The West judges Putin with a double standard
OTTAWA—Sometimes it is important to take a good look in the mirror and judge ourselves by the same yardstick by which we judge others. We in the West have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is bad and we have a long list of his recent evildoings to make that case. For example: In 2014, […]
Ties that bind: here’s to 70 years of Canada-Israel diplomatic relations
Margaret Meagher, the first woman ever to serve as a Canadian ambassador, presented her credentials to the first Israeli woman to serve as foreign minister, Golda Meir, in October 1958. Meir would later become just the third woman in modern history to serve as head of government, but at the time, having two women in […]
November lobbying boosted by Hill days, GM plant closure, and budget talks
Parliament’s final full sitting month in 2018 made for a busy spell of November lobbying, driven by meeting blitzes on the Hill, budget consultations, and the late-month bombshell that General Motors’ auto plant would close in Oshawa, Ont. Lobbyists filed a total of 2,782 communication reports in November, down slightly from the 2,927 filed in […]
Amid trauma of missing and murdered Indigenous women, stories of resilience stand out, says chief commissioner
Since its first hearings in May 2017, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women has heard from almost 1,500 families and survivors, and through it all chief commissioner Marion Buller says she’s been struck by the many stories of resilience. “The ones that have resonated with me the most, and that will stay […]
How to defuse tension with China?
The arrest of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on “national security” related charges happened only days after the “grave consequences” Beijing warned Canada over the Canadian detention and continuous holding of Huawei’s chief fnancial officer Meng Wanzhou. While Chinese authorities insist their detention is not linked to the Meng case, it is hard […]
Hold the hype, and deliver more leadership in the innovation economy, please
TORONTO—You might call it misleading advertising. Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains likes to portray Canada as a “global innovation superstar” and in a press release on his participation in Toronto’s Global Forum we were told he would talk about “Canada’s leadership in the innovation economy.” Yet if we are an innovation leader, or superstar, why have […]
Conservative, Liberal staffers want job descriptions, defined pay scales, but Conservative MPs on BOIE shoot down House proposal to help MPs better manage their offices
Liberal and Conservative staffers working in constituency and Hill offices want a proper structure in their jobs accompanied by a defined salary scale, but Conservative members of the House of Commons Board of Internal Economy recently shot down a recommendation offered by the House administration to help MPs better manage their offices. At a Nov. […]
Is Hillary right? Do progressives need to back away from some principles?
OTTAWA—“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Hillary Clinton recently said in what is perhaps the most important message to progressives by any senior progressive leader in recent times. In other words, rethink your progressive principles, or you run the risk of not only losing […]
It’s ‘vital’ feds name Conservatives to security committee soon, or it’ll ‘become problematic’: critics, experts
It’s “vital for the legitimacy” of Parliament’s National Security and Intelligence Committee that the government name Conservative MPs to sit on the body soon or the two Tory vacant seats will become “problematic,” say critics and intelligence analysts. The 11-person National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) is down two members after Conservative MP […]
RCMP forensic lab ‘drowning in work’ as it misses all response targets, internal figures show
The RCMP’s forensic lab is behind on all of its performance targets, failing to complete half of all DNA requests and more than a third of toxicology tests within the target time even as it predicts a huge increase in samples the lab will need to process after changes to the impaired driving law. In […]
