Good morning, <\/p>\n
The Liberals have finally introduced legislation to fulfill one of their campaign promises: reforming Canadas access-to-information law. For users of the law, which allows the public to access government documents under certain guidelines, the long-awaited Liberal bill is a mixed bag: it boosts proactive disclosure and gives more powers to the Information Commissioner (a kind of watchdog of the law), but it breaks a promise to apply the access to ministers offices and gives government the ability to dismiss requests it believes are made in bad faith. <\/p>\n
Well see how the reforms address the complaints of those who use the access-to-information system frequently (predominantly businesses and members of the public), such as long delays and redacted information. A few examples from this writers experience: months-long delays for routine reports, including packages sent to our office for reporters who stopped working here years ago; paragraphs from a news article, included as part of an email sent from one public servant to another, that were blacked out because they were publicly available information (figure that one out); and basic factual information that is excluded because cabinet members could use it as a basis for making a decision. <\/p>\n
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and Mayaz Alam in Toronto, with James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Let us know what you think. <\/p>\n
CANADIAN HEADLINES <\/p>\n
Thats not all...Justin Trudeaus Liberals are in a final sprint to introduce some policies before Parliament rises for its three-month summer break. The governing party is putting new limits on the use of solitary confinement, eventually keeping the practice to no more than 15 consecutive days. The Liberals will finally table its national-security legislation today, which sets out to undo many of the changes made by the previous Conservative government. And there will be a new way of appointing directors to the board of the CBC\/Radio-Canada, to address past allegations of partisanship. <\/p>\n
Senators defeated a motion to hive off the infrastructure bank legislation from the budget bill, clearing the way for the Liberals to get their bill passed on schedule. <\/p>\n
The Liberal government says it will have a backup plan for the regulation of legalized marijuana in provinces that dont create their own regimes. <\/p>\n
The Commons indigenous affairs committee says the federal government has routinely failed to address the issue of suicide in Canadas indigenous communities and must dramatically improve its care of children. <\/p>\n
And a few public figures being criticized for things theyre saying on social media: Governor-General David Johnston apologized yesterday for referring to Indigenous Canadians as immigrants in a CBC Radio interview that aired over the weekend; Dwight Duncan, the former Ontario Liberal finance minister and current chairman of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, is under fire from opposition MPs for making partisan comments on Facebook; and Conservative MP Kellie Leitch is getting flak for a tweet about Syrian refugees and domestic violence. <\/p>\n
Nik Nanos (The Globe and Mail) on cloudy ways: The data suggest that the cloudless sunny ways are over. Sure, some days will be better than others for the Liberals. Now, reality will set in as more Canadians focus on what the Liberals have done to make things better for that large swath of Canadians who consider themselves part of the middle class. <\/p>\n
Andr Pratte (The Globe and Mail) on independents in the Senate: It is true that over the past year, the Senate has amended a relatively large number of government bills. In many cases, those amendments were accepted by cabinet, which agreed that they made its bill better. In other cases, the amendments were rejected and the bill sent back to the Senate, unchanged, for final approval. What happened then? Did the FrankenSenate insist on its amendments and try to impose its will on the House of Commons? Not at all. <\/p>\n
Chantal Hbert (Toronto Star) on retiring Quebec Conservative Denis Lebel: It is an open secret that the premier would like to recruit Lebel to run under the provincial Liberal banner in next years Quebec election. But Lebel claims he is done with politics for the foreseeable future. That may change depending on how the wind is blowing in the lead-up to the provincial campaign. <\/p>\n
Andrew MacDougall (CBC) on access-to-information reform: Ask yourself what is better: public policy that's made in secret and then revealed to the public, or a policy process that pulls its punches because its authors didn't want to ask or answer the uncomfortable question or challenge from their colleagues during its development? <\/p>\n
Andrew Coyne (National Post) on government aid for the media: The one thing it will not do is save the industry. It wont fix our problems. It will just make them easier to avoid. Worse, it will draw us into the political arena, not just as observers but as an issue in our own right. <\/p>\n
Stephen Maher (iPolitics) on a media bailout: I suspect the Liberals foot-dragging on all this has to do with (my former employer) Postmedia, which took a strongly pro-Conservative position in the last election. The Liberals likely would rather stick pencils in their eyes than bail out Postmedias bosses. They may hope those bosses are gone by the time they dole out the money. You have to wonder, though, how much of an industry will be left to bail out if they keep dragging their feet. <\/p>\n
B.C. UPDATE <\/p>\n
B.C.s Liberal government is abruptly reversing course on several major policy areas as the party faces almost certain defeat in the legislature. The party says it is now in favour of a ban on corporate and union donations, increases to social assistance rates, and letting mayors find ways to fund transit upgrades without a referendum. Just over a month ago, the party ran an election platform on doing the opposite. Critics say its little more than a cynical death-bed conversion, but the Liberals insist they are learning the lessons of a rebuke at the ballot box. <\/p>\n
B.C.s Green leader has made opposing a massive hydroelectric project in the provinces north a key issue for his party, but it wasnt long ago that Andrew Weaver was an enthusiastic booster. Mr. Weaver wants to scrap the Site C dam, and his power-sharing agreement with the New Democrats includes a pledge to put the project to a fresh review. Mr. Weaver, who plans to visit the region tomorrow to make his case, says the economics have changed and the power that will be generated simply isnt needed. <\/p>\n
And if the B.C. legislature turns out to be totally dysfunctional, will voters be prepared to head to the ballot boxes again? No, says a survey from the Angus Reid Institute. Seventy-one per cent of respondents say they would like the elected officials to keep at their work, though those who said they supported the BC Liberals were more likely to want an electoral re-do. <\/p>\n
Gary Mason (The Gobe and Mail): \"It is a clear attempt to win back the affections of former supporters who cast their votes for others last month. The Throne Speech will be the Liberals first attempt at contriteness, something that does not come naturally to them.\" <\/p>\n
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES <\/p>\n
The London mosque attack is the latest incident to rock the U.K.s stability after a tumultuous first half of the year thats seen multiple terrorist attacks, a general election and uncertainty over the future of its relationship with the European Union. Details from the attack are still emerging but witnesses say the suspect, who has been arrested on attempted murder and terrorism charges, deliberately targeted Muslims because of their faith. <\/p>\n
The U.K. and the EU officially kicked off Brexit negotiations yesterday nearly a year after British voters narrowly chose to begin the process of leaving the single market and three months after British Prime Minister Theresa May officially triggered Article 50. The entire undertaking is expected to take around two years and it appears that the EU has the upper hand after day one. Both the EU and U.K. teams feature veteran negotiators. <\/p>\n
Former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed in October, 2011. In the six years following his death, the billions of dollars tied to his estate have been filtering through the dark underworld of arms deals and illicit money, according to a new United Nations report. Shortly before dying he had reportedly sold one-fifth of Libyas gold reserves and was known to have business holdings across the African continent. After his death, the money vanished but is reportedly being smuggled across borders through locked boxes and in hidden bank accounts. <\/p>\n
Voters in Georgias 6th district will choose their representative today in whats become the most expensive, and arguably the most overhyped, House race in U.S. history. Democrat Jon Ossoff will face off against Republican Karen Handel in a two-person race -- both advanced after a multi-candidate primary on April 18. The district has been historically Republican but Democrats are looking for their first big win in the Trump era after narrowing margins in special elections. In the time in between the primary and todays special election, France has held its presidential elections and parliamentary elections, and the U.K. had an entire general election campaign from writ drop to vote. <\/p>\n
A BuzzFeed News investigation suggests that Russian security services and organized crime have been carrying out assassinations on British soil for years -- and U.K. police have, for various reasons, stayed out of it. <\/p>\n
A data firm associated with the Republican National Committee inadvertently leaked the personal information of nearly 200 million Americans through a publicly available Amazon web server. The private details include everything from addresses and birthdates to complex psychological and political analyses. <\/p>\n
And heat waves are expected to become more and more deadly across the world due to climate change. If all countries agreed to abide by the Paris [climate] agreement tomorrow, you are still going to have close to 60 per cent of the worlds population facing deadly conditions for 20 or more days per year, scientist Camilo Mora said. <\/p>\n
Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) on extremism and London: While these may appear to be two strands of extremism, one Islamist and the other far right, ostensibly posed against one another, any up-close examination of their opinions and rhetoric reveals that they have the same view of the world, the same mirror-image political goals, and now the same tactics. <\/p>\n
Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on Amazon, innovation and automation: Innovation always has a cost. The vacuum-cleaner store will disappear, if it hasnt already. Bookstores gone. Department stores gone. Shopping malls gone. Grocery stores will consolidate into a couple of supermegachains. Millions of warehouse workers, retail sales clerks, cashiers gone. As Barack Obama warned in an exit interview earlier this year, the real job killer isnt free trade, its automation. <\/p>\n
Nesrine Malik (The Guardian) on hate, radicalization and normalization: Hate crimes of any nature do not occur in a vacuum, and there is a particularly urgent need to examine the context in which this attack took place. For innocent people to become targets, two things must happen: first, incitement to hatred, and then normalisation. Incitement happens when anger is stirred up and people are depicted as less than human. Normalisation occurs when the incitement is repeated, when it begins to feel like part of the scenery. After that, acting on that rage can begin to feel like less of a crime. <\/p>\n
Follow Chris Hannay on Twitter: @channay <\/p>\n
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Politics Briefing newsletter: Liberal access-to-information reforms don't quite meet promises - The Globe and Mail<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning, The Liberals have finally introduced legislation to fulfill one of their campaign promises: reforming Canadas access-to-information law. For users of the law, which allows the public to access government documents under certain guidelines, the long-awaited Liberal bill is a mixed bag: it boosts proactive disclosure and gives more powers to the Information Commissioner (a kind of watchdog of the law), but it breaks a promise to apply the access to ministers offices and gives government the ability to dismiss requests it believes are made in bad faith. Well see how the reforms address the complaints of those who use the access-to-information system frequently (predominantly businesses and members of the public), such as long delays and redacted information. Continue reading