Tom Mulcair: Recent Liberal decisions point to a whole-of-government incompetence
Tom Mulcair: Recent Liberal decisions point to a whole-of-government incompetence
Global Affairs decided it would be a good idea to send a senior representative to the Russian Embassy to celebrate Russia Day last week.
They defended the decision, despite Canada’s official position that Russia has committed genocide during its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
When all hell broke loose, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly promptly apologized, but it was too late. It was such a deplorable decision that there was no possible rationalization.
Canadians, including many Liberals, have been witnessing and lamenting months of abject failure in the most basic administrative and decision-making processes in government.
It’s a whole-of-government approach to incompetence.
WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE
Everybody, all at once, has been doing everything possible to show how weak the federal government and its innumerable ministries and agencies have become in terms of simple public management.
This isn’t an accident in one place or an exception, it’s generalized. Red lights are blinking across the Privy Council Office dashboard, but no one is in charge. The PCO is the "ministry" of the Prime Minister, but actually managing things has never been Justin Trudeau’s strong suit.
We now have a two million person backlog at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, up a whopping 35 per cent in one year. Think about that for a second: two million cases.
It’s impossible to clear that backlog and it will only continue to grow unless bold decisions are made. For example, there are thousands of claimants already in Canada. Starting with those who’ve been here the longest (as long as they’ve never had a criminal record), we have to begin looking at an amnesty to help unclog the system. The endless checks and revisions have made a bad situation even worse, and Minister Fraser doesn’t have a clue how to fix it.
People are being paid $50 per hour to wait all night in line to get a number at the passport office so travellers can get their passport because, apparently, we have forgotten how to issue them. This has never happened in the history of the country. Why is it happening now?
It’s probably just as well because the calamity at Pearson means you’re not going anywhere soon if your travel plans involve Canada’s largest airport. The mess there is also unprecedented. Wait times have shot up, flights are being cancelled and the full summer tourism season hasn’t even begun.
Listening to Minister Alghabra theorize that it must be the fault of travellers, who’ve forgotten how to take out their laptops for airport screenings, you have to ask yourself why he still has a job. Blaming the victims? Really?
Oddly enough, the same minister has just decided that he has to hire hundreds of new screeners. Gee, I thought it was the fault of travellers.
It was entirely predictable that as we came out of the pandemic, people would want to travel again. It was equally easy to foresee that many people would need passport renewals after two years of being cooped up with no place to go. It may have been obvious, but the Canadian government seems to have been caught with its pants down. Why?
The hasty decision to allow planes to be filled with the unvaccinated was not the object of any serious study, it’s the result of panic. What are the predictable consequences? Shorter lineups? That’s the hope. More COVID-19 outbreaks? In all likelihood.
The day Trudeau signed his deal with Singh, essentially getting the majority that Canadian voters had denied him, the writing was on the wall.
One of Trudeau’s first decisions after putting the NDP in lockstep was to approve a mammoth new offshore oil project. No one was going to be holding him to account.
It was a complete betrayal of Trudeau’s signature of the Paris Climate Accord, but who cares?
The United Nations had just issued its most alarming report ever and the Secretary General had begged the nations of the world not to approve any new fossil fuel projects. Trudeau couldn’t have cared less. Canada already had the worst record in the G7 since we signed the accord and he still got re-elected.
Why hold back when there’s no accountability in Ottawa? The Conservatives are in a leadership race, and otherwise occupied. The Bloc has become irrelevant and the NDP is sharing the lower bunk bed with the Liberals. Drill baby drill!
Attorney-General David Lametti won’t lift his little finger to defend the Canadian Charter of Rights, even as the equality of French and English before the courts is unilaterally removed by Quebec’s Bill 96.
His job is to defend the constitution. Instead, he’s protecting Legault’s sensitivities, at Trudeau’s request.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino repeatedly prevaricates about the invocation of the Emergencies Act, claiming that it had been done at the request of police. That was false. He tried to wiggle out of it by sending in an underling to give his excuses, and looked even worse.
Our whole system is supposed to be based on ministerial responsibility. You’re answerable to Parliament and the public for your decisions and your performance. Why is it that none of these ministers is ever responsible?
The answer is in the PMO. Jet-setting with the Aga Khan in flagrant violation of ethics laws? So what? Break the law again by sticking your nose in the prosecution of a major company with deep Liberal connections? Nobody’s perfect!
When he first ran and won as Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau made candid observations about his Father’s tendency to centralize the power of government in the PMO. He promised to be more open and respectful of our institutions.
As journalist Elizabeth Thompson discovered, Trudeau is actually more secretive than Stephen Harper. Trudeau’s cabinet has adopted dozens of secret orders since coming to power and refuses to even reveal the subjects covered.
The U.S. is one of the most successful and enduring democracies in the world yet, 18 months ago, a mendacious megalomaniac came close to upending its constitutional order. Thoughtful Americans have taken away one major lesson from the events of Jan. 6, 2021: Don’t take your democratic institutions for granted.
So too here in Canada. Eroding our institutions, undermining the rule of law and ignoring the bedrock principle of ministerial responsibility comes at a very heavy cost.
We might not have armed hoodlums scaling the walls of Parliament, but our democratic institutions are indeed fragile and must be cherished and defended.
When there are no checks and balances on power (and on incompetence), mediocrity rules the roost.
The Prime Minister pleads that they’re "working nonstop" to fix the myriad problems they’ve created. Canadians, who actually do work nonstop, deserve better.
Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada between 2012 and 2017.
A New Democrat MP is trying to convince his colleagues to change the rules that govern the House of Commons in a series of ways he says would instill 'democratic controls' on the prime minister's 'unfettered' powers.
Monday morning, the Public Service Alliance of Canada announced it had reached a 'tentative' agreement with the federal government for the 120,000 picketing Treasury Board workers who, since April 19, had been engaged in one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. Here's a rundown of the developments from Parliament Hill as they happened.
The House committee studying foreign election interference heard from top 2019 and 2021 Liberal and Conservative campaign directors on Tuesday, with party officials from both camps speaking about the need for politicians to come together to address any "legislative gaps" ahead of the next vote.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
U.S President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced updates on a number of cross-border issues, after a day of meetings on Parliament Hill.
Danielle Smith's win in the Alberta election hands her the most starkly divided province confronting any premier in Canada, writes commentator Don Martin.
Special rapporteur David Johnston didn't recommend public inquiry knowing it was a pathetically insufficient response for a foreign democratic assault of this magnitude, writes Don Martin in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
To frame a few new illustrations on pages tucked inside a passport as proof of a Liberal plot to purge the Canadian historical record seems like a severe stretch, writes Don Martin in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is a bright former federal prosecutor, who was destined to be a star in Justin Trudeau's cabinet. But in an opinion column on CTVNews.ca, Don Martin argues Mendicino has taken a stunning fall from grace, stumbling badly on important issues just 18 months into the job.
It's the most peculiar of elections with the frontrunner and her main opponent being the same person, writes columnist Don Martin. 'In the looming Alberta showdown, it's Premier Danielle Smith versus her mouth.'
At the moment, wildfires are burning across six provinces and one territory in Canada — and they’re still spreading in what’s being called an unprecedented fire season. While firefighters work tirelessly to battle the merciless flames and prevent further destruction, scientists say the wildfires are linked to climate change and that this will be the new normal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he raised concerns about reports that LGBTQ2S+ rights and democracy are under threat in Poland during a Friday visit with its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Toronto.
Air Canada says travellers should be prepared for further flight disruptions as it works to return service to normal following a technical malfunction Thursday.
As more Canadians pass their family cottages down to the next generation, 'major shifts' in the ownership of recreational homes will occur, according to Re/Max. But amid concerns around the cost of housing, some may be wondering whether they can afford to keep that family cottage. Here's what younger generations need to know about inheriting a recreational property and the market today.
A 38-year-old sergeant in the Canadian Army was fined $3,000 and issued a severe reprimand after he made what a military judge described as 'utterly disgusting' anti-Jewish comments while conducting an infantry training course in 2021.
Pierre Poilievre is off to Manitoba to rally Conservative supporters ahead of a byelection that Maxime Bernier is hoping will send him back to Parliament. The far-right People's Party of Canada leader lost his Quebec seat in the 2019 federal vote and lost again in the 2021 election.
The number of people in Canada with inflammatory bowel disease is increasing rapidly and is expected to grow to 470,000 by 2035, according to a new report from Crohn's and Colitis Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is committed to keeping David Johnston in place as Canada's special rapporteur on foreign interference, despite a majority of MPs voting in favour of his stepping down from the gig.
A bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth that was toppled and damaged by protesters two years ago was put back in its place Friday on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature after a lengthy set of repairs.
A 38-year-old sergeant in the Canadian Army was fined $3,000 and issued a severe reprimand after he made what a military judge described as 'utterly disgusting' anti-Jewish comments while conducting an infantry training course in 2021.
Two passenger trains derailed Friday in India, killing at least 50 people and trapping hundreds of others inside more than a dozen damaged rail cars, officials said.
The U.S. Department of Justice has informed former Vice President Mike Pence 's legal team that it will not pursue criminal charges related to the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home.
Nearly four years after Jeffrey Epstein's death, thousands of pages of records obtained by The Associated Press are shedding new light on the financier's time behind bars and a frantic response by federal corrections officials to his death.
The UN Security Council called Friday for an immediate cease-fire in Sudan to be followed by a permanent halt to hostilities and fresh efforts to reach a lasting democratic political settlement in the conflict-wracked country.
The FBI is scheduled to bring an internal law enforcement document that some Republicans claim will shed light on an allegation that then-vice president Joe Biden was involved in a criminal scheme on Monday for U.S. House Oversight Chair James Comer and ranking Democratic member Rep. Jamie Raskin to review, spokespeople for the two lawmakers told CNN.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he raised concerns about reports that LGBTQ2S+ rights and democracy are under threat in Poland during a Friday visit with its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Toronto.
Pierre Poilievre is off to Manitoba to rally Conservative supporters ahead of a byelection that Maxime Bernier is hoping will send him back to Parliament. The far-right People's Party of Canada leader lost his Quebec seat in the 2019 federal vote and lost again in the 2021 election.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is committed to keeping David Johnston in place as Canada's special rapporteur on foreign interference, despite a majority of MPs voting in favour of his stepping down from the gig.
The number of people in Canada with inflammatory bowel disease is increasing rapidly and is expected to grow to 470,000 by 2035, according to a new report from Crohn's and Colitis Canada.
Racial bias built into a common medical test for lung function is likely leading to fewer Black patients getting care for breathing problems, a study published Thursday suggests.
Researchers at Carleton University's Department of Electronics in Ottawa created a ground-breaking testing device to detect early signs of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s through biomolecular activities in a person’s saliva.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company, which has faced criticism for lax protections against harmful content since billionaire Elon Musk acquired it in October.
Deep in an open coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the antiquities-rich country's oldest archaeological site, which dates to 700,000 years ago and is associated with modern humans' hominin ancestors. The find announced Thursday would drag the dawn of Greek archaeology back by as much as a quarter of a million years, although older hominin sites have been discovered elsewhere in Europe. The oldest, in Spain, dates to more than a million years ago.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, director Christopher Nolan offers a guide to his favourite formats, explaining why it matters and even where he likes to sit so that audiences don't feel like they need a film school degree (or one in theoretical physics) before settling on a theatre.
Cynthia Weil, a Grammy-winning lyricist of notable range and endurance who enjoyed a decades-long partnership with husband Barry Mann and helped write 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling,' 'On Broadway,' 'Walking in the Rain' and dozens of other hits, has died at age 82.
Netflix shareholders voted on Thursday to reject multi-million dollar pay packages for the company’s top executives including for co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.
Air Canada says travellers should be prepared for further flight disruptions as it works to return service to normal following a technical malfunction Thursday.
The wildfires plaguing residents in Alberta and Nova Scotia are part of a larger trend that's driving up the cost of home insurance as extreme weather becomes more common, insurance experts say.
As more Canadians pass their family cottages down to the next generation, 'major shifts' in the ownership of recreational homes will occur, according to Re/Max. But amid concerns around the cost of housing, some may be wondering whether they can afford to keep that family cottage. Here's what younger generations need to know about inheriting a recreational property and the market today.
The latest sanctions, if any, that the NBA plans to levy against Memphis guard Ja Morant for his second instance of displaying a gun on social media will be announced shortly after the finals, Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday.
Bianca Andreescu beckoned the partisan Court 14 crowd for noise as she looked to put the finishing touches on a second-round win over American wild-card Emma Navarro.
America apparently needs more car seats. So, when Volkswagen unveiled the ID. Buzz, a retro-styled electric van, last year, it noted that the version for the North American market would be longer and would have three rows of seats.
