Trans Mountain standoff, Syria airstrikes loom over the Hill as MPs return from Easter hiatus

Let’s face it: It was always a bit of a long shot — okay, make that a record-breaking, earth-to-the-moon-and-back-again long shot — that Sunday’s hastily convened trilateral mini-summit would end with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau striding triumphantly down the steps from his Centre Block office, flanked by New Democrat premiers Rachel Notley and John Horgan, each beaming an identical smile of satisfaction as they delivered a joint statement on how they’d managed to negotiate an end to the ongoing standoff over proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that somehow managed to make everyone happy.

Given the distinct unlikeness of that outcome, what actually did emerge from the closed-door session could probably be considered a win for Team Trudeau, if only because no one stomped out halfway through, blaming Ottawa for the entire mess.

We don’t know exactly what the trio agreed on, but during the series of post-meeting press conferences, each seemed to think it had been worth getting together to talk over the options in person.

But while Trudeau did go further in outlining his government’s next steps, he was light on the details, which will likely give his political adversaries more than enough fodder to continue to blame him, and his government, for the current contretemps.

Also high on the list of questions the opposition is likely hoping to ask when the House returns Monday: Just what, if anything, does Canada plan to do in response to the latest volley of airstrikes in Syria, courtesy of a coordinated foray by the United States, France and the UK?

Alas for the question period tactics team, however, they’re likely not going to get the chance to put those queries to the prime minister until next week.

Now, back to that previously scheduled prime ministerial world tour

While he may have been able to rearrange his itinerary to make it back to Ottawa for Sunday’s mini-summit with Notley and Horgan, Trudeau isn’t about to let the ongoing the tensions pre-empt his plans to spend the next few days making the rounds on the international circuit. On Monday morning he’s set to visit UNESCO headquarters in Paris, followed by a visit with former Canadian governor general Michaëlle Jean, who now serves as secretary general of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

Later in the day, he’ll meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern before dropping by Canada’s new embassy.

On Tuesday, Trudeau will deliver a mid-afternoon speech to the National Assembly, as well as meet with French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe before taking off for London, where he’s set to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit later this week.

PM’s national security advisor (finally) faces committee over India trip claims

Opposition members are going to get their much-lobbied-for opportunity to question the prime minister’s national security advisor this week over his possible involvement in a PMO-driven campaign to reroute the media narrative during Trudeau’s disastrous trip to India earlier this spring.

Daniel Jean — a career civil servant who has clocked in more than three decades under both Liberal and Conservative governments — is set to spend an hour in the parliamentary spotlight on Monday.

For more than a month, the Conservatives have been calling for Jean to come before the House public safety committee to give MPs the very same off-the-record briefing he reportedly provided to the travelling press during the trip.

(It’s worth noting that, while the Liberals consistently rejected that request — including using their majority to squelch motions to extend an invitation to Jean in both the House and at committee — Jean himself eventually wrote to the committee chair with his offer of an unclassified briefing.)

The backstory: In a series of not-for-attribution conversations with journalists covering Trudeau’s trials and tribulations in India, Jean — or, to be scrupulously accurate, a (still officially) unnamed senior security advisor — allegedly blamed unspecified factions within the Indian government for orchestrating the addition of Jaspal Atwal to the guest list for a reception in Trudeau’s honour at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi. Inviting the Indo-Canadian businessman and convicted attempted assassin was purported to be part of an ongoing effort to embarrass the government over its ostensible ties to the Sikh separatist movement.

Little surprise, the Indian government has denied those charges. Even less surprising, Trudeau and his team have demurred from commenting on the specifics of Jean’s alleged claims, preferring instead to praise his professionalism and integrity.

The Liberals haven’t challenged the assertion that it was Jean who convened those confidential chats with reporters, but they also haven’t confirmed it.

Meanwhile, Jean has maintained a steadfast silence, which is why it will likely be a standing-room-only crowd when he finally goes public with his side of the story tomorrow.

As far as what he’ll actually say, well no one seems to know exactly how much light he’ll shed on what may or may not have been said behind closed doors. The very fact that he’s testifying — voluntarily, even — on such a potentially sensitive issue falls so far outside the norm for senior security officials that even the pre-appearance speculation seems more highly speculative than usual.

Facebook data leak probe kicks off at House privacy committee

It may not hit the heights of unscripted drama that played out during Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before a U.S. congressional committee last week, but the House privacy committee is about to launch its own investigation into the social media platform. Specifically, it’s looking to find out how terrabytes of personal details harvested from unwitting Facebook users — including over half a million Canadians — wound up in the electronic clutches of UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica.

First on the witness list is Canada’s chief federal privacy watchdog Daniel Therrien, who is slated to share his thoughts and concerns with committee members on Tuesday morning. Later in the session, MPs will hear from self-described “data breach hunter” Chris Vickery, who will testify via videolink from Santa Clara, California.

Over the next few weeks, the committee is expected to call in senior executives from across the social media universe as members explore the implications of “platform monopolies,” as well as what “national and international regulatory and legislative remedies” might be considered “to assure the privacy of citizens’ data and the integrity of democratic and electoral processes across the globe.”

Also on the Commons committee circuit:

FINANCE hosts back-to-back Q&A sessions with Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, who will discuss the latest developments on monetary policy, and Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Frechette, who will go over the details of his office’s most recent fiscal outlook.

hosts back-to-back Q&A sessions with Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, who will discuss the latest developments on monetary policy, and Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Frechette, who will go over the details of his office’s most recent fiscal outlook. TRANSPORT members get a status update on Team Trudeau’s much self-ballyhooed infrastructure program, which will include a presentation by PBO staffers on their latest review of progress (or lack thereof) to date

members get a status update on Team Trudeau’s much self-ballyhooed infrastructure program, which will include a presentation by PBO staffers on their latest review of progress (or lack thereof) to date INDUSTRY kicks off a major review of Canada’s copyright regime

On the Senate side, the government’s plan to roll out legalized pot sales across Canada this summer continues to dominate the committee agenda, with four separate senatorial panels set to continue their respective reviews of the legislation.

Among the witnesses scheduled to appear this week: Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and her parliamentary secretary, former Toronto Police chief Bill Blair, go before ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS to focus on how the new regime may affect Indigenous communities.

On the Commons agenda: Topping the government’s to-do list will be the first phase of Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s plan to implement his latest budget, which was introduced just before the House shut down for the Easter recess.

Like virtually all such legislative proposals, it’s an omnibus bill — and yes, the opposition parties wasted no time pointing that out. During the last election campaign, both the prime minister and his party vowed to eschew such parliamentary highhandedness, which they claimed made it effectively impossible for MPs to perform proper due diligence on complex, highly technical legislation.

For their part, the Liberals insist they’ve kept that pledge by only including measures that were announced as part of the budget, so expect to hear that debate continue throughout the week, which is as long as the government seems to be prepared to let it drag on before deploying its majority to wrap it up and send the bill off to committee for further study.