Hello,
Katie Telford, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top adviser, testified Friday at a parliamentary committee on foreign interference.
Ms. Telford, who has been Mr. Trudeau’s chief of staff since he became Prime Minister, appeared before the procedure and House affairs committee for two hours beginning at noon ET.
Ms. Telford was first questioned by Ontario Conservative MP Larry Brock, who began by asking when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was briefed on foreign interference.
A document presented by the Privy Council Office just before her testimony began detailed when the Prime Minister was given formal briefings on foreign interference in the past few years.
However, the document does not detail when he received informal briefings, and Ms. Telford was unable to specify when those occurred. She also cautioned MPs that in a public setting she cannot provide information on what she herself has or has not been briefed on.
On Thursday, Mr. Trudeau said, in Saskatchewan, that he and Ms. Telford have often discussed foreign interference.
“Conversations with my chief of staff, with Katie Telford, on this subject? I have had many of them, many of them over long periods of time, over many years because it’s an issue that needs to be taken seriously,” said Mr. Trudeau.
On Friday, Mr. Trudeau was in Metro Vancouver making an announcement on investments in health care services for First Nations in British Columbia.
Please check here for live updates on Ms. Telford’s testimony, and check The Globe and Mail for an overview on her testimony.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSIONS UP - Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2021, but the increase was smaller than expected and overall numbers suggest Canada is making progress toward its climate goals, says federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Story here.
PARENTS QUESTION CRA DEBT-RECOVERY EFFORTS - A month after the Canada Revenue Agency restarted debt collections for overpayments of the Canada Child Benefit, some low-income parents say they’re still struggling to understand why they have a balance owing and have to set up repayment plans. Story here.
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES WORKING FROM HOME WOULD HAVE TO JOIN STRIKE PICKET LINES - Federal employees who work from home have been told by their union they will have to join co-workers on the picket line during a strike, and warned that doing any remote work would constitute crossing it. Story here.
CANADA READY TO BECOME RELIABLE CRITICAL MINERALS SUPPLIER TO ALLIES: GUILBEAULT - Canada is ready to become a reliable provider of critical minerals to its international allies including Japan, the federal Environment Minister said, as the Group of Seven countries deem such minerals essential for climate goals and energy security. Story here.
POILIEVRE “DEFUND THE CBC” PLAN WOULD FACE CHALLENGES - If Pierre Poilievre wants to “defund the CBC” while maintaining its French-language programming, he’ll have to overhaul the country’s broadcasting law in order to do it. Story here.
DEBATE IN ATLANTIC CANADA ON KEEPING MOUNTIES - New Brunswick’s government has ruled out creating a provincial police force to replace the RCMP. Story here from CBC. Meanwhile, a largely rural municipality in northern Nova Scotia is looking into replacing the Mounties as the local police force almost three years after a mass shooting claimed the lives of four residents. Story here.
SMITH MUST EXPLAIN STAND ON EXTREME VIEWS: NOTLEY - Alberta Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley says Premier Danielle Smith must explain whether she shares the “extremist views” of Calgary street preacher Artur Pawlowski and those of “her key support group,” Take Back Alberta. Story here.
MANITOBA CABINET MINISTER ACCUSES NDP LEADER OF SWEARING, SHOVING - Manitoba cabinet minister Obby Khan accused Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew of swearing at and shoving him at a public event inside the legislature Thursday, saying it left him shaken. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
ON A BREAK – Both the House of Commons and the Senate are on breaks, with the Commons sitting again on Monday and the Senate sitting again on Tuesday.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER’S DAY - Chrystia Freeland, also the Finance Minister, is in Washington, attending spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.
MINISTERS ON THE ROAD - Ministers out across the country were largely focused on selling the budget. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau was on budget duty at Le Grenier des Collines in Val-des-Monts, Que., Mental Health Minister Carolyn Bennett, in London, Ont., highlighted proposed budget spending of $359-million to support a renewed effort to guide the government’s work to address the overdose crisis and broader substance use related harms. Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, with Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, in Saint-Laurent, Que., made an announcement on science, technology and innovation cooperation between the two countries. Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, in Whitehorse, hosted a budget-discussion event. Justice Minister David Lametti, in Winnipeg, announced support for youth justice services in Manitoba. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller and Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, in Scotchfort, PEI, announced the signing of a collaborative fisheries management agreement with the Abegweit First Nation.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Metro Vancouver, participated in a traditional ceremony with the First Nations Health Authority, First Nations Health Council and Squamish Nation. Mr. Trudeau made an announcement on investments in health-care services for First Nations in British Columbia, and participated in a community question-and-answer period.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in the Vancouver region, participated in Vaisakhi celebrations.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Globe writer-at-large and political columnist,John Ibbitson talks about the fate of 24 Sussex Drive. The home has been the Prime Minister’s official residence since 1951, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have lived elsewhere due to concerns about the state of the property. The mansion is in such bad shape that rodent carcasses line the walls and are affecting the air quality. The Decibel is here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how Ottawa and Ontario don’t get it: We need a lot more LTC beds: “It is disturbing to see that even after the pandemic’s lessons about the dangers of not meeting the demand for long-term care, the Ford government and Ottawa don’t appear to have grasped what the essential problem is, and just how big it is. Canada needs many more LTC beds, at the cost of many more billions. What will it take to make our elected leaders understand that?”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) declares, `Have I, as Alberta Premier, interfered in the administration of justice? I couldn’t possibly comment’: “No, I’m sorry, I cannot possibly comment on the Alberta ethics commissioner’s investigation into my telephone call with Artur Pawlowski, the Calgary street preacher and anti-vaccine activist, about his pending criminal trial. Neither can I comment on my libel suit against the CBC for reporting what I said in that conversation, based on an audio recording of the call. As Premier I make it a strict policy never to comment on matters before the courts, except to Crown prosecutors. Wait, did I just say Crown prosecutors? That’s not what I meant and I’ll sue anyone who reports I said it.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on how David Johnston should tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call an inquiry on China now: “The links between the Chinese government, the Liberal Party, Canada’s corporate community and the Trudeau family are many and complex. Some of them have brought benefit to this country. Some of them might have been corrupting. Only a public inquiry, one with the authority to examine every document, no matter how top secret, and to compel testimony will restore confidence in our political and electoral systems. Now. Today. This hour.”
Tony Keller (The Globe and Mail) on the question of why Canada isn’t having the pension crisis that France is: “And Canada? Canada is not having a pension crisis. You may not have noticed. “Absence of Crisis Expected to Continue Indefinitely, Experts Say” is not a headline we tend to put on the front page. But back in the 1990s, Canada was headed for a crisis. The Canada Pension Plan (and the parallel Quebec Pension Plan) had been created three decades earlier, and like most public pensions they were built on a pay-as-you-go model. CPP premiums deducted from workers’ paycheques paid retirees’ pensions, and once you retired, the next generation of workers would pay your pension. The CPP was a chain of intergenerational IOUs. That’s how the French public pension works, which is one of the reasons it’s in trouble.”
Vicky Mochama (The Globe and Mail) on how feeling uncomfortable about sex is so Canadian: “The Canadian consensus seems to be that the state will neither criminalize nor abolish consenting private sex between adults, nor will it involve itself in the nation’s private intimate affairs. And yet, governments the world over, including in Canada, are concerned with decreasing fertility rates and social isolation. From laws on abortion and homosexuality to the present-day moral panics over trans rights, societal discomfort and state involvement have long been our sexual partners.”
Tanya Talaga (The Globe and Mail) on how she did not know Thomas or Samuel Skelliter, but is speaking for them now: “Thomas and Samuel Skelliter are not here to speak for themselves. Neither are their direct descendants, because they do not have any. They both died at Shingwauk Indian Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Thomas was 18. Sam was 7. They had no chance to go to college or university or to get a job or to raise a family. They never went home. Instead, their bodies lie here, somewhere behind the “school,” enveloped in the cold earth, surrounded by their classmates in unmarked graves. They deserve to be recognized for the brief lives they led and lost, thrust into a world they did not ask to be born into.”
Christian Leuprecht (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how increased scrutiny of Canada’s intelligence culture is overdue: “That the government obfuscates, minimizes and deflects issues that don’t suit its agenda is par for the course. It is the prerogative of democratically elected governments to exercise discretion on whether and how to act. Countries contend with run-of-the-mill espionage and democracies have an imperative to contain intelligence excesses to counter it. But the extent to which the government is going out of its way not to act on systemic interference, subversion and subterfuge by a hostile authoritarian state actor intent on undermining the very democratic values that the government purports to champion is rather unusual for any democracy, let alone for a Five Eyes ally.”
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Ian Bailey