Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Justin is only where he is because of his family, not because of intellect or ability or moral purpose.

He is now bleating that he is not his mother’s or brother’s keeper.

Ironic that he may be brought down because of his family.

Paladin is right. This is a tempest in a teapot. Canadians didn't get upset over government corruption under the Conservative government so I don't expect any outrage from the masses on this because it is nothing we don't already know about in a general sense.  His Mother and brother were paid to speak years ago.

The greater issue to me is the outsourcing. We have a massive government. We should not need to outsource.

Yeah, Trudeau pretty much has horseshoes but the Conservatives have no chance no matter what they do.

It is amazing how much a random event can change history. The federal Conservatives can't win the next election because their entire ideology is the opposite of what people want now, which is big government help not individualism. Not everyone of course but the ever valuable centre wants intervention. The deficit is not a main concern. 

I hope the NDP can make gains.

Now Trudeau has OK'd Foreign (Global) Minister Champagne's trip to meet and encourage the Belarus dissident in Vilnius.  Belarus is none of our business, but Trudeau sees us everywhere (but Yemen, etc.  victims of US bombing and sanctions) Two things I liked about Trudeau père, his opening to China and his questioning of Canada in NATO (he did cut troop levels).

Trudeau fils is hard-line on China (J. Chrétien would never have arrested Mme Meng at US request) and very enthusiastic on NATO (democratic values!!?)

I agree with Laine that Trudeau is being "directed". Prior to being elected he said he saw the job of PM as being more like the Chairman of the Board rather than CEO. 

I would go farther and say the modern make-up of parties is designed to place more power in the executive than in the leader. Leaders come and go. The executive, the money people, stay the same. Leaders are not puppets, CEOs or chairman of the board. They are front men. As such some have more power than others depending on their views and personal characteristics. 

Trudeau isn't a puppet. He is a man of his class and station. He agrees that he and his friends are the natural leaders and it is a "burden" that falls on their shoulders that they must live up to. He is an excellent front man because he isn't faking. He believes that people like Bill Morneau know best. 

He really didn't see his ethical lapses as wrong in any way include the WE stuff. To Trudeau it is the natural order of things that powerful people work together to run things and to some extent he is right. Everyone helps out their own, which is why conflict of interest rules were created in the first place. 

Trudeau puts experts in charge of each portfolio. I am sure he sees JWR as having betrayed the government. Orders, unions and brotherhoods protect their own from sanction even when they are criminals. Likewise the ruling class and the political class have a framework they are supposed to work within, right or wrong. They are supposed to protect the system, the status quo. 

What I have noticed the most about the emergency measures taken so far is they are designed to have only a temporary impact. No provisions are being made to end homelessness permanently. They are specifically making sure all remedies are designed to not make any lasting changes. 

They give out bonuses not raises to essential workers. No law has been passed saying homes must offer fulltime jobs rather than using parttime temp workers to staff homes. I kept hearing that workers must be stopped from working at more than one establishment as though they were choosing to hold multiple parttime jobs. 

Trudeau is absolutely a man of his class raised with a particular understanding of who runs the world and why it is right that they do. 

But look too at the NDP. They have been reactive and asked little of the government. They have been focused on WE rather than pushing for expanded medical coverage and basic income and higher minimum wages for essential workers and a path to citizenship for farm workers so we don't end up like the US with hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers and quitting the Lima group, and re-evaluating the economic case for TMX and countless other Covid related topics. 

Trudeau didn't bait the election hook. The Conservatives did that and they are going to continue doing it. Trudeau will continue doing what Harper did. Daring the others to trigger an election.

Obviously neither the Conservatives nor the NDP have confidence in the government. Opposition parties generally don't have confidence in government.

To me it means, are you going to be obstructionist? If yes, time for an election which Elections Canada has said isn't a problem. We have mail in ballots too. 

The reason the oppostion parties don't want an election is because the Liberals would likely get a majority, which is of course the reason the Liberals wouldn't mind having one. That isn't the same thing as wanting one. As long as the opposition parties support the government the Liberals will not call an election which is in their power to do. They don't have to wait until opposition parties trigger one. 

The Liberals had a lot of years to learn how to govern with a minority from Harper.  

The Liberals could do the same as the NDP in BC. 

Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Greens, they are all playing the same game. 

and another one.

I thought the Liberals were depending on the NDP to support them?

Reaction to Haitian strike exposes Liberal lie on ‘feminist foreign policy’

A government truly committed to a “feminist foreign policy” would support Haitians striking to boost their 70-cents-per-hour wage. But thus far Canadian officials have responded to the workers’ action by paying a celebratory visit to a sweatshop and ignoring protests repressed by Canadian-funded police. 

Canadian sweatshops and police funding

At the start of last week thousands of Haitian apparel workers launched a strike for a higher minimum wage. Thousand have taken to the streets in Port-au-Prince calling for a tripling of their 500 gourdes daily salary (CDN $6.20). The largely female workforce stitches shirts and other apparel for brands like Gap, Walmart, Target, JCPenney as well as Canadian apparel giant Gildan. 

The Canadian government has a long history of promoting Haiti’s export processing zones as a means of “development.” In a 2007 speech, then-president of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Robert Greenhill praised the Haitian garment industry. At a Canadian Institute for International Affairs conference Greenhill “was extremely sanguine about the positive effects that would flow from the reactivation of Haiti’s export processing zones.” Two years later international development minister Bev Oda told the Ottawa Citizen, “Haiti would have been historically a large producer of textiles and garment exporting to North America. It lost that industry and now we’re looking at how we can rejuvenate the industry there.” On Friday Canadian officials visited a Canadian run sweatshop and tweeted a photo of women happily sewing shirts at an industrial park in the north of the country.

While they promote Haiti’s export processing zones, Canadian officials have remained mum on the workforce’s effort to boost their $6.20 pay for nine hours of work. Canadian officials have also stayed silent about police repression of the strikers. 

Over the past decade Ottawa has channeled $100 million into the Haitian police, which the Liberals now label “feminist” assistance. A month ago the Trudeau government announced a $15 million contribution to the Haitian national police under its Feminist International Assistance Policy. Police in Port-au-Prince have beaten protesters and fired significant amounts of teargas at them. On February 15 Ambassador Sébastien Carrière met Haiti’s police chiefs, tweeting “Canada is pleased to have been able to engage with leaders of the HNP [Haitian National Police] in order to reinforce Canadian and Haitian collaboration in the security sector.” The result of this collaboration was on display this week week, when Canadian-supported Haitian police opened fire on a crowd of garment workers rallying for a higher minimum wage, killing a reporter.

Raise the minimum wage

Apparently, the Liberals are a little confused and perhaps historically ignorant of what “feminist” means. They may be unaware that feminists have often led strikes, especially those of women. Still, you’d think an expression of support for Haitian apparel workers would be particularly appropriate during Black History Month. Haiti’s sweatshop owners are largely light skinned while the workforce is almost entirely Black.....

"Over the past decade Ottawa has channeled $100 million into the Haitian police, which the Liberals now label “feminist” assistance. A month ago the Trudeau government announced a $15 million contribution to the Haitian national police under its Feminist International Assistance Policy."

How do civil servants processing these transfers keep a straight face? Disgusting.

Feds won't extend bilingualism bonus to employees who speak an Indigenous language

The federal Treasury Board says it has no plans to expand a bonus — now paid to employees who speak English and French — to those who know an Indigenous language.

The bilingualism bonus is an extra $800 employees receive a year if they work in a position designated as requiring language skills in English and French, Canada's two official languages.

Expanding it to compensate employees who speak an Indigenous language was among the suggestions senior civil servants had late last year as they discussed ways to address language concerns held by some Indigenous public servants.

Some details of those considerations were contained in a briefing note released to The Canadian Press under the federal access to information law.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, a union representing more than 120,000 federal employees covered by the Treasury Board, has proposed creating an Indigenous language allowance to introduce compensation for those who use one in the course of their work.

'A discriminatory practice'

National president Chris Aylward said the union has identified nearly 500 federal employees who speak an Indigenous language on the job.

"It's a discriminatory practice," he said in an interview. "When their co-workers are getting paid an allowance to speak a second language and these workers are not, how can this government justify that?"

"This is a very progressive and, we feel, a very tangible way for the government to recognize the importance of Indigenous languages in Canada. It's a win-win."

Aylward said the union, which has been negotiating a new contract with the government for more than a year, is also proposing to increase the bilingualism bonus to $1,500, up from the current $800, and wants to see the same compensation provided to Indigenous language speakers.

"We definitely believe that Indigenous workers should be recognized for the language that they speak."....