A group of US senators were in Ottawa for a second time in as many months, to meet with prime minister Mark Carney about the trade talks with the US, which is…a pretty useless gesture because they have pretty much no influence in the current American political environment, and they’ve been spectacularly ineffective in doing the slightest bit to rein in his abuse of powers. And speaking of useless gestures, they were all wearing Canada-U.S. friendship bracelets provided by the US Embassy, because apparently treating this like a Taylor Swift concert is how they’re “building bridges.” Honestly…
And it just doesn’t stop. One of the Democratic senators was lecturing Carney about fully repealing the Digital Services Tax, which…is doing what Trump wants, and just letting the authoritarian tech bros dictate our sovereign tax policies. Like really? That’s what you came to tell us? The sole Republican in the group, who is a sometimes Trump critic, said that his annexation rhetoric was “not constructive.” Gee, you think? That’s your contribution to this conversation? One of the other Democrats said that we’re they’re “best friends” but that the relationship was going through some “great strain.” Gosh, really? This is what you’ve come up here to say? One of them wanted to talk about stopping the flow of precursor chemicals for fentanyl. How about guns? Why don’t you do something about stopping them from coming over our border? I just can’t with any of these guys.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador says that Trump thinks we’re “nasty” for boycotting travel and American booze, as he has openly made threats of annexation and trying to destroy our economy to make it happen. Like, seriously, what did you think we were going to do?
Ukraine Dispatch
It was another heavy barrage of 426 drones and a dozen missiles fired at Ukraine overnight Sunday and into Monday, killing two and wounding at least fifteen people. Later in the day were attacks on the Sumy region, injuring another fourteen people. President Zelenskyy has named new ambassadors to several countries, including Canada (which is a shame because Yulia Kovaliv was great). Meanwhile, Russian TV showed teenagers working in their drone factories.
Good reads:
- It was the first day of the Council of the Federation meeting, and they included meetings with Indigenous leaders. Carney joins them today.
- Canada joined 24 other countries in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and a resumption of aid, and to stop displacing Palestinians.
- The federal government is considering criminalising hate and terror symbols, such as displaying Nazi flags.
- Here is a look into why the government blocked streaming services on its networks and devices.
- The Auditor General plans to examine the international student programme, which will be difficult to do from a federal angle because it’s mostly provincial in nature.
- Here is a deep dive into the lawful access provisions of Bill C-2, which would be a major blow to privacy rights in this country, in violation of the Charter.
- Global health advocates are calling on the Canadian government to re-commit to funding the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
- An alleged mafia boss is challenging his deportation order on the basis that the government used a legal loophole to illegally surveil him.
- A Canadian who joined ISIS as a spouse was sentenced in Canada after being repatriated, which is the first time a conviction for providing support as a spouse.
- Pierre Poilievre and other Conservatives are showing support for the “convoy” leaders over social media as their sentencing approaches.
- The Longest Ballot crybabies are now up to 132 candidates in Battle River—Crowfoot, because that’s an effective protest.
- Tim Houston has once again avoided the Halifax Pride parade.
- Goons loyal to Danielle Smith have been stalking the Globe and Mail journalist covering the Alberta Health Services scandal. (Smith “condemned” it).
Odds and ends:
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