It may be a break week, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still political news to keep up with.
Michael Ignatieff’s Québec lieutenant, Denis Coderre, says that he’s reaching out to disaffected sovereigntists and members of the ADQ. After all, given the way that Harper has pretty much alienated the province and no longer seems interested in trying to build any more bridges, they just might be willing to give the Liberals a second look – especially now that the hated Dion is out.
NDP MP Olivia Chow and Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj were in San Diego over the weekend, and met with a war resister who had been deported from Canada. Robin Long was the first deserted ordered deported, and with several more facing deportations, Chow is hoping to re-introduce her motion in the House that Canada protects these war resisters. A similar motion passed in the last Parliament, but it was non-binding, so the government has ignored it. They hope that Long’s experiences – where the immigration process in Canada was used against him, such as how he had to hand over his military papers upon arrival to the country only to be charged with handing over military documents to a foreign power – will help to provide evidence to the courts of unjust treatment that other war resisters would face if deported.
And finally, with the rehabilitation of the West Block finally picking up steam, it looks like Parliament will be taking over the renovated Canadian Photography Museum for use as committee rooms, which could put some parts of the West Block plan ahead of schedule by four years. The necessary renovations to the West Block will take ten years – and should be a cautionary tale about what happens when you let necessary repairs lapse for too long.
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