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BY MIKE LAPOINTE

Outgoing UNHCR representa-tive in Canada Jean-Nicolas

Beuze, who came into the role two years after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed Canada was “back” on the world stage following the 2015 election, says there is a “strong argument to make that Canada should do more for refugees and displaced

BY NEIL MOSS

As Canada once again ramps up its bid for a seat on the

United Nations Security Council, mandate letters for Canada’s for-eign affairs and defence ministers outline an expansion of support for UN peacekeeping operations.

But questions loom as to whether that will translate to more boots on the ground.

“There’s very little they need to expand from,” said Walter Dorn, a defence studies profes-sor at Kingston’s Royal Military College and Toronto’s Canadian Forces College specializing in

peacekeeping, citing Canada’s historically low level of deployed troops.

“We should be doing something much more like in the mandate letters in 2015,” he said, but added those mandates weren’t met.

Defence Minister Harjit Saj-jan’s (Vancouver South, B.C.) and

François-Philippe Champagne’s (Saint-Maurice-Champlain, Que.) new mandate letters direct the senior cabinet ministers to “ex-pand Canada’s support for United Nations peace operations,” with reference to investment in the

BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN

Outgoing Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer’s depar-

ture brings a chance for some neces-

sary “spring cleaning,” says one Con-servative Senator as party members call the pending race a chance for a party in need of a reset, rebranding, and bold centre-right ideas.

The race should bring “fresh blood” and serious economic policies to a party in need of an “infusion of thought to stir things up a bit,” said Ontario Conserva-

tive Senator Nicole Eaton.Mr. Scheer’s resignation an-

nouncement on Dec. 12 presents “a wonderful occasion to spring clean

BY PETER MAZEREEUW

The leader of the Senate’s largest group has proposed

cutting references to “opposition” leaders and legislation “critics” out of the Senate rulebook, the latest step in a campaign to perma-nently entrench the independence project begun in the Senate by

Canada should do more for refugees, displaced populations, says outgoing UNHCR representative

Sajjan, Champagne charged with expanding Canada’s UN commitment, but will there be more troops on the ground?

Senators to debate cutting ‘opposition,’ critics, out of Senate rules

Scheer exit opens door for reset, say members who welcome the chance ‘to spring clean’

Continued on page 5Continued on page 11

Continued on page 10

Continued on page 4

News

News

NewsNews

Immigration

Peacekeeping

Senate rulesConservative leadership

THIRTY-FIRST YEAR, NO. 1691 Canada’s PolitiCs and Government newsPaPer WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019 $5.00

Alberta businessman Rick Peterson also considering a run in what’s becoming a crowded field of potentials cautiously considering their options.

The Hill Times’ next issue is out on Jan. 8, 2020. Until then, watch our website for more news. Happy holidays and happy new year to all our readers!

Long-time Trudeau communications chief Purchase calls it quits, goes private: Hill Climbers p. 13

A Christmas rhyme for trying times: Van Dusen p. 9

Canada has role to play in Ecuador mining boom, says envoy p. 14

House, Senate plan for bigger 2020-21 budgets p. 3

The party needs a new direction after outgoing Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer's failed campaign, party members say. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

When Hill life resumes following the holiday break, some notable press

gallery stalwarts won’t be around, includ-ing long-time CTV reporter Craig Oliver and veteran Maclean’s Ottawa bureau chief John Geddes.

A reporter since 1957, Mr. Oliver has been around the Hill since 1974, starting during Pierre Trudeau’s first Liberal gov-ernment. Over the years, he served as the CTV Ottawa bureau chief and later was the host of the station’s flagship Sunday politi-cal morning show, Question Period.

Breaking countless news stories throughout his career, Mr. Oliver was the first to report in 1993 that then-prime min-ister Brian Mulroney was resigning after nine years in power. The report resulted in one of Mr. Oliver’s two Gemini award wins.

Outside of Ottawa, Mr. Oliver was CTV’s Washington bureau chief from 1981 to 1988, during which time he covered nearly the entirety of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Last year, he told The Hill Times about one of his favourite memories from his time inside The Beltway, when he was invited to dinner by Mr. Regan and his wife, Nancy. He noted that, at the time, he thought the invitation was odd, but went anyway. It was

a few weeks later that he found out the invitation was actually meant for a PBS executive, also named Craig Oliver.

In a column to commemorate Mr. Oliver’s 80th birthday last year, CTV’s Don Martin, who is also retiring at the end of the year, called his fellow broadcaster’s

longevity “unprecedented.”“There’s the impeccable credibility

he’s earned broadcasting six decades of Canadian and American political stories, scoops and analysis. Nobody can be better at weaving our history into current events than Craig because he’s seen it for himself as a bear-witness journalist,” Mr. Martin wrote.

Maclean’s Ottawa bureau chief since 2000 and with the magazine since 1997, Mr. Geddes has covered the governments of Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, and Justin Trudeau.

“The magazine literally hasn’t known the 21st century without John Geddes, but somehow we’ll have to figure it out. His are mega-sized shoes to fill,” tweeted Maclean’s reporter Jason Markusoff.

Journalists and politicos alike paid trib-ute to Mr. Geddes following the news of his departure from the Hill.

Strategist Rick Anderson tweeted that Mr. Geddes’ byline has been a “valued oasis of informed reflection amidst the tumult of” Canadian politics.

“Having covered federal politics and policy for more than two decades, John Geddes has proven himself to be one of the most wise, insightful, and honour-

able journalists the industry has known,” tweeted Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna.

NDP MP Charlie Angus added: “Ottawa will be a lesser place without him but I am sure he has an amazing life to embrace without the political swill of the Hill.”

Mr. Markusoff wrote that Mr. Geddes will continue to write a monthly column on arts and culture, but won’t be reporting on the Hill.

Mr. Geddes along with eight others were subject to the traditional “mugging” on Dec. 13, where Hill journalists receive a mug when departing the Parliamentary Press Gallery after three years, or more, of membership.

Mr. Geddes, who was “mugged” by Shannon Proudfoot, said he felt “very for-tunate” to be in the press gallery where the traditions are “so wonderful.”

Also receiving their mugs on Dec. 13 were CBC’s Katie Simpson, former Globe and Mail reporters Gloria Galloway, Shawn McCarthy, and Barrie McKenna, past Hill Times managing editor Kristen Shane, former Hill Times deputy editor Bea Vongdouangchanh, as well as Mr. Martin, along with long-time CTV camera-men Dave Ellis and Tom Michalak and his former producer, Alyson Fair.

Charlie Angus pens new tomeJust off his fifth straight re-election,

NDP MP Charlie Angus announced he has finished the manuscript for his eight book.

Mr. Angus wrote on Twitter on Dec. 15 that his new book—The City of Silver: Class, Memory, and the Frontier—is the longest book project he’s endeavoured to write so far.

“I’ve gotten it down to 85,000 words, 600 footnotes and 10 pages of bibliography,” he wrote.

Since 1996, when Mr. Angus co-au-thored We Lived A Life And Then Some:

The Life, Death, and Life of A Mining Town about Cobalt, Ont., he has written books on Northern Ontario, Indigenous apartheid and Shannen Koostachin’s fight for educa-tion, and one-time Toronto Maple Leaf player and founder of the Flying Fathers, Leo Costello, among other topics.

Mr. Angus has represented Timmins-James Bay, Ont., since 2004. He was re-elected in the riding in October with 40.5 per cent of the vote, defeating Conservative runner-up Kraymr Grenke by a margin of 13.5 percentage points.

Details of Mr. Angus’ new book are to come.

Patrick Brazeau calls for suicide prevention study

Independent Senator Patrick Brazeau is calling on the Senate to look at suicide prevention and mental health needs, with a focus on boys and men, as well as the high rate of Indigenous people in deaths by suicide.

“To the many thousands of Canadians who deal with mental health issues and suicide, know that I was broken too, but I am broken no more,” Sen. Brazeau told his colleagues on the floor of the Senate on Dec. 12.

The former Conservative Senator, who was first appointed in 2009, attempted suicide twice following his expulsion from the Conservative caucus in the midst of a sexual assault charge, which the trial judge granted an absolute discharge.

Sen. Brazeau will be submitting a notice of motion in the Senate Chamber calling for the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science, and Technology to launch such a study when the Red Chamber returns in the new year. The Senate returns on Feb. 4.

The motion calls for the committee to submit a final report by Dec. 31, 2020.

nmoss@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019 | THE HILL TIMES2

by Neil Moss

Heard on the Hill

Happy Trails: Craig Oliver and John Geddes bid adieu to the Hill

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CORRECTION: The Hill Times, Dec. 16 issue

Re: ‘Feds violating AG directive in fight over First Nations’ child welfare ruling, say Indigenous law experts,’ (The Hill Times, Dec. 16, p. 1.) This story incorrectly attributed comments about principle No. 4 of the Directive on Civil Litigation Involving Indigenous Peoples to Prof. Naomi Metallic. In fact, Ms. Metallic’s comments concerned guideline No. 4 of the directive: ‘Counsel should vigorously pursue all appropriate forms of resolution throughout the litigation process.’

CTV's Craig Oliver, left, and Maclean's John Geddes, right, have been fixtures on the Hill for years, and both will be taking their leave of the press gallery. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade and file photograph

Seasoned Globe and Mail reporters Shawn McCarthy, left, Gloria Galloway, centre, and Barrie McKenna, right, were ‘mugged’ on Dec. 13 as they depart the press gallery. Photographs courtesy of Facebook and Twitter

Patrick Brazeau first joined the Senate in 2009. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

3

BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT

The House of Commons’ Board of Internal Economy has

given its stamp of approval for a 2.6 per cent increase in House spending, to total $516.4-million in the next fiscal year.

In exact dollars, it represents a nearly $13-million increase over the 2019-20 main estimates, which sought a total of $503.4-million for the House of Commons.

The powerful Board of Internal Economy (BOIE) approved the proposed 2020-21 main spend-ing estimates for the House of Commons on Dec. 12 during an abbreviated meeting, cut short as a result of breaking news of Conservative Leader Andrew

Scheer’s (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.) decision to step down as leader.

A now nine-member body chaired by the House Speaker and including MPs from all recog-nized parties (those with at least 12 sitting Members), the BOIE is the governing body of the House of Commons and is responsible for the finances and administra-tion of the Lower Chamber.

Of the requested $516.4-mil-lion, $360-million is in voted spending and $156.3-million is statutory—that is, spending set out in law. Within the almost $13-million increase is a boost of $3.1-million for MP and House officer travel expenses and of-fice budgets; almost $1.3-million for parliamentary conferences, associations, and assemblies; $1.2-million for MP and House officer allowances and salaries; an $825,105 increase for legal and legislative services provided to MPs; $341,624 for salary raises for the House of Com-mons administration; $600,000 for MPs’ retiring allowances and compensation; and a $96,080 boost for the International and Interparliamentary Affairs di-rectorate.

There’s also $3.4-million for initiatives previously approved

by the Board, and an almost $1.7-million increase to House officer budgets, given that the House now has four recog-nized parties, up from three last Parliament. Unlike their smaller counterparts, recognized parties receive parliamentary funding to support a leader’s office, a Whip, a House leader, and a research bureau.

The extra resources requested by the House of Commons’ legislative and legal services branch—which supports all MPs in drafting private members’ bills, provides legal opinions for op-position MPs, and more—would go towards four more full-time staff, and is a result of three “ma-jor changes,” explained Philippe Dufresne, House law clerk and parliamentary counsel.

For one thing, there’s been a 10 per cent increase in the number of MPs since before 2015, which has correspondingly increased “workload and requests for representation and notice” by an estimated 10 per cent, said Mr. Dufresne. There’s also been a “significant increase in the num-ber of messages and amendments from the Senate following the adoption of bills by the House,” he said, which requires the branch’s support. In the 41st Parliament,

two such messages were received from the Senate and in the 42nd Parliament there were 32—a 16-fold increase.

“That has resulted in delays, longer timelines for the prepara-tion of private members’ bills (PMBs) by my office, longer timelines for the preparation of amendments, and so that touches in terms of the time and in terms of potentially the quality of ser-vices,” said Mr. Dufresne.

Currently, private members’ bills take about 48 sitting days to prepare, he said. The aim is to bring that back down to 30 sitting days, “if not better.” Mr. Dufresne also noted that four bills passed last Parliament—Bill C-58, on proactive disclosures through the Access to Information Act; C-65 on health, safety, and workplace harassment and violence; C-81 on accessibility; and C-86 on pay equity—have created new legal obligations for MPs and the House, adding to the branch’s increased workload.

In voicing his support for the spending, NDP House Leader Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, B.C.) noted that, par-ticularly in a minority Parliament, “getting the legislation right … is of primary importance, as we’ve seen the cost of getting legislation

wrong in court challenges that ultimately cost millions of dollars to the taxpayer.”

The additional $96,080 re-quested by the International and Interparliamentary Affairs joint directorate—which supports both the House and the Senate in organizing parliamentary as-sociations, Speakers’ exchanges, protocol, and conferences—will go towards the addition of one new managerial position, re-quired, according to clerk assis-tant and director general of the directorate Colette Labrecque-Riel, to help redistribute work in order to reduce rising overtime hours and sick leave among the directorate’s staff. Another $36,030 related to this will come from the Senate’s budget. This hiring would bring total full-time staff for the directorate to 55.

Mr. Labrecque-Riel said the main issue is the increased re-sponsibilities of the directorate’s protocol team, which organizes important events on Parliament Hill, and now has to deliver “these types of events in two buildings,” which she said is “much more complex.”

Up until last April, when she began piloting a redistribution of work in an effort to address over-time and the like, this same team was also responsible for planning international conferences, and generally were “unable to do the long-term and medium-term plan for these conferences, other than doing it on evenings and week-ends,” she said.

lryckewaert@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN

The costs of the Upper Cham-ber will continue to rise in the

next fiscal year, after the com-mittee responsible for managing the Senate’s finances approved a $1.4-million increase to the main spending estimates, bringing the budget to $115.6-million.

While the Internal Economy, Budgets, and Administration Com-mittee heard Dec. 12 that the 1.2 per cent increase is less than inflation, it marks a continuation of the rising costs to run the Senate since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) formed government, bringing in independent Senators with no formal party affiliations.

It’s a $10-million jump esti-mated for 2020-21 over expen-

ditures from 2017-18, when the Chamber was still in the midst of its modernization effort and spent $105.9-million. The pro-posed budget was $92.9-million in 2010-11, when the Red Chamber still had most of its complement of 105 members before the Sen-ate expenses scandal, which was partially behind former Conser-vative prime minister Stephen Harper’s decision to stop appoint-ing people in 2013.

That budget, which the com-mittee passed on division, is based on the assumption that Senate activity would be similar to in 2018-19 and early 2019-20, as well as the expectation that 103 people will be in office in the next fiscal year, said Independent Senator Lucie Moncion (Ontario), chair of the Subcommittee on Senate Estimates, during her presentation Dec. 12.

The $1.4-million increase is mainly due to inflation-tied increases to Senator budgets and rising interparliamentary as-sociation activity—a combined $1.3-million increase—followed by the Senate administration’s budget going up $225,000. That’s levelled off slightly by a dip in the budget for employee benefits, down $140,000.

Some of the $601,865 increase to the International and Inter-parliamentary Affairs (IIA) joint directorate—which supports both Chambers in organizing parlia-mentary associations, Speakers’ exchanges, protocol, and confer-ences—will go toward creating adding a fourth manager.

Staff heard it was an especially busy year for the IIA, delivering a record-setting five international conferences when there are usually an average of one, and a signifi-cant increase in protocol events, coupled with Centre Block shutting down and the building moves.

That meant a couple of staff worked 2,000 extra hours, a situ-ation Sen. Moncion said needed to be addressed to be sure it isn’t widespread.

“It is not good for their health, it’s not good for their family and it’s definitely… not a balance,” she said.

The Senate is now reviewing staff categories, including salaries and working hours, said Sen. Moncion, noting “a high level of turnover” among Senate admin-istration staff, and so there are open questions about why people are leaving.

“Were they leaving because of salary ranges or were they leav-ing because of other reasons?”

Both compensation and work-life balance were identi-fied in some cases, prompting the subcommittee to conclude that some positions may need to be re-evaluated.

She said the subcommittee took into account the changes taking place in the Senate, includ-ing the “ongoing modernization,” with the assumption the level of activity would mark a similar pace as the first half of 2019.

The budget also includes $451,000, previously approved by the committee, to add three staff for legal services.

CSG gets $120,000 to start work

The newly formed 13-member Canadian Senators Group (CSG) has $120,000 to work with until the end of the fiscal year.

CSG leader Scott Tannas (Alberta) said while there’s no plan to do anything quickly, two tasks are top of mind: setting up a “very bare bones” secretariat, and developing a mandate and clear description of the research bureau, which will take the bulk of their budget and was the idea that united the group—they wanted to be “the best briefed

Senators” through “good, solid, independent” research, he said in an interview by phone after the meeting.

He expects the secretariat will take about 1.5 staff to do the job, given the 13 members already have good office staff and need simple co-ordination.

The question of the CSG budget was passed to the leaders to make a decision at a November committee meeting, but it was reported back that didn’t happen, mainly because of disagreement over how to fund the Progressive Senators Group. The rebranded Senate Liberals have lost their official status after one member moved over to the CSG.

Under Senate rules, it was eligible for $191,000, a calculation starting from the day the forma-tion of the group was announced in early November, but Sen. Tannas said they felt that wasn’t necessary because they hadn’t been doing much in those first days. Their budget will be pulled from unused funding so that the Senate remains in within budget this year, the chair Independent Senator Sabi Marwah (Ontario) told colleagues.

swallen@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

House of Commons spending to jump 2.6 per cent in 2020-21

Senate spending up 1.2 per cent as Red Chamber to review high staff turnover

The House legal and legislative branch is seeking $825,105, in part to help reduce delays in drafting private members’ bills and amendments, from 48 sitting days to 30.

Review to question ‘were they leaving because of salary ranges or were they leaving because of other reasons?’ says Sen. Lucie Moncion.

News

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

House and Senate spending

4

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and carried on by many of the Senators he has ap-pointed.

Senator Yuen Pau Woo (British Colum-bia) gave notice of a motion in the Senate on Dec. 11 to delete references to “opposi-tion” and “leader of the opposition” through-out the Rules of the Senate, which guide procedure in the Chamber. Instead, the Rules will use terms like “all the leaders and facilitators,” if Sen. Woo’s motion is passed.

The motion would also delete refer-ences to opposition “critics” for legisla-tion, and replace them with references to a “spokesperson” for each bill in every group except the one that sponsors the legislation.

Sen. Woo was re-elected to a second two-year term as Independent Senators Group (ISG) leader last week, in an anony-mous, secret ballot conducted by the group electronically. He was challenged by Inde-pendent Senator Murray Sinclair (Mani-toba), the former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The ISG is not releasing the results of the vote, beyond the fact that Sen. Woo was the winner. ISG deputy leader Raymonde Saint-Germain (De la Vallière, Que.) was also acclaimed to serve another term in her role, after run-ning for the job unopposed.

The ISG currently holds 51 of the 100 occupied seats in the Senate. Sen. Woo and other Independent Senators have spoken repeatedly of the need to continue to make the Senate more independent and less

partisan, as has outgoing government rep-resentative Senator Peter Harder (Ottawa, Ont.).

The Senate Conservatives currently form the opposition, with 24 seats, the sec-ond most in the Chamber. The Rules of the Senate currently deem that the leader of the “party” with the most seats in the Sen-ate other than the government is the leader of the opposition in the Senate. That Sena-tor, and others in their leadership team, are given some special rights and privileges in the Chamber. The Senate Conservatives are the only group remaining in the Senate that has formal ties to a political party.

Sen. Woo’s motion would not delete the definitions of “opposition leader” or “opposition whip” from the Rules of the Senate, but would eliminate other refer-ences to those titles throughout the Rules. The motion would permanently extend the powers now held by the opposition leader and whip to the leaders of other groups in the Senate, currently including the ISG and Canadian Senators Group. Any group with nine or more members is formally recog-nized by the Senate.

Those powers currently include extra speaking time, ex-officio status on com-mittees, formal involvement in decisions to defer votes or select members of the Ethics Committee, and more.

The ISG leadership had some, but not all of the same rights and powers as the government and opposition leaders in the Senate during the last session of Parlia-ment. Those were provided only temporar-ily by an agreement that expired at the end of the session.

Sen. Woo’s motion would also elimi-nate the right to unlimited speaking time during debate currently enjoyed by the government and opposition Senate leaders, instead limiting them to 45 minutes, and would explicitly bar ex-officio committee members—group leaders—from voting during committee meetings.

“Over the coming weeks, we are look-ing forward to consulting further with our Senate colleagues about changes in rules and practices that we will be pursuing in the new year,” Sen. Woo said in a statement emailed to The Hill Times. “Most Senators agree with the broad objectives we are try-ing to achieve: a more open and account-able Senate; less partisan gamesmanship

and time wasting; and the equality of all Senators and recognized Senate groups.”

Motion to ‘fix things that aren’t broken,’ says Tory leader

Sen. Woo told reporters last month that he wanted to change the Rules of the Sen-ate so that the leaders of the government and opposition in the Chamber don’t have special powers that aren’t given to other groups, which include a majority of the Senators in the Chamber.

The existing Rules “entrench this duo-poly of power and privilege,” said Sen. Woo.

Conservative Senate Leader Don Plett (Landmark, Man.) told The Hill Times in an interview last week that has was not surprised by the motion, but said the scale of proposed changes amounted to a motion “on steroids.”

He said Sen. Woo was “trying to undo what our founding fathers started 152 years ago” when the Senate was estab-lished, and “fix things that aren’t broken.”

“We need to have a government, and we need to have an official opposition in the Senate,” he said.

Sen. Plett said he did not believe the motion would take away any rights or powers in the Senate from his leadership group, but he said he needed more time to study the motion to be sure.

Debate has not yet begun on the motion, and the Senate is adjourned until Feb. 4. Sen. Plett said he would probably suggest that the motion be sent to the Senate Rules Committee for further study. The members of that committee have not yet been cho-sen. If Sen. Woo presses to have the motion dealt with in the Senate Chamber instead, and has support from other ISG Senators, that could represent an early flashpoint in the debate over the motion in the new year.

“This isn’t going to come to a vote for a while. There will be lots of debate,” said Sen. Plett.

Senator Scott Tannas (Alberta), the interim leader of the Canadian Senators Group—the Senate’s third largest, with 13 members—said he shares Sen. Woo’s objective to try and “bring parity amongst all the leaders.”

However, he also said he believes the Senate must have an “organized opposi-tion … that gets up every day and figures out what holes they should be poking in the legislation that’s being proposed by the government.”

Sen. Tannas said he plans to examine each of the changes proposed in the mo-tion individually, rather than viewing it as a package.

The Senate has changed dramatically in the past four years. Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) cut ties with the Senate Liberal caucus in 2014 and began appointing non-affiliated, non-partisan Senators after coming to power in 2015. The non-affiliated Independent Senators Group formed in 2016, has become dominated by Trudeau-appointed Senators, and holds far more seats than any other group. Last month, another non-affiliated group formed in the Senate when Senators left the ISG and Conservative Senate Caucus to form the Canadian Senators Group.

The motion to change the Rules of the Senate won’t likely be the last of the proposals to change the Red Chamber for good. Mr. Trudeau has promised to change the Parliament of Canada Act, including to provide higher salaries for leaders of Senate groups besides the government and opposition.

Both Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez (Honoré-Mercier, Que.) and Queen’s Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, N. B.) have been tasked by Mr. Trudeau to do that work to update the legislation to “to reflect the Sen-ate’s new non-partisan role.”—with files from Samantha Wright Allen

peter@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

The leader of the Red Chamber’s largest group gave notice of a motion to delete references to the opposition throughout the rulebook.

News

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019 | THE HILL TIMES

Senate rules

Continued from page 1

Senators to debate cutting ‘opposition,’ critics, out of Senate rules

Senator Yuen Pau Woo, the facilitator of the Independent Senators Group, is proposing to permanently rewrite the Rules of the Senate to give equal treatment to the multiple groups in the Chamber. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

5

populations—and humanity in general.”

“The economy is doing well, it’s a strong society, despite all the discussion, it’s a very unified society, one that is very proud of who they are, and I think a lot of people expect the government to show even more leadership,” said Mr. Beuze. “It’s great what has been done over the last three or four years. More can be done.”

As he prepares for his next assignment as Yemen’s represen-tative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN-HCR), Mr. Beuze sat down for an interview with The Hill Times in his Albert Street office on Dec. 12. His last day on the job in Canada was Dec. 13 and he’ll be starting in his new post in January.

According to UNHCR’s most recent global trends report, 92,400 refugees were resettled to 25 countries in 2018—with Canada admitting more than any other country, at 28,100.

“It’s important to remind everyone that it’s a life-saving intervention,” said Mr. Beuze, referring to refugees coming to

Canada from the global south through the government, through private sponsors, and through the UNHCR.

“Among the approximately 30,000 [refugees] that come, 10,000 are referred by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency,” said Mr. Beuze. “It’s also important [to note] that when they arrive here, they inte-grate, they become Canadian citi-zens, they have the highest intake of all the newcomers compared to those who come from economic reasons [and] those who come for family reunification.”

Mr. Beuze noted two grow-ing humanitarian situations with close geographic proximity to Canada in which the UNHCR has called on this and the previ-ous government to do more: one in Venezuela, and the other in Mexico.

In Venezuela, he said, the number of refugees is “growing very fast.”

According to the UNHCR, more than four million Venezu-elans have left their homes as of September, with the total number of refugees expected to reach five million by the end of this year as people flee violence, insecurity, and threats, as well as a lack of food, medicine, and essential ser-vices in the largest exodus in the region’s recent history.

“There’s also a situation which should come more to the fore of this government, [and that] is what’s happening in Mexico,” said Mr. Beuze. “You have hundreds of thousands of families, often women with children on their own, or children on their own, who are fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Mr. Beuze told The Hill Times that he’s visited the region a number of times over the last three years and was struck by “the degree of violence, the degree of rape, the torture, [and] the extor-tion,” and the fact that “it’s really targeting youth.”

“It’s a G20 country, so it’s not a country which is without means and resources to do the job, but when you have the numbers [ris-ing] quite exponentially, it would be important that Canada give them support by providing them a bit more financial resources, perhaps technical co-operation,” said Mr. Beuze. “Ultimately, Canada is part of the Americas—and it’s absolutely essential that Canada continue helping Africa, the Middle East, or further west with the Rohingya—but there is also a par-ticular duty, in my view, for Canada to look at its own neighbours.”

UNHCR looking ‘very closely ‘ at ‘humanitarian fatigue’

When asked his thoughts around potential “humanitarian fatigue” on the part of Canadians, following the resettlement of more than 40,000 Syrian refu-gees between 2015 and 2016, Mr. Deuze said it’s something “the UNHCR has been looking at very closely.”

“While there was a great enthusiasm on the part of many, many Canadian communities in 2015-2016 certainly, in part pro-voked by the death of Alan Kurdi and the fact that Tima Kurdi, his aunt, was in Canada, we have seen a bit of a slowing down of the compassionate attitude, the welcoming attitude,” said Mr. Deuze. “But it varies a lot—[just] after the election, a number of polls have said that Canadians still [indicate] that they want to receive more refugees, they want to do more for refugees abroad.”

According to a recent Environ-ics Institute poll conducted in the final weeks of the 2019 federal election campaign, many Canadi-ans “continue to believe that some refugees are not legitimate, but such concerns have held steady over recent years, and remain well below levels recorded in the past.”

“Refugees make up a very small percentage of newcom-ers arriving each year, but their profile has risen dramatically due to the unprecedented influx of refugees from Syria and a record number of asylum seekers arriving at the southern border,” according to the poll’s final re-port. “These events have attracted greater public attention, but have not hardened public opinion toward the legitimacy of refugees, which remains much more posi-tive than in previous decades.”

Just under four in 10 (39 per cent) Canadians agree with the

statement that “most people claiming to be refugees are not real refugees,” up two percentage points from April 2019, according to the poll, “but well below levels recorded prior to 2016.”

The survey was based on telephone interviews conducted via landline and cellphones with 2,008 Canadians between October 7 and 20. A sample of this size drawn from the population pro-duces results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 19 out of 20 samples.

“It goes up and down, and I think we should not be too wor-ried about the short time frame,” said Mr. Beuze. “In the long run, Canadians remain very commit-ted to do something for refugees.”

On Dec. 17, Minister of Im-migration, Refugees, and Citizen-ship Marco Mendicino announced $50.4-million over the next four years for UNHCR at the inaugural Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, where the minister headed up the Canadian delegation.

“Canada has a proud and long-standing tradition of responding to the needs of vulnerable people,” said Mr. Mendicino in the release. “We are at the forefront of work-ing with partners to advance inno-vative solutions for those who’ve been forced to flee their homes.”

Estimated 20,000 irregular migrants entering Canada per year since 2017

Christian Leuprecht, a Munk Senior Fellow and Queen’s Uni-versity policy studies professor, recently authored a report with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute analyzing increases in irregular migration in Canada and their ef-fects on our immigration and refu-gee system. The report cautions that the “cumulative effect of both regular and back-door immigra-tion risks undermining popular support for migration altogether.”

Entitled, “The End of the (Rox-ham) Road: Seeking coherence on Canada’s border-migration compact,” the report notes that since 2017, about 20,000 migrants a year have been entering Canada irregularly and that in 2018, 95.3 per cent of those crossed into Quebec “almost exclusively from New York state across the now infamous Roxham Road.”

The report also found that a number of patterns prevail among irregular migrants to Canada, including the fact that they are often foreigners already in the United States at risk of deportation, are citi-zens of countries who obtain visas

for the United States for the pur-pose of then crossing into Canada irregularly, and among them are some who cannot obtain either a Canadian or an American visa.

“These patterns suggest that those who manage to find their way to Canada usually have suf-ficient economic means to cover the costs of doing so,” according to the report. “Yet the test for refu-gee status is fear of persecution—not economic means, however limited, to make it to Canada.”

“The real problem behind this conversation is, how do you make sure we maintain a system that was set up to protect people who are genuinely vulnerable and genuinely qualify for refugee or asylum status due to situations in their homeland that are simply making it untenable for them to stay—most likely because they’d be killed?” said Prof. Leuprecht in an interview with The Hill Times.“How do we return to the intent of the original system?”

The report also dispels the “nar-rative” that attributes the surge in irregular migration in Canada to U.S. President Donald Trump, noting that “contrary to claims that most of those who are crossing are taking flight from the Trump re-gime, about two-thirds of asylum seekers crossing irregularly into Canada by land actually enter the United States legally on a visa for the sole purpose of making their way to Canada.”

Prof. Leuprecht said that, as a result of this irregular migration, the “global refugee system is being undermined,” because those who really qualify for protection are going to have a more difficult time of making the claim because many countries are getting ever more stringent on who they will accept.

“The other is that it’s under-mining our immigration system because people are saying, ‘well, this is becoming a back door to immigrating to our country and we’re losing control of our bor-ders,’” said Prof. Leuprecht.

In turn, he said an informed discussion needs to happen.

“More informed discussion requires us to keep the emo-tions out of it and take time to understand how we got to the situation that we’re in, and how we establish a system that meets our international and domestic obligations, but at the same time, retains the integrity of our bor-ders, our immigration system, as well as the international refugee protection system,” he said.

mlapointe@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Canada should do more for refugees, displaced populations, says outgoing UNHCR representativeCanada resettled 28,100 refugees in 2018. But a public policy expert cautions that increased irregular border crossings threaten both popular support for migration, as well as the international refugee protection system.

News

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

Immigration

Continued from page 1

Outgoing UNHCR representative in Canada Jean-Nicolas Beuze, pictured in his office on Dec. 12, 2019. ‘It’s great what has been done over the last three or four years,’ says Mr. Beuze. ‘More can be done.’ The Hill Times photograph by Mike Lapointe

6

OTTAWA—It seems a bit cruel to pile on Andrew Scheer

now that he has officially an-nounced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. But unfortunately, there

is some more to say about his tenure in that job.

First, for the positive: Scheer does deserve credit for holding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to a minority. No one would have conceived that was possible in 2015, and no one would legiti-mately have expected that from the opposition leader when he was elected to lead the party in 2017. He was the compromise winner of the Conservative leadership race and a caretaker leader, and Trudeau was meant to be an unsinkable juggernaut.

Give him kudos, also, for winning the Conservatives more seats in 2019 than the party did in the previous election, and win-ning the popular vote. The parade could have begun and ended there if Scheer had stepped down on election night. He would have had an immediate positive legacy as party chieftain.

Like many politicians, Scheer’s sense of self, and his skillset, was not broadly shared beyond his mirror. For example, in what world would the modern-day leader of Canada’s Conserva-tives accept money from his own party to send his kids to private school? People can blame well-

liked former Conservative Party executive director Dustin Van Vugt for agreeing to the arrange-ment, but ultimately, the fault lies with Scheer. His political radar should have signalled an oncom-ing storm.

He had no practical instincts about what made his party donors tick otherwise he never would have sought or accepted the private school funding. Per-haps he became what he accused Justin Trudeau of becoming: too entitled. From his time as Speaker to his current tenure as opposi-tion leader, others have paid for his housing and other aspects of his living. I bet it gets addictive.

Scheer’s poor instincts con-tinue. Staying on as leader of the Conservative Party until a succes-sor is chosen is further bad deci-sion making. Some of his caucus mates have advanced the theory that he represents a set of steady hands to guide the party through the early days of the minority Parliament. Have they missed what pretty much everyone else in Canada has seen? Scheer is shaken and stirred, not steady.

While I appreciate it would be inconvenient for the opposition leader to uproot his family from

their official residence in Storno-way—more public housing—he has lost his ability to credibly challenge the prime minister. Scheer, like Trudeau, is not as advertised.

Launching a leadership race and advancing a series of policy debates are vital to Conservative renewal. Not far down the list is moving past the Scheer interreg-num. There would be great value in the Conservatives selecting an interim leader as opposed to hav-ing Scheer hang around. Proof of that is not hard to find. Simply look at the good work and brand building Rona Ambrose did when she had that role prior to Scheer’s election.

I am not trying to be nasty or necessarily unkind to Scheer. It likely comes across as cliché to

say, but he is a nice and decent guy. That has been my experience with him. I am not trying to be a prick and kick a guy while he is down. Rather, despite some of the immediate inconveniences it might provide, I’d like to see him act in the best interest of his organization.

If Scheer stepped fully away now, he might discover a great ap-preciation will eventually develop for what he did achieve this past fall. Instead of being a lightning rod of discontent, he’ll potentially emerge as respected figure who put the party ahead of himself.

Tim Powers is vice-chairman of Summa Strategies and manag-ing director of Abacus Data. He is a former adviser to Conservative political leaders.

The Hill Times

OTTAWA—Nearly two months after the Liberals’ re-election,

Finance Minister Bill Morneau used his first major public foray

to try to break through the fog of gloom and division haunting the country.

While acknowledging the risks Canada faces in a global trading environment turning inwards for the first time in 70 years, Morneau sought to reassure Canadians that their economy and job growth trends remain relatively healthy.

He reiterated that unemploy-ment is at a 40-year low, with improving wages, and economic growth will stay in the 1.6 per cent-to-1.8 per cent range for the next two years—not breathtaking by any means, but not bad in this low-growth era.

Confronting those who claim the finance minister has put in place the conditions for a “made-in-Canada recession,” Morneau made a point of saying that not one of the 14 private-sector econ-omists advising the government is predicting a recession here.

He also noted that, despite the sharp decline in employment in November that has critics at-tacking government policies, the economy, overall, has produced a net 400,000 new jobs so far in 2019.

As in the past four years, the Liberals are prioritizing economic pump-priming in the form of

middle-class income tax cuts and government spending over con-cerns about the size of the federal budget deficit. Morneau’s ex-pected budgetary shortfalls were already set to rise as a result of the tax reduction the finance minister introduced last week to fulfill a Liberal campaign promise.

He said on Dec. 16 that the budget deficit will expand to $26.6-billion for the current 2019-20 fiscal year, up from the $19.8-billion deficit forecast in the March budget. In the coming 2020-21 fiscal year, the federal govern-ment will record a $28.1-billion deficit, an increase from the $19.7-billion deficit predicted in the last budget. In 2024-25, there will be an $11.6-billion deficit.

Despite record-low unemploy-ment and an economy that has shown some strength after the long, slow recovery from the 2008-09 re-cession, Canadians continue to ex-press widespread disenchantment with their financial prospects. This reflects ballooning wealth inequal-ity, the rapid and ongoing decline of secure, well-paying manufacturing jobs, the info-tech upheaval, and the rise of the gig economy.

Explaining the government’s prioritization of spending programs

and tax cuts over deficit-fighting, Morneau was unapologetic. “We think that this is an appropriate level of investment for us to ensure that Canadians still get the benefits of the strong economy, that we deal with some of the very real anxiet-ies across the country, including in places that are not seeing the same level of growth that we are nation-ally,” he said, referring to Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Morneau said he is open to hearing about ways the federal government can address issues being raised by Alberta and Saskatchewan, including the pos-sibility of enhancing hard-time stabilization payments to the two provinces through the equalization system. The government also noted Dec. 16 that it is fully committed to going ahead with the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which already has 2,200 people at work on the initial construction.

As an export-dependent coun-try, Canada more than ever faces long-term challenges at a time of historic shifts in the world trade picture. The uncertainty created by U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist fixation has taken on a new dimension with the land-

slide election victory in the United Kingdom of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, a result that signals a final break be-tween the U.K. and the European Union, with unpredictable fall-out internationally for years to come.

Morneau told reporters the cur-rent economic forecast takes into ac-count the risks posed by global trade tensions. But he expressed optimism that the U.S. and China might have developed “some sense” of how to wind down their trade war and noted that the outlook for approval of the renegotiated NAFTA deal by U.S. lawmakers appears better.

“We’re hopeful that that will have a positive impact on trade, but we’re standing with where we’ve put our [economic] esti-mates because we want to make sure that we’re considering those challenges and dealing with them appropriately,” Morneau said.

Indeed, Prime Minister Jus-tin Trudeau’s government faces impressive obstacles on all sides—economically, regionally, and internationally. In that context, it’s not surprising the update sounded a lot like the rhetoric the Liberals penned to try to win over voters in the election campaign. Govern-ment spending (now always called investments) in infrastructure such as public transit, in child care, in skills training, and in post-second-ary education will improve commu-nities and give “Canadians the tools they need to succeed,” the update theorized. Time will tell if Canadi-ans are more convinced than they seemed to be when they handed Trudeau a minority on Oct. 21.

Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times.

The Hill Times

Comment

Shaken and stirred: Scheer’s poor instincts continue

Confronting anxious workers and a divided country, Morneau rolls out update meant to reassure Canadians

Scheer’s poor instincts continue. Staying on as leader of the Conservative Party until a successor is chosen is further bad decision making.

Facing impressive obstacles on all sides, it’s not surprising the update sounded a lot like the rhetoric the Liberals penned to try to win over voters in the election campaign.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019 | THE HILL TIMES

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, pictured with deputy leader Leona Alleslev on Nov. 28, ahead of Mr. Scheer’s Dec. 12 announcement that he’d step down as leader once a permanent replacement is named. If he stepped fully away now, he might discover a great appreciation will eventually develop for what he did achieve this past fall, writes Tim Powers. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Tim Powers

Plain Speak

Les Whittington

Need to Know

7

OTTAWA—At this time of year, one of my favourite songs is about the “Christ-

mas Truce” of the First World War. Called Christmas in the Trenches, one of the most evocative versions is by Canadian singer John McDermott.

In December 1914, there was a pause in the fighting, and the English and German soldiers approached one another in “No Man’s Land,” drank, shared chocolate, sang Christmas carols, and played soccer. It is a lovely story, and brings forth the essential humanity of people. That further truces were denied says a lot about the brutality of war.

Indeed, for the few remaining veter-ans of the Italian campaign of the Second World War, Christmas has a very different meaning.

In Ortona, in late December 1943, the Canadians fought one of their bloodiest battles ever. The town on the Adriatic was the gateway to the Liri Valley and Rome. To stop their advance, Hitler had ordered his crack paratroop division to defend the town. German snipers took out Canadian soldiers in the streets, tanks were blown up as they drove through barricades, and buildings were booby trapped. The battle raged for more than a week inside the town, while outside other Canadians, like my father, were fighting the Germans in the field.

It gained the name “Little Stalingrad,” as the only way to fight house-to-house was to blow holes in the walls of each building and clear out the Germans inside. The Germans deserted the town, now rubble, a few days after Christmas. The victory carried an enormous cost: 1,300 civilians died, and Ca-nadian and German combined dead num-bered 1,000, with thousands of wounded.

In the midst of this carnage, the Canadians served a Christmas dinner

before heading back out to fight again. In a bombed-out church, they ate whatever combination of rations and meat could be scrounged up. There was no truce, no pause, and many of the graves in the nearby Moro River cemetery carry the date December 25, 1943.

In early December, Veterans Affairs organized commemoration ceremonies for the 75th anniversary of the Italian cam-paign. Many of the 96,000 “D-Day Dodgers,” as they were known, have died in the last decade. Another 6,000 remain in graves across Italy.

Fifteen veterans of the campaign at-tended the ceremonies with Governor General Julie Payette and other dignitar-ies. I had the privilege of speaking to one, David Adlington. Sharp and articulate over the phone from his home near London, Ont., he celebrated his 100th birthday in September.

He enlisted in 1939 with the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and soon went overseas. He says he had the “nine lives of a cat,” as he beat death on several occa-sions, escaping Nazi-held France in an overloaded ferry, in a torpedoed troop ship in the Mediterranean approaching Italy in 1943, and when knocked out by shrapnel outside Ortona.

After that close call, he was mustered into a role as a cook. He recalls that vio-lent and dreary Dec. 25 as “just another day.” He points out the RCR had suffered significant casualties as it moved up Italy and was “down about 200 men.” Some of his friends had died or were wounded.

He says: “War is something you cannot explain to anyone, unless they have expe-rienced it.” After the war, he had a suc-cessful career running a chain of bakeries, and then raised horses.

Each time he has returned to Italy, he has been embraced by local citizens and treated as a hero. On this visit as part of the Canadian delegation, schoolchildren sang songs and the Canadians went to the towns they had liberated, where crowds came out to thank them. In Ortona, the town centre has been dedicated as “Ca-nadian Heroes Square,” and a monument depicts a Canadian soldier helping a fallen comrade.

This may have been the last visit for our vets: they are now elderly, and most are frail and will soon fade away. Their visit to Italy should remind us of their bravery, dedication, and their contribution to post-war Canada.

It is also a reminder that in this still-dangerous world, there are Canadian soldiers, development workers, and dip-lomats working for us abroad for whom the season may be anything but peaceful. Think of them over your Christmas or holiday meal.

Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal govern-ments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com.

The Hill Times

Comment

Christmas in Ortona was ‘just another day’ The recent commemorations are a reminder that in this still-dangerous world, there are Canadian soldiers, development workers, and diplomats working for us abroad for whom the season may be anything but peaceful.

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

We wish you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season!

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tout en santé !

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Andrew Caddell

With All Due Respect

8

The hottest item on the Conservative Party’s holiday wish list is a shiny

new leader.Party members will soon be eagerly

tearing off the wrapping paper, hoping the new model comes with enough batter-ies to last until the next election.

But before savvy shoppers can head out to pick up their very own CPC fig-urehead, multiple versions will have to be focus-group tested before hitting the shelves.

The assembly line started on Oct. 21, when the Conservative Party fell short of its goal of making Justin Trudeau a one-term prime minister. But once Andrew Scheer announced his resignation on Dec. 12, it started rumbling along at an I Love Lucy-esque pace.

The prevailing sentiment is that the party needs to get a new leader installed as quickly as possible, with some saying it should happen before the party’s April convention.

Among the names of people who are being courted or are coyly “considering” taking on the role are former interim leader Rona Ambrose, former federal Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay, former Senator Michael Fortier, businessman Bryan Brulotte, former lead-ership candidate Rick Peterson, as well as current caucus members Erin O’Toole, Michael Chong, and Marilyn Gladu.

In a report published Dec. 17, the Angus Reid Institute said at least one-fifth of Canadians who responded to an online survey indicated that Ms. Ambrose

and Mr. MacKay were the most appeal-ing choices for leader—far and away the top picks over other suggested names, such as Pierre Poilievre (eight per cent), Michelle Rempel (nine per cent), or Brad Wall (five per cent).

In his remarks to the House of Com-mons on Dec. 12, Mr. Scheer said that one of the things his party had going for it was that it wasn’t a “cult of personal-ity.”

“It is not shaped by whoever’s name is on the masthead, but by the hundreds of thousands of Conservatives who pound in lawn signs, sit on their riding asso-ciations, and donate a few dollars every month,” he said.

Another 17-month contest isn’t ad-vised, or likely, but rushing to get a leader with all the latest bells and whistles be-fore the party has a chance to sit together at the convention in April and figure out what road members want to take could lead the party into the personality trap it claims to be so desperate to avoid.

But, as with any new toy, the shine can come off pretty quickly, regardless of who gets picked. The same Angus Reid survey suggested that among core Conservatives, 55 per cent felt the Mr. Scheer was the party’s biggest weak-ness in the 2019 election, compared to 45 per cent who laid blame on the party’s policies.

Hopefully, for the sake of the party, the next leader doesn’t get shuffled off to the Island of Misfit Toys too quickly.

The Hill Times

What’s with this “tieless” House of Com-mons? As one who once had the hon-

our of sitting in Canada’s Parliament (both the House and Senate), I’m shocked that the new Commons Speaker, Anthony Rota, has apparently thrown out the dress rules.

In the last Parliament, Speaker Regan would let male MPs sit tie-less in their seats on hot nights as long as they didn’t try to speak or vote. Now, in the first confidence vote of the new Parliament, I watched many Parliamentarians casting their votes with

open-necked shirts. What’s next? The re-moval of jackets on hot nights? Letting men discard ties because women don’t wear them is certainly carrying gender parity too far.

To those who say this is not the issue on which civilization turns, I say: if you want the Commons to meet high standards of decorum, maintain the dress code. Voting to make Canada’s laws is not an afternoon at the beach.

Douglas Roche Edmonton, Alta.

Re: “Hong Kong: don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” (The Hill Times, Dec.

2, p. 13). Gwynne Dyer’s advice as to the best way of maintaining democracy in the former British colony, is for protesters to compro-mise if the governing communists make concessions.

In 1839, Chinese viceroy Lin Zexu burned the opium supplies of British traders. In 1841, after winning the First Opium War, Great Britain took control of Hong Kong, and, in 1898, leased it from China for 99 years. On Sept. 18, 1931, the Chinese began to fight a Japanese military invasion and, on Dec. 25,

1941, Great Britain surrendered Hong Kong to Japan. In 1945, the Anti-Japanese War ended with victory for China.

The British Crown colony of Hong Kong segregated people. In certain places signs read, “No dogs or Chinese allowed.” In 1987, China made known its intention to reclaim the terri-tory and only in the last 10 years of tenure did the British begin to extend democratic free-doms to the Chinese they governed. Citizenship rights for everyone in Hong Kong came with the lessening of foreign influence in China.

Andrew Romain Gatineau, Que.

Re: “Some things are worth spending on, and safety is one of them,” (The Hill

Times, Dec. 11, p. 8). In this editorial, you refer, in part, to wondering why nothing has been done to date to commence the long-overdue and much-needed upgrades to the prime minister’s official residence at 24 Sussex Dr. I’ve been wondering the same thing for a long time.

I think it is absolutely shameful that the current prime minister and many of his recent predecessors have refused to allow any of the necessary work to be done on the residence to make it safe and habitable for its intended inhabitants. In spite of the fact the National Capital Commission (NCC) has stated that the residence is in critical condition and that if proper repairs aren’t undertaken sooner rather than later, the residence will be beyond saving, suc-cessive occupants at 24 Sussex have only permitted the bare minimum of repairs to keep the place from falling down.

Let’s keep in mind that 24 Sussex is owned by Canada; the landlord is the NCC. Prime ministers of Canada are mere-ly tenants. Prime ministers, as tenants, should not be allowed to interfere in the landlord’s obligations to make this official

residence a safe, energy-efficient, and wel-coming home for those who are privileged to occupy 24 Sussex from time to time.

When Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, he rightfully refused to move into 24 Sussex due to its unsafe en-vironment, and another official residence was found for him. So why, then, wasn’t the NCC given the opportunity to imme-diately take advantage of the fact that 24 Sussex was now vacant and get the reme-dial work done that is so badly needed and so long overdue?

In any other similar situation, a land-lord would never be allowed to get away with allowing any tenant to occupy a dwelling with shoddy wiring, leaky win-dows, poor heating, asbestos, and crum-bling foundations.

Let’s get the politics and the politicians out of this situation and let’s allow the Na-tional Capital Commission, as the owner and landlord of 24 Sussex to get into the residence as soon as possible to do all the work necessary to make this historic residence a safe and comfortable home for its present and future occupants.

Jae Eadie Winnipeg, Man.

Satisfaction not guaranteed: next Conservative leader shouldn’t be picked up at a door-buster sale

Time for a return to form(al), says former Parliamentarian Roche

Fight for rights has a long history in Hong Kong: reader

The deteriorating condition of 24 Sussex is shameful

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9

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through

the world, Stock in Xanax inflated as the ****show unfurled. In a Washington split like a log with an ax, They were impeaching a president—not the one with the sax. As the details emerged of a hit on Ukraine, America’s mayor broke up with his brain, For a boss who

was willing to sell out Donbas. Option one: take out Joe, option two: kiss my ass.

Up the street, up the hill, in the branch they call legislative, They were locked in a dance that was wildly interpretive. With corruption repurposed as anti-corruption, All to appease the King of Disruption, While the unstinting gaze of Pelosi and Schiff, Sent his Twitter id-rage sailing over a cliff.

Meanwhile, in London, where things used to be saner, Another wobbly campaign made Dec. 12 a no-brainer. Faced with a choice: blanc-mange? … Eton Mess? This blessed plot picked, “It’ll never digest.”

Ah, remember when Boris

was

mayor, crashing ziplines? Now he’ll be clogging the Brexit-angst tip-lines. And what of the waffly and baf-fling Corbyn? Meet the sober pub bore who’s spoiling your bourbon. With plots un-blessed of vox populi perversion, Time to start quot-ing the King James version. What ho! Doesn’t matter? We’ll always have Fleabag? Thank Christ, there is that, and

the great Yorkshire teabag.

In Madrid, in Spain, where they invented siesta, The COP25 was so not a fiesta.

As the new world order’s firemen-slash-arsonists Bollixed it up for the KAOS-y larcenists. At least Greta Thun-berg’s got the you-know-whats of a leader. Sure, tell her to “chill,” she’s a pigtailed Ben Weider!

Back here in Canada, where minority rules, It’s a yuletide tale of two

different yules. Chrystia Freeland’s

new job is our own Ukraine statement, With a mandate

so copious, it brooks no abatement. So much to ensure, eyeball, and embody,

There’s barely a chestnut for

Prime Minister Hottie.

Andrew Scheer’s still verklempt o’er his wee lump of coal, Not yet facing the fact that escape was his goal. From the gay marriage stuff to the Dockers-dad vibe, Just the wrong kinda weird for the Trumpian tribe. He’d have never seen April with the horde on his tail. Now he can find a more catchy white whale. Ask Tory, ask Nenshi, ask Watson, ask Plante! A nice city hall is the thing that you want. No QP sur tes nerfs, no more infinite scrums,

Just road-closure tweets and Second Cup mums.

Another year gone, and another one coming, As we tweet-tweet away with our lizard brains humming. Sure, there may be no more of trust, hope or truth, But leave the malarkey to the sayers of sooth. We’ve got Siri, Alexa, and Yoda, the baby. And next year will be better. It just might. It just maybe.

Lisa Van Dusen is associate editor of Policy Magazine and was a Washington and New York-based editor at UPI, AP, and ABC. She writes a weekly column for The Hill Times.

The Hill Times

OTTAWA—The Western media reports of late have been

quick to condemn authoritarian regimes for their excessive use of force against civilian protes-tors. For more than six months

now, Hong Kong riot police have battled the pro-democracy mobs of this former British colony.

The pro-democracy protestors have expressed their anger at en-croaching control over Hong Kong by the Beijing China authorities, through a steady stream of violent riots.

Pro-democracy activists re-torted to pelting riot police with petrol bombs and even engaged them with bows and arrows. The world condemned the Hong Kong police for aggressively arresting these pro-democracy types, even when protestors shut down the Hong Kong airport for days and occupied a university campus.

Far more effective in making their case for democracy was the recent landslide victory for Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing majority electorate in the civil election. Despite this clear message being sent to the Hong Kong administration that reform is neces-sary, the protests continue.

While we are quick to condemn the Chinese for their ruthless response, I would hazard a guess that if U.S. rioters hurled petrol bombs at American police, there would be gunfire, and lots of it.

For weeks now, Iran has faced a widespread outbreak of civil unrest. Iranians are enraged at the suffer-ing they must endure as a result

of the U.S.’s embargo against the Tehran regime. That regime has not shown as much restraint in their se-curity forces’ use of lethal force. It is estimated that hundreds of Iranian youth have been killed in the unrest with thousands more injured.

So, a deserved condemnation is due to Iranian leadership for allowing their population to be so brutally oppressed in this manner.

This then brings us to the situation in Iraq, where we have a total of 700 military person-nel deployed; some 250 of them working as trainers to the Iraqi security forces. Almost unre-ported in the Western media has been the fact that for the past two and a half months, Iraq too has been awash in violent unrest. The initial response from the Baghdad regime was to deploy the NATO-trained security forces to restore order. Like Iran, the Iraqi force did not show the restraint of the Hong Kong police, and escalated almost immediately to shooting protestors with live ammunition.

The genesis for the current upheaval stems from an almost universal fatigue on the part of Iraqi youth to cope with the in-trinsic corruption of the Baghdad regime. Yes folks, that would be the same corrupt Baghdad regime

that Canadian troops are de-ployed to support.

Unlike many of Iraq’s previous violent clashes, which involved intersectarian violence between Sunni and Shiites—this time it is a unified front against corruption.

To date, some estimates put the death toll at more than 1,000, with 10,000 injured.

In a rare move, Iraq’s Chal-dean Christian Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako last week declared they were cancelling Christmas in Iraq to stand in solidarity with the Sunni and Shiite protestors.

Further complicating the matter earlier this month, Iraq’s Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi stepped down to appease the protestors, but all this accomplished was to leave this embattled country leaderless.

In a bizarre understatement, Major-General Jennie Carignan, the current Canadian commander of

the NATO mission in Iraq, told The Globe and Mail, “we can see there is some work to do on now [Iraqi officials] structure and organize themselves for crisis management.”

The security forces we trained are greasing protestors in the streets by the hundreds to prop up a vacant regime and Cari-gnan’s observation is that there is room for improvement?

No crap, Sherlock!Canada should never have

deployed to Iraq. Our mission there was never clear and now it has lost all meaning. If we wish to maintain the moral high ground to chastise brutal regimes like Beijing and Tehran, Canada needs to stop propping up one in Baghdad.

Scott Taylor is the edi-tor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine.

The Hill Times

Comment

T’was the week before Christmas

Iraq presence is weakening Canada’s moral high ground

A happy Christmas to all! In spite of, you know… everything.

If we wish to maintain the moral high ground to chastise brutal regimes like Beijing and Tehran, Canada needs to stop propping up one in Baghdad.

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

Major-General Jennie Carignan officially assumes command of the NATO Mission Iraq from Major-General Dany Fortin at a Transfer of Authority Ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, on Nov. 26, 2019. Canada should never have deployed to Iraq because our mission there was never clear and now it has lost all meaning, writes Scott Taylor. DND photograph by Cpl. Ryan Moulton

Scott Taylor

Inside Defence

Lisa Van Dusen

What Fresh Hell

10

and there’s a lot of younger savvier, digital-age people who can come in and make [the party] work again,” said the longtime Conservative fundraiser in an interview on Dec. 16 in the midst of other calls to potential leadership candidates to whom she’s speaking and consid-ering fundraising for. Sen. Eaton declined to name them as they haven’t yet announced their plans.

Most important, she said the next leader “should have 21st cen-tury social values,” with many crit-ics blaming, in part, Mr. Scheer’s personal opinion on abortion and LGBTQ rights—most notably how he responded to questions about those stances during the campaign—for sinking the party’s chances at forming government.

“He had difficulty articulating his views on social policy,” a com-munication problem that she said extended even to the Conserva-tive caucus.

Until late last week, despite increasingly organized and pub-lic calls for his exit, Mr. Scheer (Regina–Qu’Appelle, Sask.) appeared as if he would stay and fight for enough votes at the mandatory leadership review at the April 2020 convention. The same day he changed course, Global News reported and the party’s executive director, Dustin van Vugt, later confirmed Mr. Scheer used party money to pay for four of his children’s private education. At issue is whether

members of the Conservative Fund, including former prime minister Stephen Harper, knew of the expense.

Sen. Eaton, who spent a de-cade on the Conservative Fund’s board, said the optics of that choice are “appalling,” especially in the context of Ontario having a Catholic public school system, and reveals “the terrible politi-cal judgement both Dustin and Andrew had.” Mr. Scheer’s office declined to comment.

The infighting on display has been counterproductive, said Yaroslav Baran, a former Conser-vative communications strategist. The tension between the Conser-vative Fund and party’s national council has created a “strange little divide,” but one he predicted would not last very long.

‘We need to go back to the centre’: Keddy

The party desperately needed a leadership review said former Nova Scotia Conservative MP Gerald Keddy, who left the House in 2015 after six terms, and is frustrated by the direction the party went under Mr. Scheer, say-ing he catered to social conser-vative groups focused on single issues.

“We need to go back to the centre,” he said, and while all in the party don’t need to agree, the party can’t be “offside on every single issue” in mainstream Cana-dian political thinking.

When it comes to regional di-visions within Canada and “fringe groups” within the party, defeated Quebec candidate Richard Serour said the next leader “has to be a uniter” and should be socially pro-gressive but fiscally conservative.

That assessment was support-ed by recent Angus Reid Institute numbers, with a Dec. 17 study finding that 57 per cent of poten-tial Conservative voters say the party should move to the political centre on social issues.

One of the co-sponsors of a motion at the 2016 convention

that redefined marriage in the party’s constitution, said he hopes the 2020 convention—and leader-ship race—will bring the reset he’d hoped would happen in 2017 with a new leader.

The next leader should be someone with a demonstrated history of taking “a more free-dom-centered approach” to rights, said Joseph Heap, and one who will help the party offer “a cred-ible environmental plan.”

“The party is struggling in urban areas because people are serious about tackling climate change. They want to see parties try to do something about it,” but Conservatives have been “missing from the debate.”

The party has been “afraid to take stances” and offer right-of-centre solutions, he said, echoing the sentiment offered by Michelle Rempel Garner over the weekend on Twitter that the party “has been cowed into submission” and that now “is the time for ideas, and a big tough conversation about what we want to do for Canada.”

In the absence of such stances, Canadians sometimes assume where the party lands, he said, raising the prospect of a “hidden agenda” that has “killed” Conser-vatives ambitions, including in the last election.

The party has steered clear of clear positions on issues consid-ered “Liberal” to its detriment, said Mr. Baran, who also pushed for a strong environmental policy.

“You cannot ghettoize your policy interests into a very nar-row sleeve of issues that happen to score really well among your most successful votes. That’s a very short-term, cheap way of approaching politics. That’s not national building,” said Mr. Baran, who said while the party may be in need of soul searching, it is not in an existential crisis and rather on an “upward track.”

Though the party won the popular vote on Oct. 21, and 22 more seats than 2015, it lost vote share in Ontario and Quebec. The party has to redefine what it means to Canadians, said Dean Tester, president of Tester Digital and a Conservative senior digital strategist prior to the 2015 elec-tion.

“Andrew Scheer had his flaws but there’s a bigger problem here. The Conservative Party has been running on the same platform ba-sically since 2006,” said Mr. Tester. “Boutique tax credits and tough-on-crime platitudes are not going to get the job done anymore. It’s time to be bold and redefine what the Conservative Party means to Canadians.”

There are three things he said must be addressed by the next leader: a credible plan to tackle climate change that includes market-based solutions; “uncondi-tionally and enthusiastically” sup-porting the LGBTQ community; and tax reform.

To Mr. Keddy the “big picture” question is not about Mr. Scheer, but about the future of the party.

“We will either change the direction [from] a few special interests groups overwhelming our convention and put out a face on the party that is modern and moderate, or this party will cease to exist,” he said.

Alberta businessman considering run on crowded stage

Mr. Keddy said he hopes the next leader is among the many “good, solid, centrist thinkers” in the party, like former MPs Rona Ambrose, who is reportedly con-sidering a bid, Peter MacKay, and Lisa Raitt, who came in eighth the 2017 race and has said she won’t run again.

Several party members ex-pressed concern that some long-shot candidates are putting their names forward, feeling the party would benefit from a smaller pool of viable candidates. In 2017, 14 put their name forward and Mr. Scheer ultimately won a tight race on the 13th ballot by less than two percentage points.

Quebec businessman Bryan Brulotte is the only officially declared candidate, as of Dec. 17, on what may again be a crowded stage that has several current MPs not ruling out bids when asked, including Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, Que.), Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.), Candice Bergen (Portage-Lisgar, Man.), Ms. Rempel Garner (Cal-gary Nose Hill, Alta.), Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia-Lambton, Ont.) and Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.).

Former cabinet minister and current Conservative MP Erin O’Toole (Durham, Ont.) has said he plans to run, CBC reported, while Harper-era cabinet minis-ters Michael Fortier and Law-rence Cannon may be in the mix of other prominent Conservatives like James Moore.

Alberta businessman Rick Pe-terson is also considering tossing his hat into the ring, he told The Hill Times earlier this week.

Mr. Peterson ran in the last leadership contest, finishing in 12th place. He is the president of invest-ment firm Peterson Capital, and the founder of Suits and Boots, an

advocacy group created in 2018 to fight the government’s bill to over-haul the environmental assess-ment system for natural resource projects, and which has carried on advocating for the interests of Canada’s oil and gas sector in the time since C-69 passed.

“I still have to look at a whole bunch of questions, see what’s go-ing on, talk to some friends, and it’s just way too early to make a decision yet,” Mr. Peterson told The Hill Times.

“The party is looking for a big change, we can see that, and the timing for somebody from the outside is probably better now than it ever has been.”

Mr. Peterson said he believed he still had supporters within the party, but said he’d like Ms. Am-brose to enter the leadership race, and would support her if she did.

“I’d be thrilled if Rona ran. And I think most Conservatives would be thrilled if Rona ran,” he said.

Defeated Quebec candidates Serge Grégoire and Mr. Serour both said the next leader must be perfectly bilingual. Bad French is “a deal breaker,” said Mr. Serour, who counted high-profile former cabinet minister Mr. MacKay among those not fluent enough to secure a victory in Quebec—nec-essary for the party’s path to a majority.

“It’s exchanging four quarters for a buck,” he said.

Ms. Ambrose, meanwhile, he said “ticks off all the boxes,” and is a great person who has charisma as well as the experience through several cabinet posts and her two-year tenure as interim leader.

Quick election in party’s best interest: Baran

Over the next week or so, Mr. Baran said there will be three national council meetings and the biggest agenda item is to set up the leadership race organizing committee.

Once that’s established, prob-ably in January, he said it will decide the rules governing the race, like the cost of entry and the number of signatures needed to run, which he hopes can “slim it down to the real senior contend-ers.”

An April vote would be the “best move” for the party, he said, and while there are fair argu-ments against—including that the national council is also up for election—he said it makes the most sense to keep a short race in the minority government context.—with files from Peter Mazereeuw

swallen@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

Scheer exit opens door for reset, say members who welcome the chance ‘to spring clean’Alberta businessman Rick Peterson also considering a run in what’s becoming a crowded field of potentials cautiously considering their options.

News

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019 | THE HILL TIMES

Conservative leadership

Continued from page 1

Conservative Senator Nicole Eaton, right, pictured speaking in 2018 to former Liberal MP Scott Brison, says the party is in need of ‘fresh blood’ and a new direction. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

11

Trudeau government’s women, peace, and security agenda, as well as conflict preven-tion and peace building.

Unlike the 2015 mandate letters, little specificity is offered on what expanded support for UN peace operations would look like.

Mr. Sajjan’s 2015 mandate letter refer-enced working with then-foreign affairs minister Stéphane Dion to make Canada’s “specialized capabilities,” like mobile medi-cal teams, airlift transport, and engineering support available on a “case-by-case basis,” as well as to help the UN respond “more quickly” to “emerging and escalating con-flicts,” and leading an effort to improve the training of military and civilian personnel deployed on peace operations.

Asked if the expanded UN commitment will include more boots on the ground, Todd Lane, a spokesperson for Mr. Saj-jan, said in an email that Canada plays “an important role in UN peacekeeping opera-tions and will continue to do so.”

“We believe that gender equality in peace operations is an important goal. We

are working on implementing Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, which is focused on advancing the role of women and girls in peace opera-tions around the globe. We also continue to work as part of the Elsie Initiative to overcome barriers to women’s representa-tion in UN peace operations,” he said.

Since the conclusion of Canada’s contri-bution of 250 personnel and eight helicop-ters performing medical evacuation for the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali, its contribution to UN peacekeeping has hit a historic low.

According to the UN figures, Canada contributes 45 military and police person-nel across six UN missions as of the end of October. The contribution is an increase of five peacekeepers deployed compared to May 2018, which is the smallest peacekeep-ing contribution since 1956, according to The Canadian Press.

“We are missing in action here,” said Joc-elyn Coulon, a former policy adviser to Mr. Dion as foreign affairs minister and author of Canada is Not Back: How Justin Trudeau is in Over His Head on Foreign Policy.

“Boots on the ground at least shows that you are serious about peace operations,” he said.

Mr. Coulon said when he was in Mr. Dion’s ministerial office in 2016, a much more ambitious peacekeeping plan was de-vised—but was ultimately rejected by Mr. Sajjan and then-new foreign affairs minis-ter Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.)—which had included a three-year commitment to Mali, and a larger force.

The UN numbers don’t include Cana-da’s contributions of 20 members to UN peacekeeping missions in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Congo (MONUSCO). As part of Operation Presence, Canada has de-

ployed a C-130J Hercules along with a crew of 20 to Uganda to provide tactical airlift capability for the two peacekeeping mis-sions. The force is not part of a UN mission, but loaned to the multinational organization for five days per month, CP reported.

The tactical airlift in Uganda and medical evacuation capability in Mali were two of four commitments the Canadian government made during the Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial meetings in 2016 in London, England, and in 2017 in Vancou-ver. Left yet unfulfilled is a quick reaction force of 200 soldiers—which can be used as a rapid response to counter an escalating situation in one of the UN’s missions—and a government pledge to provide the UN with up to 600 peacekeepers.

Mr. Lane said the government is in the process of identifying the “appropriate mis-sion” for the quick reaction force.

“We need to have a sustained commit-ment to peacekeeping,” Prof. Dorn said. “We should be expecting to fulfill the pledges that we made to the United Nations and the international community at the London summit and the Vancouver summit. So, there’s still so much to be done.”

In order to have a competitive bid for the the temporary seat on the UN Security Council, experts told The Hill Times that an increased peacekeeping contribution—along with increased foreign aid—will be crucial to winning the June vote over Norway and Ireland.

The UN Charter dictates that for the 10 elected members of the 15-member Security Council, “due regard [is] being specifically paid” to the contribution of the country to the “maintenance of internation-al peace and security.”

According to UN figures, Norway and Ireland both have larger peacekeeping

presences than Canada, deploying 135 and 621 personnel, respectively. Ireland has 438 soldiers and eight staff officers deployed to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon alone.

“I think some major contributions can make a difference,” Prof. Dorn said. “We could take leadership of a UN peace opera-tion. We did that seven times in the 1990s and we haven’t done it since.”

Mr. Coulon said if a country is seen to be doing nothing, they won’t get the sup-port of other member nations.

“I don’t know why other countries would vote for a country that seems not to care about peacekeeping except in speech-es,” he said.

“If you don’t show the flag, if you don’t have boots on the ground, people don’t see you and I imagine that they will look at Ireland and Norway.”

Jane Boulden, Canada Research Chair in International Relations and Security Studies at the Royal Military College, said contributions can come in many ways, not necessarily troops on the ground. But she added it’s a harder sell to connect those contributions to the campaign for the UN Security Council seat.

“It’s troops on the ground that is the most expensive, most needed, most obvi-ous kind of contribution,” she said.

Canada spearheaded the Elsie Initiative, which was unveiled in the 2017 peace-keeping summit. The goal is to increase women’s participation in peace operations, having women comprise 15 per cent of military peacekeeping units and 20 per cent of police units by 2028.

Prof. Boulden said although there’s more Canada could do in UN peace opera-tions, its commitments to NATO missions don’t leave much room for other big de-ployments.

“[The] ability to project and send troops is relatively limited. And so, by deciding to go to Latvia that was a de facto decision to not go very big in terms of supporting the UN with boots on the ground,” she said, adding there are other ways that Canada can support UN peace operations, such as the tactical airlift.

But with nearly 100,000 members in the Canadian regular and reserve force, Prof. Dorn said Canada can definitely have more soldiers deployed than it currently has.

In a Dec. 17 CP report, Mr. Sajjan said Canada was exploring the potential for deploying military engineers to support peacekeeping missions, as well as having Canadian military trainers join other na-tions’ teams.

Outlined in Mr. Sajjan’s mandate let-ter from the prime minister is for him to ensure the “continued effectiveness of Ca-nadian Armed Forces deployments,” includ-ing Operation Impact in the Middle East, which is part of the global fight against ISIS; Operation Neon in the Asia-Pacific, part of the implementation of UN sanctions on North Korea; the NATO mission in Lat-via, which Canada is leading; and Opera-tion Unifier in Ukraine, which supports the Ukrainian security forces.

Not listed in the letter is Operation Presence, which encompasses Canada’s contribution to UN peace operations, including its past task force in Mali and its current deployment in Uganda.

Prof. Boulden said a commitment to either NATO missions or UN peace opera-tions had to be made.

nmoss@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Sajjan, Champagne charged with expanding Canada’s UN commitment, but will there be more troops on the ground?Canada has yet to a announce a pledged quick reaction force of 200. A spokesperson for Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says the ‘appropriate mission’ is in the process of being identified.

News

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

Peacekeeping

Merry Christmasfrom Physiocare Physiotherapy family Carling Ave - Hazeldean Rd - Greenbank Rd - Innovation Dr

Continued from page 1

Two Griffon helicopters are pictured, five of which were deployed as part of Canada’s 13-month task force supporting the United Nation’s peacekeeping mission in Mali. Photograph courtesy of the Department of National Defence/Ken Beliwicz

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All 36 members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet now have chiefs of

staff in place to run their ministerial offic-es, and one-third of them are former aides in Mr. Trudeau’s office as prime minister.

But first, some prime minister’s office staffing news: executive director of com-munications and planning Kate Purchase will soon be leaving the top office, and the Hill, for the private sector. She’s set to become a senior director with Microsoft.

Ms. Purchase has led communications for Mr. Trudeau since he was elected as party leader in 2013, including acting as a lead party spokesperson during the 2015 campaign and as chief national content strategist during the 2019 race. After hav-ing been an early hire in Mr. Trudeau’s PMO as director of communications, Ms. Purchase was promoted to the title of executive director of communications and planning at the beginning of 2018, putting her in charge of the PM’s advance team as part of an internal re-organization in the wake of former operations director John Zerucelli’s exit.

Before becoming a member of Mr. Trudeau’s inner circle, she was also a spokesperson to then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff during the 2011 election, and later was director of media relations and strategic planning to interim leader Bob Rae.

“Bitter sweet to announce that I’ll be leaving @JustinTrudeau’s office next week for a new adventure. It’s been a wild and inspiring ride, but when you get the call to join @Microsoft to work for [Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella]—you jump!” tweeted Ms. Purchase on Dec. 17.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has landed Elder Marques as his chief of staff, as recently reported by The Hill Times. Mr. Marques arrives straight from the PMO, where he’s been a senior adviser since September 2017. Before then, he had been chief of staff to Innovation Minis-ter Navdeep Bains since the beginning of 2016, having left his job as a litigation partner with law firm McCarthy Tétrault to work for the Trudeau government.

Over in Middle Class Prosperity and As-sociate Finance Minister Mona Fortier’s new office, Lucy Hargreaves will be chief of staff.

Ms. Hargreaves has spent roughly the last two years as director of operations to then-environment minister Catherine McK-enna, before which she was an assistant to Ms. McKenna as the Liberal MP for Ottawa Centre, Ont. She’s also a former Ontario public servant, a former consultant with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and a former senior man-

ager of programs for the Aga Khan Founda-tion Canada, among other past jobs.

National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s office will be run by chief of staff George Young. A veteran staffer, Mr. Young has spent roughly the last three years working in the PMO as the liaison for min-isters’ offices; earlier this year, he added on the title of caucus support officer amid con-troversy over SNC-Lavalin and tumultuous cabinet relations. A former senior adviser to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, he was also previously chief of staff to then-fisheries minister Dominic LeBlanc and worked on the Hill under the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin Liberal governments.

Speaking of Mr. LeBlanc, Jamie Innes has been confirmed as chief of staff to the minister, who’s been named President of the Queen’s Privy Council, a role that will see him in charge of the democratic institutions file.

Another longtime staffer, Mr. Innes was last working in the international trade min-ister’s office as director of parliamentary affairs and before then, from January 2016 until February 2017, filled the same role in then-foreign affairs minister Stéphane Dion’s office. He previously worked in Mr. Dion’s leader’s office and worked for various Liberal House leaders from 2009 until 2015. Mr. Innes is also a former direc-tor of organization for the federal Liberal party, a former policy adviser in the Liberal research bureau, and was a cabinet staffer under Paul Martin’s government.

Seniors Minister Deb Schulte has landed former science and sport minister Kirsty Duncan’s old chief of staff, Anne Dawson.

A former executive director of communi-cations for the Canada Mortgage and Hous-ing Corporation, Ms. Dawson had been Ms. Duncan’s chief of staff since March 2017. She’s also a former bureau chief for Sun Media at the Ontario provincial legislature, and spent four years as chief political cor-respondent for the National Post on the Hill, amongst other past roles. Ms. Duncan is now deputy House leader.

Employment, Workforce Development, and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough has hired Taras Zalusky as her chief of staff.

This past summer, Mr. Zalusky was pro-moted from director of procurement policy

and parliamentary affairs to chief of staff in Ms. Qualtrough’s former office as public services minister. A former Chrétien- and Martin-era cabinet staffer, Mr. Zalusky was executive director and CEO of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress from 2010 until joining Ms. Qualtrough’s office in February 2016.

In other office news, Annabelle St-Pierre Archambault, who’d been a senior communications adviser to former employ-ment minister Patty Hajdu—who’s now the minister of health—exited the office in November. So, too, did director of policy Daniel McKenzie, who’d been in the office since January 2016, having started out as a special assistant for policy. Keep reading Hill Climbers for an update on where they land.

Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan has hired Paul Moen as his chief of staff.

Mr. Moen has spent the last 15 years working in the private sector, most recently as a principal with the Earnscliffe Strategy Group. In that capac-ity, he

was a registered lobbyist for a number of groups, including the Canadian Coalition for Construction Steel, Spartan Biosci-ence Inc., the Canadian Red Cross, Finning International Inc., and the Vancouver Art Gallery, among others. He’s also a former director with Amgen, a multinational biotech company, and a former corporate lawyer with pharmaceutical company Merck Serono.

In political experience, Mr. Moen is a former senior policy adviser to then-trade minister Jim Peterson and a former legal counsel at Industry Canada.

In other office news, Carlene Variyan has been confirmed as Mr. O’Regan’s new director of communications. Ms. Variyan was most recently communications direc-tor to then-public safety minister Ralph Goodale and filled the same role for Ms. Hajdu as employment minister before that. She’s also a former director of parliamen-tary affairs to Mr. Morneau as finance minister, among other past roles.

Tiara Folkes, who’d been an adviser for B.C. regional affairs and Indigenous relations in the natural resources minister’s office since September 2018, has exited, and is now work-

ing as a human resources recruitment adviser for the Department of Employment and Social Development.

Plus, press secretary Vanessa Adams has left the natural resources team to join Indig-enous Services Minister Marc Miller’s office as a senior communications adviser and press secretary. Ms. Adams spent the recent elec-tion as communications director for now-her-itage minister Steven Guilbeault’s campaign in Laurier-Sainte-Marie, Que., and is also a former Quebec and Atlantic regional affairs adviser to then-environment minister Cath-erine McKenna, and a former Hill assistant to Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau as the MP for Compton-Stanstead, Que.

In Mr. Miller’s office, Mike Burton has been confirmed as chief of staff. Until ear-lier this month, Mr. Burton had spent the last year as chief of staff to then-natural resources minister Amarjeet Sohi. He’s also a former director of parliamentary af-fairs and later senior adviser to Mr. Sohi as infrastructure minister.

Among the staffing hires still to be made by Mr. Miller is finding a new director of policy, as Jessica Hayden, who’d filled that role since March 2018, exited in Novem-ber and is now associate director with the Martin Family Initiative, which is aimed at improving education outcome for First Na-tions, Métis, and Inuit students in Canada. A former Queen’s Park staffer, Ms. Hayden was also previously a senior policy and regional adviser to then-Indigenous and northern affairs minister Carolyn Bennett.

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne has confirmed former Oxford University Rhodes scholar Laurence Deschamps-Laporte as his new chief of staff.

Ms. Deschamps-Laporte has been work-ing in the foreign affairs minister’s office since the fall of 2016, starting as a policy adviser under then-minister Stéphane Dion. She was promoted to lead the office’s policy team in early 2016.

At Oxford, Ms. Deschamps-Laporte stud-ied a doctor of philosophy in international development and Middle Eastern studies.

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal is still in the process of getting his new office up and running, and is doing so with the help of his chief of staff, Brian Kaufmann.

Mr. Kaufmann was previously director of communications to then-rural economic development minister Bernadette Jordan, a role he took on in January. Before that, he was director of parliamentary affairs and operations to then-Indigenous services minister Jane Philpott.

Plus, PMO executive director of communications and planning Kate Purchase is leaving the Hill.

THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

by Laura Ryckewaert

hill climbers

13

All cabinet chiefs of staff now named, 12 of 36 are former Trudeau PMO aides

Continued on page 15

Ministers and their chiefs of staff, from top to bottom, left to right: Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Elder Marques; Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and George Young; President of the Privy Council Dominic LeBlanc and Jamie Innes; and Seniors Minister Deb Schulte and Anne Dawson. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade and courtesy of LinkedIn

Lucy Hargreaves is now chief of staff to Associate Finance Minister Mona Fortier. Photograph courtesy of Facebook

Paul Moen is now chief of staff to Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn

Vanessa Adams has joined Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller’s office. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn

Laurence Deschamps-Laporte is chief of staff to Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn

With Canada as Ecuador’s “main” direct investor through mines and the ex-

tractive sector, the Latin American coun-try’s ambassador says he sees opportunity for growth and an increased “political will” to formalize trade relationships.

Though oil makes up half of the coun-try’s exports and a quarter of its revenues, Diego Stacey said “we see that the future of Ecuador is mainly the mining sector,” which he said can be “a good legal environ-ment” for Canadian companies.

“We are giving them the best incentives in order to [show] that that these activities will have mutual benefit,” he said during a Nov. 29 interview with Diplomatic Circles.

According to Ecuador’s Central Bank, his office said during 2019’s first quarter Canadian investment in mining in the country was US$126.17-million, represent-ing about 48 per cent of all investment in its mining sector.

While the industry is “quite new,” he said it includes many of the key mining companies from Canada, Australia, and China. For example, last month, Canadian company Lundin Gold Inc. opened its first large-scale mine in the Andean country.

When talking about such projects, he said it’s important to speak about corpo-rate responsibility.

“We care a lot about that and we ac-knowledge that Canada is one of the top actors in preserving the environment, and also having a very close and open contact with the local communities. That’s very important,” he said.

Canadian mining companies have also faced plenty of criticism for the ethics of their actions abroad, and to those concerns Mr. Stacey said that hasn’t been a problem for his country with Canada, and that Ec-uador has controls in place to protect the country under the direction of its environ-ment and mines ministers.

He regularly deals with Canadian min-ing companies to learn if there are any difficulties, and raises any concerns from his government and he said he’s “speak-ing all the time” with the Canadian federal government about the sector. He said he’ll attend the Prospectors & Developers As-sociation of Canada (PDAC) conference in March, as he does every year, noting the embassy has sponsored the massive trade show over the last couple years.

Political consultations with Canada in new year

Since he arrived in Ottawa in 2017, Mr. Stacey said his office of five diplomats has “been very, very, extremely active” and he’s proud to have worked to convince the Canadian government that Ecuador is “a reliable partner.” Before he arrived, Canada and Ecuador hadn’t had a political con-sultation in five years, since 2012. But that same year he arrived, the countries came together and talked about priorities, and agreed to have similar engagements every two years.

In late January, the two countries will meet again, and at the end of the consulta-tions, he said it’s proposed they settle on “technical tables” to start speaking about issues that could be included in future

trade agreements. Global Affairs Canada did not respond by filing deadline, but Mr. Stacey said it’s his impression that Canada is “interested.”

“I’m trying to assure them that the [Ec-uador] government has a political will to start as soon as possible to negotiate new trade and investment agreements,” he said, noting such pacts are the best way to settle conflicts and can be “a big advantage” for investments and exports for both coun-tries. In 2018, bilateral trade between the two totalled $528.5-million.

In October, when president Lenin Moreno decided to eliminate fuel subsidies at the recommendation of the International Monetary Fund, it “paralyzed” Ecuador for about 10 days, but Mr. Stacey said it’s “now completely calm.”

“We are in control of the situation,” he said, adding Mr. Moreno’s choice to reverse the decision that prompted the riots has addressed the issue, though the country remains in significant debt.

Direct Air Canada routes startMr. Stacey said he’s proud of the new

direct flights offered through Air Canada, announced earlier this month. When he started two years ago, the company had no such plans, but he said he spoke to the company and convinced Air Canada that there’s a good business case.

“I thought it would be impossible,” he said.

The nonstop flights to Ecuador started on Dec. 9, which he said will improve both trade and tourism. With much of the country’s exports being perishable, he said there needed to be more regular cargo space for that.

“It’s very difficult to widen our market here in Canada if we don’t have the capac-ity to bring our product.”

Ecuador has also applied to be part of the Pacific Alliance, a group of Latin American countries Canada has already partnered with. He said he thinks Ecuador will be able to join next year “for sure.”

Ecuador to create ‘other channels’ with Venezuela

Ecuador is not part of the Lima Group, a bloc that includes nations within the Western Hemisphere, including Canada, which has been active in response to the crisis in Venezuela and vocal in its opposi-tion of embattled Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, and its support for oppo-sition leader Juan Guaido.

Colombia, which is also a member of the bloc and has taken on many Venezu-elan refugees, is on Ecuador’s northern border.

Ecuador has the same position as Canada, said Mr. Stacey, but thinks it’s important to have “other channels” to speak about the current situation.

“We think that Ecuador can be also a facilitator if doesn’t take a firm [position] as a member of groups,” and instead infor-mally take part so it can “open dialogue” in other ways, he said.

swallen@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

To its credit, the Trudeau government, 2.0 edition, has responded to the call I

and other advocates have been making for a national action plan to combat gender-based violence. The Throne Speech was understandably short on details. Needless to say, the action plan should be truly com-prehensive in its scope, embrace best prac-tices, and be based on extensive consulta-tions with the communities most affected. When it comes to addressing gender-based violence, the government needs to take a page from the patient engagement model of modern health care: nothing about me without me.

Here are some ideas to get the discus-sion going:

More money for emergency services is a must. Women and children at the highest risk of domestic abuse are being turned away from shelters in Calgary, which is facing the biggest demand in a decade. Saskatchewan reports waits of nine months for victims of sexual violence who seek counselling. In the Waterloo region of Ontario, funding shortfalls by the Ford government have resulted in 18-month waits for even the most basic counselling services. Address-ing these and other funding issues has to be an immediate priority of any viable action plan if it is to move beyond nice-sounding words.

Research tells us that gender-based violence carries huge risks of adverse health conditions and outcomes, from high blood pressure and PTSD, to depression, self-harm, and suicide. But these facts remain largely unknown. We need to raise awareness of just how hazardous gender-based violence is to one’s health. For some, it is life-ending. Indigenous populations and LGBTQ2S communities are especially vulnerable to harm.

In 2018, the suicide of former RCMP constable Krista Carle was a shocking reminder of just how dangerous sexual harassment, and its mishandling, can be. Krista had been one of the first women to speak out about abuses in Canada’s pre-mier law enforcement agency.

The fact is that even the healthcare community is often ill-equipped to properly deliver trauma-informed care to victims. Research from Women’s College Hospital paints a telling picture: “Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16, yet not all health-care providers have the knowledge or skills to deliver sensitive care to these women.”

This is just one of many gender-based health care gaps which place women at undue risk. Any action plan needs to begin to close those gaps, and soon.

We know that economic disadvantage tends to place individuals at increased risk of gender-based violence. But the aftermath of incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment can also be dev-astating, leading to what I call economic trauma—a long under-considered out-come.

So often, those who report abuses in the workplace are confronted by retali-ation that forces them to quit their jobs. Blacklisting, which some bad actors and enabling organizations use to punish those who speak out (it was a favourite ploy of Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers) fre-quently prevents re-hiring.

As part of its action plan to combat sexual violence and its consequences, the federal government should launch what I call a hire-us-back campaign to give sur-vivors a chance to rebuild their economic lives in a workplace that is protective and supportive.

To be credible, any action plan at the federal level needs to make sure that MPs and Senators are, themselves, exemplary in preventing and addressing gender-based violence. Unfortunately, Canada’s Senate continues to inflict harm on the victims of disgraced ex-senator Don Meredith, and refuses to take steps that would allow them to heal.

I still hear from staff and employees of current MPs and Senators, as well as their legislative counterparts across the coun-try, who share instances of bullying and harassment but are afraid to report them because of what happened to Meredith’s victims. It seems reasonable that my previ-ous call in The Hill Times that all MPs and Senators receive mandatory trauma-informed training should be adopted in the federal government’s action plan.

Sexual assault, violence, and bully-ing that is gender-based are a plague on modern society. The epidemic of despair, fear, and self-harm these evils are creating is placing too many of our citizens at risk, and inflicting long-term harm that can last a lifetime.

We need new thinking and bold strokes if we are going to combat this contagion of gender-based violence that moves unar-rested from one generation to the next. Which brings me to what should be the centrepiece of the government’s action plan: the creation of a federal gender-based anti-violence commissioner.

Appropriately elevating the importance and urgency of the task at hand, the com-missioner should be an officer of Parlia-ment, armed with all the investigative and remedial powers the job requires.

Gender-based hatred was behind the largest mass shooting in Canadian history. Thirty years after the tragedy at École Polytechnique, the creation of a truly comprehensive national action plan, embracing realistic funding requirements, trauma-informed health and economic outreach, and bold, urgently needed, components like an anti-violence commis-sioner, is a fitting way to honour the lives of those victims.

It is a rare opportunity for us all to be part of the generation that finally brings an end to the scourge of gender-based violence.

Kathleen Finlay is CEO of PatientPro-tection.Healthcare and founder of The Zer0Now Campaign to combat sexual violence. She formerly worked in capital markets regulation.

The Hill Times

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019 | THE HILL TIMES14

Ecuador’s future is in mining, and Canada can play a big role, envoy says

Diplomatic Circlesby Samantha Wright Allen

A roadmap for the government to act against gender-based violence We need new thinking and bold strokes if we are going to combat this contagion of gender-based violence that moves unarrested from one generation to the next.

Kathleen Finlay

Gender-based violence

A longtime Hill staffer, he’s also a for-mer senior policy adviser to Ms. Philpott as health minister, a former policy and re-gional affairs adviser to Carolyn Bennett in

her old capacity as Indigenous and northern affairs minister, and a former senior adviser for First Nations and Métis relations with Hydro One, among other past jobs.

Mr. Guilbeault has made some head-way in staffing since confirming former

PMO senior adviser Mathieu Bouchard as his chief of staff.

First, the departures: communications director Louis Bélanger is leaving the heritage minister’s office after just under a year. Mr. Bélanger first joined the team under then-minister Pablo Rodriguez last March and before that was director of com-munications to then-international devel-opment minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. A former communications director for The Malala Fund, Mr. Bélanger spent the recent election as a communications manager for the Liberal Party. Stay tuned for an update on where he lands.

Patricia Beh, director of policy in the office since September 2018, has left the team. She previously worked as a legal officer with the Canadian Armed Forces’ Office of the Judge Advocate General and was a lawyer with the Newfoundland and Labrador Legal Aid Commission.

Press secretary Simon Ross has also made his exit, and is now in place as press secretary and issues manager to Mr. Rodriguez as both the new Government House Leader and as the Liberal cabinet’s Quebec Lieutenant.

A former Quebec Liberal staffer, among other past roles, Mr. Ross first joined the heritage minister’s office in October 2017 under then minister Mélanie Joly and stayed on after Mr. Rodriguez took over the portfolio in July 2018.

In Mr. Rodriguez’s office, where Rheal Lewis has been confirmed as chief of staff, special assistant Shahnaz Mouhamou, who’d joined the team at the beginning of 2019, exited in September.

As reported by Hill Climbers earlier this week, senior policy adviser Faizel Gulam-hussein and policy adviser Jérémy Gauth-ier have also exited the heritage minister’s office to lead the policy teams for National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier and

Ms. Bibeau as agriculture minister, respec-tively.

On the flip side, Mr. Guilbeault has al-ready hired a new press secretary: Camille Gagné-Raynauld.

Ms. Gagné-Raynauld previously crossed paths with the minister at Équiterre, a non-profit environmental organization co-founded by Mr. Guilbeault, where she worked for the last three years as a public and media relations officer. She’s also a former programs, logistics, and com-munications agent with Lawyers Without Borders Canada, and previously spent time working for a member of Quebec’s national assembly, amongst other past experience.

lryckewaert@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 18House Not Sitting—The House of Commons has

adjourned and is scheduled to return on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020.

THURSDAY, DEC. 19Jingle, Mingle, and Birthday Bash—The Rideau Insti-

tute, Group of 78, and the World Federalist Movement Canada host a 2019 holiday celebration, as well as the 70th birthday of Peggy Mason, president of the Rideau Institute. There will be a live music, a cash bar, deli-cious food, and fundraising activities. This event will take place on Thursday, Dec. 19 at Knox Presbyterian Church, Garden Entrance, 120 Lisgar St., Ottawa, from 7-11 p.m. Register online at Eventbrite.

TUESDAY, DEC. 31Hogman-eh!—It’s a New Year’s Eve party, Scottish-

style and it’s considered the largest Hogmany party out-side of Scotland. The family friendly party will happen Dec. 31, 2019, at the Aberdeen Pavillion and Horticul-ture Building at Lansdowne Park. This family-friendly party features traditional and modern Scottish music, Highland and Scottish country dancing, Scotch tasting sessions, Scottish food and drink, outdoor skating and a spectacular midnight fireworks show. Hogman-eh!

aims to replicate the excitement of Edinburgh’s world famous Royal Mile as the clock strikes midnight and we enter the New Year.

THURSDAY, JAN. 9, 2020Unikkaaqtuat—In celebration of the world premiere

of Unikkaaqtuat featuring a cross-cultural blending of circus arts, theatre, music, and video. Performed in a world of shadows and video projections, Unikkaaqtuat transports us to an ancient realm where life did not know death and days had not seen nights. Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, 7:30 p.m., Babs Asper Theatre, National Arts Centre. Invitation only. Reception to follow in the Salon. A collaboration between The 7 Fingers, Artcirq, and Taqqut Productions.

MONDAY, JAN. 13, 2020Brexit and the Past, Present, and Future of the

U.K. Constitution—A public lecture by Dr. Jeff King, professor of law, University College London and legal advisor to the House of Lords Constitution Committee. Presented by the uOttawa Public Law Centre, Jan. 13, 2020, 5:30-7 p.m., Fauteux Hall FX 302, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, 57 Louis-Pasteur St., Ottawa. Free admission.

TUESDAY, JAN. 21, 2020Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic

Engagement: Orientation for the 2019 Newly Elected MPs—This is a two-day event beginning on Jan. 21. Gather at the Bank of Canada Museum on Jan. 21 for an introduction to Ottawa and the National Capital Region followed by a presentation on the Bank of Canada’s functions as the federal central bank and its role in the economy. Lunch with Mayor Jim Watson, National Capital Commission CEO Tobi Nussbaum, and special guests. Tour the Supreme Court and engage in discussion with Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justice Rosalie Abella on the responsibility and work of the Supreme Court. Discuss the role of the Governor General with Julie Payette, tour Rideau Hall and learn about honours, heraldry, and services to you and your constituents. Join British High Commissioner Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque at Earnscliffe, the former home of Sir John A. Macdonald, for a reception and discussion on Members of Parliament as ‘ambassadors’ for Canada. The email to register is carletonrsvp@gmail.com.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22, 2020 Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplo-

matic Engagement: Orientation for the 2019 Newly Elected MPs—Meet at the Sir John A. Macdonald Building on Jan. 22 for a day of information you can use. Sessions include How Ottawa Works; How to Work Effectively in Ottawa; Canada—Challenges

and Opportunities; and Personal and Professional Accountability. Eminent and diverse Canadians from across the country will join the Clerk of the Privy Council, the chief statistician and others for thought-provoking panels and briefings. Meet them and your new colleagues over meals and hospitality. A formal invitation will follow. This orientation complements the House of Commons procedural and administra-tive orientation and is supported by the House of Commons leadership and all three political parties. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien will deliver the closing remarks at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 22. The email to register is carletonrsvp@gmail.com.

MONDAY, JAN. 27, 2020 House Returns—The House is scheduled to return

on Monday, Jan. 27, and will sit for a total of 76 days or 15 weeks until it adjourns for the summer on June 23. It will sit on Monday, Jan. 27 for two weeks until it adjourns again on Friday, Feb. 7 for one week. It will return on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and will sit until Friday, Feb. 28. It will take a one-week break and resume on March 9-March 13. It adjourns again for one week and will sit from March 23-April 3. It will take a two-week break and will resume sitting again on April 20 and will sit for four straight weeks until May 15. It will take a one-week break and will resume again on May 25 and will sit straight through for the next four consecutive weeks, until it’s sched-uled to adjourn on June 23. The House adjourns again for three months and will return in the fall on Monday, Sept. 21, for three straight weeks. It will adjourn for one week and will sit again from Oct. 19 until Nov. 6. It will break again for one week and will sit again from Nov. 16-Dec. 11. And that will be it for 2020.

Cannexus20 by Ceric—Canada’s largest career ser-vices conference, Jan. 27-29, Shaw Centre, 55 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa. For information, registration@ceric.ca.

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020Conservative Party National Convention—The Con-

servatives will hold a convention in Toronto from April 16-18. For more information, please contact 1-866-808-8407.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2020Politics & The Pen—Considered one of Ottawa’s

most anticipated parties, the annual Politics & the Pen party celebrates Canadian political and literary cultures. The highlight of the night features the pre-sentation of the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, named in honour of the late and spirited, inspired parliamentarian. It happens May 13, 2020, Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel, 1 Rideau St., Ottawa. For more information, contact Julia Yu, events

manager, jyu@writerstrust.com or 416-504-8222, ext. 241.

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2020ACC-AAEC Ottawa Convention—It’s the ACC Inter-

national Convention and the ACC will be joined in Ottawa by the AAEC and cartoonists from New Zealand, Australia, the U.K., Norway, and Germany for three days of editorial cartooning magic from May 14-May 17, 2020, in Ottawa, at the Marriott Hotel, 100 Kent St. There will be three days of exciting speakers, tours, and cartoon-related thrills in store. Booking information and more at acc.format.com.

SATURDAY, OCT. 3, 2020Green Party Convention—The Green Party will hold

its convention Oct. 3-4, 2020, at the Delta Hotels Prince Edward in Charlottetown, P.E.I. For more infor-mation, contact 613-562-4916.

THURSDAY, NOV. 12, 2020The Liberal Party National Convention—The Liberal

Party of Canada announced the 2020 Liberal National Convention will be hosted in Ottawa, from Nov. 12-15, 2020. For more information, please contact: media@liberal.ca 613-627-2384.

The Parliamentary Calendar is a free events listing. Send in your political, cultural, diplomatic, or govern-mental event in a paragraph with all the relevant details under the subject line ‘Parliamentary Calendar’ to news@hilltimes.com by Wednesday at noon before the Monday paper or by Friday at noon for the Wednesday paper. We can’t guarantee inclusion of every event, but we will definitely do our best. Events can be updated daily online, too.

The Hill Times

15THE HILL TIMES | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2019

Extra! Extra! Read the full Parliamentary Calendar online

Halls of Parliament quiet until House of Commons resumes sitting on Jan. 27

Parliamentary Calendar

by Laura Ryckewaert

hill climbers

Minister Guilbeault’s team takes shape

Continued from page 13 Simon Ross will be press secretary to Pablo Rodriguez as the Government House Leader and Quebec Lieutenant. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, pictured speaking to media in the West Block on Dec. 6. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

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