EXCLUSIVE POLITICAL COVERAGE: NEWS, FEATURES, AND ANALYSIS INSIDE HEARD DIPLOMATICC PARTY HILL CIRCLES ON THE CENTRAL CLIMBERS HILL P. 2 PP. 34-35 P. 29 P. 27 TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR, NO. 1330 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSWEEKLY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016 $5.00 NEWS NDP LEADERSHIP NEWS HILL LIFE & PEOPLE NEWS SPENDING How long will MP airline ‘lame duck’ A Jack Layton expenses Mulcair stay plunge as on as leader? bobble-head doll reporting Hard for him to remain requirements leader for nearly two in her offi ce, beefed years: NDP MP Davies. BY T IM NAUMETZ BY CHELSEA NASH NDP MP Tracey Members of Parliament dramat- ically reduced spending on free air New Democrat Members of travel for return trips anywhere in Parliament don’t agree on wheth- Ramsey dives Canada and also sharply curtailed er Thomas Mulcair should stay on hospitality expenses as the House as leader for up to two years after of Commons expanded expen- he received only 48 per cent of diture reporting requirements in votes from delegates at his leader- into trade at the fallout over the 2013 Senate ship review on the weekend. expense scandal, MP spending NDP MP Don Davies (Vancou- reports for the period show. ver Kingsway, B.C.) questioned The number of “special” trips how Mr. Mulcair could remain the deep end anywhere in the country, apart from leader for so long. regular trips between Ottawa and “The numbers are real,” he MPs’ electoral districts, dropped 24 said. “I think it’s very diffi cult for per cent from the fi scal reporting a leader to continue on for a year Ms. Ramsey at the House Trade year of April 2013 to March 2014 and a half after they’ve received a Committee on April 12. See to the fi scal year of April 2014 to delegate vote of 48 per cent.” story on page 26. The Hill Times March 2015, the reports show. photograph by Sam Garcia Continued on page 4 Continued on page 25 NEWS DEVELOPMENT OPINION NDP LEADERSHIP NEWS PUBLIC SAFETY Face-time A movement in search of a leader: Goodale good, funding where does the NDP go from here? keeping options underwhelming, Tom Mulcair isn’t BY LES WHITTINGTON bolic of a tone-deaf campaign that open for CBSA fi nally caught up with him in the re- say aid groups the man to lead a TTAWA—I never understood jection of his leadership on Sunday. oversight movement, and it’s a Owhy Thomas Mulcair kept Mulcair is a decent fellow who BY MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH saying, “When I’m prime minister” did well as an antagonist to Stephen BY PETER MAZEREEUW movement his party during last fall’s election campaign. Harper in the Commons. Some will Canadian international is likely to need to Whatever he was thinking, the say he was treated shabbily by his Public Safety Minister Ralph development organizations are smarmy, overconfi dent phraseology Goodale is leaving the door buoyed by Minister Marie-Claude challenge for power. struck me as totally wrong—sym- Continued on page 11 cracked open to new solutions for Bibeau’s open door, though they’d supervising the Canada Border like to see the government open Services Agency, amid calls from its wallet wider. within the Senate, opposition, and Gillian Barth, CEO of civil rights and refugee groups for CARE Canada, told The Hill a different solution from the par- Times she’s met more often with MULCAIR’S UNDOING liamentary oversight committee the international development promised by the government. minister since December than she The deaths of two immigration has in the last 10 years. Powers: Selfi es and sunny ways win over curmudgeons P. 11 detainees in less than one week “[Ms. Bibeau is] defi nitely out last month renewed long-standing and about, she’s defi nitely, I would Hébert: An irrational road to nowhere P. 10 calls for better oversight of the Continued on page 6 Richler: Mulcair casualty of NDP brash hubris P. 18 Continued on page 24 2 THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016 FEATURE BUZZ ON HEARD THE HILL BY PETER MAZEREEUW Soup’s on for Angela Bogdan, RHOMA president Sandelle Scrimshaw, Sharon Hapton, Volunteers made a lentil and RHOMA program director Penny Reedie and past president Rick Kohler. Swiss chard recipe. Syrian refugees ublic servants, diplomats, and Governor Gen- Peral David Johnston rolled up their sleeves last weekend to take part in a soup-making marathon for Syrian refugees in Ottawa. The bigwigs were among about 200 people expected to help whip up batches of a lentil and Swiss chard concoction over the fi ve-hour event, which is set to be repeated April 16. The goal is to deliver 5,000 servings of comfort food to some of the nearly 1,500 refugees who have been resettled in Ottawa after fl eeing Syria. Volunteer Catherine Wilde, Ms. Bogdan and The event was organized by the Women’s Ai-Ju Chang and Sunny Y.P. Sun from the Taipei Georgian Ambassador and ODA president Alexander Global Affairs Canada’s Laurie Peters. Network at Global Affairs Canada, the Re- Economic and Cultural Offi ce. Latsabidze and Georgian consul Ketevan Markozia. The Hill Times photographs by Sam Garcia tired Heads of Mission Association and the Ottawa Diplomatic Association along with Soup Sisters, a non-profi t organization that says it’s “dedicated to providing comfort to women, children and youth through the mak- ing, sharing and donating of soup.” Canada’s chief of protocol at Global Affairs, Angela Bogdan, set the wheels for the event in motion after hearing of simi- lar events held in Calgary and Lethbridge, A strong year-round offshore Alta., said Soup Sisters founder Sharon Hapton. Volunteers paid $25 each to take part in the event in Ottawa, which was held at La Cité collégiale east of Vanier. shrimp fishery builds a The recipe for the soup made Saturday came from a Syrian family in Calgary, and includes cumin, thyme, and parsley, said Ms. Hapton. It is also vegan and halal, as is stronger economy. the batch of vegetable soup that is set to be brewed up on April 16. The soup containers will include labels listing ingredients and heating directions in Arabic, she said. The soup will be delivered to local resettle- ment agencies for delivery to or pick up by the refugee families. The Your Independent Grocer company has also donated freezer space to store some of the soup before deliv- ery, according to Paula Roy, an organizer for the Soup Sisters Ottawa chapter. Ex-MP publishes controversial book Former Liberal MP Gary Francis McCauley published a book last week that’s sure to gener- ate a reaction from current and past members of the Canadian military. Titled Fraud & Dis- ability: The SNAFU at Veterans Affairs, the 140- page book details countless cases of what Mr. McCauley considers bogus disability claims by current or former members of the armed forces and RCMP. One chapter he called People Out to Screw the Department details Mr. McCau- ley’s opinions on post-traumatic stress disorder and some questionable-sounding claims—the names of claimants aren’t included—related to PTSD he says came before him while he served on the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, which hears appeals over benefi t claims denied by the federal government, in the mid-2000s. Mr. McCauley, who represented Monc- ton, N.B. from 1979 to 1984, had previously published a pair of historical fi ction novels Good jobs. based loosely on the experiences of his uncle, who served in the Second World War. “That was my image of a veteran when I went to work for the Veterans Review and Sustainable fishery. Appeal Board. I quickly learned that the people I was seeing didn’t measure up to that image,” he said in an interview. Mr. McCauley said disability fraud among veterans and soldiers isn’t scruti- nized carefully enough in Canada, thanks to CANADIAN a culture of “mindless patriotism” in which ASSOCIATION OF criticism of the military is taboo. StrongShrimp.ca PRAWN PRODUCERS “I think the politicians are as much in the dark as the Canadian public,” he said. The book can be ordered through its publisher, Thorny Issue Press. Continued on page 24 PROFITS FROM CONTRABAND TOBACCO SUPPORT ORGANIZED CRIME, OTHER ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES AND INTERNATIONAL MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEMES. > - ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE * “ Canadian law enforcement seizures of contraband tobacco routinely include high-powered FUNDS OTHER weapons, hard and designer drugs, stolen vehicles and other merchandise, and lots of cash.” ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES - Christian Leuprecht, Smoking Gun: Strategic Containment of Contraband Tobacco and Cigarette Trafficking in Canada. MacDonald Laurier Institute, March, 2016 ** CASH, DRUGS “ Police seized $13.5 million worth of tobacco, more than $3 million in U.S. cash, $1.5 million in & GUNS Canadian cash and more than 800 kilograms of cocaine” - More than 60 arrested in huge contraband tobacco raids, Montreal Gazette, March 30, 2016*** THE HARD “The people on [First Nation] reserves “are being exploited” by criminal organizations” TRUTH - Canada’s flourishing contraband tobacco market helps fund overseas terrorism: report, Global News, March 30, 2016**** The Federal government needs to take action to stop illegal tobacco…Now! *http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/tobac-tabac/tobacco-tabac-broch-eng.pdf **http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/files/pdf/MLILeuprechtContrabandPaper-03-16-WebReady.pdf ***http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/surete-du-quebec-involved-in-huge-contraband-money-laundering-raids ****http://globalnews.ca/news/2608297/canadas-flourishing-contraband-tobacco-market-helps-fund-overseas-terrorism-report/ 4 THE HILL TIMES, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016 NEWS NDP LEADERSHIP Mulcair looking at ‘awkward two years’ Diffi cult for him remain leader for nearly two years: NDP MP Davies.