Ottawa reporter for @The_Logic. The feds, Ontario, health, space, telecom, whatever needs doing. Proud alum of the Ottawa Citizen and Canadian Press. He/his.
May 31, 2022 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
This report from the Military Police Complaints Commission documents an investigation at RMC that ... words fail.
mpcc-cppm.gc.ca/documents/publ…
A female cadet was left virtually unprotected from apparent criminal harassment by a male cadet. But ALSO his fairly obvious self-destructive mental illness was not taken seriously ... until he suffered what seems to be permanent harm from his second suicide attempt.
May 31, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Raise taxes like a mature and empowered order of government?
Of course the premiers want the federal government to raise the revenues and just give them the money, no strings attached. But there are actually mechanisms for provinces to fund necessary public services themselves.
May 30, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It is the norm, and it is proper that the text of a bill should be presented to the house first.
The problem is throwing up news conferences about major new bills before anybody ELSE can read them.
Doing this sows confusion. Reporters ask questions without knowing what they're asking questions about. The answers are often fairly plain in the text, which they haven't seen.
Meanwhile what the bill DOESN'T do, or does badly, is not yet knowable, so no questions on those.
Feb 18, 2022 • 46 tweets • 6 min read
Stand by for tweets from a virtual federal news conference led by Chrystia Freeland. Was scheduled for 12:30 ET but bumped to 1.
Federal news conference begins. Includes Chrystia Freeland, Bill Blair, David Lametti, Marco Mendicino and Mark Holland.
Feb 18, 2022 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
For fans of Justice Geoffrey B. Morawetz, he's presiding over another hearing on the Ambassador Bridge injunction today.
It was a 10-day injunction, set to expire Monday, which is Family Day.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, Tory MP Mark Strahl is quoting Tommy Douglas's speaking against the War Measures Act in the October Crisis to lean on the NDP to vote against approving the use of the Emergencies Act.
"This has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with punishing people who have dared to speak against government policies," Strahl says.
Feb 17, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Quite odd, inasmuch as the mayor does not sit on the board.
Watson has in the past said he imagined a retirement from politics like ex-mayor Jim Durrell's—lending wisdom to boards, helping out, being a quiet Mr. Fixit where needed.
Feb 17, 2022 • 16 tweets • 2 min read
Outside the House, Chrystia Freeland begins a news conference.
Police and financial-service providers are sharing information and acting on it, she says.
Freeland says she's spoken with the heads of major banks and of FINTRAC the money-laundering watchdog. Talking with police on next steps.
It gives her no pleasure to impose any of these measures, she says. In fact, she does it with great sorrow. But these protests must stop.
Feb 17, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
King’s walking around by Parliament, observing kilometres of fencing going up under police supervision.
He wanders into an interview, which himself is streaming as he does it, and then someone else walks up, apparently streaming both.
Feb 17, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
For a long time now I've thought that a deep problem we have—in Ottawa, in Ontario, in Canada, in the West—is that we've collectively forgotten that stuff is hard.
Science is hard. Democracy is hard. Justice is hard. Defending ourselves is hard.
We (many of us here) get to set atop a pinnacle of comfort and safety partly because of the generations of hard work and sacrifice that came before us.
But also because of the dull, boring, unregarded hard stuff that people around us are doing every day.
Feb 17, 2022 • 25 tweets • 3 min read
To motions now.
Theresa Kavanagh wants to condemn convoy protesters' presence in school zones.
TK's motion is carried unanimously.
Next to one from McKenney and Menard. It's ... a bit different. It calls on Watson to apologize to the city, on behalf of council, for failing to protect Ottawans.
Feb 17, 2022 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Fleury now. He echoes something he said earlier: the integrated command centre doesn't seem to respond to local concerns. Does Kanellakos feel the same way?
Kanellakos says ... I honestly don't really know what he's saying. Police from all over are here and they have an integrated command or else it's a mess.
But the police are in charge and you, council, don't have jurisdictional authority over them.
Feb 17, 2022 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
City manager Steve Kanellakos (who was once GM of emergency services) speaks up for the bylaw officers, out there armed with nothing but ticket printers.
40 passenger vehicles have been towed through the demonstration, emergency services GM Kim Ayotte says. 3,000 tickets issued. Detour bus routes have been modified for better neighbourhood coverage as the convoy zone has shrunk.
Feb 17, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Carol Ann Meehan calls the question. Egli asks for separate votes on each item, which he's getting. First up is replacing Deans with El-Chantiry.
That passes, 15-9.
Feb 17, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
A furious Diane Deans says the whole business of hiring another interim chief should have been kept within the board until the senior command had been filled in. As a courtesy, she says, she briefed the mayor this morning.
And here we are.
The board was unanimous, she says. And the police board, though it has council appointees (including her) operates under its own provincial act. For a reason.
Feb 16, 2022 • 44 tweets • 6 min read
City council special meeting is beginning. It appears someone is taking part in it from the convoy protest.
(It's McKenney.)
Feb 16, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Having spent some more time in Convoyland downtown this morning, I want to add some bits to this excellent @JorgeBarrera story about the prevalence of loud-and-proud Christianity there now. cbc.ca/news/canada/fa…
It's by no means everyone, but if the dominant message a little while ago was "Fuck Trudeau," that's now taken a back seat to invocations of God, Jesus and the Bible.
Feb 15, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
So, to review. Yesterday, the finance minister said a bunch of new restrictions on people's money were in effect immediately to deal with a national public-order emergency.
A day later, nobody has anything in writing laying out in any detail what those orders are.
Technical briefers assigned to explain them referred the public to documents posted mid-briefing.
Those documents do not include the orders.
Feb 15, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The new emergency financial measures have ALMOST been published.
The cabinet order has been published now, referring to an annex that is not attached.
orders-in-council.canada.ca/attachment.php…
The senior officials in the technical briefing, which began before these things went up, are referring reporters to the posted orders and regulations, which do not include the things the senior officials say they do.
Feb 15, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The feds are having a technical briefing on the Emergencies Act measures. The rules are that the senior officials speaking are not to be identified.
They say the measures include forbidding bringing children to illegal protest sites, which is new.
Also forbid slow-rolling protests, the same as outright blocking roads.
