It seems that Vic Toews couldn’t even be
bothered to read his own lawful access bill; in a CBC Radio interview he expressed surprise at some
of the contents pointed out to him. After chastising other MPs about not having read said bill. Oops. Apparently he does read Yeats,
however, as he quotes the poet in an open letter to his constituents about the
attacks he’s been subjected to.
Meanwhile, it seems that a previous Liberal
version of a lawful access bill was more far-reaching in some of the things it would have given warrantless access to. Not that said bill ever got off the
ground. The PMO talking points are now using police quotes to continue the
moral panic of child sexual abuse and buzz words like “balance” to keep trying
to sell the bill – as though the police have no vested interest in increased
surveillance capacity.
And, while we’re on the subject, Kady O’Malley
looks at the requests to get the Speaker’s office to look into the whole issue
of the Twitter account attacking Toews, but it remains unclear as to what laws
were broken or privileges violated, and what really the Speaker could actually
do in this instance.
What’s that? Mentions about support for
Palestinians were cut from Baird’s speech at the UN in order to focus more on
support for Israel? You don’t say!
With more likely delays around the F-35s,
there’s little wiggle room with regards to the useful lifespan on the CF-18s
until they are replaced. While there is no plan B to date, there have been some
calls to upgrade the CF-18s once again to fill the gap in the interim. Add to
that, the head of the Royal Canadian Navy says that climate change means we’ll
need to increase the size of our fleet in order to patrol new routes in the North.
No pressure there.
And over in the NDP leadership race, Nathan
Cullen also wants the rich to pay more taxes but with a proposal just slightly
different from Brian Topp’s, just in case you were concerned there was too much
violent agreement.
Why you can trust Xtra
