Pipeline decision splits country

‘This is not who we are,’ Carr says, except ... it is

The mercury, and tempers, were rising in the House of Commons Wednesday, as politicians sparred over the Liberal government’s controversial nationalization of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

There is a sense that this is serious business and that the passion and exasperation in Parliament will be nothing compared to the rage on the ground in British Columbia, in what promises to be a long, hot summer.

When the $4.5 billion purchase was unveiled at a news conference on Tuesday, Jim Carr, the natural resources minister, resorted to the old Liberal standby of blaming the Harper government for the sorry pass things had come to. “The previous government spent 10 years pitting the environment and the economy against each other. They pitted us against each other. It polarized us. That is not who we are,” he said.

But it’s very much who we are.

If Carr is suggesting that the country is no longer polarized — and has not become more so as a result of this policy decision — he needs to get out more.

The mantra of the economy and the environment going hand-in-hand has become such a crutch for Justin Trudeau that if you’d picked that boilerplate phrase in a game of political drinking bingo, you’d have been befuddled by the end of the opening round of question period.

Once upon a time, the idea of a dual-pronged policy of a pipeline and carbon pricing seemed like a clear political winner: polls showed a majority in every region of the country supported (or at least accepted) the development in tandem of a floor price on carbon and a new pipeline.

But however beautiful the strategy, real life is much more messy. The reaction to the Trans Mountain announcement suggests that consensus is in danger of unravelling.

Venezuela has been racked by hyperinflation, shortages of food and other basic goods as well as the decline of Venezuela’s oil industry. Top regime officials now depend more on income from illicit activities, such as drug smuggling, than legal ones, he added.

“We have a persistent and pervasive culture of impunity finding expression in a massive assault on the rule of law.

“There is no independent judiciary. There is no independent prosecutors. There is no independent justice system.

“This is the archetypical example of why a reference is needed, as to why the ICC was created,” Cotler said.

“The testimony that we heard in our public hearings, of the graphic examples of torture and rape and imprisonment, and then the humanitarian crisis — we can’t forget that behind all these findings of fact and conclusions of law are suffering human beings. They need justice. They need relief.

“And this is a way to bring that remedy and hopefully that sense of justice not only for them but for the international community as a whole.”

Global Affairs Canada said on Wednesday that the new sanctions come in response to “illegitimate and anti-democratic” presidential elections held in Venezuela on May 20.

Canada has now brought sanctions against 106 people.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stopped short of announcing that Canada would ask for a formal investigation at the ICC.

The court had already opened a preliminary examination in February, and Freeland said the report “will provide valuable information” to support it.

“We are appalled, though not surprised, by the evidence the panel found supporting the allegation that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela.

“...It is because of the Maduro regime’s ongoing abuse of its people and attacks on democracy that Canada has taken a series of punitive actions, including imposing targeted sanctions,” Freeland said in a statement.

The crisis is one of the few issues on which G7 leaders agree and on which the leaders have issued a joint statement ahead of the summit next week in Charlevoix, Que., which will feature the leaders of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Leaders jointly rejected the presidential elections last week, saying that Maduro was trying to solidify an “authoritarian grip” amid the suffering of his people.

Almagro said if the government does fall, its successor will have to work hard to rebuild the oil industry, which has long been the linchpin of the country’s economy.