The rest of the story

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 21, 2011 at 2:36 PM - 4 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, Conservative MP Brian Jean stood just before Question Period to share some news with the House.

Mr. Speaker, members will be shocked to know that the CBC has not corrected the record on its misleading report from Monday night. It failed to inform Canadians about the drug treatment court exemption in our government’s safe streets and communities act. Today the Quebec Bar Association confirmed that it supports the important drug treatment court exemption in Bill C-10 for those who are seeking treatment for their addictions.

It’s impossible to apply an asterisk to words as they are spoken and Hansard doesn’t include footnotes, but, in case you were wondering, here is the story of that third sentence. Continue…

Team Rae

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 3:08 PM - 6 Comments

The interim Liberal leader has announced his House line-up.

Dominic LeBlanc takes Mr. Rae’s old spot at foreign affairs and Irwin Cotler takes Mr. LeBlanc’s old spot at justice. Rookies Sean Casey and Ted Hsu get veterans affairs and science respectively.

How Justin Trudeau could have changed electoral history

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, May 6, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 5 Comments

Mark Blinch/Reuters; Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

Victory moustaches!

At the Toronto NDP victory celebration, which was filled with people sporting fake Jack Layton moustaches, the partiers kept the music playing over Michael Ignatieff’s concession speech as it was broadcast on giant screens. They turned the music down for all of Gilles Duceppe’s, and for half of Green Leader Elizabeth May’s. When Layton acknowledged the campaigns of the other leaders, May got the most applause. Layton was happy about the re-election of his wife, Olivia Chow. There had been a huge battle to keep her riding safe. The week before the vote, Liberals Bob Rae (who won) and Gerard Kennedy (who lost) went to Chow’s riding to support the Liberal candidate there. The NDP claimed it was an attempt to get at Layton by doing everything they could to take down his wife. Chow had her stepson, Toronto city councillor Mike Layton, helping her with door knocking, since the area he represents overlaps with hers. For his efforts, he ended up with a pile of complaints from constituents about local problems, mostly broken sidewalks and potholes.

Mulcair’s strategy

Each day during the election campaign, Thomas Mulcair would have a conference call with all the other Quebec NDP candidates. There were ridings they knew they could win, ridings in which they thought they had a chance, and ridings where the odds were against them. When candidates would report suspicious things like a large number of their signs being removed, Mulcair said that was their way of knowing the competition must be worried and they took it as a signal they should up their game in those areas.

Continue…

From the magazine

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 1:09 PM - 55 Comments

I spent last Sunday hanging around with Stephane Dion. Here is what that was like.

If you’re interested in a director’s cut, full of never-before-seen material, see below.

You can add this as a post-script to what I wrote the night of the 2008 election.

Continue…

The Commons: Rave-up

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 8:08 PM - 68 Comments

The circular amphitheatre, used in other circumstances by a circus school, was bathed in red light. A muscular DJ spun pounding dance music, the heavy bass shaking the floor. In the audience, signs and thundersticks waved approximately to the beat.

After a few warm-up acts, Justin Trudeau bounded on stage, vibrating with apparent enthusiasm. He wore a suit jacket, but no tie, the top two buttons of his dress shirt undone. He and a cohost proceeded then to introduce the party’s Montreal team, Mr. Trudeau announcing each arrival as if introducing the starting line-up of the ’76 Habs.

On defence, the bespectacled one, Francisss Scarrr-pa-leggia! At left wing, in the tweed coat, Irwinnnn Cot-ler! Each descended the stairs from the top of the crowd. Each of the men wore the same look: suit jacket, no tie, top button of dress shirt undone. The lone candidate in a tie promptly removed his upon arriving on stage.

Finally, the captain, Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader appearing in a pink shirt, his wife by his side. Continue…

Mitchel Raphael on why Michael Ignatieff got his own 'fake lake'

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 2 Comments

Too bad about the protesters’ cake
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s annual garden party for the media had its own special “water feature”: a child’s swimming pool was decorated to create that Muskoka-like feeling. Liberal strategist Kevin Bosch said he learned from the Conservatives that if you want to get the media out you have to have a “fake lake.” Capital Diary asked several TV journalists to stand in front of the backdrop for a photo; all politely declined. Ignatieff’s version of a “fake lake” included fake ducks and a mini remote-controlled boat, all of which cost around $80, thanks to some strategic shopping at Wal-Mart. The party was a sit-down dinner of pasta and meatballs, as opposed to the usual food stations. Steve Paikin of TVO’s The Agenda seemed mortified when the band, armed with an accordion, sang Happy Birthday to him. Outside Stornoway, two groups of protesters arrived. The first were NDP supporters upset at how the Liberals helped the Conservatives pass their fifth budget bill by having several of their members absent for the vote. Unfortunately, an ice cream cake with Sesame Street’s The Count on it melted in one of the demonstrators’ hands, making the message written on it difficult to read. Then there were the anti-seal-hunt protesters who joined in with some of the NDP chants. When Capital Diary pointed out to the seal protesters that the NDP officially supports the hunt, the protesting NDPers claimed not everyone in the party is behind that position.

Her bodyguard money gone
When Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was in Geneva speaking at a conference to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, he met Dr. Massouda Jalal on a panel. Jalal was the sole female presidential candidate during Afghanistan’s 2004 election and spoke out about the conditions for women in her country. Cotler was so impressed with her talk he invited her to Ottawa where she spoke to MPs. She pointed out that many of Afghanistan’s TV and radio stations are in the hands of warlords who use the media to suppress women’s rights. Jalal says most people in her country believe what the media tell them so she is advocating for a women’s TV station to combat the misogynist attacks. When she was in cabinet, she said, she expected a minister who had lived in the U.S. for 20 years would be progressive on women’s rights. Instead, he told her the reason he had come back to Afghanistan was: “In America I don’t have control over my wife and daughter.” Jalal was shocked. Amnesty International gave her some funds, which she used to hire bodyguards. But the money has dried up and she is now without protection. Cotler is hoping Canada can help her remain a voice for women in Afghanistan.

Could Ottawa get any smaller?
MPs whose homes are far away from Ottawa tend to get excited when their children move to the capital. Cape Breton Liberal MP Mark Eyking is delighted his son Josh Eyking is starting work as a real estate agent in the city. He is with Keller Williams Ottawa Realty, the same firm where Transport Minister John Baird’s mother Marianne Anderson works.

Bilingual judges
Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella recently spoke at the Yeshiva University Toronto convocation and dinner. Noting the controversy around a private member’s bill that any newly appointed Supreme Court judges must be bilingual, she said she wanted to say a few words in another language. She proceeded with remarks in Yiddish, much to the delight and laughter of the predominantly Jewish crowd.

They also have a real lake
The term “fake lake” is getting under the skins of some Tories. But one joke going around is that they in fact have a “real” lake too: Edmonton MP Mike Lake.

Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

Mitchel Raphael on the MP who made the worst-dressed list and Peter MacKay's suitcase

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 18 Comments

Tory MPs are sexiest
When the Hill Times came out with its annual “Politically Savvy, Stylish and Sexy Survey,” Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was disappointed to discover he’s tied for the worst-dressed male MP on the Hill, with Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnell. “I know I am not the best-dressed MP,” noted Cotler. “But I don’t think I am one of the worst.” He confessed to Capital Diary, however, that his family agreed with the Hill Times survey. Vancouver Liberal MP Hedy Fry, known for her fashion flair and commitment to ensuring animal prints never become endangered, said that Cotler is clearly “the best-dressed professor” on the Hill. What about Liberal leader and professor Michael Ignatieff? Fry joked, “Well, he has people around him.” And professor Stéphane Dion? “His wife [Janine Krieber] has excellent taste,” she quipped without missing a beat. The survey named Tory Maxime Bernier the best-dressed male MP. Sexiest male MP went to Defence Minister Peter MacKay, leaving Justin Trudeau in second place. Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose was voted sexiest female MP, followed by NDP MP Megan Leslie. Transport Minister John Baird cleaned up in two key categories: “Most Influence in Cabinet” and “Best Cabinet Minister in Question Period.”

Continue…

Savvy, sexy, stylish

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 10, 2010 at 10:23 AM - 7 Comments

The Hill Times has completed its survey of adjectives not normally associated with politicians. Larry Bagnell and Irwin Cotler have tied for worst-dressed male MP. I trust there will be some sort of runoff to settle that one.

Mitchel Raphael on iggy's 'heroine' and odd jobs for the speaker during down times

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 8:40 AM - 1 Comment

Cost-cutting cupcakes
The series of round tables by Liberals on the Hill last week included a day dedicated to women’s issues, organized by Winnipeg MP Anita Neville. At lunch (where cupcakes decorated with pink roses were made by a Liberal staffer to keep costs down), the keynote speaker was former Progressive Conservative foreign minister Flora MacDonald.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff called her one of his “personal heroines.” MacDonald made sure to tell the Liberal audience she was having dinner that night with former NDP leader Alexa McDonough, thereby covering all her political bases. She talked of her work in Afghanistan, particularly in the province of Bamyan where the Taliban

famously defaced the giant Buddhas. Her accomplishments have included bringing solar panels to small villages, starting tree planting programs, establishing schools, and participating in local customs: “I have never seen anyone drink as much tea as the people of

Afghanistan.” Also at the lunch was Montreal MP Irwin Cotler, who has a special connection to MacDonald. In 1979, Cotler, a law professor at the time, was expelled from the Soviet Union for his work with Soviet Jewry, particularly his ties with refusenik Natan Sharansky. Cotler was ordered to board a Japanese airliner without a boarding pass.

Fortunately it was flying to London. MacDonald arranged a press conference when Cotler’s plane landed there and met him personally when he got to Ottawa. He also notes that she suspended a bilateral agreement with the Soviets. Notes Cotler: “She was a foreign affairs minister who acted on principle. I never forgot that.”

The story of the seven keys
When former foreign minister Flora MacDonald spoke to Liberals about her trip to Afghanistan she told everyone in the room they had to go see the special exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization called Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures. The day before, Heritage Minister James Moore had taken Afghanistan’s ambassador, Jawed Ludin, and two Afghan MPs on a special tour of the exhibit, which was saved by workers at the Kabul museum in 1979 during the Soviet invasion. The treasures were hidden in a vault in the presidential palace. Seven keys were needed to open the vaults and were kept by seven different workers, who hid the relics for fear of looting and later concern they would be destroyed by the Taliban. Ludin was working in the presidential palace when the vaults were opened in 2003. It was believed the treasures would be safe with President Hamid Karzai in power. Ludin told Capital Diary they were lucky they got all seven keys because one of the holders had died in Pakistan and his children, who had had no idea what the key was for, managed to get it to the palace.

Milliken to the rescue
Prorogation has meant Speaker Peter Milliken has been able to catch up on his correspondence: he finally finished doing letters from six months ago that required a handwritten response. He also recently took on another duty. During the Liberals’ round-table discussion on women’s issues, one female attendee went up to him in the Hall of Honour and said the Hill must normally not see this many women because all the women’s washrooms in the area had run out of both paper towels and toilet paper. The Speaker said he would get right on it.

Stoffer eyes neighbour’s space
NDP MP Peter Stoffer’s enormous hat and pin collection has now almost filled his office. With little room left on the walls, he says he is eyeing the space of his neighbour, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh. But Dosanjh quips he won’t be moving for the sake of a pin and hat expansion unless Stoffer can find him a bigger office with a better view on the second floor of the Confederation Building. That said, the Vancouver MP says he still always likes being on a low floor.

What they said (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 11:40 PM - 3 Comments

On April 23, 2007, the Globe reported what it had learned from interviews with 30 detainees. Two days later, the paper revealed what the Foreign Affairs department’s own reporting disclosed about torture in Afghanistan. After the premature announcement of a new transfer agreement that week, a new deal was signed on May 3.

Understandably, the issue dominated Question Period during this time—dozens of questions asked between April 23 and May 7 as new stories and allegations came to light. Herein, a selection of questions and answers during that period. Continue…

Smoked salmon in East Block courtyard

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, October 19, 2009 at 2:02 PM - 0 Comments

To honour the Jewish holiday of Succoth (Feast of Tabernacles), a special ceremonial succah was set up in the East Block courtyard. Representatives from Chabad and Bnai Brith were on hand for the celebration. Below, Conservative MP James Lunney.

Frank Dimant of B’nai Brith (left) with Liberal MP Joe Volpe by the succah.

Continue…

'69 is a Liberal position'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:59 AM - 7 Comments

Dale Smith looks at Liberal courting of the gay community.

Also at Montreal Pride this weekend, I was reliably informed that the Liberals were out in full force with a cheeky slogan that says “69 is a Liberal position” – referencing of course the fact that it was in 1969 that Trudeau’s bill to decriminalise homosexuality was enacted.

The Commons: And then, suddenly, an answer

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 6:27 PM - 23 Comments

The Scene. It was not otherwise a particularly remarkable day.

The Liberals persisted in asking the government to account for the current shortage of medical isotopes. The government insisted on doing no such thing. Jack Layton pouted about not receiving an invitation to the Prime Minister’s afternoon tea with Michael Ignatieff the other day. The Prime Minister jabbed his finger and waved his arms and declared the NDP an annoyance. John Baird scorned Mr. Layton with one answer and congratulated him on the birth of his granddaughter—Beatrice Dora Campbell, eight pounds and one ounce, born 12:03am Wednesday morning to Jack’s daughter Sarah—with the next.

Not even the early appearance of Irwin Cotler, the former justice minister rising immediately after Michael Ignatieff had dispensed with his three questions, seemed a cause for much concern. With the House breaking tomorrow for the summer, it appeared the Liberals were merely giving the venerable old lawyer a ceremonial opportunity to register a couple long-held grievances.

He asked first about Omar Khadr. Deepak Obhrai, the foreign affairs minister’s parliamentary secretary, rose with the perfunctory answer.

Mr. Cotler moved to the case of Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Canadian still bunking at our embassy in Sudan, awaiting an answer to the cruel riddle of his situation. “Mr. Speaker, Abousfian Abdelrazik is another abandoned Canadian citizen. In spite of the Federal Court’s severe rebuke, this government continues to violate Mr. Abdelrazik’s rights by refusing to bring him home,” Mr. Cotler posited. “The government has had two weeks to read a judgment that is unequivocal in its findings of fact and conclusions of law. Every day it waits is a continued violation of Mr. Abdelrazik’s rights. Does the government plan on appealing the court’s decision while delaying justice at Mr. Abdelrazik’s expense, or will it heed the court’s order and immediately return Mr. Abdelrazik home to Canada?”

It was here that something truly astonishing happened. Continue…

Liberals gather in the courtyard

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 1:18 AM - 12 Comments

Quebec Liberal staffers held “Soir des plaines sur la Colline,” a summer bash in the East Block courtyard. Below are Quebec Liberal MPs Marlene Jennings (left) and Alexandra Mendes.

Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.

Montreal Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.

Continue…

Mitchel Raphael on MPs in court

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, June 12, 2009 at 2:20 PM - 1 Comment

The MP and the traffic ticket

Canada’s first policewoman MP, Winnipeg Tory Shelly Glover, was elected chairwoman of the newly formed Conservative Law Enforcement Officers Caucus. The group includes Saskatchewan MP Rob Clarke, who worked for the RCMP, Rick Norlock, who had a career with the Ontario Provincial Police, and Dave MacKenzie, a former police chief. Among the challenges for MPs who are former police officers are ongoing court cases, says Glover, who has to periodically go back to Manitoba to testify. While Glover’s beat included the drug trade, she also recently showed up to testify about a traffic ticket she had issued that someone was trying to fight.

Palestinian leader’s son is a popular guy

When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Ottawa he met with party leaders. Present at his visit with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, who is one of Israel’s biggest supporters. Cotler first met Abbas in Damascus in 1977 and many times afterwards during countless Middle East trips. Cotler says Abbas “sees both sides of the issue and is clearly committed to peace.” The Palestinian leader’s son, Yasser Abbas, is Palestinian-Canadian and lives in the West Bank. (He got his Canadian citizenship while he was living in Montreal during the late ’80s and early ’90s.) He was the first person to call Cotler and congratulate him after he won the last election. The last leader Abbas met with was Stephen Harper. Alberta Tory MP Ted Menzies was asked to sit in on the meeting because he is also a friend of Yasser Abbas. The two met in Washington years ago and remain email chums. This was the first time Menzies had met Yasser’s father, though. After Mahmoud Abbas left the PM’s office, he went through the Hall of Honour. Right before exiting through the Centre Block’s front doors, a few members of his entourage used the new hand sanitizer dispensers recently set up.

Continue…

Israel at 61, quality food, students join senator in elevator

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 5:31 PM - 0 Comments

The Canadian Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Canada-Israel Committee held a special reception on the Hill in honour of Israel’s 61^st year of independence.

Toronto-area Tory MP Peter Kent and Merle Goldman, Associate National Director of the Canadian Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Conservative B.C. MP James Lunney, Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group.

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'Let the lessons to all Canadians be clear'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 13 Comments

Irwin Cotler and David Grossman lay out remedies to the plight of Abousfian Abdelrazik.

Faced with a government that seems to derive its sense of procedural fairness from The Trial, Canadians need a transparent system that makes the government’s obligations to citizens clear for all to see. 

'Enough is enough'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 1:24 PM - 4 Comments

Irwin Cotler and David Grossman call for Abousfian Abdelrazik’s return.

The question, then, is why: Why is the Canadian government so committed to refusing passage home to its citizen — a position that appears to have no basis in law and indeed violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Why is the government risking a third straight adverse decision in which the courts admonish it for failing to come to the protection of its citizens? Why is the government invoking dubious security considerations in its defence, ignoring the fact that its own security services — both CSIS and the RCMP — have openly stated they have no information connecting Mr. Abdelrazik to terrorism?

We have a government that is trying to use the Abdelrazik case to narrow down the constitutional right to re-enter Canada for all Canadians, and the only motivation it seems to have is trying to protect us from a threat our security agencies don’t even recognize.

Mitchel Raphael on the lululemon cabinet minister

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

A) Once a day? B) Once a decade?????

When the Canadian Medical Association was visiting the Hill, many MPs were given a health evaluation. “Do you exercise once a day?” Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was asked. “No,” he replied. “Once a week?” Again, he replied no. When the questioner got to once a month, the champion for human rights who has served as counsel for such former political prisoners as Nelson Mandela explained he just doesn’t have time for exercise. Cape Breton Liberal MP Mark Eyking noted many MPs, including him, were given pedometers to measure how much they walked in a day. How effective they’ll be remains to be seen. Eyking demonstrated for Capital Diary that just by shaking the machine a little, the number goes up.

Continue…

Consolation prize

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 13, 2009 at 1:01 AM - 5 Comments

Perhaps not quite as prestigious as leading NATO, but Peter MacKay can now, once again, consider himself Parliament’s Sexiest Male MP.

Some of the other results of the Hill Times survey after the jump. Continue…

The PM, Jason Kenney and a room packed with rabbis

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 11:41 PM - 12 Comments

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech to the Canadian Federation of Chabad Lubavitch to honour the memory of the Lubavitchers killed in the Mumbai Chabad House terrorist attack.

Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, also spoke passionately about the horrific attack.

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Tibet Rally on Hill: MPs, an athlete and serious nails

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 2:38 AM - 0 Comments

A large gathering of Tibetans and their supporters arrived on Parliament Hill to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Tibetans revolt against China’s invasion that resulted in the Dalai Lama fleeing to India into exile.

Former National rower David Kay spoke at the rally. He decided to cycle across Canada in an attempt to raise awareness about Tibet before the Olympics in Beijing last summer. He was upset more athletes did not speak up about China’s spotty human rights record.

Other speakers included Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler.

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Israeli wine, meets Canadian cheese

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, March 6, 2009 at 5:16 PM - 2 Comments

The Canada Israel Committee and the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee held a special Israeli wine meets Canadian cheese reception on the Hill. Here is Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv with Conservative James Lunney, Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Committee.

Transport Minister John Baird (left) and Adam Chambers, Jim Flaherty’s aide.

Baird with Justin Trudeau.

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What are we doing in Afghanistan? (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 1:25 PM - 29 Comments

A week after the Canadian government authorized military action in Afghanistan, the House spent a night debating the decision and the way ahead. The record of that discussion, which lasted until two in the morning, can be found here—including comment from Jean Chretien, Stockwell Day, Gilles Duceppe, Alexa McDonough, Joe Clark, John Manley and Irwin Cotler.

Chretien’s conclusion is perhaps noteworthy in our present circumstance. Continue…