| | | | |  | | By Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Kyle Duggan | Presented by Amazon Canada | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Nick | Follow Politico Canada In today's edition: → Déjà-vu sets in on Wellington Street as a new public inquiry gets underway. → Departing MP DAVID LAMETTI dishes on his biggest wins and regrets in the House. → A new poll in Quebec is disastrous for Premier FRANÇOIS LEGAULT.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | DAY ONE — The public inquiry into foreign interference has the feeling of a reunion. This is MARIE-JOSÉE HOGUE's show, not PAUL ROULEAU's. But the digs are nearly identical, and familiar faces are everywhere. Same security line. Same restroom run-ins with lawyers. Monday was get-to-know-you day, where a pile of lawyers introduced themselves to each other and made introductory presentations to launch the first five days of public hearings. So began the 373rd commission of inquiry in Canadian history. (Here are the other 372, BTW.) — How we got here: This long-awaited inquiry has its roots in media leaks about alleged Chinese foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. DAVID JOHNSTON recommended against an inquiry back when he was "special rapporteur" on the file. But the government called one anyway amid significant opposition pressure. Commissioner HOGUE has a wide scope. She'll also put Russia, other foreign states, and "non-state actors" under the microscope. Job one this week is to figure out what information can — and cannot — be disclosed in a public forum. — Plus ça change: The Rouleau commission's co-lead counsel, SHANTONA CHAUDHURY, returns for an encore in the role. Chaudhury's job is to keep the proceedings moving — organize hearings, introduce evidence, offer assistance to participants, and question witnesses. NATALIA RODRIGUEZ, GORDON CAMERON, ERIN DANN, GABRIEL POLIQUIN, HANNAH LAZARE, and DANIEL SHEPPARD all return as commission lawyers. MICHAEL TANSEY is again tasked with dealing with journalists. — Looks familiar: Hearings are held in the Winnifred Bambrick room at 395 Wellington, the same space at Library and Archives HQ where lawyers argued the finer points of the Emergencies Act last year. (Note: Monday's Playbook said hearings were to be held in the Margaret Avison room across the hall, based on commission info posted online. In fact, journalists are holed up in the Avison room.) THE PLAYERS — More than 30 lawyers are representing 19 different individuals and organizations with varying levels of standing (billable hours aplenty). These names stuck out to Playbook: → TOM JARMYN and PRESTON LIM: Former Tory leader ERIN O'TOOLE has Jarmyn acting for him. Jarmyn is also a former Hill staffer who served as counsel to then-public safety minister VIC TOEWS. Lim is a Vancouver-born assistant prof at Villanova University whose work specializes in part on “China’s relationship with the international legal system.” → DONALD BAYNE and JON DOODY: The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is represented by two well-known lawyers in town. Bayne famously defended former senator MIKE DUFFY when he successfully fought bribery and breach of trust charges. Doody's name is linked to his defence of CAMERON ORTIS, the ex-RCMP intel official found guilty of leaking secrets. → DANIEL STANTON: The Pillar Society, an organization of retired Canadian Security Intelligence Service employees, tapped Stanton to speak on its behalf at the commission. He's a former executive manager at CSIS and a frequent commentator on security issues. → MICHAEL WILSON and NANDO DE LUCA: Wilson is the Conservative Party's top lawyer. De Luca is a partner at Goodmans. → SUJIT CHOUDHRY: NDP MP JENNY KWAN is a party at the inquiry in large part because she was targeted by the Chinese government. Choudhry, one of two lawyers repping Kwan, recently argued against the government's invocation of the Emergencies Act — and won, acting on behalf of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, at federal court. He also cross-examined the PM at the Rouleau Commission. → JOHN MATHER: Last year, Mather was counsel to the Rouleau Commission. The lawyer at DMG Advocates is now one of two acting for the Centre for Free Expression. → ANNE MCGRATH: The principal secretary to NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH is listed as the party's representative at the commission. She was absent Monday. → YUEN PAU WOO: The Canadian senator is representing himself via Zoom. — What's in a name: The formal title of this exercise is the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions. As always, we're gonna need more convenient shorthand. PIFI is the official acronym, but that clangs in copy. Most commissions of inquiry include the name of the commissioner and tack on "inquiry" or "commission." So it's Hogue Commission (74 Google results on Monday morning) or Hogue Inquiry (105). → Choose your fighter: Commentators are taking sides. MARGARET MCCUAIG-JOHNSTON has picked commission. WESLEY WARK took inquiry. For what it's worth, Toronto Star deputy bureau chief STEPHANIE LEVITZ made the midday call. She went with Hogue Commission.
| | | | A message from Amazon Canada: Amazon has invested more than $40 billion in Canada since 2010, contributing more than $33 billion to the GDP. Our 2023 Amazon Canada Impact Report shares the latest details of how Amazon is helping transform the potential of communities from coast to coast by creating more than 45,000 jobs; supporting small businesses; investing in renewable energy; developing diverse talent pools; and showcasing Canadian stories and talent across the globe. Learn how Amazon is delivering for Canadians. | | | | | Where the leaders are | | — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will chair the Cabinet meeting. He'll also meet Slovakian President ZUZANA ČAPUTOVÁ (hence all those flags downtown). — Deputy PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND will attend Cabinet and question period. — NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH meets with Assembly of First Nations National Chief CINDY WOODHOUSE at 3 p.m. 3:55 p.m. Trudeau will meet with Čaputová alongside Freeland and Defense Minister BILL BLAIR. 7 p.m. Trudeau will attend a state dinner in honor of Čaputová.
| | DULY NOTED | | — At 5 p.m., House Speaker GREG FERGUS hosts the annual Robbie Burns Dinner on the Hill. MPs will participate in a scotch and whisky tasting, and choose the speaker's selections. We're tracking every major political event of 2024 on a mega-calendar. Send us events and download the calendar yourself for Google and other clients .
| | For your radar | |
THE VIEW FROM QUEBEC — The National Assembly’s smallest party caucus is giving its rivals a run for their money, writes 338Canada’s PHILIPPE J. FOURNIER.
The Parti Québécois enters the new parliamentary session in Quebec City with an 11-point lead over the Coalition Avenir Québec, according to a new poll from Pallas Data commissioned by 338Canada (first published by L'actualité magazine). Here's the party-by-party breakdown (full results here): → Parti Québécois: 32 percent → Coalition Avenir Québec: 21 percent → Québec Solidaire: 17 percent → Parti Liberal: 15 percent → Parti Conservateur: 12 percent — The big takeaway: The results point to a halving of support in the past year for Premier FRANÇOIS LEGAULT's CAQ, a spectacular fall from grace for a party that appeared invincible only months ago. — Regional breakdowns: These numbers will give the CAQ operatives nightmares. → The PQ leads in Greater Montreal with 29 percent, 8 points ahead of the Liberals and 10 points ahead of the CAQ. → With 35 percent in Quebec City, the PQ maintains its lead in the region where the party sparked a polling comeback in the spring of 2023. → In the regions of Quebec, where the CAQ won the popular vote by 31 points in the 2022 election, the PQ takes the lead with 36 percent — 10 points ahead of the CAQ. That's a 40-point swing since the province last voted. — The lead solidifies: Pallas’ was first to put the PQ ahead, back in November. A December Léger poll confirmed that trend. — Logjam: The vote splits will take a toll on the smaller parties. According to 338Canada, Pallas’ data would land the PQ in majority territory due to its lead in the regions and among Francophone voters. — What's next: The National Assembly winter sitting begins today. Never a boring day in Quebec politics. — The methodology: Pallas Data surveyed a random sample of 1,175 Quebec respondents on Jan. 24. The margin of error was 3 percent, 19 times out of 20.
| | | | A message from Amazon Canada:   | | | | | HALLWAY CONVERSATION | | |  "I wish we had gotten Bill C-40 over the line, the wrongful convictions commission," David Lametti says. | Sean Kilpatrick, The Canadian Press | EXIT INTERVIEW— Former justice minister DAVID LAMETTI’s time on the Hill might be ending this week, but he says one of his biggest achievements in office will only become more relevant as time goes on. He hailed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) law he ushered through Parliament in 2021 as something that will be “as transformational” as Canada’s Charter of Rights — and “maybe even more.” After the prime minister dropped Lametti from Cabinet last summer, he turned down a plum diplomatic appointment to Spain in favor of a role as counsel for Fasken in Montreal, where he says he can focus on “making UNDRIP work on the ground,” and work with developers and First Nations to forge agreements in resource development and critical minerals projects. Playbook caught up with Lametti and got him to dish on his time in office. These excerpts were edited for length and clarity. Here’s Lametti, in his own words: → Biggest moments: The UNDRIP legislation in 2021, and then the development of an action plan with Indigenous peoples. And then I'm going to say the one that isn't done yet, which is the criminal convictions review commission. It is currently in front of the House of Commons. It’s still in committee. That's the one that will create a body that is independent of the minister of justice to look at, you know, the DAVID MILGAARD cases, the GLEN ASSOUN cases, that we've had a lot of in Canadian history. It's been shown in other countries like the U.K. and other places that you can better attack systemic racism, you can give more access to justice by having a commission which is faster, more efficient, cheaper, [and that] will hear more cases. There are simply more cases in the system than we know about and this will help. → On the lasting legacy of the UNDRIP law: UNDRIP will do nothing less than allow Canada to reach its potential for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. And it will have an impact on institutions. It will have an impact on the way we think. And it will have a positive impact on the way Indigenous and non-Indigenous people interact in this country. I heard so many times through the process of passing the legislation, developing legislation and then creating the action plan, that — what Indigenous peoples told me was they just wanted to have the same opportunities as non-Indigenous people. They want their kids to have those opportunities. Obviously, it's going to take time. It is a long-term process. → Regrets: I wish we had gotten Bill C-40 over the line, the wrongful convictions commission. I would love to have had it done. I promised David Milgaard before he died that I would get it done. And so that's still an open promise. I wish we'd moved on a couple of other pieces of legislation more quickly. We're waiting for the online hate [legislation] and I'm hoping that that comes out soon and gets across the finish line. → What he’ll miss most about Parliament: I'm going to miss the ability to make decisions. That is really, I think, unique to being a Cabinet minister. You make a number of decisions on a day-to-day basis, and you have a number of opportunities around the Cabinet table to influence other major decisions. You've got all your ministerial decisions in your portfolio. And then you've got a look into everybody else's portfolios as well, and you have an influence there. I'm obviously going to miss that. That is a special privilege. I took it seriously. I'll miss the friendships. Politico Pro subscribers can access the full interview here.
| | MEDIA ROOM | | — The federal government will move to delay an expansion of medical assistance in dying for three years. "The system needs to be ready and we need to get it right," said Health Minister MARK HOLLAND. On March 17, eligibility is set to expand to people suffering solely from mental illness. Liberals have fewer than four sitting weeks to legislate on the issue. — The Globe reports: ArriveCan bids regularly listed subcontractors who never did work, procurement watchdog finds. — The National Post's RYAN TUMILTY reveals question period for what it is: a "content studio" that every party exploits for audiences far away from the House of Commons. — Nunatsiaq News: Iqaluit to host national gathering on unmarked graves at residential schools. — From POLITICO's LARA SELIGMAN: How the enemy drone that killed 3 US soldiers in Jordan evaded detection. — Also from POLITICO: How Trump could cut off access to abortion — without Congress. | | PROZONE | | Don’t miss our latest newsletter for Pro subscribers via KYLE DUGGAN and SUE ALLAN: CHRYSTIA FREELAND leaves DST timing up in the air. In other news for Pros: — Meltwater destroys climate data in the Swiss Alps. — Is Joe Biden a climate champion? — California lawmakers introduce two kids' online safety, privacy bills. — Iran's allies are attacking the West. What happens next? — The world's biggest meat processor — a major polluter — is coming to Wall Street.
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Birthdays: HBD to First Nations leader OVIDE MERCREDI, Conservative MP JOHN WILLIAMSON and former Saskatchewan finance minister JANICE MACKINNON. POLITICO’s BOB HILLMAN also celebrates today. Greetings as well to JENNIFER BABCOCK, senior director of government and public affairs at the Canadian Cattle Association. Celebrate your day with the Playbook community. Send us the details. We’ll let everyone know. Spotted: Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET, disclosing a room upgrade, rum and cigars gifted to him at the Meliá Internacional Varadero hotel in Cuba when he was identified as a Canadian MP. A Prada bag, auctioned off at the federal surplus website Monday for C$1,900 after a week-long bidding war. (That's still kind of a bargain price.) PMO senior adviser SUPRIYA DWIVEDI, reflecting on the weekend flame war she described Monday as "a coordinated harassment campaign" perpetrated by "the various players of the RW online ecosystem — and CPC operatives." The Star's ALEX BALLINGALL writes about the exchange. — Noted in the first QP back: PIERRE POILIEVRE flexing creative license with his opening salvo, a two-for-one attack on the carbon tax and the PM’s Jamaican vacation. Trudeau’s comeback? Tories don’t have a climate plan … A group of school-aged children leaving midway through QP … Agriculture Minister LAWRENCE MACAULAY and Tory MP SCOT DAVIDSON cutting tension in the House by making each other laugh across the aisle with a wordless conversation … International Development Minister AHMED HUSSEN explaining that the decision to pause funding for UNRWA was the “prudent thing to do” … NDP MP MATTHEW GREEN heckling HUSSEN: “How do you sleep at night, bro?” Movers and shakers: JEANETTE PATELL is Google’s new director of government affairs in Canada, replacing COLIN MCKAY who spent 12 years with the company. Patell is a former Canadian diplomat who had postings in Washington and the EU, and moves into the role from heading up public policy at YouTube Canada. The Cannabis Council of Canada, headed by former Ontario deputy premier GEORGE SMITHERMAN, met with Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND on Jan. 21. The meeting covered taxation and finance, economic development, and the budget.
| | | On the Hill | | 11 a.m. Interim Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN will be at the House ethics committee. 11 a.m. The House transport committee will meet for clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-33 with help from officials from the transport department. 11 a.m. The House status of women committee will gather for clause-by-clause consideration of Bill S-205. Officials from the justice department will be in attendance. 3:30 p.m. The House fisheries and oceans committee will study illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Witnesses include officials from Coastal First Nations, Fraser Salmon Management Council and Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance. 3:30 p.m. The House international trade committee will study supply chains with help from Canada Border Services Agency, Export Development Canada and officials from the departments of transport, industry and foreign affairs. 3:30 p.m. The House environment committee will hear from the International Observatory on Nature’s Rights, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, West Coast Environmental Law Association, Water Security Agency and others as it studies fresh water. 4 p.m. CBC President CATHERINE TAIT and other executives will be at the House heritage committee to discuss pending job cuts at CBC and Radio-Canada. Behind closed doors: The House procedure committee will meet in camera to discuss its draft report related to the intimidation campaign against Conservative MP MICHAEL CHONG and others. Also on its agenda: A request from Conservatives to discuss the parliamentary protocol related to VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY’s address to Parliament. The House public accounts committee will discuss their draft reports on AG studies on hydrogen, and on Covid-19 vaccines. The subcommittee of the House agriculture and agri-food committee and subcommittee of the public accounts committee will be discussing committee business. The subcommittee on international human rights of the House foreign affairs committee will work on the drafting of two reports.
| | | | A message from Amazon Canada: Since the launch of Amazon.ca in 2002, Amazon’s investments have had a positive ripple effect across the Canadian economy, fueling job creation and opportunity for local businesses, communities, and customers.
Amazon Canada’s 2023 Impact Report in a snapshot:
- Since 2010, Amazon has made direct investments of more than $40 billion in our Canadian operations, contributing more than $33 billion to the GDP.
- We’ve created 45,000 jobs with competitive pay and benefits.
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- Amazon MGM Studios contributed $1.4 billion in estimated value added to the Canada GDP between 2021 and 2022, with more than 30 scripted and unscripted productions during this period.
| | | | | TRIVIA | | Monday’s answer: DAVID FRUM coined the "axis of evil” after being challenged to “sum up in a sentence or two” America’s best case for going after Iraq. Props to MP DAN ALBAS, LAURA JARVIS, HELEN DARBY, GOZDE KAZAZOGLU, NARESH RAGHUBEER, MARTIN CHAMPOUX, DG STRINGER, JOHN ECKER, JOHN DILLON, RODDY MCFALL, MARCEL MARCOTTE, PATRICK DION, DAVID MCLENNAN, BOB GORDON, BOB RICHARDSON, PATRICK HART, BARBARA HEATH, DALE BARBOUR, GARY COLLINS, DOUG SWEET, GORDON RANDALL, MATT DELISLE, GUY SKIPWORTH, BOB PLAMONDON, JIM CAMPBELL, DAN FONDA. ASHLEY CSANADY, LAURENT CARBONNEAU, SUSAN KEYS, CASEY MORELL, GREGORY THOMAS, LAURA PAYTON, WALTER ROBINSON, DOUG RICE, DUANE BRATT, NANCI WAUGH, TOD COWEN, JOSEPH CHAMOUN, ALANNA SOKIC, DON NEWMAN, RALPH LEVENSTEIN, KATELIN CUMMINGS, SEAN MOORE, MARC LEBLANC, CAMERON RYAN, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, JOHN MERRIMAN, JIM MUNSON and AMY CASTLE. Today’s question: Who said this of the Indian Act during a Crown-First Nations gathering in 2012: “It’s not just a big hole. It’s an obstacle." Answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com . Want to grab the attention of movers and shakers on Parliament Hill? Want your brand in front of a key audience of Ottawa influencers? Run a Playbook ad campaign. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com. Playbook wouldn’t happen without: POLITICO Canada editor Sue Allan, editor Willa Plank and Luiza Ch. Savage. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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