The House: Donald Trump takes aim at NATO
Going toe-to-toe with U.S. President Donald Trump at the NATO summit?
Douglas Lute, the former U.S. Representative to NATO, is instead advising Canadian leaders to continue the same tactics they've employed thus far with the unpredictable leader.
Canada is in "exactly the right place" when it comes to dealing with the president, he said — even though the techniques recently elicited harsh insults against the prime minister.
"You've seen our president, you've engaged our president, I think you have stood on principle, you have stood on values," he told The House.
"Stick with Canadian values."
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has signalled the Liberal government is prepared to debate the orthodoxy of the western military alliance's non-binding spending targets at the upcoming NATO leaders summit in Brussels next week.
In 2014, NATO introduced a 10-year program that asks its 29 members to spend the equivalent of two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence.
Though the majority of those nations aren't currently meeting the target, Lute says no one expected it to be an overnight turnaround and the overall situation is what he'd describe as "glass half-full."
Canada has long been singled out for lagging when it comes to meeting that target. Sajjan says it's partly because the federal government is too bashful when it comes to what it describes as defence spending.
"We've been too Canadian in how we calculate our two per cent compared to other nations," Sajjan told CBC News earlier this month.
"We're always too modest. When I looked at the calculation, I looked at how some nations add certain things that we haven't."
The Liberals' most recent defence policy plans to increase the defence budget to $32 billion per year by 2026-27. That boost still only brings Canada's defence spending to 1.4 per cent of GDP.
Trump has been especially critical of nations not meeting that two per cent target.
"The United States is increasingly unwilling to ignore this alliance's failure to meet shared security challenges," reads a letter he sent to Justin Trudeau.
The NATO summit will be the first time the prime minister and the president have met since the G7 summit in June, which culminated in Trump removing the U.S. from the final communique and tweeting insults at Trudeau from Air Force One on the way to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Navigating that relationship will be a particular challenge at the NATO meeting, because Trump hasn't made his intentions for the future of the alliance clear, Lute said.
NATO countries will have to gauge the President's commitment to the alliance, and that's the question that should be put to rest at this meeting.
However, he said these relations won't be a sprint.
"Posture for the long run," he advised.
What should be expected of politicians after allegations of sexual harassment surface?
The way the public, media and parliament are addressing a groping allegation against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raises questions about what should be expected of men in positions of power after allegations surface, according to a public educator who provided anti-harassment training at the Liberal party convention this year.
In Julie Lalonde's mind, there's one big question hanging in the air.
"What do we want from men who harm women?"
This week, the prime minister was asked about an allegation dating back to 2000, when a 28-year-old Trudeau, then a teacher, was visiting a music festival in Creston, B.C.
An unsigned editorial appeared in the Creston Valley Advance after the event accusing Trudeau of "groping" and "inappropriately handling" a young female reporter while she was on assignment. It suggests the woman felt "blatantly disrespected" but provides no other details about what occurred.
"I remember that day in Creston well," Trudeau told reporters Sunday. "I had a good day that day; I don't remember any negative interactions that day at all."
Earlier this year, CBC News spoke by phone and emailed with the woman who was the subject of the editorial. She said she was not interested in being associated with any further coverage of the story. She initially also asked that her name not be used and that she not be contacted about the story again.
On Friday, she issued a statement saying the incident happened as described — and she now wants to be left alone.
"I issue this statement reluctantly, in response to mounting media pressure to confirm that I was the reporter who was the subject of the Open Eyes editorial, published in the Creston Valley Advance in August of 2000," Rose Knight, the former journalist, wrote.
"The incident referred to in the editorial did occur, as reported. Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day. I did not pursue the incident at the time and will not be pursuing the incident further. I have had no subsequent contact with Mr. Trudeau, before or after he became Prime Minister."
Knight, who said she has since left journalism, added she will not speak any further about the incident.
On Friday, Trudeau told CBC Radio's Metro Morning he apologized for making her feel uncomfortable, but maintained he didn't recall the incident himself.
However, the prime minister added that's not the whole focus anymore.
"It is not just my experience that matters in this," he said. "Even though I don't think I did anything wrong, that's not the whole story anymore."
Lalonde says she thinks the prime minister's response is a "perfectly reasonable answer" if he truly doesn't remember the alleged incident, but also called the 18-year-old apology "lacklustre."
For months, Lalonde has been asking people what they'd consider enough to make amends in general and she said no one has been able to come up with an answer.
"We want men to apologize and when they apologize we tear their apologies apart, we want them to pay restitutions but then when they do we call it hush money," she told The House.
"What do we expect from him 18 years later?"
Lalonde cited several options on the table for the prime minister, including resigning and walking back his zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct.
Trudeau also addressed the allegation in a news conference at Queen's Park in Toronto on Thursday.
"I am not going to speak for the woman in question. I would never presume to speak for her. But I know that there is an awful lot of reflection to be had as we move forward as a society on how people perceive different interactions," he said.
The subjectivity of interactions is one thing, but Lalonde says that care should be taken so the legal parameters of sexual harassment don't become the baseline for what is inappropriate.
"Men come back all the time to 'I didn't intend to hurt you, I didn't intend to do that, that wasn't my intent. [It] doesn't matter, at the end of the day someone was harmed by your actions that should be your baseline."
Pursing the incident further should be out of the question, according to Lalonde. We can learn from it and continue to ask tough questions, but without the consent of the woman involved the conversation should conclude, she said.
By continuing to attempt to flog more information out of those involved in this incident, Lalonde expressed concern that it perpetuates a culture of silencing victims of sexual assault.
"I think this discussion is definitely driving more survivors into silence," she said.
"I think it's driving them to be quiet because they've seen the circus that is this story ... I think other people see that and say 'I don't want that target on my back.'"
Ottawa will step in if Ontario doesn't replace cap and trade
The federal government is giving the new Ontario government until September to recalibrate its approach to a climate change plan, but will stand firm on imposing a price on carbon if premier Doug Ford doesn't act.
"We've been very clear about this, Canada has a national climate plan," Jonathan Wilkinson, the parliamentary secretary to the environment minister, told The House.
The first act of the Doug Ford government was a direct snub to Justin Trudeau's agenda on climate change: cancelling Ontario's cap and trade system aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
"The clear mandate that I got elected on was to bring in a national plan to fight climate change. That's exactly what I'm going to do," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after his first official meeting with Ford this week.
As a result, Ottawa has pressed pause and is now reconsidering $420 million dollars in transfers under the national plan to fight climate change.
If Ford decides not to introduce a new climate plan in Ontario, the removal of those funds will be permanent.
"In the event he decides he is not willing to do that then the monies in the low carbon economy fund will go back to projects to fight climate change," Wilkinson said.
Provinces have until September to present their plans to Ottawa, otherwise the federal government will impose a $20/tonne carbon tax effective Jan. 1.
However, the federal government is still working out how implementing that price will work, and how the revenues will be collected and redistributed.
Trudeau said the money Ottawa collects from carbon pricing in the province will be returned directly to Ontarians.
Wilkinson said those specifics are in planning and nothing will happen before September.
Cabinet ministers, MPs spar over who gets to call themselves a feminist
Some Liberal cabinet ministers and Conservative MPs are sparring over who gets to call themselves a feminist.
After a profile piece on Alberta MP Rachael Harder was published in the Globe and Mail, including comments from her suggesting the Liberals act like they "own the definition of feminism," two female members of cabinet took to Twitter to defend their party.
Federal employment minister Patty Hajdu called out the Conservative MP for her anti-abortion views, calling her comments a failure to understand that a woman's reproductive choices are core to feminism.
The House spoke to both members of Parliament to ask what they each considered an appropriate definition of feminism.
Both said equality is at the centre, but they disagreed on the specifics.
"I think at the very core of feminism is the idea and the understanding that women and men are equal and I certainly agree to that," Harder said.
"I think feminism fundamentally is a belief in equal rights," Hajdu explained, then repeated the sentiments expressed on Twitter when asked if she considered Harder to be a feminist.
"If you don't believe and if you're not fighting for the equal opportunity of women that includes reproductive freedom, I don't believe that meets the definition of feminism no matter what stripe you are," she said.
Harder said Hajdu's answer sounded like "the words of a bully," and she accused the minister of "trying to define who is in the club and who is out of the club and somehow she gets to be the one that gets to preside over this list."
The comments from cabinet were picked up on social media by her caucus colleague Michelle Rempel after Maryam Monsef, minister for the status of women, retorted that, contrary to Harder's statement, there was no Liberal definition of feminism.
Rempel shot back at Monsef, asking her if she had the "courage" to confront the prime minister about an 18-year-old groping allegation, concluding the tweet telling her to "grow a pair."
When asked about the simmering feud on Twitter, Harder said it's important to remember to be considerate of each others — despite gender or political stripes.
"I think as members of Parliament we need to treat one another with the utmost level of respect," she said. "Unfortunately, that is not always the case in the House of Commons."
Hiring quotas: helpful or harmful?
It's not just the abortion debate drawing attention to Harder's comments.
She told the Globe and Mail she thinks it's wrong for the government to push more women to enter STEM fields and that promoting women to fill a quota, an idea floated last year by Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan, is ineffective.
The Liberals have been funding programs aimed to support girls interested in science, technology, engineering and math sectors, as they are mostly male-dominated fields.
However, keeping women in those industries is presenting a challenge.
According to the Society of Women Engineers, more than 20 per cent of engineering graduates are women, but only 11 per cent are practising engineers, with many of them saying they were treated poorly in the workplace.
The last two federal budgets have referenced initiatives to get women into these industries, but studies show the stereotypes are still a barrier.
A new survey from the not-for-profit STEM Camp showed the biggest reason why young girls don't pursue those jobs is because they perceive those industries as being more for boys. The survey also found one in four girls said they thought STEM fields offered few career opportunities for women.
Harder says that's a weakness with the proposal for gender hiring quotas.
The idea of quotas are "well meaning," she said, but she worries women may be concerned they're at the table simply because they're women and not because of their credentials.
"It actually can result in women being treated lesser than the men at the table. That's a problem."
Hajdu agreed quotas can be a bad thing if done improperly, and that's why careful calculations must be done before imposing them.