Carney in D.C., Lich sentenced, bail still bail, a Charter fight and more...

Carney goes to Washington and gets a pocket full of mumbles.

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It is October 7, the second anniversary of the terrorist attack launched by Hamas against Israel and in reality, the West. I’ll have a separate email about that going out shortly, it is an issue of deep importance to me and I have a lot to say.

Today though, no shortage of Canadian politics.

Mr. Carney goes to Washington and comes back empty handed, again…

As I pointed out in my Toronto Sun column today, why is Mark Carney, or his office, playing up expectations about what he will deliver. The word was that he would get a deal on steel and aluminum tariffs from his trip to D.C. and that didn’t happen.

What we got was a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises.

Dominic LeBlanc was left defending the meeting saying that they hoped to get something soon, maybe. That would be one thing if Carney’s office hadn’t put it out there that a deal was coming.

In no way does this mean that I think that Carney shouldn’t have gone to Washington. I always encourage the PM to meet with other world leaders, to make our case, to have discussions.

So tonight, Carney will have dinner with Vice President J.D. Vance, and as Martha would say, that is a good thing.

Face time in Washington is a valuable commodity, especially when Trump is busy trying to deal with a government shut down, peace in the Middle East and attempting to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. What Carney should be doing is ingratiating himself with Trump on issues of national and global security to the point where the United States feels like we are a reliable ally - something that hasn’t been true in Washington in several years.

That becomes harder given Carney’s waffling on the F-35, going offside Trump on recognizing a Palestinian State and more, but being side by side with the Americans helps Canada on the trade front and always has for more than a century.

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Tamara Lich and Chris Barber get sentenced…

The good news for Lich and Barber is they aren’t going to jail. The Crown had asked for a ridiculous seven year sentence for a mischief conviction, a move that as I wrote earlier was entirely political and driven by the overly political lead Crown prosecutor in Ottawa, Dallas Mack.

Mack wanted Lich and Barber to be examples, to be political prisoners. He may not have been the lead prosecutor in this case, but there is no way that there is a seven year sentence recommendation without his sign-off.

This alone tells me the man isn’t fit for the job he holds.

In the end, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey gave them both 18 month conditional sentences with house arrest provisions, curfews and more. It’s more than I would have handed down, but I’m not on the bench.

I find myself in an awkward position.

I supported some of the reasons the truckers went to Ottawa, such as government overreach. As a law and order guy, I could no more support allowing the Convoy to take over Ottawa’s streets for weeks on end than I could the Occupy Wall Street movement or any other protest group.

I called for the protesters to be moved by police, but not with the Emergencies Act.

It was the incompetence of the Ottawa Police Service leadership that was a major issue and the chief in charge at the time appropriately lost his job. The mayor of Ottawa at the time saw his long political career crash to an end as a result.

All of that said, while seven years for Lich and Barber, which the Crown wanted was insane, the 18 months sentences plus conditions don’t make sense either. The conditions are too harsh, though with another judge, I suspect the sentence would have been longer and have included jail time.

Trump’s retribution hits north of the border…

Every now and again you get a real story of intrigue and on Monday, that was the case. Two major Canadian companies being questioned by the United States Department of Justice over a deal from years ago involving a corrupt company in South America and claims of corruption stateside.

I’d encourage you to read the column on the story, yes it involves a company named Brookfield that Mark Carney used to head up, but Carney is not involved. I’ll also add that Brookfield isn’t the main target of this investigation, the main target as you will read is someone involved in the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.

Here’s what you should take away from all of this, don’t weaponize the justice system if you don’t want it weaponized against you.

It’s long been a standard practice in politics that you don’t do things you don’t want your opponent to do, you don’t give yourself powers you don’t want your opponents to have. In Biden’s term in office, Democrats threw that out the window and fully weaponized the justice system against Donald Trump and the Republicans.

Love him or hate him, that’s an accurate statement.

Is it also accurate to say that the Republicans are weaponizing the justice system? It is 100% accurate to say that, but they feel emboldened to do that based off of the last four years of Democrats doing the same.

Democrats broke the rule, it would be foolish for Republicans not to act in the same way.

Not that this is good for the United States, democracy, or the rule of law, but these are now the rules that both parties will play by. When Democrats take power next, expect them to go after Republicans with gusto once again.

So, what we will see in the future is that when one party takes over from the other, they will spend the next four years prosecuting their predecessor. Despite his calls to “lock her up” in reference to Hillary Clinton, that didn’t happen in Trump’s first term.

It also didn’t happen under Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and on and one.

The game has now changed and it changed because the Democrats were over zealous in using the levers of government to go after their political opponents.

Bail, still bail…

A story that hasn’t received enough attention is that the Liberals blew off the idea of reforming bail on Monday. Sure, they’ve talked about bail reform and have promised to bring in new legislation but haven’t done so yet.

So, in an attempt to be constructive, Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives put forward their own bail legislation. They encouraged the Liberals to steal their ideas, they asked them to adopt the bill, pass the legislation, but on Monday, the Liberals said no.

They still haven’t brought in their own legislation and the public is getting impatient as they watch story after story about repeat violent offenders being arrested for a new offence while being out on bail for previous offences.

The border bill that wasn’t…

Bill C-2 has always been a problematic bill and this past week Pierre Poilievre announced that he and his party would not support the bill. According to the government, the bill is all about strengthening the border, making us safer, but it also includes provisions to allow the government to open your mail, let police access your mobile phone or internet records and in some instances do this without a court issued warrant.

That’s completely unacceptable and the Liberals have realized that they have gone too far.

So, the plan now, according the reports is to introduce a new bill that will remove the contentious clauses and move ahead with what the parties can agree on.

I will hold judgment until I have read the text.

Stop attacking the Charter premiers tell Carney…

The Liberals love to claim they support the Charter, but they don’t like Section 33 the notwithstanding clause. They have no problem with Section 1 which allows judges to do the same thing, override Charter rights, but with fewer checks and balances, but I digress.

Now, the premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have written to the PM to ask him to revoke the government’s filing to the Supreme Court on Bill 21. As I have written here, and here, this is nothing but a sneak attack on the Charter and an attempt to use the courts to undermine and effectively do away with the notwithstanding clause.

Some of my colleagues in the media claim the Carney government’s court submissions is a nothing burger. That’s not how I read it at all, it is an attempt to invite the courts to give themselves more power over our daily lives and that, is not a good thing.

Contact your MP now to say no to the beer escalator tax.