The Huawei exec's legal fight isn't over yet Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Meng Wanzhou got some bad news yesterday, to put it mildly. The Huawei executive's lawyers had argued that her alleged crimes in the United States were not crimes in Canada, where she was arrested—and on that basis the courts should dismiss the Americans' attempt to extradite her. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes disagreed, ruling that so-called double criminality is "capable of being met in this case" and concluding that Meng's application is "therefore dismissed." Read the full ruling. The Chinese embassy called Meng's prolonged legal fight "entirely a grave political incident," and lashed out at Americans and Canadians. "The purpose of the United States is to bring down Huawei and other Chinese high-tech companies, and Canada has been acting in the process as an accomplice of the United States." China's reaction, and claim that Canada's judicial system is subservient to political masters, would surprise no one who's watched this trial unfold. But an honest look at the ruling, writes Jason Markusoff in Maclean's , really ought to put everybody at ease. Holmes’ ruling should give all sides, should they give it a reasoned read, reassurance that the handling of this case remains resolutely detached from political considerations ... The judge rejected some of the Canadian government’s argument, but ultimately ruled in its favour: that if someone in Canada made false statements that put a foreign bank at risk of breaking foreign sanctions, that would be illegal. Ontario isn't alone in raising the ire of military whistleblowers. The Canadian Armed Forces also filed a report on long-term care homes in Quebec, and broadly found many of the same systemic problems they encountered at five facilities in Ontario. Conservatives have given up diplomacy on how the House of Commons should do its work. Earlier this week, Liberals and New Democrats agreed to expand sittings of the special COVID-19 committee until September. That means very little parliamentary scrutiny of non-pandemic matters. Yesterday, Tory House leader Candice Bergen railed against the "glorified committee" with "stunted duties and limited powers." Bergen called the Liberal-NDP arrangement a "fake Parliament." James Moore, a Harper-era cabinet minister, took a shot at the New Dems. "The federal NDP have never and can’t govern, and now they have no interest in being in opposition. Why do they exist?" Peter MacKay, who still leads Erin O'Toole in Tory leadership polls, released an eight-point jobs plan. MacKay polls his web visitors with questions, like this one on broadband: "Do you agree or disagree with Peter that Canada needs to invest in high speed internet in rural and remote communities?" Whatever respondents think, they can be sure their names end up in a database somewhere. It's been almost a year since a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls tabled its final report—and 231 recommendations. Earlier this week, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said COVID-19 has sidetracked the development of a federal action plan. Yesterday, the Native Women's Association of Canada urged Bennett to reconsider—and offered eight tangible steps to save the lives of women and girls. An outbreak warning from 2010: John Geddes, our former Ottawa bureau chief, stumbled upon Outbreak, a 2010 film funded by the National Film Board, that "toggles dramatically" between two scenarios, an 1885 smallpox epidemic in Montreal and a similar outbreak in the 21st century. Theresa Tam, now a familiar face to most Canadians, features prominently in a film that draws heavily on the work of historian Michael Bliss. Geddes couldn't help but draw rough parallels between then and now. Bliss’s account of what went wrong in 1885 suggests that almost nothing we’re confronting in 2020—apart from the coronavirus itself—is really novel. For instance, consider the divided media response. In early 2020, U.S. coverage split between reputable journalists trying to report on a dire emerging threat and Fox News personalities recklessly dismissing it. In late-19th-century Montréal, the English newspaper editorials urged vaccination, while the French papers dismissed smallpox concerns as “English hysteria.” The cost of rent relief: The Parliamentary Budget Office published an estimated price tag for the federal-provincial rent assistance program. Yves Giroux's team made a best guess that federal coffers would take a $520 million hit this year, a relatively paltry sum compared to blockbuster wage subsidies and response benefits. And that's assuming 80 per cent take-up, which small biz advocates say is way too high. The PBO also said its estimates "rely heavily" on its best judgment. Too many unknown variables are at play. You might be curious about the black ethica face mask Trudeau wears whenever he strays from Rideau Cottage. We asked the PMO why he dons that particular look. The response: "His mask is from wewillsurvive.ca. Their masks are made in Lac-Drolet, Que., by a Canadian company named Attraction." That company is definitely up Trudeau's alley. They're adopting a beluga whale. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
