Mark Carney was in Inuvik to have his meeting with Inuit leaders regarding Bill C-5 and the major projects they are hoping to build, and seems to have convinced them that nothing is going to impact on their particular treaty rights, even though it’s still a lot of “just trust me,” because I cannot stress enough that he gave himself the power to override pretty much any legislation with that massive Henry VIII clause in C-5, meaning that he intends to use it. Said Inuit leaders didn’t seem quite as exercised about the colonial structures being built into the Major Projects Office and its proposed Indigenous advisory council (which reports to PMO and not to the Indigenous nations they are supposed to be representing), but again, we’ll see once things are a little more fleshed out.
During the meeting, Carney and Anita Anand announced that Iqaluit resident Virginia Mearns, who is Inuk, will be Canada’s new Arctic ambassador, a role that Mary Simon once held. As part of this office and Arctic strategy, there are plans to open new consulates in Alaska and Greenland.
Meanwhile, the demands for PONIs continue to dwell largely in fantasyland, with projects that have no proponents being demanded approval of, nor projects that have a particular economic case to be made for them. It’s just “more pipelines.” Like, come on, guys.
Programming Note: I’m off for the next week-and-a-bit. See you on the far side of the long weekend.
Ukraine Dispatch
Two people were killed in a Russian attack on Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine, while at least 33 were injured in a glide bomb attack on Kharkiv. President Zelenskyy has introduced a bill to restore the independence of the anti-corruption agencies, and says he welcomes input from friendly governments.
Good reads:
- Carney has condemned Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
- Marjorie Michel is not committing to signing pharmacare deals with any other provinces that haven’t yet (and I suspect several won’t).
- Dominic LeBlanc was in Washington to talk to Howard Lutnick about the trade talks, and says he’s “encouraged” as he lowers expectations about the August 1 deadline.
- Government documents indicated that EV sales would dry up once the rebates ended, and lo, that’s pretty much what happened.
- The military is planning to retire eight of their twelve coastal defence vessels by the end of the year, and consolidating the rest on the East Coast.
- A CBC investigation finds many items in grocery stores are being improperly labelled as being Canadian when fine print shows they are from the US.
- Here is some discussion about the role of the military as climate-related emergencies continue to increase every year.
- Parliamentary interpreters have sounded the alarm that the new contracts for freelance interpreters will make an already failing system worse.
- Kent Fellows warns that attempts to create shortcuts to new project approvals will only create further delays, as history has shown repeatedly.
Odds and ends:
For National Magazine, I took a deep dive into yesterday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision that upholds the constitutionality of sex work laws (for now).
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