Four things to watch while Parliament is on break

[Oscar]

Four things to watch while Parliament is on break

[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-ne ... t-on-break ]

By Karl Nerenberg | April 2, 2015

Parliament is on break until April 20, but the world of Canadian politics is still busy. Many federal issues continue to make the news. Here are four to watch:

1. A Budget that will ignore economic distress

Finance Minister Joe Oliver has finally announced a date for the delayed federal budget: Tuesday April 21. Oliver also gave away his punch line in advance. The budget will be balanced, he said. Budget balancing is more of a fetish than sound economic policy, as almost any economist will tell you. But both Conservative and Liberal governments have worshipped that fetish. [ . . . ]

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2. Iraq needs inclusive governance not bombs

Canada's military role in the Middle East has been extended for another year, and expanded from Iraq to Syria. As the debate on extension of the mission got under way there was a moment of discomfort for the Conservatives when Foreign Affairs briefing notes to MPs on the situation in Iraq became public. Canadian government officials advised the politicians that the real solution to Iraq's woes is not military but political. [ . . . ]

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3. Small tweaks to C-51 are good enough for the Liberals

The Bill is now before the Senate, but will come back to the House for Third Reading debate later this spring. The NDP and Liberals have been obliged to present their amendments to the House Committee considering the Bill -- all of which were ignored by the Conservative majority on the Committee. The Green Party does not have a seat on the Committee and so might get to present its many amendments at Third Reading stage. Stay tuned for more on that next week. The NDP will still vote against C-51. The Official Opposition says the small modifcations offered by the Conservatives are not sufficient. Despite their notional opposition to C-51 the Liberals have said all along they would vote for it, come what may. Some in Justin Trudeau's party are now taking some comfort from the Conservatives' willingness to make changes, even if none address the Liberal Party's main stated concerns. [ . . . ]

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4. Conservative demonization of the Roma influenced IRB decisions

. . . . A new study from York Univsersit law professor and refugee expert Sean Rehaag shows that the nominally independent and arm's length Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) has behaved unprofessionally, and perhaps even unethically, in its treatment of Roma refugee claimants from Hungary. . . . . The study also found collusion among IRB members to assure their negative decisions on the Roma were coordinated -- and it noted the IRB's intense sensitivity to political contingencies, even if there was no overt political influence. The main source of that implied, if not explicit, political influence was none other than the Minister himself, Jason Kenney, the same Kenney who, more recently, could not get his facts straight on Canada's military engagement in Iraq and Syria. The Minister has had less push-back on his demonizing of the Roma, but Kenney -- whom many in the media still consider to be a star performer on Prime Minister Harper's team -- has long had trouble with the facts.