Roundup: Pandering to a false narrative, Quebec edition

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It is now on or about day ninety of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and we have the first war crimes conviction, as the tank commander who pleaded guilty last week to killing civilians has been handed a life sentence. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia is waging “total war” intended to inflict as many casualties as possible, and destroy as much infrastructure as they can. Zelenskyy also addressed a gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and he told assembled global and economic leaders there to apply “maximum sanctions” to Russia.

Meanwhile, Belarusians are joining the fight on Ukraine’s side, hoping that it will eventually help topple the regime in their own country. As well, the dreaded Russian hackers have not proven effective in the Ukraine invasion, and have themselves been the successful target of government cyber-operations and hactivists, so perhaps their reputation is not as deserved as it has been.

Closer to home, Quebec is close to passing Bill 96, which expands its language laws to almost absurd levels, including forbidding the use of English in nearly all circumstances, and there are concerns that the bill allows for warrantless searches in order to enforce it. (There CBC had an explainer here,  but beware the both-sidesing).This is all predicated on the notion that French is “declining” in Quebec—erm, except it’s not. Census data shows that, and the only decline was where French was the “mother tongue,” meaning that its decline may be because of immigration, most of whom learn French is fairly short order (though this is one area where Bill 96 is again overreaching—and they wonder why they have a labour shortage). Unfortunately, every federal party including the Liberals have bought into this narrative, and are not challenging it very hard. Some Liberal MPs have been to protests in opposition to the bill, which the Bloc freaked out about in Question Period last week, to some minor pushback from the Liberal Quebec lieutenant, but it’s not a good sign when any party refuses to call out a blatantly false narrative because they are afraid it will lose them needed votes. Such courage!

Good reads:

  • Ottawa was hit with a massive thunderstorm that caused more damage to our electricity grid than the 1998 ice storm or the 2018 tornado.
  • The Governor General and the prime minister were at the former Kamloops Residential School site for the anniversary of the discovery of unmarked graves.
  • The first charter flight carrying displaced Ukrainians touched down in Winnipeg yesterday, with two more charter flights expected this week.
  • Some members of the military in Comox, BC, were encouraged to reach out to Habitat for Humanity if they couldn’t find affordable housing. Eek.
  • CTV has an interview with Supreme Court of Canada Justice Mahmud Jamal as he approaches his anniversary of being appointed to the bench.
  • The Conservative Party has hired new staff to help process membership sales and to ensure they can get leadership ballots mailed out in time.
  • A Conservative party member has renounced his membership after he sent a racist letter praising Nazism to Patrick Brown’s campaign.
  • Jason Kenney has clarified that he won’t seek his old job as UCP leader a second time, and will fully step down once a replacement is chosen.
  • Heather Scoffield talks to Stephen Poloz about the possibility of stagflation, or some version thereof, as the Bank of Canada tries to engineer a soft landing from inflation.
  • Supriya Dwivedi calls out the federal government for not pushing back against the unconstitutional elements of Quebec’s Bill 96.
  • Justin Ling explores how the small outbreak of monkeypox is sending conspiracy theorists into overdrive, because of course it is.
  • Paul Wells has a series of questions he’d like to ask Pierre Poilievre, but Poilievre won’t respond to interview requests.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Pandering to a false narrative, Quebec edition”

  1. I am always fascinated how English speaking media in Canada has a hate on the Quebec or anything to do with French speaking Canadians. The only news is always about how the English and minorities in Quebec are oppressed. Bill 96 is now Law and the English press (most of whom do not speak a word of French) will clutch their pearls. Funny how it is never reported how French speaking Canadians in all other 8 provinces have to fight to get service in French and are mostly ignored by the Anglos. New Brunswick has it own awful history of bigotry and racism against Acadians. So why this imbalance? Simple Anglos in Canada believe to be a master race, we have known this since 1759. By the way Dale, what is the experience of French speaking Albertans in your home province?

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