Category: Politics

A senior editor here came up with the moniker “The Beavertail Summit” for today's Obama-Harper meetings. Better than the Shamrock Summit (I think). Still, just as with the Shamrock Summit, some pundits were embarrassed by Canada's enthusiasm for Obama.

Some other tweets, clips and other anecdotes:

Didn't see this one but then, I'm not a British reporter writing about an event in Ottawa from Washington:

Potential strains in relations between the US and Canada were exposed today when Barack Obama, on his first foreign trip as president, hinted at renegotiation of the North American Free Trade agreement.

Obama at a joint press conference with the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, tried to square a campaign pledge to renegotiate the agreement while at the same time avoid sparking a trade war with Canada.

A CNN reporter, Ed Henry, was apparently in town with the White House press corps noodling over the idea of doing a story about how the Canadian Parliament Press Gallery is under the thumb of the PMO. Now I know we got issues with the PMO but I like to think things are a bit better here than, say, with the White House press corps who has succumbed apparently to a system in which White House press staff cherry pick reporters at Obama pressers.

On Twitter all day, monitoring and kicking in to #obamawa, and one key theme for Canadian twitterers was criticism of Prime Minister's Harper's wardrobe and, in particular, his hair, as in” Hey Prime Minister Harper. Trent Lott called and he wants his hair back!”

Here's the “pool” report on Obama's meeting with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff:

Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Obama made small talk about Democrats, ice skating and Beavertails as the photographers came in. A couple of other officials sat in on the meeting.

Ignatieff seated directly to Obama’s left and Rae sitting to the left of Ignatieff.

Both Obama and Ignatieff had their legs crossed and seemed at relaxed and at ease.

Obama repeated his remarks from the end of his news conference with Harper that he was greatful for all the Canadians that came tro

“We don’t ice skate on lake michigan,” Obama said with a chuckle

“And no beavertails,” someone else said.

“No we don’t have beavertails, but we do have the equivalent,” Obama said

Later, after Obama was asked whether he ate the Beavertail he said:

“I ate a little of it, it's very large.”

And yet more about that Beavertail — apparently a specially designed Beavertail with a giant O and whipped cream.

Jessica Millien, 17, said she screamed for five minutes with excitement after meeting Obama in person. She works at the Beaver Tail hut where treats made of fried dough, cinnamon and sugar are made. A security man asked her to bring one to Obama who was standing across the street with secret service guards around him.

“I gave him his tail and shook his hand and had a conversation with him,” she said. “I almost fainted. He just asked me about my day and what the tails consisted of. He's a really down-to-earth guy.”

The questions. Reporters got exactly four at the hour-long press conference. Two from each country. For Canada, that would be one French and one English. Reporters, not the PMO, decided who the questioners would be and the 40 or so Canadian journalists allowed to attend the press conference collectively decided what to ask. So here you go (transcript and translation courtesy of the The White House):

Emmanuelle Latraverse (Radio-Canada): On the environment, beyond research, technology and science, how far are the two countries willing to go to harmonize your strategies, in terms of greenhouse gas reductions? And how can you reconcile your two approaches when they seem so different, especially considering the fact that Canada refuses to have hard caps, in part, because of the oil sands?

Jennifer Ditchburn (Canadian Press): I have a question for both of you. Mr. President, during your meetings today, did you discuss the possibility of Canada stepping up its stimulus plan? And secondly, for both of you: What do you think the Canada-U.S. relationship will look like in four years? What will the auto sector look like? Will the border be thicker or thinner? And will you have a carbon market?

And finally: Here's the first few paragraphs of the final of nine – count 'em — nine stories I wrote today about The Beavertail Summit:

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his one-day guest, U.S. President Barack Obama, concluded a few hours of meetings here by proclaiming renewed commitments to fight climate change, the global recession and security threats to the North American continent.

“Ilove this country,” Obama said at a Parliament Hill press conference, the first he's given outside the United States since he became president. “We could not have a better friend and ally.”

Harper used the occasion to deliver a message he hopes American journalists travelling with the U.S. president will take to their readers and viewers, that Canada is as serious about security as the U.S.

“There is no such thing as a threat to the national security of the United States which does not represent a direct threat to this country,” Harper said. “We, as Canadians, have every incentive to be as co-operative and alarmed about the threats that exist to the North American continent in the modern age as do the people of the United States.”

Aides said the purpose of their first face-to-face meeting was to start a lasting personal relationship both men said could be an important factor in helping to achieve economic and political goals in their respective countries.

But the two also announced that they had agreed on a new Clean Energy Dialogue, a commitment that top officials and scientists from both sides of the border would pool research and expertise to find clean sources of energy … [read the rest]

Barack Obama is on foreign soil today for the first time since becoming President. He's here, in Ottawa, for his first face-to-face meeting as president with a foreign leader, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I've been busy all morning writing about it for our online sites and Twittering away at #obamawa.

Here's some of my favourite Tweets:

There are, police estimate, about 3,500 on Parliament Hill's front lawn (Obama and Harper are meeting in Parliament's Centre Block) @canadapolitics writes: Best sign in the crowd – and so typically Canadian: “Maybe we can.”

TanveerNaseer writes: “Seriously people, watching cars whizzing by you is not a “historic moment”; participating in something like '95 MTL rally is.”

mbpowell writes: “Spotted leaving the hill: John C. Turmel, presumably off to lose N election.”

And here is the lunch menu, which I Tweeted earlier today, 140 characters at a time:

Lunch Menu

Pacific Coast Tuna with a Chilli and Citrus Vinaigrette

Maple and Miso Cured Nunavut Arctic Char

Lightly Pickled Vegetables and an Organic Beet Relish

Applewood Smoked Plains Bison

Winter Root Vegetables and Local Mushrooms

Cauliflower and Rosemary Puree

Juniper and Niagara Red Wine Jus

Saugeen Yogurt Pot de Crème with a Lemon and Lavender Syrup

Wild Blueberry and Partridgeberry Compote

Acadian Buckwheat Honey and Sumac Tuile

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper give a joint news conference at 1445 Tuesday. It will be held in Parliament's Centre Block. Though there are roughly 300 or so members of Canada's Parliamentary Press Gallery, just 40 will be allowed inside the press conference room. And even though (or so we are told) there are 70 members of the White House Press Corps travelling with Obama tomorrow, they too, will only get 40 seats.

I can tell you that dozens upon dozens of Canadian journalists from outside Ottawa asked for accreditation for this event, most of which will be disappointed.

Blame the PMO or the White House if you will. The PMO is supposed to be calling the shots here but we suspect the White House is pulling many of the strings.

In any event, the 80 journalists in the room will get precisely four questions before the leaders leave. Two questions will be asked by the American journalists and two questions will be asked by the Canadians. Of course, as we are a bilingual country, that means one question goes to English language journalists and one to the other solitude.

So here's the quandary: What question do you think Global National, National Post, the Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CTV, CBC, the Canadian Press and others can all agree on? Something about the economy? Cross-border trade? Afghanistan? Omar Khadr?

I won't be in that room (I'm tasked with some other Obama-related work tomorrow) and won't have any input on that discussion but, if I if I did get a chance to ask the new Prez a question, I would argue that we should ask Obama about Maher Arar.

Our government, after all, paid Arar $10 million after a judicial inquiry established he did nothing wrong and suffered grievously because of the mistakes of our security services and those of the United States. Prime Minister Harper apologized to Arar. Today, the New York Times says Obama ought to do the same. So why not invite President Obama to do just that during his visit to the Centre Block of Canada's House of Commons. That’s not just a “Canada” question. The Times also reports today that though Obama’s administration may close Gitmo, it looks to continue the ethically dodgy practice of rendering — the very practice that led to Arar’s torture. Asking about Arar, then, would give some insight as to just how far this new president is prepared to distance himself from the often controversial anti-terror policies of his predecessor. And that's something the whole world would like to know about.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, maher arar, United States – Foreign Policy

Minutes after saying I was inching back towards Twitter, I'm almost ready to declare I'm a believer. That's because Carl Meyer, the Ottawa Bureau Chief of the Canadian University Press, just tweeted to say that Obama's luncheon guests tomorrow are all set and they include:

• Prime Minister Stephen Harper
• Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon
• Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
• Environment Minister Jim Prentice
• Clerk of the Privy Council Kevin Lynch
• PCO Foreign and Defense Policy Advisor Claude Carrière
• Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Wilson
• PMO Chief of Staff Guy Giorno
• PMO Director of Communication Kory Teneycke

Carl's tweet prompted me to pick up my BlackBerry and, lo and behold, there was the whole PMO-controlled itinerary. Here's the airport welcoming party:

• Governor General Michaëlle Jean
• Her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond
• Cannon
• Wilson
• U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Terry Breese
• DFAIT Chief of Protocol Robert Peck

At Parliament Hill's Centre Block, Obama will be welcomed by:

• House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken
• Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella
• House of Commons Clerk Audrey O'Brien
• House of Commons Sergeant-At-Arms Kevin Vickers
• Usher of the Black Rod Kevin MacLeod
• Clerk of the Senate Paul Bélisle

Now the PMO won't tell you, of course, that when Obama heads back to the Ottawa airport at around 3:30 pm or so, he'll be heading to a half-hour or so meeting with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff (and his foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, apparently.)

Then, when Iggy and Barack are done, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird will lead the farewell party to bid the president on his way.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, stephen harper, United States – Foreign Policy

Ripped from our site: Canada's information commissioner says existing access-to-information laws are too weak. and lack measures that would force the federal government to hand over the records Canadians have a right to see.

Commissioner Robert Marleau will table “a shopping list of legislative amendments” next month for MPs to consider. But he says it's vital Treasury Board President Vic Toews take steps to force individual government departments to give their access-to-information offices the money and staff to fulfil their legal obligations under Canada's Access to Information Act.

Marleau said the decision by Canada's Foreign Affairs Department to systematically prevent the release of hundreds of thousands of government records, as first reported by Canwest News Service on Monday, is a symptom of a much broader problem, where bureaucrats are trying to use every administrative trick in the book to avoid a mounting workload.

“There is a systemic problem; it's not just a departmental performance issue. The centre, like Treasury Board Secretariat, has to exercise some leadership to turn this ship around,” Marleau said Tuesday.

Canwest News Service reported Monday that, since January 2008, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) has prevented the release of more than 160,000 pages of government records on everything from the mission in Afghanistan to new free-trade deals to the NATO briefing materials Maxime Bernier left at his girlfriend's home . . . [ Read the rest of the story]

Technorati Tags: access to information

A story we have up now:

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department has systematically prevented the release of hundreds of thousands of government records on everything from the mission in Afghanistan to the NATO briefing materials Maxime Bernier left at his girlfriend’s, to new free trade deals, Canwest News Service has learned.

Two legal experts say the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) violated Canada’s Access to Information (ATI) laws when it decided to systematically charge “preparation fees” before responding to Access to Information requests, effectively creating a barrier to government records being sought by ordinary Canadians, academics, businesses, and journalists.

An official with the Office of the Information Commissioner, Parliament’s ATI watchdog, said it is investigating complaints that have been filed over the policy.

“There is an issue there over possible denial of access,” Andrea Neill, the assistant commissioner of information, said Friday.

DFAIT is the only major federal government department insisting “preparation fees” be paid before releasing records under the Access to Information Act.

Preparation fees cover the cost of the censors — the actual act of blacking out sensitive government information. They do not cover the cost of searching for the documents or photocopying.

Ironically, Canwest News Service learned about DFAIT’s policy to charge preparation fees for Access to Information requests through records disclosed because of an Access to Information request.

“This is illegal as stink,” said Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who has sued the federal government over its disclosure policies. Attaran has used ATI laws to force the federal government to turn over important information about the way Canada was treating prisoners captured in Afghanistan . . . [Read the rest]

I try to keep my digital camera handy as I go about my business on the Hill and I do snap some pics from time to time but it can often take a while to publish them. So my apologies for getting around only now to some pics from Throne Speech I – the long version we heard in November. That occasion, which opened the 40th Parliament, was replete with all the pomp and circumstance and Laureen Harper you'd expect. We would see a second version — a Note from the Throne, as that wag Senator Jim Munson would call it — a few months later.

So here's a pic I snapped of Governor General Michaëlle Jean reviewing the troops just before entering the Centre Block of the House of Commons.

I used to publish photos like this here but I'm now going to send you off to Google's PicasaWeb. It's just plain easier to publish them, tag them, and provide other info about them using a service like that.

Technorati Tags: michaelle Jean, throne speech

FYI …

Call for Presentations

Democracy and Technology: Canadian Citizenship in the Information Age.

DemTech 2009 will showcase cutting edge projects that use information technology encourage citizen access and foster democratic participation.

DemTech is a pre-conference of the 2009 Annual Conference and Trade Show of the Canadian Library Association, organized by Apathy is Boring, VisibleGovernment.ca and other members of the CivicAccess.ca community.

Date: May 29th 2009

Time: 9:00am – 10:00pm

Location: Concordia University

Registration Cost: free for speakers, $75 for participants (Need-based subsidies will be available. Please email info@demtech.ca for more info)

We are looking for presentations about projects, ideas, and actions that address one of the three DemTech Symposium themes.

Call for Presentations Deadline: March 15th 2009

DemTech 2009's Goals are to foster:

• Citizen Engagement and Inclusion;
• Government Accountability;
• Accessibility to Government Data and Processes.

DemTech 2009's objectives are to:

• Bring together diverse stakeholders: citizens, technologists, government officials and others.
• Encourage a National Dialogue about democracy and technology;
• Encourage grassroots initiatives and new innovative projects.

From the global theme “From Passive to Engaged Citizens,” DemTech 2009's themes are articulated as follows:

• Consultation & Public Dialogue;
• Public Policy and Legal Challenges to accessing government data;
• Technologies to Enable Access.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals must be in English or French, Bilingual Presentations are encouraged;

Presentations will take two forms: Panel (15 min presentation, with 3 other speakers) or Lighting Round (5 min presentations);

Presentations must address at least one of the conference themes;

Participants selected to present will not be paid a per diem, honoraria, or expenses. However their registration fee will be waived.

Proposals Requirements: please send us the following information:

• Contact Information (name, address, phone, email);
• Organization or affiliation;
• Presentation Title;
• DemTech 2009 Theme Addressed;
• Preferred Presentation Length (Panel or Lighting Round);
• Presentation Summary (50 words max. – to be used for promotional purposes);
• Abstract text (250 words max. – for selection committee only);
• Presenter Bio (50 words max. – to be used for promotional purposes);  
• Equipment needed for presentation (PowerPoint, internet, video etc.).
• Proposals should be sent no later than March 15th 2009 to info@demtech.ca.
• Presenters who have been selected will be notified by early April.

Any questions should be addressed to info@demtech.ca or call Apathy is Boring (514)844-2472.

To register as a participant, please access the website of the 2009 Annual Conference and Trade Show of the Canadian Library Association) to download the registration form [PDF] for the “P1” Pre-Conference, Democracy and Technology Symposium.