Western Standard - June 15, 2022


CORY'S RANT： The senate is suddenly doing its job well.


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

214.3131

Word Count

1,118

Sentence Count

61

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

The Canadian Senate has long been a place of patronage and abuse of power, but there are some signs of life in there lately, and it s good to see them actually question the actions of government in ways we haven t seen in a long time.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 And I've always railed against the Canadian Senate, demanding either massive reform of the institution or outright abolition of it.
00:00:07.420 In the late 1980s, you know, when I was just really starting to pay attention to politics and early 90s,
00:00:13.120 the Tripoli Senate was the rallying cry from the Reform Party as it gained steam in the West.
00:00:18.240 And that stood for, if those remember it, equal, elected, and effective.
00:00:21.880 And it was presumed if we got those first two E's, the third would follow.
00:00:25.460 The Senate looked as if it would take a stance and shoot down Brian Mulroney's GST legislation in 1990, for example.
00:00:31.280 But then Mulroney just expanded the number of senators and appointed enough complacent PC senators to ensure his bill would pass.
00:00:37.980 He stacked it.
00:00:38.960 And it demonstrated just how weak and beholden the Senate is to a prime minister with a majority government.
00:00:44.980 The Canadian Senate, for the most part, has been a patronage pit.
00:00:48.020 It's a place to return political favors to well-connected party supporters where they could garner a good income with an incredible pension
00:00:54.440 while putting in a minimum of work.
00:00:56.240 So I'm going to give a little more Senate history.
00:00:58.060 Andrew Thompson, for those who might remember, was a prime example of a useless senator with a bad case of personal entitlement to taxpayers' dollars.
00:01:05.740 Now, Thompson had served as a somewhat lackluster leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario in the early 60s.
00:01:10.740 And as a reward for his time representing the provincial liberals, he was appointed to the Senate by Lester Pearson.
00:01:15.500 We did the same with that useless liberal out here, Grant Mitchell in Alberta.
00:01:19.080 Now, once there, Thompson kept his head low and resided there for decades.
00:01:23.660 In 1997, Thompson suddenly hit the public spotlight.
00:01:26.140 Yeah, 30 years later, when it was found, he only attended Senate sessions for a few days a year.
00:01:30.600 Not only had he done next to nothing in the Senate, he actually lived in Mexico.
00:01:34.340 He rarely even set foot in Canadian soil in years.
00:01:36.680 But he was drawing a nice six-figure salary full of benefits.
00:01:40.400 Now, Thompson, he was indignant at being called out for his absences.
00:01:43.220 With this exposure of such an embarrassing example of a senator, the Chrétien Liberals expired Thompson from caucus.
00:01:49.100 And senators struck a subcommittee to examine the issue, and Thompson wouldn't even come back from Mexico to speak to it.
00:01:55.000 He didn't feel he needed to defend himself.
00:01:57.240 He was found in contempt to the committee and stripped of some compensation.
00:01:59.640 But still, he remained as a senator until 1998, when he resigned on his own shortly before mandatory retirement anyways,
00:02:05.380 and continued to collect a huge pension for the remainder of his life.
00:02:08.980 These are the kind of examples that made me give up all hope of Senate reform.
00:02:13.020 Now, over the years, we've seen some Senate committees, you know, improving some bills at times.
00:02:17.980 But they haven't really done much, and we've been forgotten for the most part,
00:02:21.200 except for when periodic scandals hit with, again, senators in entitlement like Mike Duffy or Patrick Brazzo.
00:02:26.460 And they made the news for all the wrong reasons.
00:02:29.420 And while the Senate still needs massive reforms that are probably never going to happen,
00:02:32.760 I've been seeing some signs of life in there lately, and it's been great to see.
00:02:36.380 They've actually been scrutinizing bills and questioning the actions of government in ways we haven't seen in a long time.
00:02:43.420 A joint Senate committee has been examining Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act,
00:02:50.400 and it's been putting Trudeau's ministers on the spot and asking all the right questions.
00:02:53.740 Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino, you know, the Minister of Lies,
00:02:59.180 has been under fire for months as the narrative crumbles for the justification of invoking the act.
00:03:03.200 And despite Mendocino's claims that the police asked for invocation to the act,
00:03:07.400 committees have determined, no, that wasn't the case.
00:03:09.580 Nor were there firearms found among the protesters, nor were there rape gangs or arsonists or Russian funding.
00:03:14.980 That was all shredded in these committee meetings, and the senators were a lot pushing that.
00:03:19.660 So, the government had built a mountain of BS, and thanks to that tough questioning,
00:03:23.300 it's been exposed.
00:03:24.680 You know, we've got a judicial inquiry into Trudeau's actions coming up,
00:03:27.580 and it's likely not going to end well as their case is already crumbling before it gets there.
00:03:31.960 So, in their latest action, this really got me going happily here,
00:03:35.580 a Senate committee has shot down Bill S-7.
00:03:38.200 Now, that's the bill that would have empowered border agents to search personal devices
00:03:41.520 of citizens on the most flimsy of justifications.
00:03:44.360 It was a gross invasion of privacy rights, and while the Senate called it out,
00:03:48.300 well, the Senate did call it out.
00:03:50.000 And while the bill is still alive, the Senate committee has proposed an amendment
00:03:53.420 which pretty much defangs it.
00:03:54.980 If the bill does pass the Senate, and then back and into Parliament,
00:03:58.500 it won't have much of an impact.
00:04:00.160 The intent behind the government's creation of the bill has been stripped from it.
00:04:03.380 Now, Trudeau's government still has some odious bills coming down the pipe.
00:04:06.180 They're trying to ramrod C-11, C-18, and C-21.
00:04:09.700 And those bills, in their current form, threaten free press, free speech, and property rights,
00:04:13.900 as they're modeled to try and control the internet,
00:04:15.460 and they're going after law-abiding firearm owners.
00:04:18.320 But those bills still have to go through Senate scrutiny.
00:04:21.880 And I'm hoping, I'm hoping now that with many senators suddenly embracing their role
00:04:25.480 as being that voice of sober second thought,
00:04:27.940 that those bills might actually be amended or perhaps shot down altogether.
00:04:31.460 Maybe some of those senators are finally relishing taking an active role
00:04:34.860 in policy creation and approval, and they want to take it further.
00:04:37.920 The Emergencies Act itself was dropped, you know,
00:04:39.900 within 48 hours of passing through Parliament,
00:04:41.700 and I suspect part of that reason was that Trudeau didn't have confidence
00:04:45.160 that he was going to make it through the Senate.
00:04:47.060 We've been through infringements upon civil liberties these last two years,
00:04:50.360 unlike any seen in Generations.
00:04:51.860 We need to apply scrutiny to these actions in hindsight now, too,
00:04:55.320 with a mind to prevent that sort of overreach again.
00:04:58.120 My optimism could be misplaced, but I hope not.
00:05:00.800 The sleepy Senate could start embracing its job again,
00:05:03.220 and I can't think of a better time for him to get on it.
00:05:05.700 So, hey, let's give a thumbs up to those senators
00:05:07.620 and encourage them to stay awake and keep at it.
00:05:09.920 They're finally doing a good job.
00:05:11.700 Thank you.
00:05:12.840 Thank you.