Because this is sometimes a media criticism blog, let’s talk about the absolute bullshit framing of The Canadian Press’story about the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ report into the state of the early learning and childcare programme. The headline: “Ottawa set to miss 2026 deadline for establishing $10-a-day child care: report.” This is wrong. It is not “Ottawa” or the federal government who are going to miss the deadline. It is a number of provinces and territories who will, and yes, that matters.

The report makes it quite clear from the start who is responsible: “Provinces, territories and Indigenous governing bodies have the main responsibility for implementing CWELCC, with the federal government providing much of the funding and high-level policy considerations as it does with Medicare, housing, and other social programs under provincial or territorial jurisdiction.” Nowhere in the report does it assign blame or responsibility to the federal government for the goals not being met. It’s quite explicit about which provinces are meeting their targets and which are not, and if there is a particular issue levelled at the federal government, it’s that the goal of an “average of $10/day” is not the same as a $10/day cap, and that it’s an imprecise and problematic concept. But that’s not how the CP story frames the issue.

This goes back to one of the constant problems in Canadian media, where every problem is blamed on the federal government, and so long as they provide funding to the provinces for programmes that the provinces are responsible for carrying out, then somehow the federal government is assigned a disproportionate share of the blame. Indeed, who does CP reach out to for comment? The federal minister’s office, and not the provincial ministers in those lagging provinces, when it’s their gods damned responsibility, not the federal government’s. And this pattern keeps repeating itself over and over again, and we wonder why provincial governments are never held accountable for their failures. This is one prime example right here. And yes, this CP wire copy was distributed in pretty much every other outlet with the same misleading headline, and that same headline and framing were used in television interviews on CTV News Channel throughout the day. I wish I knew why it’s impossible for legacy media to have a basic grasp of civics, but they refuse to, and this is what we end up with. It’s unacceptable.

Today or any day, really.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T15:31:50.296Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia’s attack on Ukraine early Wednesday was the largest yet, at 728 drones and 13 missiles. The attack early this morning has thus far reported two deaths and 13 injuries.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney has started the sixty-day clock on his demand to reduce “red tape” (which Jennifer Robson and I discussed as not being feasible).
• Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on copper are supposed to start on August 1st, while he is also floating a 200 percent tariff on pharmaceutical imports.
• National Defence is still expected to find “operational savings” in spite of the commitment to increase defence spending.
• The PBO says that the proposed spending cuts are doable but will mean layoffs and consequences; Kevin Page says it likely means rolling in grants and contributions.
• Chinese surveillance company Hikvision has filed a court challenge against the government order to roll up their operations in Canada.
• Wisconsin and Minnesota Republicans sent a letter to the Canadian ambassador, demanding we deal with wildfire smoke (completely ignoring climate change).
• Here’s a look at the potential for Indigenous protests given the anger over how Bill C-5 was rammed through without sufficient consultation.
• The Conservatives managed to outspend their record fundraising on advertising and polling ahead of the election.
• Several Ontario First Nations are calling for the Todd McCarthy’s resignation after his call for the federal government to not introduce clean water legislation.
• Jessica Davis gives some further analysis of the terror arrests in relation to the military members plotting to form a militia.
• Justin Ling explores the connections between government lawlessness and normalized extremism in America and Israel, and the resulting political violence.
• Blayne Haggart makes the correct point that Carney is missing the fact that the existential threat Trump poses requires more than just an economic response.

Odds and ends:

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