Refugee reform bill passes Senate, with concerns

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page, which basically wraps up my months of coverage on the issue of reforming the refugee determination system in this country. It was really great to have the opportunity to take an issue like this, get to know more about it as I followed it through the entire process. That's not something that happens very often in the mainstream media these days, where everyone is a generalist and covers different issues from day to day.

Parliament launches all-party HIV/AIDS & TB caucus

I have a new piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which is a full write-up of an event that I attended on Monday evening. The event was supposed to just be covered on the blog, but after seeing the event and hearing some of the speakers, we decided that it warranted expanding to a full article, so it was great that we were able to do that.

Also, I managed to take a couple of photos that weren't complete shite, so that's all the better for the piece.

Drug bill revived in Senate

I have a new piece up on Xtra.ca's national page today, which looks at just what has happened to that drug bill that died on the Order Paper during prorogation. Turns out it got reintroduced in the Senate - so I engaged some of the Senators who will be looking at it once again. This was a really great piece to write, where I was able to sink my teeth into it a little bit and do a bit of investigative work. I also really liked getting the chance to have a sit-down conversation with Senator Joyal, and I hope to again sometime soon.

Queers get props for winning refugee amendments

I have a new piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which is about the final negotiation process of Bill C-11 on refugee reform, at the committee stage. This is of course an issue that I've been tracking for weeks, and it was nice to see it come to fruition. The piece was also substantially enhanced by a last-minute call back from the Canadian Council of Refugees, and as you can see, the piece was stronger as a result. In fact, because I was able to engage this stakeholder group, I think my article ended up being better than that of The Canadian Press, who mostly stuck to what they were able to get from Kenney's press conference the next day on a different piece of legislation.

Immigration reform: will the Liberals oppose 'safe country' clause?

I have one reprinted article in the current Ottawa print edition of Xtra. Funnily enough, just as it hit the streets, we got our answer on the issue, which will be posted on Xtra.ca later today.

Trans rights bill passes second reading

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page (which was actually up last night, but I'm a little behind today), which was part of my ongoing coverage of Bill C-389, and how it passed Second Reading in the House of Commons. It ended up being a day earlier than expected, given that they didn't end up taking a recorded vote on the bill, but rather, let it pass on division. Nevertheless, it was nice to get some trans activists to speak for the article as well, seeing as they were in attendance this time, and I'm sure we'll hear from them some more once this bill heads to committee.

Thoughts From the Hill - June Edition

I have a single article in the June issue of Outlooks, which is the usual Thoughts From the Hill panel. This month, my three Parliamentarians look at the issue of the refugee reform bill - something I've been covering at great length the past few weeks. There was a bit of drama in that I had to increase my word count to fit in the answer of one panellist, but I got some great answers in the end, which always makes this an enjoyable piece to do.

That's also the last panel for the summer, and it'll resume for the September issue.

Immigration reform: will the Liberals oppose 'safe country' clause?

I have a piece on the Xtra.ca national page today, which further updates the ongoing coverage around Bill C-11 on reforming the refugee system in this country. It does feel a little like I'll break something, and then The Canadian Press will break the next iteration later in the day, and we're going back and forth. Nevertheless, it's something that I'll continue to follow as it evolves next week.

Liberals debating provisions of refugee bill

The second of two pieces I have up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, this shorter piece is an update to Monday's piece on the current debate on the refugee bill going before Parliament. Given that I couldn't get a substantive comment from the Liberals for that piece, this one follows up not only with a conversation I had with one of the committee members, but also the quote I got from Michael Ignatieff during the scrums after Question Period today. Getting a question in one of those scrums is still exciting, because it's really a bit of chaos where you have to be strategic and not shy about getting your question in there, while everyone else is shouting questions.

More revelations on Pride Toronto funding show PMO interference

The first of two pieces I have up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, this piece was actually written on Friday last week, but the posting schedule of my editor meant it couldn't go up until today. It's a fairly short little story which collects a number of things around Toronto Pride's funding and the interference of the PMO, all of which has been floating around, and I've managed to collect them all into one piece. What was fun about it is this is one of the few times where I've received a tip and some documents from a source, which was one of those bits of journalistic intrigue that I always enjoy.