UN Syria investigator quits over concern about Russian obstruction

Obstructions placed in the way of Syrian war crimes prosecutions by the United Nations and Russia contributed to the decision of Carla Del Ponte, a renowned war crimes prosecutor, to resign as one of three members of a UN commission of inquiry.

Her decision, announced on Sunday in Switzerland, has dealt a heavy blow to the commission’s credibility. Del Ponte joined in September 2012, bringing her considerable experience as a war crimes prosecutor in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to the civil war in Syria. However, she said her role had come to be an alibi for inaction.

Democrats Will Lose a War of Obstruction With Republicans

Claire McCaskill, the Democratic senator from Missouri, is wavering on whether to support President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, who is up for a vote on April 7. In a closed-door meeting with party donors, she said that there “is enough in his record that gives me pause…so I am very comfortable voting against him,” and acknowledged that many of her supporters wanted to fight his nomination because the Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. But McCaskill also admitted she’s “uncomfortable” that, by filibustering Gorsuch, she would be “part of a strategy that’s going to open up the Supreme Court to a complete change.”

Senate Republicans Are Breaking Records for Judicial Obstruction

There's a growing judicial crisis created by Senate Republicans, and it's not the one that's been making headlines. While Democrats have publicly hammered the GOP's refusal to consider Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court, Republicans have mounted an equally important, if quieter, effort to block President Barack Obama's nominees to other federal courts, creating widespread vacancies in courts across the country.

This Is the Real Reason the GOP Should Worry About Merrick Garland

Merrick Garland has spent the last decade in the weeds of some of the most contentious clean-air cases in history—and he's consistently come out on the side of the environment and against big polluters.

Garland, the DC Circuit Court chief judge who is President Barack Obama's pick to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, faces a steep climb to confirmation in the face of fierce opposition from Senate Republicans.

Voting Did Not Go Smoothly Last Night

Last night’s primaries and caucuses in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, and Hawaii, delivered a major victory for Sen. Bernie Sanders, helped Donald Trump on his march to the Republican nomination, and spelled doom for Sen. Marco Rubio. They also shined a spotlight on serious voting rights problems in those states.
Hawaii: Trouble in paradise

For several election cycles, Hawaii has one of the worst voter turnout rates in the country. Last night changed that trend, with high turnout that triggered long lines, delays at the polls, and many voters giving up and leaving in frustration. At least 2,000 people were forced to cast provisional ballots, which have yet to be counted.

Tories on Senate scandal: from denial to obstruction

The government having left town, as it were, in a hail of bullets — one day before the post office announced it is ending home delivery — we are left to marvel at the prospect of a government, and a prime minister, who are quite literally hiding out from the public.

Not only was the House of Commons conveniently shuttered, but neither the minister responsible, Lisa Raitt, nor any Canada Post executives were on hand to answer questions regarding this drastic reduction in public services. But then, in this they were only following the example set by the prime minister, who has for months avoided answering questions about the scandal that is slowly destroying his government.

Tories resist move to call Deloitte auditor

OTTAWA - The Conservatives appear poised to use their majority in the Senate to block an attempt to dig deeper into allegations of interference by the Prime Minister's Office in a supposedly independent audit of Mike Duffy's living expenses.

Liberal Sen. Joan Fraser moved a motion Tuesday asking that Deloitte managing partner Michael Runia be called to testify before the Senate's internal economy committee.

But Conservative senators argued that such a move might interfere with an RCMP investigation into a deal cooked up by Nigel Wright, the prime minister's former chief of staff, to give Duffy $90,000 so that he could reimburse the Senate for invalid expense claims.

Elections Canada letters put Speaker in hot seat

Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer is in the hot seat over his decision to withhold letters sent to him two weeks ago about two Conservative MPs who have run afoul of Elections Canada.

In a letter dated May 23, Canada's chief electoral officer wrote to the Speaker to inform him of "the failure of the Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake, Mr. James Bezan, to provide corrections to his electoral campaign returns."

Harper government not co-operating with spending analysis, budget officer says

OTTAWA — The federal Conservative government continues to stonewall the Parliamentary Budget Office in its quest to obtain information on the impacts on federal programs and services of the $5.2 billion in spending cuts announced in the 2012 budget.

The same day the Harper government faced accusations from a departing Conservative caucus member that it lacks accountability and transparency, the PBO said it still can’t obtain data from most government departments on the long-term impacts of deep budget cuts.

Commons Speaker tells opposition to look online for letters he received from Elections Canada

OTTAWA — House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer is refusing to table two letters he received from Elections Canada about the eligibility of two Conservative MPs to sit in the House and told one Liberal MP to look on the Internet if he wanted to see the documents.

Scheer received the letters from Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand on May 23 and 24. They advised that Manitoba Conservatives Shelly Glover and James Bezan could no longer sit or vote in the House of Commons because they failed to file proper campaign returns for the 2011 election.

Canada won’t play ball on G8 tax goal, activists say

Activists in Britain and Canada are accusing the Harper government of shielding tax cheats by blocking a G8 measure that would crack down on anonymous shell companies.

In separate interviews, representatives from London, United Kingdom-based groups Global Witness, Save the Children UK, and the London branch of Avaaz, as well as the Ottawa-based groups Canadians for Tax Fairness and the Halifax Initiative, have all pointed the finger at Canada for refusing to play ball in the lead-up to the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17.