than 30-hour voting mara-thon in the previous Parliament, which included 257 votes.

“The opposition could poten-tially play political games, but I think it would be much to their detriment and to that of Canadi-ans,” Mr. Holland said.

“It’s going to take longer, but I think if they start using it in an ir-responsible way, they would find a very hostile electorate to that sort of tactic,” he said.

Voting system at limits of technology

As MPs have been voting, there have been technological challenges that have caused some MPs to not be able to hear the question being voted on when it is read by Mr. Rota, meaning they aren’t able to vote.

Some, including Conservative MP Randy Hoback (Prince Al-bert, Sask.), have found creative solutions to the technological challenges such as following the proceedings on CPAC while the system is down.

Green MP Jenica Atwin’s (Fredericton, N.B.) vote on a Bloc Québécois amendment to the Throne Speech was initially not registered by Mr. Rota in the first hybrid vote due to technologi-cal issues. But she confirmed on Twitter the day after that it was corrected.

“If people get disconnected or are unable to log on, there is the opportunity for Members at the end to be captured—to make sure that they have heard the ques-tion—so it’s possible, for example, to have CPAC on and for them to be watching the proceedings at the same time they’re logged in,” Mr. Holland said.

“If they have log-in issues, they can see the question be asked and if for some reason they get dis-connected or are having trouble getting logged in at the end of the voting process, there is a second-ary window for them to be able to vote.”

“So we’ve been able to capture pretty much everybody,” he said. “There’s been a couple of issues—most of those issues relate to connectivity.”—With files from Beatrice Paez

nmoss@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

NDP says Liberals at fault for slow progress on testing voting app that is ‘months away’ from being ready Chief Government Whip Mark Holland says the House is going ‘full tilt’ in developing and testing the app and is ‘almost at the finish line.’

News

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 | THE HILL TIMES

Continued from page 1

Chief Government Whip Mark Holland says progress is being made on a voting application, but that he’s happy with the current remote-voting model. Photograph courtesy of Twitter/Mark Holland

NDP Whip Rachel Blaney says the government didn’t show leadership to move the app forward before the new session began. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

The House of Commons Chamber has only been holding a skeleton crew of MPs since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada in March. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

13

one, victor Annamie Paul agreed with her closest competitor that the Green Party has work to do unifying its ranks.

“Even with a party like ours that worked really hard to do pol-itics differently, when you have eight candidates and all the pas-sion and intensity and work that it takes to run, that is completely normal that there has to be work towards coming together,” said Ms. Paul in an interview Oct. 5, her voice hoarse from hours of interviews after her Oct. 3 win.

“I will definitely do all that is necessary to make sure we enter the next election completely unified because that’s what our members expect and that’s what people in Canada deserve.”

Green Party members cast nearly 24,000 ballots—almost 10 times the turnout in 2006, and 69 per cent of its current mem-bership list—and Ms. Paul took 12,090 votes, ahead of Toronto lawyer Dimitri Lascaris, who came in a close second and led for a couple of rounds before end-ing up with 10,081 votes.

That result so close to the frontrunner shows his eco-social-ist message resonated with party members, said Mr. Lascaris, add-ing the party and Ms. Paul should see that there’s an opportunity to fill a vacuum on the political left that the party failed to fill in the last election.

“The mood of the time is call-ing for this boldly progressive platform,” he said, and it’s “clear” the members, as a whole, want to see the party become “consider-ably” more progressive, though perhaps not to the point for which he was advocating.

More than just political ori-entation, the race revealed the party is “in need of unification,” said Mr. Lascaris, who pointed to the recent resignation of party executive director Prateek Aw-asthi following CBC News reports about his handling of harassment complaints at his past workplace.

Mr. Awasthi said allegations against him are “untrue,” but that “they are a distraction to the work of the party.”

“I think there’s a lot of healing to be done and if we approach it in this spirit of mutual respect, I think we can emerge from this difficult period a much stronger party and a better party, but there is some healing and uniting to be done, that’s for sure,” said Mr. Lascaris.

Green MP Jenica Atwin (Fredericton, N.B.) agreed the new leader has work to do to unify members, and she said she noticed lots of division during the race.

“We need to find better ways to engage the membership,” said Ms. Atwin, who said her top three choices were Ms. Paul, Mr. Lascaris, and Meryam Haddad, another self-described socialist who the party executive dropped and then reinstated to the race just days before voting began. That’s not unlike the hundreds of members who Ms. Paul said she called ahead of the vote, who told her they had ranked her and Mr. Lascaris in the top spots.

“That speaks to all that we have in common as opposed to the things where we differ,” said Ms. Paul.

Members disagree on need for shift left

Ms. Atwin said she struggled with the talk of labels throughout the race, like eco-socialist, and suggestions the Greens weren’t left-wing, both things she considers herself. A “sharper turn to the left” shouldn’t hinge on their success in next federal election, as she said the party is “strongly left, as it is,” but “clearly there needs to be a voice firmer on eco-socialist values.”

To Ms. Paul, the party re-mains the most progressive “by a country mile,” and parliamentary leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) echoed that assessment, saying she disagreed with the premise of Mr. Lascaris’ campaign, and the assertion that the party needed to move left.

“We’re there already … I think what’s happened is that people who come to us from the NDP have been brainwashed by the NDP smear that tries to say Greens are right wing. It’s never been true, we’ve always been progressive,” said Ms. May, point-ing to pharmacare, guaranteed liveable income, and free post-secondary tuition as longstanding platform policies.

These were some of the “ur-gent” issues Ms. Paul presented as her priorities in press conferences following her win, paired with the party’s work towards address-ing the climate emergency as the rallying cry. Ms. Paul also spoke of long-term care reform, and as she readies for a byelection race in Toronto Centre, Ont., later this month, the apparent inequalities in the dense riding grappling with the opioid crisis and the strain of COVID-19.

The party could go further on its policies addressing extreme wealth, said Mr. Lascaris, who called for a higher rate of taxa-tion on the highest income earn-ers, as well as estate taxes.

“Ultimately, it’s up to mem-bers to decide, but the perspec-tive of the new leader on the policy orientation of the party moving forward is influential,” he said, and it’s still too early to tell whether Ms. Paul will take up that call, but he said he believes she’s open and that he’d be will-ing to help.

Both Ms. Atwin and Ms. Paul pointed to the next policy conven-tion as an opportunity for that kind of dialogue.

“I also believe in the concept of an open tent, an umbrella for all, a voice for all, because we are a party of consensus, we bring in different perspectives and we work on it and we come to a middle ground,” said Ms. Atwin, who noted the last election’s slogan (“Not left. Not right. For-ward together.”) alienated some members.

“Our election results have not been as huge, like the Green wave as we had anticipated,” she said, and the party needs someone like Ms. Paul, a strong fundraiser who successfully drummed up support, raising $206,000 along the way. “We need to continue that momentum and not plateau at this three-MP level.”

For her part, Ms. Paul said she still wants to review the results, but she said the race was an important avenue for candidates to introduce new ideas, a new direction, and a new vision for the Green Party.

Paul a collaborator and builder: May

Before Ms. Paul stepped forward to run in Toronto Centre during the last federal election, Ms. May said the trained lawyer wasn’t on her radar. After she joined the Green shadow cabinet

as its international affairs critic, Ms. May said she learned of the “stellar” resume and how well equipped she was for the leader-ship position.

After watching her handle the press gallery in Ottawa on Oct. 5, Ms. May said she was proud.

“She’s a collaborator, she’s a builder, she’s a listener and a thinker, she’s so well qualified to examine public policy issues,” said Ms. May, who noted her promise to stay neutral extends after the race, and wouldn’t say if Ms. Paul was her first choice,

only that she always knew she’d be happy if she got the crown. The former leader faced criticism from other candidates throughout the race for what they felt was a poor attempt at hiding her prefer-ence.

Ms. Atwin first met Ms. Paul at a federal council meeting last November and said she was a great help to the new MP, calling it “huge for Canada” to have “a strong, powerful, intelligent, ca-pable Black woman” as the Green Party’s leader.

“It signals that we’re ushering into a new era,” she said.

Very aware of the spotlight on the party, Ms. Paul said she is taking every chance, and every interview to try and get the Green message out to bring more in. She’s proud her party reached a historic milestone with her elec-tion as the first Black woman to lead a federal party.

“Symbols are important. When people do not see themselves reflected in institutions, they feel disengaged from them and disassociated,” said Ms. Paul, who added the impact was immediate, recounting emotional calls she’s fielded already. “People still want to believe that things that haven’t been done, can be done.”

There hasn’t been time for the moment to sink in, with nonstop demands on her time and her at-tention already turning to the Oct. 26 byelection.

Though she placed a distant fourth in the Liberal strong-hold behind the former finance minister Bill Morneau, Ms. Paul is bullish about her chances, pre-dicting citizens will be resentful the Liberals have called a vote in the middle of a second wave, and perhaps less willing to consider a parachuted candidate when a party leader is on the ballot.

If it doesn’t go her way, then she’ll be a leader without a seat in the House, a question that dogged NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for more than a year before he moved across the country to run in B.C.’s Burnaby South byelec-tion, a delay party members acknowledged hurt his profile.

“It’s true Jagmeet Singh is one example, but [former NDP leader] Jack Layton is another. We have good examples of leaders who did not enter Parliament right away but were able to do tremendous groundwork, building their parties, building their profiles by speaking about the things that matter, and building momentum that they were then able to convert to electoral success,” she said. “There’s lots that I can do, that I will be doing outside of the House.”

swallen@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

New Green leader must unify party after crowded race, members say, as Paul marks historic win ‘I think there’s a lot of healing to be done and if we approach it in this spirit of mutual respect, I think we can emerge from this difficult period a much stronger party,’ says runner-up Dimitri Lascaris.

News

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

Continued from page 1

Green Party leadership candidate Dimitri Lascaris came in second. Photograph courtesy of Dimitri Lascaris

Green MP Jenica Atwin says there’s work to do to unify the party after the leadership race. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Former Green Party leader Elizabeth May, pictured with Annamie Paul during the new leader’s first presser on Oct. 5, says she’s proud and excited to see Ms. Paul lead the party. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

14

When the Liberal government was pushing for the rapid passage of the implementation bill of the new NAFTA in February, it struck an agreement to gain NDP support. In return, the New Demo-crats were promised that Parliamentarians would gain greater transparency over the trade negotiation process.

Trade negotiations are the responsibil-ity of the executive.

In a Feb. 19 letter to NDP MP Dan-iel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, Man.), Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) noted that future trade negotiations will require a tabling of a notice of intent in the House 90 days before those talks begin. It also included the tabling of the objectives of those talks 30 days before they start, and a tabling of an economic impact assess-ment when a trade bill is introduced in the House.

“I think if these talks have really started in earnest, I think it’s a real problem that Parliament hasn’t been notified,” said Mr. Blaikie, his party’s international trade critic.

“If the government really wanted to honour, not just the letter but the spirit of it, they would be more proactive in making sure Parliament has information. I don’t know what would be top secret about the fact that they’re talking to the British gov-ernment or why they didn’t feel they could make their objectives public,” he said, add-ing that tabling of objectives in Parliament would bring greater transparency for the public over the trade negotiation process.

Green MP Paul Manly (Nanaimo-Lady-smith, B.C.) said the tabling of the notice to start negotiations should have happened already.

“This is what they’ve promised and this is what they should hold to,” said Mr. Manly, the Green Party’s trade critic.

“We need more transparency,” he said, noting that the Conservatives lamented the lack of transparency in the process during the debates on the new NAFTA, while the Liberals decried the lack of transparency when they were in opposition.

Bloc Québécois MP Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay (Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, Que.), his party’s trade critic, said it would be “nice” if MPs could be more involved in the process.

“All we know is that talks are currently [ongoing]. But we don’t know anything about what’s inside an eventual deal. We don’t have any clues,” he said.

The changes are supposed to be made to the Policy on Tabling Treaties in Parlia-ment, which have yet to be done. A Global Affairs spokesperson told The Hill Times

in July that the change was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and would be made “soon” and “will apply to all future trade agreements.”

Global Affairs officials maintained the commitment would be upheld in trade talks with the United Kingdom, even though the two countries had previously started exploratory talks before the Liber-als and NDP came to an agreement.

U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss tweeted on Sept. 7 that Canada-U.K. trade talks have “commenced.”

International Trade Minister Mary Ng’s (Markham-Thornhill, Ont.) office said of-ficials are working on a “transitional agree-ment,” according to a Sept. 21 CBC report.

Canada-U.K. trade is currently covered under the Canada-EU free trade deal—the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)—but that will end after the conclusion of the Brexit transitionary period at the start of 2021.

Some stakeholder groups, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, have encouraged the government to complete a free trade deal at “the earliest opportunity.”

For the purpose of the Liberal-NDP agreement, a free trade agreement is con-sidered a “comprehensive trade agreement between Canada and at least one other party.”

It is unclear if the Liberals plan to table a notice for the “transitional agreement,” or if they will move an implementation bill through the House.

Ms. Ng’s office didn’t respond before press deadline regarding whether the notification process would be followed for a transitional agreement.

Conservative MP Tracy Gray (Kelowna-Lake Country, B.C.), her party’s interna-tional trade critic, said in the Commons on Sept. 24 that the delay in tabling the notice of intent meant that Canada would not enter into negotiations with the U.K. until December—the same month Canada-U.K. trade will stop being covered by CETA. She asked Ms. Ng when the government will enter into negotiations with London. Ms. Ng did not directly answer the question.

“I remain in close communication with my contact in the U.K. The U.K. trade secretary is really pleased that we will continue to work with the U.K. to build on our strong trade agreement. We are going to continue working on a solid path for both of our countries to grow our econo-mies and benefit our people on a transition

agreement that will ensure continuity for businesses here in Canada and for work-ers and businesses in the United Kingdom,” Ms. Ng said in the House.

Ms. Gray was unavailable for an inter-view.

Conservative MP Randy Hoback (Prince Albert, Sask.), the Conservative critic in the last session, told The Hill Times in July that he had doubts that the Liberals would abide by the agreement they made with the NDP.

Oppositions MPs want changes enshrined in legislation

Mr. Blaikie said before the NDP struck its agreement with the Liberal govern-ment in February, he was pushing for the changes to be based in legislation.

“The Liberals were very clear that they were not prepared to legislate anything to that effect,” he said. “This is already emerg-ing as an example of why it would be nice to have it in legislation.”

“Having legislation would make it actionable. It’s not when it is government policy, [so] what you’re hoping is this gov-ernment is going to follow its own policy,” Mr. Blaikie said. “I’m concerned that there’s kind of emerging evidence that they are not doing it in this case.”

But he added that Ms. Ng has assured him that the government will follow the policy.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay said there should be a “permanent mechanism” in a law that negotiations should be accountable to Parliament.

Mr. Manly said legislation is needed to force the government to abide by its com-mitments.

After the notices are tabled, it was agreed that it would be then referred to the House Committee on International Trade.

Mr. Manly, who took part in some com-mittee meetings in the last session, despite not being an official member, said the group should be looking at what aspects of the agreement are being negotiated.

“We should be … listening to expert witnesses and seeing what their perspec-tive is—for labour organizations, environ-mental organizations, health and safety consumer organizations. That would be the process I’d like to see in committee,” he said.

nmoss@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Liberals ignoring promise for trade transparency as U.K. talks ‘commence,’ say critics The Liberals had promised to give Parliamentarians greater oversight in trade negotiations in February to gain NDP support for the new NAFTA, but those agreed-upon changes have not been enacted.

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Continued on page 14

NDP MP Daniel Blaikie says it is a ‘real problem’ that the Liberals haven’t tabled notice of trade negotiations if those talks have begun in ‘earnest.’ The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

15THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7House Sitting—The House of Commons

is sitting in a hybrid format right now dur-ing the pandemic, with most MPs connect-ing remotely. But the House is scheduled to sit Wednesday, Oct. 7 until Friday Oct. 9. It’s scheduled to take a one-week break, Oct. 12-16, and will then sit again Oct. 19-Nov. 6. It will another one-week break, Nov. 9-13, and is then scheduled to sit every weekday from Nov. 16-Dec. 11, and that’s it for 2020.

What is the World Coming To? A Con-versation with Lloyd Axworthy—Hosted by the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy’s president Andrew Cardozo, Lloyd Axworthy, a former Jean Chrétien-era foreign affairs minister and current chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council, will talk about the real and urgent implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for migrants and refugees. Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2-3 p.m. EDT. Register online or go to: thepearson-centre.ca.

THURSDAY, OCT. 8Donald Trump and Canada: How He

Changed Politics—Ryerson University’s Democracy Forum hosts a webinar on “Donald Trump and Canada: how he changed politics.” Speakers include former Canadian ambassador to Washington David McNaughton, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and Toronto Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn. Thursday, Oct. 8, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Register for the Zoom event online at ryerson.ca.

Munk Dialogues—On Thursday, Oct. 8, at 8 pm EDT, the Munk Dialogues series will feature dialogue with Michael Eric Dyson, bestselling author, scholar, and racial justice campaigner, on the future of the politics of race and social justice in the shadow of the most consequential U.S. election in a generation. The Munk Dia-logues will be available live and on-demand on the free CBC Gem streaming service (gem.cbc.ca) and on the Munk Debates website (www.munkdebates.com/dialogues).

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 14 Lessons From the Frontlines of Democ-

racy—Ryerson University’s Democracy Forum hosts a webinar: “Lessons from the frontlines of democracy: how to run an inclusive voter engagement campaign?” As political polarization and authoritarian regimes threaten core democratic principles in established and emerging democra-cies around the world, PhD candidate Semra Sevi (Université de Montréal), Kojo Damptey (Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion), and Doha Suliman (Canadian Muslim Vote) will discuss the challenges and opportunities for building a vibrant and inclusive democracy in a Canadian context. Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 1-2:30 p.m. Visit https://www.engagedemocracy.ca/democracydialogues-canadianvotesummit for more information.

Munk Dialogues—On Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 8 pm EDT, the Munk Dialogues se-ries will feature dialogue with Robert Reich, former U.S. labour secretary, economic inequality activist, and filmmaker, on how to meet the once-in-a-generation societal challenges presented by COVID-19 and its shakeout of the global economy. The Munk Dialogues will be available live and on-demand on the free CBC Gem streaming service (gem.cbc.ca) and on the Munk Debates website (www.munkdebates.com/dialogues).

THURSDAY, OCT. 15Strengthening Ties of the Global Fran-

cophonie—The Montreal Council on Foreign Relations hosts a webinar on “Strength-ening Ties of the Global Francophonie” featuring Catherine Cano, administrator, Organisation internationale de la Fran-cophonie. This online event takes place Thursday, Oct. 15 from noon to 12:30 p.m. Register online at corim.qc.ca.

Racism in Canadian institutions—Par-liamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government Greg Fergus will take part in a

French-language webinar, “Le racisme dans les institutions canadiennes” (Racism in Cana-dian institutions). He will be joined by former governor general Michaëlle Jean and Daniella Ingabire with the University of Ottawa. This online event takes place on Thursday, Oct. 15, from 4-5 p.m. Register via Eventbrite.

PPF Testimonial Dinner and Awards—The Public Policy Forum’s Honour Roll is going virtual. The PPF Honour Roll virtual ses-sions with our 2020 Testimonial Dinner & Awards will be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. which includes networking sessions. Join us virtually on Thursday Oct. 15 and Thursday Oct. 22 as we celebrate Elyse Allan, Sen. Peter Harder, Anne McLellan and Sen. Murray Sinclair and their achievements. Rob Russo, formerly with CBC will be receiving the Hyman Solomon journalism award. Data scientist, AI literacy expert and author, Shingai Manjengwa, is the recipient of the Emerging Leader Award. The 33rd annual Testimonial Dinner and Awards honours Canadians who have made their mark on business, policy and leadership. They will take their place among a cohort of other stellar Canadians who we’ve honoured over the last 33 years, people who have dedicated themselves to making Canada a

better place through policy leadership and public service.

Challenging Canada’s $19 Billion Warplane Purchase—Join a webinar with Green MP Paul Manly, NDP MP Leah Gazan, and researcher & activist Tamara Lorincz on Oct. 15 about the social, eco-logical and economic impact of Canada’s plan to purchase new fighter jets. Are 88 new cutting-edge fighter jets required to protect Canadians? Or are they designed to enhance the air force’s ability to join belligerent US and NATO wars? How has Canada employed fighter jets in the past? What are the climate impacts of these jets? What else could the $19 billion be used for Oct. 15, 7 p.m. EDT. The event will include a social media rally. More information coming shortly. This webinar is organized by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and World BEYOND War. Registra-tion link: https://actionnetwork.org/events/challengingfighterjets?clear_id=true For more information: www.foreignpolicy.ca

SUNDAY, OCT. 18War: How Conflict Shaped Us with

Margaret MacMillan—Margaret MacMillan shares her insights into the very nature of

war—from the ancient Greeks to modern times—with CBC’s Adrian Harewood. In her sweeping new book, international bestsell-ing author and historian MacMillan analyzes the tangled history of war and society and our complicated feelings towards it and towards those who fight. It explores the ways in which changes in society have affected the nature of war and how in turn wars have changed the societies that fight them, in-cluding the ways in which women have been both participants in and the objects of war. The free, pre-recorded event is Sunday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. RSVP at writersfestival.org.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21Munk Dialogues—On Wednesday, Oct.

21, at 8 pm EDT, the Munk Dialogues series will feature dialogue with Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives and bestselling author, on the legacy of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term as president, and the future of U.S politics, two weeks out from November’s vote. The Munk Dialogues will be available live and on-demand on the free CBC Gem streaming service (gem.cbc.ca) and on the Munk Debates website (www.munkdebates.com/dialogues).

SATURDAY, OCT. 24B.C. Election—On Sept. 21, B.C. Pre-

mier John Horgan called a snap election for his province, to be held on Oct. 24.

MONDAY, OCT. 26Voting Day for Toronto Byelections—

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Sept. 18 that byelections to fill two previously Liberal-held ridings—Toronto Centre, Ont., and York Centre, Ont., won by Bill Morneau and Michael Levitt, respec-tively, in 2019—will be held today.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 28 Munk Dialogues—On Wednesday, Oct.

28, at 8 pm EDT, the Munk Dialogues series will feature dialogue with James Car-ville, U.S. Democratic Party stalwart, politi-cal strategist, and bestselling author, on the likely outcomes of the Nov. 3 U.S. election, one week out from this high-stakes global event. The Munk Dialogues will be available live and on-demand on the free CBC Gem streaming service (gem.cbc.ca) and on the Munk Debates website (www.munkdebates.com/dialogues).

MONDAY, NOV. 2Trade Minister speaks to Montreal Audi-

ence—Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng (Markham-Thornhill, Ont.) will deliver remarks at a virtual event hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations. Monday, Nov. 2, from 12-12:30 p.m. Reg-ister online by Oct. 30 at 5 p.m.

TUESDAY, NOV. 3 U.S. Presidential Election—The U.S.

presidential election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. U.S. President Donald Trump is the Republican candidate and former vice-president Joe Biden is the Democratic candidate. The winner is sched-uled to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021.

FRIDAY, NOV. 13Bridging Divides in Wake of a Global Pan-

demic—The University of Victoria (UVic) and the Senate of Canada are bringing together change-makers at the Victoria Forum to help generate solutions to some of the world’s most divisive problems. The two-day virtual forum will be held Nov. 13-14 to examine issues that fall under the theme of “Bridging divides in the wake of a global pandemic.” The forum will draw on emerging trends and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic through biweekly webinars. For more informa-tion or to register, visit www.victoriaforum.ca.

TUESDAY, JAN. 12, 202165th Commonwealth Parliamentary Confer-

ence—One of the largest annual gatherings of Commonwealth Parliamentarians will take place in August 2021 at the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) hosted by the CPA Canada Region in Halifax. The annual flagship event will bring together over 500 Parliamentarians, par-liamentary staff and decision makers from across the Commonwealth for this unique conference and networking opportunity. The conference will be hosted by the CPA President (2019-2021), Hon. Anthony Rota, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons. All eligible CPA Branches will be contacted with further information and invitations.

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021Liberal Party National Convention—The

Liberal Party of Canada announced on Sept. 25 it was postponing its 2020 Liberal National Convention from Nov. 12-14. The new dates are April 9-10, 2021.

The Parliamentary Calendar is a free events listing. Send in your political, cultural, diplomatic, or governmental event in a paragraph with all the relevant details under the subject line ‘Parliamentary Cal-endar’ to news@hilltimes.com by Wednes-day at noon before the Monday paper or by Friday at noon for the Wednesday paper. We can’t guarantee inclusion of every event, but we will definitely do our best. Events can be updated daily online, too.

The Hill Times

What is the world coming to? Lloyd Axworthy will discuss

in Oct. 7 Pearson Centre chat

More at hilltimes.com/calendar

Parliamentary Calendar15THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020

Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government Greg Fergus will take part in a French-language webinar on ‘Racism in Canadian Institutions,’ on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 4 p.m. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Lloyd Axworthy, a former Jean Chrétien-era foreign affairs minister and current chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council, will talk about the real and urgent implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for migrants and refugees. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia

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