EXCLUSIVE POLITICAL COVERAGE: NEWS, FEATURES, AND ANALYSIS INSIDE PARTY ANTI- HEARD PMO’S JOHN ARCTIC CENTRAL TERRORISM ON THE ZERUCELLI SECURITY P. 25 BILL C-51 P. 17 HILL P. 2 P. 4 P. 19 TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR, NO. 1339 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER MONDAY, MAY 16, 2016 $5.00 NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY FEATURE HILL LIFE & PEOPLE NEWS LOBBYING National Security Senator Smith Farming issues Oversight getting heard on Committee to leaves Ottawa, Hill, agricultural require top-secret lobbying up 50 per facilities to ‘meet, after 50 years in public life cent from last year Trade and equipment are transmit and store among the top issues. information’: Public BY DEREK ABMA Security docs Representatives of Canada’s farming industry have been stepping up their lobbying BY ABBAS RANA on Parliament Hill in recent months, with trade being one of the main areas of discussion. In order to review, monitor and scrutinize Communication reports fi led in the the activities of the country’s most secret federal lobbyists registry show that some national security organizations including of the agricultural groups that have had CSIS, the RCMP, the CSE, and the CBSA, communications with federal offi cials in Parliament’s fi rst all-party National Security April include the Canadian Cattlemen’s Oversight Committee will require dedicated se- Association, Chicken Farmers of Canada, cure facilities that match the “top secret RCMP Egg Farmers of Canada, Soy Canada, the signals-intelligence standards” to hold meet- Canada Seed and Trade Association, and ings, transmit, and store information, accord- dairy associations representing Quebec, ing to documents obtained by The Hill Times. British Columbia, and Ontario. Continued on page 24 Continued on page 20 NEWS PUBLIC SERVICE NEWS ASSISTED SUICIDE Lobbying on Public service loses workers in physician-assisted young, middle dying continues age groups, gains as new law nears people 55-plus passage in House Lack of permanent jobs is Lobbying continues ‘right up driving people away: unions. XXX XX until the fi nal vote.’ BY DEREK ABMA BY RACHEL AIELLO As the Privy Council continues to place Son of a preacher’s kid: Liberal Senator David Smith, who helped run Jean Chrétien’s three suc- a high priority on recruiting young people Lobbyists are continuing to lobby the cessive and successful election campaigns in 1993, 1997, and 2000, and who helped get the in the federal public service to replace government’s controversial physician-as- rights of the physically and mentally disabled enshrined into the Charter of Rights, spent his last aging baby boomers, demographic trends sisted suicide Bill C-14 as it nears passage day in the Senate on May 10. Read more on p. 2. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright in the latest annual report from the Privy in the House this week and moves into the Council clerk to the prime minister show Senate. some discouraging trends. With just two sitting weeks left until the FEATURE FORT MCMURRAY WILDFIRES The report from Privy Council Clerk June 6 Supreme Court-imposed deadline Michael Wernick to Prime Minister Justin to have a new law on the books regarding Outpouring of support ‘overwhelming’: Alberta MPs Trudeau (Papineau, Que.), released May physician-assisted dying, the government 6, included an introductory letter that is hoping to have the bill pass the report BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT are stressing that work to re- of Albertans and other Cana- described how the government was in “a stage and third reading debate and be off build Fort McMurray, will be dians in lending a hand to the period of dramatic generational change in to the Senate by the middle of this week. As residents anxiously a “long-term” effort, but say more than 80,000 evacuees. the public service.” await news of when they can they’ve been impressed by Continued on page 16 return home, Alberta MPs the “overwhelming” response Continued on page 14 Continued on page 18 2 THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, MAY 16, 2016 FEATURE BUZZ when all the Liberal Senators were kicked out details last week about her wake, which of the national caucus in an effort by Prime was to be held in Glace Bay, N.S., this past ON Minister Justin Trudeau to distance the un- Saturday, followed by the funeral on Mon- elected Senate from the elected House. day at 11 a.m. local time at the Church of HEARD THE HILL “I worked my guts out for 50 years for the Immaculate Conception in Bridgeport, N.S. party and then we got kicked out. I was a bit In a Facebook post, Mr. Butts said: “We’re BY DEREK ABMA frustrated, but I kind of like the end result: Cape Bretoners. We try to turn these things free votes. I like free votes. I was quoting into celebrations of life, especially when it’s Martin Luther King Jr. who said: ‘Free at last!’ one as well and fully lived as our moms.” Thank God I’m free at last! Who wants to be Mr. Butts, who called his mother “the cool- a whipped robot? Not me. I don’t want to be a est of cucumbers” in a Mother’s Day post, also whipped robot. I think if it’s less partisan, the offered some great advice on Twitter for any- This just in: press better. We’ll see how this system works out, one whose moms are still around: “Call your but we’ve got good people here,” he said. mom. Life is short, even when it’s long.” He told Senators last Tuesday that Canada’s lucky it doesn’t have the same nasty political gallery plans for culture as the U.S. “As Canadians, we don’t Cotler vs. Black at next want to go down that road. We want to keep this country and this institution. We want to have Great Canadian Debate a civilized democratic society. Let me say this: late-night partying The next event in the Macdonald-Laurier Let’s keep it that way! I’m going to miss you all. I wish you all the best. Continue to be the Institute’s Great Canadian Debates series Chamber of Sober Second Thought. Amen!” will feature former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler after annual dinner against former media baron Conrad Black, arguing the issue of whether Canada’s Su- Bélanger tribute to raise preme Court is interfering with Parliament’s Laura Payton, La “proper role” in setting the country’s laws. Presse’s Malorie funds for Haitian students The motion presented will be, “Canada’s Beauchemin, Supreme Court has usurped the proper role Postmedia’s A cocktail of Parliament.” Mr. Black will support this Stephen Maher, party in honour of idea while Mr. Cotler will argue against it. and Le Devoir’s ailing Liberal MP Attendees are likely to hear arguments Marie Vastel Mauril Bélanger from both sides over how this matter re- at the 2011 is planned for lates to things such as abortion, same-sex Parliamentary Thursday, May 19 marriage, and—an issue being sorted out Press Gallery at the Outaouais as we speak— physician-assisted dying. Dinner. The campus of the Uni- It happens Tuesday, May 31, at 7 p.m. Hill Times versité du Québec Liberal MP Mauril at Canadian War Museum. Tickets are $20 photograph by Bea in Gatineau, from Belanger, pictured in each, or $15 for students and seniors. Vongdouangchanh 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. his offi ce on March 8, Mr. Bélanger, thanking reporters for the MP for Ottawa- meeting him. The Hill Simpson resurfaces at CBC Vanier, went public Times photograph by following CTV departure late last year with Jake Wright his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also Katie Simpson has a new job with known as Lou Gehrigh’s disease. His con- CBC’s parliamentary bureau, she con- dition has progressed to the point where fi rmed on Twitter last week he has lost the ability to speak. He now “Very excited to announce that I’m joining Elizabeth May, take note. uses an iPad with text-to-voice software to CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa,” she While many who attended the annual Sen. Smith says farewell communicate. tweeted. “Let’s break all of the news, shall we?” Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner last to Upper Chamber Former Liberal MP Don Boudria, now It was more than a month earlier she year ended up at the Métropolitain Brasse- a lobbyist for Hill & Knowlton Strategies, used Twitter to announce she was leaving rie on the Ottawa side of the Ottawa River said the occasion will feature an appear- CTV, without giving any indication of why for the after-party, organizers of this year’s ance from Mr. Bélanger himself, as well or where she was going. dinner—which celebrates the gallery’s as several former and current MPs, and Ms. Simpson received congratulations 150th anniversary—are trying to keep the other friends of the MPs. Before fi rst being about her new job from fellow journalists and crowd at the Canadian Museum of History elected to federal offi ce in 1995, Mr. Bé- politicos, but the sentiment was perhaps best in Gatineau and they’re making things langer served as an executive assistant to summed up by her new workmate at CBC, more convenient for anyone not ready for Mr. Boudria during his time as an MP. Rosemary Barton, who tweeted, “Boom.” bed after the dessert plates are cleared. “He and I go back a long time,” Mr. There will be a cash bar going until 2 Boudria said. a.m. on site at the museum, where the din- Lockup for spring The event will cost $125 per person to at- ner will be held on Saturday, June 4.