Good Sunday Morning!
And to those who celebrate it – Happy Palm Sunday!
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For non-Christians, let me share a political analysis of this Holy day as marking a great non-violent citizen action against oppressors (skipping anything about religion). On that day about two thousand years ago, an amazing anti-Roman Empire protest spread as crowds greeted a rebel leader – waving palm fronds and placing them ahead of him to keep the dust down.
It is a sad reality of the fickle nature of crowds and the power of the Establishment in rigging a rally, that about a week later, the crowd’s mood had sufficiently changed to call for the rebel leader’s death. I get clear feedback from subscribers to Good Sunday Morning that I should leave religion out of this missive, so please note I am not saying anything other than what we know from historical record. Whether that rebel leader rose from the dead is a matter of opinion, or of faith versus science. We know a political non-violent leader, Jesus of Nazareth, existed and had impact in his life and in his death. We enter Holy Week today and for many of us, that has deep meaning.
This week was insanely busy in Parliament. On Monday I did, as promised in last week’s GSM, speak out against CSIS leaks and smears.
“Mr. Speaker, something pretty shocking happened in this place last week. I refer to the statement made by the honorable member for Don Valley North. I am scandalized that anonymous smears from CSIS end up destroying reputations with no real opportunity to respond. It is not like CSIS ever gets anything wrong, just ask Maher Arar. What the heck is going on here? Will an inquiry find out who in CSIS thinks it is okay to leak to the media? It is wrong.”
It got some media notice as I am the first MP to raise the issue of CSIS conduct in Parliament. Elizabeth May ‘scandalized’ following MP Han Dong speech.
On Tuesday, Chrystia Freeland delivered an underwhelming budget. I am really proud of the work our team did to read and analyze the budget and get out our response. (Thanks to the “Budget Lock up” Team: Shadow Cabinet Finance Critic, Luc Joli-Coeur, Deputy Leader Jonathan Pedneault, Sophia Lindfield (our GreenPAC intern), Ros Horne, (Mike’s indispensable communications guru), Mike Morrice, and me.)
This is the YouTube of our full statement immediately after the budget, running about 15 minutes:
Budget 2023 – Green Party Reaction
Elizabeth May: C-11 Online Streaming Act (sorry that this link is mislabeled, but this is actually a budget reaction debate from Wednesday night.)
And press release: Federal Budget Fails People and Planet, Opens Arctic for Drilling
On Wednesday, my private member’s bill C-226 to confront Environmental Racism and promote Environmental Justice, cleared its final hurdle in the House! We carried the vote thanks to support from Liberals, New Democrats, and former Conservative – now Independent – Alain Rayes. Yahoo! Now it goes to the Senate! Green legislation for environmental justice clears the House of Commons
Senate to take the reins on environmental racism bill
On Thursday, we debated the amendments to the Broadcasting Act, Bill C-11. This is one of those bills where a ton of disinformation and misinformation is dominating the conversation. It got so bad on Thursday night that the debate had the quality of a Conservative Party telethon. Conservative MPs actually kept urging people “watching from home” to “like and share” the CPC videos and to donate to stop Bill C-11!
Some Conservatives claimed C-11 would make Canada North Korea or the People’s Republic of China. The exaggerations were over the top. They kept quoting Margaret Atwood from a few months ago where, looking at possible bureaucrats in the future controlling online streaming, she said it could be “creeping totalitarianism.” I have been in touch with her (I am honoured to know her) to beg her to clarify her views. I started the first email with “You seem to be Pierre Poilievre’s favourite writer!” It would almost be funny if it were not so sad to watch MP after MP who actually will fight to remove a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion embrace Handmaid’s Tale. They mention it constantly with no idea what it is about. Ms. Atwood did clarify her position in this essay: CAN CANCON OR CAN’T IT, EH? – by Margaret Atwood
Amazingly enough, while emailing back and forth with Margaret Atwood in real time during the Thursday debate (as though that is not intimidating!) my time to speak on C-11 came up, just as Ed Fast asked the rhetorical question “How can you misinterpret Margaret Atwood calling C-11 ‘creeping totalitarianism’?”
I wish I had the right YouTube link to share that with you (forgive me for likely sharing it next week) but it was rather fun. I answered the Hon. Member from Abbottsford’s question by reading from Margaret Atwood’s most recent posting. C-11 is not perfect legislation nor very well-drafted, but it is not censorship, it will help Canadian artists and writers and we needed to get it passed, which it now is!
Last note for this beautiful Sunday morning, we had a win for Climate Justice this week! ‘Beginning of a new era’: Pacific islanders hail UN vote on climate justice | Pacific islands | The Guardian
Vanuatu won its vote at the United Nations. Having become friends with the awesome Vanuatu Climate Minister Ralph Regenvanu at COP15 in Montreal, I knew what hard work is involved. This is what climate leadership looks like!
I was going to write about the Mass Casualty report on the Portapique killings, but this is long enough! I hate to plan to write about it for Easter morning. Seeking forgiveness in advance, but I think I must.
Love to all! And no harm in a few Hosannas!!
Elizabeth