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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 25, 2021.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Last week, Liberal MPs on the Commons health committee talked and talked to filibuster a meeting about what the committee would do with its last seven meetings before the summer.

The stalling was organized because opposition MPs wanted one of those meetings to be devoted to having officials explain another kind of stalling: the governments refusal to hand over piles of documents about how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled.

Its been obvious since those documents were first requested last October that the government didnt really want to hand over the papers.

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But now, there is, in the eyes of the Liberal government, an end in sight: just a few weeks to go. They can run out the clock.

There is a crazy mix of time pressures at the close of a minority Parliaments sitting, especially when the session seems destined to end soon because an election is expected.

The Liberal government is rushing to push through key bills they want passed into law before a widely expected fall election, but they are also doing their best to run out the clock on various opposition-initiated orders and studies like the request for pandemic documents.

If the Liberals can stall until Parliament rises, an election will (probably) be called in the fall, and the motion demanding the government disclose documents will die. Home free!

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Thats just one example. Liberals MPs have in recent weeks filibustered at the defence committees hearings into sexual misconduct by top military commanders and the procedure and house affairs committees review of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus decision to prorogue Parliament last August.

It really is the Liberal festival of filibusters, said Conservative House Leader Grald Deltell.

It is not entirely new. In minority Parliaments, opposition parties in the majority can vote to hold hearings or demand documents, and governments sometimes seek to obstruct them.

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Stephen Harpers Conservatives filibustered committees in 2008, before Mr. Harper declared Parliament dysfunctional and called an election. In 2011, Mr. Harpers government fell on a motion declaring him in contempt for failing to deliver documents detailing the costs of corporate tax cuts, crime legislation and F-35 fighter jets then won a majority in the following election.

So the Liberals can say that Conservatives did it, too. Which is like saying you have become the thing you used to criticize.

At the health committee, the government has said the request for documents will cover a million documents, but provided about 8,400. Where are the other 992,000? asked New Democrat MP Don Davies.

Last week, opposition MPs proposed agendas for the last seven meetings of the session, including one where senior officials would be asked to explain the failure to provide the documents. Liberal MPs filibustered. In a pandemic, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner noted, the government wont disclose documents on things such as vaccines and procurement of personal protective equipment.

At the defence committee, Liberal MPs have blocked efforts to have the chief aide to Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan testify. On Monday, opposition MPs presented a motion requiring the committee to present a final report to the House of Commons by June 9. Liberals filibustered.

In the procedure and house affairs committee, theres a double dose of hypocrisy. There, MPs are conducting an inquiry into Mr. Trudeaus reasons for proroguing Parliament in August, which upended the progress of bills and committee studies, like inquiries into the WE Charity affair. (The Commons ethics committee, after many hours of delays, is supposed to report on a revived WE study this week.)

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The funny thing is that the committee is studying prorogation because, back in the 2015 election, Mr. Trudeau criticizing Mr. Harper for being unaccountable promised prime ministers would have to explain their reasons for proroguing.

The government has provided written reasons, but opposition MPs, believing it had more to do with cutting off parliamentary scrutiny, pushed for Mr. Trudeau to appear in person to explain it. Liberal MPs filibustered for months. The Liberals were using stall tactics to cut off a study of stall tactics, to avoid Mr. Trudeau having to explain the thing he promised that PMs would have to explain.

I am aware there is a certain crushing irony, said New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie.

But finally, there is now a little hope of movement at that committee. Mr. Trudeau probably still wont testify, but maybe there will be enough co-operation so MPs can actually write their report about prorogation. Theres an election bill the Liberals want to pass before summer, and it has to go through that committee.

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Liberals seek to run out the clock on parliamentary disclosure - The Globe and Mail

It is puzzling why the liberal mainstream media, many editorial pages, and articles by left-leaning columnists are expressing concern for the future of the Republican Party. Their praise for the courage, honesty, and integrity of the GOP House and Senate members who bucked their party and voted to impeach President Donald Trump is truly heartwarming.

Liz Cheney is the latest darling of the left following in the foot steps of Senator Bill Cassidy. While Cheney has voted consistently against the radical left agenda, all is forgiven because of her impeachment vote and criticism of Trump. The coordinated label by left-wing media against Trump's reaction to the election is "The Big Lie."

I don't recall their outrage of "The Bigger Lie." The documented lying to the FISA Court by the FBI to obtain warrants to spy against Trump associates.

The false Steele dossier financed by the Clinton campaign to lie about aspects of the Trump campaign.

The false claims that Russia and Trump conspired and cost Hillary Clinton the election, which still is perpetuated today.

Of course, there was the three-year investigation and $35 million of taxpayer money spent on the Mueller report. This resulted in zero evidence of Trump-Russian collusion. It was all a hoax and witch hunt and a "Big Lie."

The hypocrisy of the left is beyond belief.

RON CHAPOTON

financial planner

Hammond

See more here:
Letters: The liberals' sudden concern over the GOP, and embrace of Liz Cheney - The Advocate

The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg on May 19, 2009.

JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press

Opposition MPs outvoted the Liberal minority government on Wednesday in an attempt to obtain details on why two federal scientists were fired from Canadas highest security infectious-disease laboratory.

The two scientists were dismissed in January from the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg after their security clearances were revoked in July, 2019, and the RCMP were called in to investigate.

Xiangguo Qiu, former head of a key program at the lab, and her biologist husband, Keding Cheng, have been the focus of parliamentary debate for weeks as opposition MPs have sought information on the reasons why the two were fired. In addition, the debate has centred on shipments of two powerful viruses to Chinas Wuhan Institute of Virology in March, 2019, that were overseen by Dr. Qiu.

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Winnipeg virus lab firings set up showdown in Parliament

Infectious-disease scientists at Canadas high-security lab collaborated with China

CSIS first alerted Ottawa to national-security concerns of two scientists at top disease laboratory

Stymied by the governments refusal to provide this information, New Democratic and Bloc Qubcois MPs supported a Conservative motion that passed by a 179-149 vote to demand that the Public Health Agency of Canada turn over hundreds of pages of uncensored documents about the couples dismissal, as well as the virus shipments.

The motion requires PHAC to release the records to Commons Speaker Anthony Rota within 48 hours, but the government can ignore the request and has shown no willingness to publicly reveal the information.

A senior federal official told The Globe and Mail the documents contain sensitive national-security information and the government will not hand the documents over to theHouse of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations.

A spokesman for Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the government is prepared to turn over uncensored records to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP).

The minister is committed to sharing information in a manner that protects national security, press secretary Cole Davidson said in an e-mail. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is the best forum for sharing this information in a transparent and accountable manner that protects the security of Canadians.

Although the eight members on this committee are parliamentarians from all parties, they are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He has the right to review and demand revisions to reports before they are made public.

Conservative foreign-affairs critic Michael Chong said its a farce for the Liberal government to ignore the will of Parliament and to turn over the requested information to a committee that is controlled by Mr. Trudeau. It would be akin to the fox guarding the henhouse.

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This committee was never designed to hold the government to account for breaches of national security, he said. I think this is a coverup. It is clear they dont want to release this information to Parliament.

Mr. Chong says he believes the government is afraid that information revealed to Parliament about the activities of the two scientists would show there were serious security breaches at the laboratory, which handles some of the worlds most dangerous pathogens.

Quite simply, the government has failed to protect national security and I think there were breaches of national security and I dont think they want to take responsibility for that, he said.

The Conservative motion, drafted by Mr. Chong, took into consideration national security. It called for the Commons law clerk to review the documents and redact information that could be expected to be injurious to national security or a continuing criminal investigation before making it public.

The motion also calls for the clerk to later hold a confidential meeting with MPs on the Canada-China committee to reveal what was removed from the records information they could use to inform any recommendations or report on the matter.

The Globe reported in May that Canadas spy agency urged the removal of security clearances for the two scientists and an unknown number of Dr. Qius students from China relating to the Wuhan facility and other national-security matters.

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Dr. Qiu was head of the Vaccine Development and Antiviral Therapies section in the Special Pathogens program at the Winnipeg lab, where her husband also worked.

Four months before the couple were expelled from the lab in 2019, access to information documents show Dr. Qiu played a key role in shipping two exceptionally virulent viruses Ebola and Henipah to Chinas Wuhan institute. PHAC later described the shipments as part of an effort by this country to foster global collaboration.

The Globe reported the Canadian Security Intelligence Service began raising alarms about Dr. Qiu after it grew concerned over the nature of information that was being passed to the Wuhan lab. The Globe report said CSIS was focused on the people Dr. Qiu was talking to in China and intellectual property that may have been given to Chinese authorities.

PHAC president Iain Stewart has said that to the best of my knowledge, their removal from the Winnipeg lab was not connected to the shipment of the two viruses.

In March of this year, Mr. Stewart linked the departure of the scientists to a number of review processes initiated by the federal agency in 2018, relating to possible breaches of security protocols at NML.

Dr. Qiu was able to bring in graduate and postgraduate students from China, who were studying under her at the University of Manitoba, into the Level 4 lab. To get access to this lab, the students need six to eight months of training to handle deadly viruses. Anyone working in this lab is required to wear a pressure suit and must pass through a chemical shower for decontamination when exiting the facility.

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The Globe also reported scientists at the lab, including the couple, were collaborating with Chinese military researchers to study and conduct experiments on deadly pathogens such as Ebola, Lassa fever and Rift Valley fever.

The Globe reported one of the Chinese researchers, Feihu Yan, from the Peoples Liberation Armys Academy of Military Medical Sciences, worked for a period of time at the Winnipeg lab.

PHAC said no new collaborations on research projects have been initiated with China, and all co-operation with the Wuhan institute ended in the summer of 2019, when the couples security clearances were revoked.

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View original post here:
Commons votes to demand Liberals reveal reasons for firing of two federal scientists from infectious-disease lab - The Globe and Mail

Not many people can make the nation's leaders sit down quietly and listen to their wide-ranging thoughts on whatever their pet issue might be.

But political conferences are pretty weird things.

Today, the Prime Minister, Treasurer, Liberal state premiers and a bunch of ordinary Liberal Party members are gathering in Canberra for the Federal Council.

The party comes together and talks about where it is going, and where it stands on a whole bunch of hot-button issues.

On the sidelines, deals are cut, numbers are counted and hands are shaken.

Does any of it matter? Sort of yes, and sort of no.

A few years ago, headlines blared that the Liberal Party wanted to sell the ABC.

And look, it did. The 2018 Federal Council voted for a "full privatisation of the ABC, except for services into regional areas".

But three years on, under a Coalition government, the ABC remains firmly in public hands.

At every conference, dozens of motions are put up for debate by various state branches, the Young Liberals and the Women's Committee.

They might be out of step with existing party policy (that's often the point) and they might be endorsed.

But as the ABC example shows, while those in power have to listen, they do not have to act.

Not every controversial idea is ignored.

Julie Bishop and Mitch Fifield are forced to pour cold water on motions passed at the Liberal Party's federal council, which insiders claim signify the "ascendancy of the conservatives" in the party.

The same 2018 Federal Council endorsed an idea to move Australia's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

That idea has since been adopted, with West Jerusalem recognised as Israel's capital, but the embassy is yet to actually move.

And even if those controversial motions do not wind up becoming reality, it is not like party leaders can just ignore their existence.

Politicians are forced to answer questions about why they "respectfully disagree"with the party membership.

If the party leadership really does not want to talk about some topics, they can be shuffled elsewhere for another time.

A 2015 motion calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the science behind climate change was sent off to an internal policy committee but the party denies that was to avoid a public discussion.

There is not anything as controversial as climate science or ABC funding coming out of this conference, and that is probably deliberate.

An election is due either late this year or early next year, so the Liberals (like Labor at their party conference earlier this year) are keen to avoid damaging headlines on sensitive topics.

It is not entirely free of contentious issues the Israel-Gaza conflict has already come up (the council actually began late yesterday), with a motion passed calling on the party to reject unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. But that is already in line with existing policy.

Motions calling for inquiries into 'Big Tech' and the introduction of voter ID laws passed too.

And the NSW Branch put up a motion on criminalising coercive control, which was also endorsed.

There are some more niche issues the Young Liberals want vaping legalised, which will come up today.

Over in the West, the WA Liberals want a renewed commitment to their minimum share of the GST pool.

All of which are interesting, some even provocative, but nothing that should have the Prime Minister answering extremely awkward questions next week.

These sorts of things are as much about the sideshows as the main event.

Factions get together themselves in private, and factional leaders meet to quietly broker arrangements and with an election on the horizon, there is plenty to talk about.

Talk has already begun of possible pre-selection challenges faced by four MP's in New South Wales, including two female MP's.

The Prime Minister has made it clear internally he would like see all four MP's re-endorsed, and the matter is almost certainly going to come up in private.

Pre-selection is a matter for state divisions neither the Prime Minister, nor the federal executive of the Liberals can formally dictate who is pre-selected where.

But those at the top of the party are very keen to avoid ugly pre-selection battles, particularly involving sitting female MP's.

With a weekend in Canberra with most of the party in town, it is one issue many would like to see resolved

See the original post here:
Middle East politics, climate science and selling the ABC: why the Liberals' annual get-together does (and definitely doesn't) matter - ABC News

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Even with the dog days of summer still a good month away, Ontario Premier Doug Ford already finds himself in the doghouse.

Polling shows the Liberal Party reduced in the election of 2018 to seven sad-sack seats, then gaining one in a byelection is apparently now a mere sniff away from possibly regaining power if an election were held now.

This is too quick a forgiveness.

The Liberals deserve to be stinking up the bottom of the barrel for much longer considering the fiscal damage inflicted on the electorate when one of the survivors, Kathleen Wynne, was premier.

She deserved to lose her seat, but the riding of Don Valley West, established in 1999, has elected only one Tory, David Turnbull, and that goes back to its inaugural election in 1999.

Since then, its been all Kathleen Wynne, despite her fiscal incompetence.

The riding was particularly notable in the 2007 election because the seatless John Tory, then leader of the Progressive Conservatives, wrongly thought he could defeat his entrenched Liberal opponent.

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The NDP, forever an also-ran since the Rae Days of the early 90s, is in dire need of a leadership change because Andrea Horwath is as musty a leader as they come and needs to be replaced with a fresher model.

She must love forever being the brides maid, but now she more resembles someones lavender aunt.

These are not personal attacks. These are truths.

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Despite his fumbles, Ontarians should be happy that Doug Ford, a first-time politician, is in charge of the provinces COVID-19 response because a seasoned politician would be greasing his words with snake oil.

Seasoned politicians rarely tell the whole truth.

Doug Ford has his emotions written all over his face.

Hed be a lousy poker player but a great drinking buddy.

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The last time Mainstreet Research took a poll of Ontario voters, which was back in February, Doug Fords Progressive Conservatives had a colossal 18-point lead over its rivals, the level of support even surpassing the partys 2018 majority victory.

By late May, however, Mainstreet said the PCs had shed considerable support since that 18-point crusher, with both the Ontario Liberals and Ontario NDP gaining ground in what is now improbably a horse race.

The PCs lead is now down to 26% support, with the NDP and Liberals tied for second place at 23% and 22% respectively. The Greens are a distant fourth with 5%. However, 20% of the polls respondents claim to be undecided.

Considering the polls margin of error, what we have here is essentially a statistical tie between the main three parties.

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It seems inconceivable that the remains of the Wynne Liberals have so quickly risen from the dead, considering the injuries inflicted on Ontario residents by a party more concerned with making sure their friends made money than the populace had reduced taxes.

Think solar panels and wind turbines, just for starters, and the $1-billion cost of cancelling a gas power plant to save the political career of one of its cabinet ministers.

Blood should still be boiling and blood pressures red-lining.

The COVID-19 pandemic will likely end this year. Vaccinations, with no thanks to the Trudeau Liberals, now appear to have rhyme and reason and are moving into faster second doses.

But the last thing Ontarians need is the return of the Liberals to power, let alone the NDP. The Liberals got too much forgiveness during their last run, even getting a majority after years of cock-ups.

The electorate needs to give its head a shake.

markbonokoski@gmail.com

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BONOKOSKI: Kick the remnants of the Wynne Liberals to the curb - Toronto Sun