Author: Dale Smith

For those of you keeping score, the copyright bill is headed back to the Commons after being amended in committee, but it only took amendments from Conservatives, not from the opposition. And that means that digital locks provisions remain in the bill. So if you break a digital lock to make a

My story from last week about REAL Women of Canada being invited to serve as a partner in the Diamond Jubilee medal process was brought to the Senate floor today for Senate Question Period. Senator Terry Mercer, who is an advocate for stopping bullying, took particular exception to REAL Women’s

After receiving plaudits from Olivia Chow for her accomplishments as interim leader – most notably all of the symbolic, non-binding motions that were passed under her watch – Nycole Turmel kicked off QP by asking not about the Robocon allegations, but the prescription drug shortages. Harper responded by chastising the

There are new allegations of “voter augmentation” in the last election, this time in Scarborough-Rough River, where thousands of Tamil voters registered on-site on election day. And to top it off, Elections Canada said that they’re not going to investigate, despite the fact that there is demonstrated evidence that many of the

The excesses of Monday’s Question Period nonsense were curtailed in light of adult supervision – the presence of Harper – and we got a few slightly different talking points from before. Nycole Turmel again kicked off with questions about robo-calls and the recently passed (non-binding) motion about changing the Elections

On an Order Paper question about the new Office of Religious Freedoms, the Conservatives replied to very specific questions with…some press release bumf. Seriously? Seriously? This is not good for our democracy, or the roles of MPs to hold government to account. If they can’t get answers to their questions, how are they

Normally I have a high tolerance for the hijinks of Question Period. An unusually high one, if truth be told. I enjoy heckles – provided that they’re clever or witty. I enjoy crosstalk – it can be more informative than what passes for “debate” these days. Well, what little crosstalk

The Liberals in Guelph admit they were behind the robo-call that called the Conservative candidate out as being anti-choice, and say that yes, they should have properly identified it as coming from the Liberals. But, they say, that it was in response to “lies” being spread about Frank Valeriote, and that it

The final NDP leadership debate took place this afternoon from Vancouver, under the theme of “Opportunities for Young and New Canadians.” I’m not sure if it was just the lighting, but the candidates all seemed fairly tired – which could also be virtue of cross-country flights – but there wasn’t

The final official NDP leadership debate takes place tomorrow, coming from Vancouver. As part of that, people are wondering if Martin Singh is acting as Thomas Mulcair’s attack dog as he continues to go after Brian Topp. Mulcair’s people, of course, deny this. Meanwhile, here’s Maclean’s interview with Niki Ashton, and it’s only slightly less awkward

It appears there may be a case in the robo-calls from Guelph, and a clue as to who “Pierre Poutine” might have been. While the trail of clues may have been pretty well concealed – a PayPal account fed with pre-paid Visa cards linked to an anonymous Gmail account, it sounds like

It being International Women’s Day, the NDP took the opportunity to let the women in their caucus shine, and had an all-woman Question Period. While the Liberals have done so in the past (or at least the leader and then only women afterward), they didn’t participate today. The result, however,

As people try to track the money trail, interesting questions are turning up with regards to the calling company RMG, especially when certain candidates in Quebec are being billed for their services, and yet they weren’t aware what RMG actually did for them in their campaign. Also, Conservative MP Maurice Velacott –

Many a Wednesday, Question Period is buzzing with energy, the MPs having just been pumped up by caucus meetings, and they’re ready to go and kick some butt. Today was like the opposite of that. In fact, it was so listless and dead in the Chamber that it was sapping

The Conservatives have quietly decided to drop their appeal at the Supreme Court over the In & Out affair, and they’re paying back the money they owe to Elections Canada “under protest.” It had been mentioned that nobody wants to fight a war on two fronts, and that possibly the Robocon allegations

It’s sometimes amazing what a bit of adult supervision can do for question period – but I’m not sure that today was really that day. Harper may have been back in the House, and as a result the surreal and non-reality-based rhetoric was toned down slightly (not that it stopped

Today in Robocon – because it’s still rolling along – we learn that the Conservatives may not have complied with Elections Canada’s directives that lists of Election Day polls be used for internal use only. Meanwhile, revelations in Guelph have Elections Canada re-evaluating Conservative spending records during the campaign, seeing as they no longer

To say that today’s Question Period was anything other than bizarre would perhaps be an exercise in understatement. There were moments where it was so surreal that I felt like I was watching The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. It was also a reminder of what happens when Harper is

Dear fellow Canadians, While I’m stoked that you recognise that the Queen is the head of state, I can’t tell you how utterly disappointed I am in the fact that you’re doing ridiculous things like asserting that the Queen – or the Governor General, take your pick – should fire Harper over

If you need your daily fix of RoboCon news, there isn’t a lot on offer today. Making the rounds on the political shows this weekend were Guy Giorno, Harper’s former chief of staff and the Conservative campaign co-chair, who wants