Made in Washington targets

Remember when our environment policy was “made in Canada,” and not “made in Europe,” or whatever the line of the day was? Well, as it turns out, it’s not “made in Canada,” but rather, it’s made in Washington. This was made abundantly clear when the environment minister submitted our greenhouse gas reduction targets on the weekend to the appropriate body, and oh, look – it’s the American plan. “Harmonised” with ours. Great. Should we turn over our foreign policy to them too? Oh, wait…

The Supreme Court made their ruling on the Omar Khadr case, and said that while Khadr’s rights were violated, they weren’t going to order the government to request his repatriation. The Justice Minister immediately sent out a press release saying that the government’s position was vindicated. Um, no, it wasn’t. The ruling said that his rights were violated, but that it was going to give the government a chance to do something about it. Not that we haven’t expected the government to try to spin its way out of this, but could their dishonesty be any more blatant? Apparently.

The CBC’s Kady O’Malley called out the Justice Minister’s manufactured outrage and bluster on the “law and order” agenda. And the Liberal deputy House Leader, Marlene Jennings, wants the Clerk of the Privy Council to investigate why it was that the Justice department put out such a partisan release. But hey – doesn’t anyone remember when Health Canada did the same thing about the Consumer Protection Act a couple of months ago? This is a bad pattern developing, where they’re tying to turn the civil service partisan.

Remember when Harper declared that Canadians’ freedoms were enhanced by a press free to pursue the truth? Isn’t it funny, then, that he insisted that the journalists travelling with him from Davos had to stay on the plane during its touchdown in Newfoundland, unable to ask him questions, lest they not be allowed back on the plane. Because that’s one way to ensure a free press.

Stephen Harper named his five new Senators. Some of them, apparently, have already learned their talking points. Some of them also have histories of making homophobic comments. What a winner!

Incidentally, Michael Ignatieff actually had something substantive to say about Senate reform on CTV’s Question Period yesterday – 12-year term limits, and a scrubbed appointment process like a Public Appoints Commission. Finally – a political leader who can speak intelligently about the subject (though it only took him a year to finally weigh in).

And remember hearing about some of the shenanigans with the Conservative appointees to the Rights and Democracy organization? Things have been getting weirder and weirder, and it’s worrying about just what kinds of people this government is appointing to “independent” organizations…

Up today – the Liberal roundtable du jour is about poverty and homelessness, run by MPs Ken Dryden and Michael Savage.