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A daily look inside Canadian politics and power. | | | | |  | | By Zi-Ann Lum | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Zi-Ann | Follow Politico Canada PROGRAMMING NOTE: Ottawa Playbook won’t publish Monday, Aug. 29 to Monday, Sept. 5. We’ll be back on our regular schedule Tuesday, Sept. 6. Thanks for reading the Ottawa Playbook. I'm your host, Zi-Ann Lum and Nick Taylor-Vaisey. The prime minister’s pick for Supreme Court nominee met with parliamentarians for a two-hour get-to-know-me session. Plus, the federal ethics watchdog rules on a bar meeting at D’Arcy McGees. Did someone forward you this Ottawa Playbook? Sign up here — five days a week, zero dollars. |  | DRIVING THE DAY | |
FOR THE RECORD — It’s not every day parliamentarians end a hearing with a standing O.
That was the reception parliamentarians showed Supreme Court nominee MICHELLE O’BONSAWIN after a 130-minute televised Q&A that traced her journey to potentially being the first Indigenous justice on Canada’s top court. O’Bonsawin, an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation in Quebec, spoke about the blessing and burden of responsibility of being a “first” in a high-profile position under a microscope. | 
Supreme Court nominee Michelle O'Bonsawin appears before a special meeting of House and Senate justice and human rights committee members on Aug. 24, 2022. | ParlVu | — Influences: O’Bonsawin named MURRAY SINCLAIR and PHIL FONTAINE as leaders who have shared their wisdom. “Throughout my life, I have also received wonderful mentorship from elders,” she added. — Advice she’d give to her 20-year-old self: “Be patient, patient and more patient.” — Cocktail circuit icebreakers: Before dropping multiple references to Gladue principles and an anecdote about what she did when a lawyer in her courtroom riffed the day’s news of ELIZABETH WARREN being called “Pocahontas,” O’Bonsawin offered some light-hearted trivia about her life. “My husband is an engineer and a lawyer. I have two sons … They are really the three most important people in my life,” she said. The family has three dogs: MAX, PIXIE and ZORRO. Plus, eight chickens and a gecko named LIZZIE. “I'm also a painter,” O’Bonsawin continued. “This is a hobby that I've enjoyed with my father that we started out together when I was a teenager. I love to read and, when time permits, I love to sneak in a little round of golf.” — Not letting fools slide : O’Bonsawin was frank in saying she’s been “quite fortunate” in her career, but that she’s clocked some wild remarks working as an Indigenous person in the male-dominated world of labor law. Take, for example, when former president DONALD TRUMP’s taunt about Warren made headlines around the world in 2018. O’Bonsawin was in court that day, reading a long motions list when she overheard a lawyer speaking to a junior lawyer. “At one point, I hear that lawyer say, ‘Oh, she's a native Indian, she's our Pocahontas of the North.’ And for me, that hit me square in the forehead. And it didn't go over very well.” — How she dealt with it: Instead of brushing it off and letting it go, she put it on paper. “When the lawyer came up, not the one who said it, but the receiving lawyer, I put it on the record that I had just been referred to as ‘Pocahontas of the North,’” the Franco-Ontarian said. She brought it home to her sons as a lesson about human nature. “At the end of the day, it doesn't matter where we are in society, we all face issues. And what's important is how you deal with it — and how you have to speak out when that happens,” she said. “I was happy that I put it on the record.” — What now: Now that parliamentarians are more acquainted with O’Bonsawin, it’s up to Trudeau to review any concerns MPs or senators may have about his pick to replace Justice MICHAEL MOLDAVER who retires next week. If all goes according to the PMO’s plan, O’Bonsawin’s appointment is expected to be official at the start of the Supreme Court’s fall session. | | For your radar | |
EVERYONE’S FLOCKING TO CANADA — Unless you’re JOE BIDEN, that is.
In the same week German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ hopped to Canada for some face time with Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, and the east coast’s magnificent gales, JENS STOLTENBERG is looking to do the same. The NATO secretary general arrived in Edmonton last night, with an itinerary that will take him north, way north to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut to tour a NORAD site and the Canadian High Arctic Research Station. Originally opened in August 2019, the research station was closed for more than a year during the pandemic. TBD what new announcement will come of the visit, timed during the week Ukraine celebrates its 31st year of independence — or if it’s nothing more than a photo op. STOLTENBERG is the latest high-profile European leader to visit Canada. European Commision President URSULA VON DER LEYEN is next with a planned trip in September. TWO MEN WALK INTO D’ARCY MCGEE’S — A new report published by the federal ethics watchdog has cleared CRTC Chair IAN SCOTT of wrongdoing, determining that having beers with Bell Media exec MIRKO BIBIC didn’t break any rules. The Toronto Star was the first to report the Dec. 19, 2019 bar meeting on Sparks Street, later describing Scott and Bibic as friends — a potential breach of law given the CRTC head’s appearance of bias ahead in a telecom decision in 2021 involving Bell. While the Conflict of Interest Act prohibits public office holders from making or participating in decisions that could advance the private interests of family or friends, as the Ottawa bubble sure knows, the definition of “friend” continues to be widely interpreted. Ethics watchdog MARIO DION said he flipped back to how “friend” was evaluated in the Watson Report and Morneau II Report. He also went back to the Trudeau III Report and found there’s nothing in the rules that prohibit apparent conflicts of interests. — Eyes emoji: As part of the probe, Scott wrote Dion’s office to advise “he holds no particular affection for, or bond or kinship with” Bibic. “I was satisfied that Mr. Scott and the BCE Inc. and Bell Canada executive he met with privately were not friends within the meaning of the Act,” Dion wrote. “Despite having worked in the same industry for 20 years, their relationship is exclusively professional." | | TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS | |
1:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. MDT) Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU lands in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut with NATO Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG.
National Defense Minister ANITA ANAND, Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY and Northern Affairs Minister DAN VANDAL will join their boss on a schedule that includes 8 “pooled photo” opportunities. 12:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. MDT) Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is in Edmonton, Alta. to tour an Air Products hydrogen production facility. A media availability will follow. Freeland’s afternoon includes a meeting with former caucus colleague, now Edmonton Mayor AMARJEET SOHI at 3 p.m. 10:30 a.m. Bloc Québécois MP ALEXIS BRUNELLE-DUCEPPE is in Trois-Rivières, Que. to hold a media availability about visa rejects impacting Francophone students. 10:30 a.m. Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT is in Métabetchouan–Lac-à-la-Croix, Que. to hold an in-person only media availability. 11:30 a.m. Public Safety Minister MARCO MENDICINO is in Miramichi to make an announcement about the government’s plans to address gun and gang violence. He’ll be joined by the city’s mayor, ADAM LORDON. A media availability will follow. 3 p.m. Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE is back in his home riding of Saint-Maurice–Champlain. His scheduled appearance today will involve a tourism announcement and a bit of theater. — Video gold: After a media availability, there’s a “watercraft” demonstration planned for media. | | MEDIA ROOM | |
— Liberal MP ANTHONY HOUSEFATHER made some policy suggestions in an iPolitics op-ed to address hate and revealed an inter-parliamentary task force he co-founded to address online antisemitism will hold its first public hearings in the D.C. Capitol on Sept. 16.
— For Policy Options, polisci professors BRENDAN BOYD and JARED WESLEY have charts to show how Alberta has evolved into the country’s most turbulent political and policy environment. — Le Soleil reports Conservative Party of Quebec Leader ÉRIC DUHAIME is the first to have a full slate of 125 candidates ahead of the official launch of the province’s election. — A constitutional rights group has filed a legal challenge in Federal Court over the government’s use of the ArriveCan app. The Canadian Press has the story. — The White House needs a regulation czar, a humdrum sounding role that POLITICO’s ADAM CANCRYN writes has been vacant for 18 months — and is poised to have outside influence over the Biden administration’s agenda. | | PROZONE | |
If you’re a , don’t miss our latest newsletter from MAURA FORREST: The first Indigenous Supreme Court nominee, in her own words.
In other Pro headlines: — California settles with Sephora over illegal data sharing in first privacy law action. — U.S. Senators push feds to reconsider factory farm methane plans. — California air agency to ban sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. — Another spin in the crypto sanctions twister. | | Playbookers | |
Birthdays: Senator PETER HARDER is 70 today! Also celebrating: CONRAD BLACK and retired senators JACQUES DEMERS and LISE BACON.
Send birthdays to ottawaplaybook@politico.com. Spotted: Some latergram pics of NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH in Las Vegas earlier this month for USW International with baby ANHAD (h/t wife GURKIRAN KAUR SIDHU’s Insta) … Liberal MP RECHIE VALDEZ at the CNE .. Immigration Minister SEAN FRASER at a Vancouver showing of “Come From Away” that was also a citizenship ceremony. TASHA KHEIRIDDIN's Wednesday book launch at Navigator's office in Ottawa, where MARJORY LEBRETON introduced the author of "The Right Path." — Also in attendance: Navigator executive chair JAIME WATT and associate principal MATT TRIEMSTRA and managing director GRAHAM FOX, the Canadian Nuclear Association's STEVE COUPLAND, author and consultant BOB PLAMONDON, Ontario High School Conservatives prez VINCENZO CALLA, Cardus founder RAY PENNINGS, strategist KATHLEEN MONK, Institute on Governance prez/CEO DAVID MCLAUGHLIN, Bluesky Strategy principal SUSAN SMITH and longtime NDP guy KARL BÉLANGER. Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY, Liberal MP YVAN BAKER, Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada YULIA KOVALIV with Toronto Mayor JOHN TORY, raising Ukraine’s flag at Toronto City Hall … Liberal MP JENNIFER O’CONNELL far from her Ontario riding, in Langley, B.C. with caucus colleague JOHN ALDAG ... CAROLYN BENNETT shaking hands with Washington State Gov. DENNY HECK. On the other side of the country, Tory MP STEPHEN ELLIS biking 75 km to raise money to support eye cancer research and treatment … Senate Speaker GEORGE FURY and Sen. ROSEMARY MOODIE with Governor General MARY SIMON at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Halifax. Junior U.K. foriegn office minister REHMAN CHISHTI is in Ottawa meeting with Sen. PETER BOEHM, British military exchange offices and the local High Commission staff. Sen. PAULA SIMONS at the Railway Association of Canada’s Shortline Conference in Edmonton … NDP MP CHARLIE ANGUS, also in Edmonton with colleagues HEATHER MCPHERSON and BLAKE DESJARLAIS. Media mentions: Reporter OLIVIA RANIA BOWDEN is saying goodbye to a contract role with the Toronto Star and hello to a “ new (permanent) opportunity ” TBA. Farewells: MAURO PETRICCIONE, head of the European Union’s climate department since 2018, and chief negotiator of landmark trade deals with Canada, Japan and Vietnam, has died aged 65, our colleague KARL MATHIESEN reports. Send Playbookers tips to ottawaplaybook@politico.com. | | TRIVIA | |
Wednesday’s answer: What happened to Pluto on Feb. 18, 2006? It was demoted to the status of dwarf planet.
Props to DEAN VALENTINO, ALYSON FAIR, ROSS LECLAIR, DOUG RICE, PATRICK HART, GUY SKIPWORTH, PATRICK DION, JOANNA PLATER, BILL PRISTANSKI, JANE DOULL, ROBERT MCDOUGALL, JOHN DILLON, AMY BOUGHNER, LUCAS BORCHENKO, TRACY SALMON, GORDON GRAY and PAUL GILLETT. Today’s question: YOUSUF KARSH photographed WINSTON CHURCHILL after the PM addressed Parliament in 1941. Where on Parliament Hill did he shoot the famous — and now missing — photograph? Send your answers to ottawaplaybook@politico.com Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Alejandra Waase to find out how: awaase@politico.com. Playbook wouldn’t happen without Luiza Ch. Savage and Sue Allan. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
