Politics on TV: RCMP abuse, carbon pricing and misspending allegations

Here are the three things you should not have missed:

1. RCMP abuse allegations
2. State of the Union hints on climate change
3. More misspending allegations in the Senate

RCMP abuse allegations:

Power Play spoke with Human Rights Watch director Liesl Gerntholz about their report. Gerntholz spoke about HRW’s experience with victims of human rights abuses in over 90 countries, and how they were invited by a partner organization to look at the ten communities along the Highway of Tears. Gerntholz said that they can’t say whether these alleged abuses are happening in other parts of the country, and that the allegations broke down into two groups – where women were victimised after calling the police over other complaints, and where others were subject to violations by police when they were on the streets. Power & Politics had an MP panel of Kellie Leitch, Niki Ashton, and Carolyn Bennett, where Ashton and Bennett called for a national public inquiry while Leitch insisted that the independent RCMP Public Complains Commission is the right venue to deal with the allegations.

American carbon pricing signals:

While both Power & Politics and Power Play spoke with US Ambassador David Jacobson about the State of the Union Address – to which Jacobson basically said it was a speech to Americans – Evan Solomon had an MP panel of Michelle Rempel, Megan Leslie and Kirsty Duncan to discuss what signals they took. Rempel touted the government’s sector-by-sector regulatory approach that is ahead of the US in areas like coal-fired plants. Leslie said that wherever the US goes with carbon pricing, Canada will have to follow suit. Duncan noted that while Obama signalled stronger targets, we’re not sure what he’ll actually do.

More Senate allegations:

Don Martin spoke to Liberal Senator David Smith about the allegations against Senator Pamela Wallin’s expenditures (while Wallin and the Conservatives declined to appear). Senator Smith said that he wants all of the facts on the table and due process to take place, but also noted that the Prime Minister should do his homework ensuring that the Senators he appoints meet the residency requirements. Senator Smith noted that it’s not unexpected to have the odd incident when you have over 100 people in the chamber, and that in the bigger picture, it’s not worth putting on sackcloth and ashes over.

Worth Noting:

• Liberal leadership candidate George Takach outlined his plan to replace EI contributions with a carbon tax.