ON THE BRINK — Russian-allied forces within Ukraine’s breakaway regions stepped up shelling and provocation attacks, but Moscow stopped short of an invasion many experts predicted might come on Sunday. U.S. President Joe Biden has said publicly he believes Putin will undertake a wide-scale invasion — a point made again on Sunday by senior U.S. administration officials who warned that Russia is on the “brink” of an invasion. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY announced Sunday that given rising tensions, instead of traveling to France, she was heading home. “We will be relentless in our pursuit of a diplomatic solution,” she said. “There is still time for Russia to choose the path of de-escalation and dialogue.” — The latest: Putin, Biden agree “in principle” to summit after Macron calls. HANSARD REMEMBERS — Back in June 2019, right before the start of our last pre-pandemic summer, Conservative MP JOHN BRASSARD stood in the chamber and delivered a statement about carbon pricing, working in a shot at CATHERINE MCKENNA. “I will remind Canadians what the Minister of Environment said recently, ‘If you actually say it louder, we've learned in the House of Commons, if you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that is your talking point, people will totally believe it,’” Brassard said. McKenna made the comment in a St. John’s bar where she was Screeched-in . Again, pre-Covid times. She’s no longer in federal politics, but Brassard still is and is weeks into his new role as Conservative House leader. That louder-therefore-truthier strategy has been dialed up to Level 11 recently given the heightened attention the “Freedom Convoy” brought to the capital — including from DONALD TRUMP, who has wasted zero time in fundraising off of events in Canada. — Weekend Blues : MPs debated throughout the weekend, putting their two cents on the record on the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act. The Act requires that debate on the never-before-used measures be held “without interruption” in both the House of Commons and Senate. The Conservatives said from the start that they plan to vote against the measure and have used every opportunity in the debate to accuse Trudeau of instigating the crisis. — BRASSARD told MPs the unrest was stoked by a prime minister who plays identity politics, “wedging, stigmatizing, dividing, calling people racist, misogynist, extremist.” — “We are here because the Liberal government slowly encroached upon the freedoms of Canadians and because the prime minister chose to use hate, fear and division as a part of his Covid strategy,” Conservative MP LESLYN LEWIS said. “The Liberals want to create a false narrative. They want to convince members that the protesters are terrorists.” — Conservative leadership candidate PIERRE POILIEVRE said it again a different way: “The Liberals have attempted to amplify and take advantage of every pain, every fear and every tragedy that has struck throughout this pandemic in order to divide one person against another and replace the people's freedom with the government's power.” — Liberal MP MARCUS POWLOWSKI asked at one point: “Without the Emergencies Act, are you going to get tow trucks to help the police pull away trucks? How, without the Emergencies Act, are you going to legally prevent people from going downtown and joining the mob?” — Bloc MP KRISTINA MICHAUD praised and thanked her triple-vaccinated truck driver father who “respected the rules” after lamenting in the House the fact the convoy has become a debate in some families. She said the occupation “clearly exacerbated” divisions in society and called it “deplorable” to see some Tories share disinformation about today’s vote on the emergency measures and orders. — Parliamentary Green Leader ELIZABETH MAY interrupted debate at one point to reflect on the mood in the House: “On a normal Sunday at 9:15 a.m., I would be at church. Right now, this is the opposite of any place that I have ever worshipped. The air is toxic.” The minority Liberal government appears to have the support it needs for tonight’s vote thanks to the NDP, which has said the measures are justified against threats posed by the convoy protest. — NDP MP LEAH GAZAN accused the federal government of falling asleep at the wheel and blamed the Conservatives for minimizing the impact of endorsing “the radicalization of individuals into white nationalist movements.” Neighbors are turning against neighbors, the Winnipeg Centre MP said, family members are turning against family members. Gazan said she’s concerned that instead of acting responsibly in the middle of a national crisis, some politicians are essentially choosing chaos. She read her warning into the Hansard: “The real divide in this country is not between those who are pro mandates and anti mandates. It is between the wealthy elite and everyone else.” — In his defense of the Act, Liberal MP GREG FERGUS shared points that would be echoed by other Liberals during the debate: “What I really like about this piece of legislation, and I would like to congratulate BRIAN MULRONEY and his government for having introduced it, is that the Charter of Rights applies to it at all times. It is fixed for a certain amount of time and parliamentarians have to come together to talk about it. I have every confidence that it is targeted, it is appropriate and especially that it is time-limited.” FOR THE RECORD — Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO played defense on the weekend. “We will only use the Emergencies Act for as long as is necessary,” he said during a virtual briefing held as police were clearing protesters from the streets. — From POLITICO Canada: Standoff in Ottawa: 'How did we get here?' — Update from the PMO: “Over the past few days, there have been close to 200 arrests, 389 criminal charges have been laid and a total of 76 vehicles were towed,” said a readout from Sunday’s meeting of the Incident Response Group. It said the job is not yet done. Mendicino used similar words in an interview with TONDA MACCHARLES of The Star. “We’re not out of it yet,” he said. — What’s next: MPs are scheduled to vote on the use of the Emergencies Act tonight at 8 p.m. — Noted on Twitter: BOB RAE, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, going viral on Sunday with his thoughts on the convoy blockade: “A truck is not a speech. A horn is not a voice. An occupation is not a protest. A blockade is not freedom, it blocks the liberty of all. A demand to overthrow a government is not a dialogue. The expression of hatred is not a difference of opinion. A lie is not the truth.” At last check-in, it had been shared some 19,000 times.
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