Paul could be forced out Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. The Green Party is holding a council vote to trigger a process to oust leader Annamie Paul, who many Greens blame for losing rookie MP Jenica Atwin to the Liberals, CBC reports. On Tuesday, Paul rejected calls to step aside and blamed the Liberals for luring Atwin, which she called a “deliberate, dastardly act.” “This was intended to kneecap us. They don’t mind what the cost is to my leadership and I say shame on them.” In the Tyee, Michael Harris reports that former leader Elizabeth May and the only other remaining MP, Paul Manly, want Paul to try to win Atwin back. “No political party has ever been loving to a defecting MP. The lessons from David Emerson to Belinda Stronach and Eve Adams and so many others, is that the rejected party members turn on the turn-coat. ‘Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.’ I hope that by doing something with no precedent in politics, saying to an MP who defected to another party — ‘We love you, please come back’ — maybe she will,” May told The Tyee. Paul is the first black woman to lead a Canadian political party. Already, some Greens have complained that she is facing unfair resistance from within. Abella is ready for questions: Supreme Court Justice Rosie Abella told Maclean's Paul Wells that she would give him an interview when she turned 75, the birthday that would trigger her retirement from the top court. That day has come, and Abella candidly discusses her career, her family and her legal philosophy, which has had a profound influence on the development of Canadian law, an influence that has not always been welcomed by everyone. Abella, Wells writes, "has long been Exhibit A in the argument that the courts in general, and the Supreme Court in particular, are the vehicle for a wholesale rewrite of the plain text of Canadian law." Abella is not troubled by the criticisms: “Legislators are people who go back to the polls every four years to see whether or not the people who voted for them still approve of what they’re doing. And if they do things that are storms of controversy, they risk losing their jobs. That’s democracy, right? You have an appeal to majoritarian concerns, which is how you get re-elected. “Judges, on the other hand, are part of the democratic matrix”—because they’re appointed by political leaders, interpreting a constitution handed to them by legislatures—“and they don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re going to be re-elected in four years, and whether a decision they make is going to cost them their job. Maybe there will be a reputational hit, but you know, with tenure, you’ve got time to make up for it and you have to do the right thing. So we’re the people in the democratic universe who have the right to make those decisions that a legislator may not be comfortable making.” Bonus: Take a rare peak inside Justice Rosie Abella's Supreme Court office. Leading the world: Two months after posting a record of over 9,000 COVID-19 cases in a single day, Canada’s daily case count has shrunk by 90 per cent, reports Global. Canada now leads the world in the share of national populations with a single dose, with close to 65 per cent of Canadians now having had a shot. Delta alarm: The spread of the Delta variant in Canada is sparking alarm since even fully vaccinated people may be vulnerable, Patricia Treble writes in Maclean's. But new data from the U.K. shows the vaccines do a terrific job keeping people out of hospital, even if they get the variant. Official languages overhaul: Federal languages minister Mélanie Joly on Tuesday tabled reforms to the Official Languages Act, including formal recognition that French is the official language of Quebec. The amendments also provide increased powers for official language commissioners. Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters he would “bet an old $10 bill” that the reforms would be watered down if the Liberals win a majority. Slow progress on reconciliation: The three commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission complained Tuesday that the Trudeau government has not acted quickly enough to ensure that the commission's recommendations are implemented, in particular the creation of a monitoring body to track progress. “Reconciliation and healing are matters of urgency—if anything, that urgency is greater and more apparent today than ever," said Sen. Murray Sinclair. Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin's court case could force the government to lay out more details about how the government decided to push him out of his high-profile role leading Canada's vaccination rollout as the result of an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct, Global's Amanda Connolly reports: Legal experts say the court case could force the government to lay out more details about how the decision was reached to have Fortin leave the position, including what role Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and two prominent cabinet ministers might have played in the matter. —Stephen Maher | 
