With the Senate having adjourned on Tuesday evening, Parliament is well and truly on break until the end of January – barring that rumoured prorogation, of course. Among the bills passed and being granted royal ascent before they rose were the estimates and that Self-Employed parental benefits bill – so now the NDP can chalk up one more victory to their tally.
Not that official Ottawa was at all paying attention to bills that passed. No, everyone’s attention was focused on the new letter sent by Richard Colvin’s lawyer, which clarified all kinds of things around his testimony, and the subsequent testimonies of generals and ministers past and present. And some of it is pretty damning – especially the bit about not reporting back to Ottawa stuff that the government didn’t want to hear. Ouch!
Of course, the Conservatives are trying to shrug this off, and Peter MacKay’s Parliamentary secretary, Laurie Hawn, is being completely ludicrous in his wrapping himself in the “support our troops” meme. But hey – maybe he’s gunning for his boss’ job, now that MacKay’s credibility seems to be in tatters.
Oh, and Maclean’s Paul Wells looks at what the government gave as reasons why it called a public inquiry into Brian Mulroney’s activities, and how this current situation seems to far exceed those particular tests – and yet Harper still won’t call one. Curious, that.
And finally, when Jane Taber posted a bit about Scott Brison’s Christmas card on her blog, showing the card with Brison and his husband posing with their dog (and it really is a gorgeous photo), there was such a homophobic and abusive response in their comment section that they had to suspend it. Seriously? In Canada in 2009? You’d think that people would get over it by now. Of course, I still think Taber requires someone to sigh and shake their head at her appalling use of the phrase “Brokeback Brisons.” Seriously? Can we all just move past the whole “Brokeback” thing already? It’s beyond tiresome.
Up today – Her Excellency meets with the new Prime Minister of Haiti. I have no doubt this will be a profound moment for her, given that she left the country as a refugee in her childhood, and now she is the Governor General of Canada, meeting their head of government of the burgeoning democracy that emerged from the dictatorship of her childhood.
Why you can trust Xtra
