All eyes on Red Chamber, as Senators push back on key government bills
A Senate committee tasked with studying the government’s new rules around solitary confinement doesn’t have enough time to properly do its job, says a vocal critic of Bill C-83 in the Upper Chamber. But Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has warned a legislative vacuum will be created if the bill isn’t passed by the time […]
Time is ticking for MPs, Senators to pass human rights bills
There is an enormous amount of consequential human rights legislation approaching the parliamentary finish line. The time to get it across shrinks daily. Only four sitting weeks remain in this session of Parliament for MPs, five for Senators. Rather than return to Parliament in the fall, MPs will be out hustling for votes. That means […]
Goodale: Answering the tough questions on Bill C-83 and reforming our approach to corrections
The Senate’s Social Affairs Committee is nearing the end of its study of Bill C-83, legislation that creates a new way of dealing with inmates who need to be separated from the general prison population for safety reasons. Currently, such inmates are held in administrative segregation, where they are confined to their cells for 22 […]
Why every Canadian should be interested in the Mueller report
What is the Mueller report? It is not the book entitled The final report of the Special Counsel into Donald Trump, Russia, and Collusion published on March 11 and available on Amazon. The Mueller report that Canadians should all read is the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election that […]
Digital Privacy and Security
It’s time to take the annual terrorist threat report out of Public Safety
OTTAWA—If there are any people at Public Safety Canada who do not already dislike me, perhaps intensely, I am confident that this column will quickly lead them to the vast majority who have already PNGed me from the department (full disclosure: I worked in the national security policy office as a seconded employee from CSIS […]
Senators look for tweaks to national security bill
Senators are looking at ways to change the Liberals’ landmark national security reform bill, but it won’t get a particularly rough ride, says the opposition Conservative group. The Senate’s National Security and Defence Committee finally began its study of Bill C-59 on April 10, before the Chamber rose for a two-week Easter break. Committee scrutiny […]
Godly figures willing to die for beliefs aren’t terrorists
Re: “Call religious extremism what it is: terrorism,” (The Hill Times, April 22, p. 12). Examples of saints and prophets taking the practice of faith to existential lengths belie Phil Gurski’s assertion. Godly persons, like Moses, Jesus Christ, Siddhartha Gautama, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, Guru Nanak, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa, willing […]
Call religious extremism what it is: terrorism
OTTAWA—Pop quiz! How can you tell an election is coming up in Canada? (A) the government puts out a report that some identifiable part of our society takes offence to; (b) that part happens to be concentrated in several ridings which the ruling party currently holds and which hanging on to may decide whether it […]
Senate committee blows holes in Liberal gun bill
Conservative Senators followed through on their promise to “gut” the Liberals’ gun bill, successfully getting a number of changes passed in committee that strip away key features of the legislation. On April 8, the Senate’s National Security and Defence Committee finished its review of Bill C-71, which according to the government, would improve public safety […]
