Parliament of Canada

Will the supply-and-confidence deal between the Liberals and NDP survive in 2024?

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Liberal, Policy, Pharmacare, Conservative Party, Green, MP, Green Party, Political lists, New Democrats, Parliament of Canada, COVID-19, NDP, Commonwealth, Adoption, Politics, Parliament, Bloc, Risk management

The deal eased the uncertainty facing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government while allowing the NDP to take credit for some of the government’s social policy announcements.

Key Points: 
  • The deal eased the uncertainty facing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government while allowing the NDP to take credit for some of the government’s social policy announcements.
  • That’s because of the Trudeau government’s failure in 2023 to deliver on pharmacare, a central aspect of the March 2022 agreement.

Past agreements

  • Inter-party agreements in Canadian Parliament are extremely rare.
  • Such supply-and-confidence agreements are common elsewhere in the Commonwealth, but largely unprecedented in Canadian politics.

Three factors at play

  • First, since Trudeau became prime minister in late 2015, the Liberals and NDP have moved closer together.
  • The two parties share more policies than in the past, especially in the area of social policy.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, provided an opportunity for greater co-operation in the design and implementation of temporary and expansive emergency measures.
  • Second, public support over the last four years has left the Liberals and the NDP in a tricky situation.

Political tensions

  • But currently, growing tensions between the Liberals and the NDP make the future of the agreement increasingly uncertain.
  • That’s largely because of the recent sharp decline in public support for the Liberals.
  • Singh has suggested the Liberals have only agreed to enact progressive policies that truly help Canadians when forced to do so by the NDP.

Death of the deal ahead?

  • Those types of agreements are much more common in Canada’s minority parliaments than formal legislative coalitions like the existing supply-and-confidence agreement.
  • The question for the NDP is whether it’s better off electorally with or without the agreement.


Daniel Béland receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Louis Massé receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Canada's House speaker quits: What the Hunka scandal reveals about Second World War complexities

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Nazism, World, Roman Shukhevych, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), Democracy, World war, Holodomor, Organization, Soviet people, Commons, Kremlin, Deschênes Commission, OUN, Second, History, Great, Parliament, War, MP, Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), SS-Gefolge (Women's SS Division), SS, Division, Eastern, Battle, Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, Propaganda, Knowledge, Battle of Brody (1941), UPA, House, Liberal, Parliament of Canada, Jews, Nightclub, Drug, Whaling, Film industry, Arms industry, Czechoslovakia

Hunka, now 98, served in a Nazi unit known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, fighting alongside Germany in the Second World War.

Key Points: 
  • Hunka, now 98, served in a Nazi unit known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, fighting alongside Germany in the Second World War.
  • Jewish organizations and Poland demanded an apology from the Canadian government and Poland says it’s taking steps to extradite Hunka.

The unit’s history

    • It also shows the close ties between the conflict and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
    • The Germans initially deployed the unit to fight the advancing Soviet army, which was moving westward.
    • Local Ukrainians were divided over its formation, some considering it mere “cannon fodder” for the German army.

Cleared of war crimes

    • The history of the SS Division and the arrival of some of its members in Canada was featured in the Deschenes Commission Report of 1985-86, which cleared most soldiers of war crimes.
    • In Russia, there is an investigation into the “genocide of Russians” during the Second World War.
    • One such transgressor is imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny — vilified for “insulting” a Second World War veteran — but the list is a very long one.

Ammunition to Russia

    • Russia seeks evidence in western countries that justifies its propaganda, and Canadian Parliament has provided it with much-needed ammunition for a tired and erroneous argument.
    • Firstly, the murders of Ukrainian Jews during the Second World War must be remembered, and the complex context of Ukraine during the Second World War must be clarified.
    • In response, many Ukrainians in Poland abandoned democratic politics in the 1930s and joined extreme nationalist formations.

Ukraine more democratic than Russia

    • Ukraine is far more democratic than Russia.
    • There are far more neo-Nazis in Russia than in Ukraine.
    • So, Russia must return over and over to the Great Patriotic War to justify its argument — that Russia “saved” Europe and democracy.
    • Accuracy about the Second World War can dispel Russian myth-making and expose its current imperialistic and savage war aims in Ukraine.

American Trucker Trade Group Makes Plea to Canadian Parliament to Withhold Approval of Trudeau's Use of Emergencies Act Against Freedom Convoy Truckers

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Small business, Yankee Stadium, Emergencies Act, Freedom, Government, Nazism, Milwaukee Brewers, Liberal, Emergency, Parliament of Canada, Freezing, 2 World Trade Center, Parliament, Convoy, Industry, Terrorism, SBTC, Transport, Health insurance, Animal

"Make no mistake... this is no longer about freedom to make medical decisions.

Key Points: 
  • "Make no mistake... this is no longer about freedom to make medical decisions.
  • We implore Parliament to terminate this inhumane abuse immediately and figure out another way to resolve this conflict," Lamb said.
  • The SBTC is running a poll to determine what truckers think of Trudeau's use of the Emergencies Act to freeze truckers' banks accounts to quash the protest.
  • Thus far, over 90% of respondents are reporting they disagree with the move and believe Trudeau is himself terrorizing Canadian citizens.

FaceTec Sees Large Business and Technology Gains in 2021

Retrieved on: 
Friday, January 28, 2022
Growth, Government, IDV, Fraud, DHS, Organization, GDPR, KYC, Authentication, Unico, IOS, Liveness, 3D, Technology, IDS, Transport, Method, OCR, GDI, Privacy, Architecture, NFC, Visage SDK, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Android, Parliament of Canada, CCPA, BIPA, Parliament, ID, 2D, Online shopping, Video game console, Cryptocurrency, Security printing, Leidos

SUMMERLIN, Nev., Jan. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- FaceTec, Inc. has announced exceptional results from its efforts in 2021, furthering its global leadership in 3D face verification software.

Key Points: 
  • SUMMERLIN, Nev., Jan. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- FaceTec, Inc. has announced exceptional results from its efforts in 2021, furthering its global leadership in 3D face verification software.
  • Further, along with gDi , FaceTec successfully launched a major project for First Abu Dhabi Bank (the UAE's largest bank ), which followed another successful deployment earlier in 2021 for Digital Dubai .
  • FaceTec now has over 80 distribution partners globally, and unlike many vendors in the Liveness space, FaceTec provides stand-alone software that runs locally on the customer's servers or cloud.
  • Important new functionality was also added to the FaceTec SDKs in Q4 2021, including free barcode reading (video here ) and free NFC chip scanning (video here ).

The Prime Minister announces reappointments to the Government Representative Office in the Senate

Retrieved on: 
Friday, November 12, 2021
Legislation, Population, House, University, Commons, Government, Audit, House of Commons of Canada, Education, Organization, Gold, Ethics, White House, Committee, COVID-19, Conflict, Prix Riel, Woman, Legislature, Indigenous peoples, Senator, Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Parliament of Canada, Rights, Order, Council, Interest, Order of Manitoba, Parliament, Senator Gold, Senate, Online gambling, Health insurance

They will continue serving as Government Representative in the Senate, Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate, and Government Liaison in the Senate, respectively, during the 44th Canadian Parliament.

Key Points: 
  • They will continue serving as Government Representative in the Senate, Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate, and Government Liaison in the Senate, respectively, during the 44th Canadian Parliament.
  • "I welcome the reappointment of these three experienced and dedicated Senators to the Government Representative Office in the Senate.
  • The Government Representative in the Senate, the Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate, and the Government Liaison in the Senate make up the Government Representative Office.
  • The Government Representative in the Senate is the first point of contact between the government and the Senate, working to move government bills through the Upper House and champion renewal of the institution.

FaceTec Leads Cybersecurity Sector with 293% YoY Q2 Revenue Growth

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Chief executive officer, Industry, Mazda North American Operations, Parliament, Organization, Technology, Method, American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, Privacy Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, SolarWinds, SVP, Software, Jumio, Time, PKI, Transport, PIN, 3D, Parliament of Canada, IOS, Android, AU10TIX, Unemployment, ID, Use of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of Defense, Partnership, Authentication, Fraud, Liveness, KYC, Online shopping, Security printing

In Q2, FaceTec worked to overcome the "PKI Fallacy" with contributions to the knowledge base of groups like the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security , the U.K. Home Office , ENISA , DIACC , AAMVA , and the Better Identity Coalition .

Key Points: 
  • In Q2, FaceTec worked to overcome the "PKI Fallacy" with contributions to the knowledge base of groups like the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security , the U.K. Home Office , ENISA , DIACC , AAMVA , and the Better Identity Coalition .
  • FaceTec brought on new technical support personnel in LATAM, as well as added Dean Mericka as SVP of Growth & Partnerships .
  • Dean brings incredibly deep industry experience as the former chief revenue officer of both Jumio and Au10tix.
  • "Today's device authentication methods are often defeated because they are paired with nonexistent or weak in-device user identity authentication.

Indigenous Nations, organizations and prominent individuals support federal implementation of UN Indigenous rights Declaration

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Westminster system, Legislatures, Parliament of Canada, Parliament of India, Private member's bill, Political systems, Government, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act

The open letter coincides with the beginning of Parliamentary hearings on the Bill, which was tabled by the Liberal government in early December.

Key Points: 
  • The open letter coincides with the beginning of Parliamentary hearings on the Bill, which was tabled by the Liberal government in early December.
  • Romeo Saganash, whose private Member's bill, Bill C-262, provided the model for C-15, is among the expert witnesses testifying on March 11.
  • Noting that stalling preventing Bill C-262 becoming law, the letter states:
    "Concrete measures to implement the UN Declaration in Canadian law and policy are necessary and overdue.
  • Passage of Bill C-15 should be a top priority for all Members of Parliament and Senators."

CAJ: Alberta Press Gallery has a duty - and a right - to determine access

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery, Parliament of Canada, Press gallery, Postmedia Network, News, Journalism

Late last week, Postmedia announced its extraordinary decision to pull its newspapers from the press gallery.

Key Points: 
  • Late last week, Postmedia announced its extraordinary decision to pull its newspapers from the press gallery.
  • They are recognized by the speaker to oversee the press accreditation process and other rules for legislative journalists.
  • Heather Boyd , a former Western Canadian bureau chief for The Canadian Press, was hired to study the issue.
  • It is worth noting that Rebel News has, by its own admission , previously been denied press credentials by the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Successful Private Members’ Bills since 1983

Retrieved on: 
Monday, June 8, 2020
Westminster system, Legislatures, Government, Political systems, Statutory law, Parliament of Canada, Parliament of India, Private member's bill, Bill, Parliament of Singapore, Legislative session, Parliament of the United Kingdom

This list notes the titles and sponsoring Member of successful Commons and Lords private Members' bills (PMBs) since the 1983 general election.

Key Points: 
  • This list notes the titles and sponsoring Member of successful Commons and Lords private Members' bills (PMBs) since the 1983 general election.
  • With limited time available for the consideration of PMBs, generally only bills with Government and cross-party support are successful.
  • A motion to provide three additional Fridays for private Members bills in the 2017-18 session was agreed on 30 January 2019.
  • Commons Procedure Committee

    The Procedure Committee held inquiries into private Members bills procedure in the 2010 and 2015 Parliaments.

Lords debates Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill

Retrieved on: 
Friday, March 13, 2020
Statutory law, Westminster system, Law, Government, Legislatures, Parliament of Canada, Parliament of India, Private member's bill, Bill, National Health Service, Public bill, Health and Social Care Act

Members of the Lords will discuss the key principles and purpose of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill during second reading on Friday 13 March.

Key Points: 
  • Members of the Lords will discuss the key principles and purpose of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill during second reading on Friday 13 March.
  • Speakers include a former chief executive of the NHS andpresident of the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance.
  • This is a private member's bill.
  • A private member's bill is a type of public bill (bills that affect all of us)whichmust go through the same set of procedures as other public bills.