The “changed” and “humbled” Pierre Poilievre was back on his old bullshit yesterday, calling a press conference in Surrey, BC, to decry crime rates, blame the government, give some misleading bullshit about past legislation, and then take friendly questions from hand-picked outlets. Sounds familiar?

But seriously, we’ve been through all of this before. Calling for a terrorism designation for the Bishnoi gang is not helpful, and risks watering down terrorism designations in general (which is why it was a problem to do it for Mexican cartels at the behest of the Trump administration, not to mention designations shouldn’t be made for political expediency). Tougher penalties for extortion? Extortion with a firearm already has a maximum sentence of life in jail, so why they want a four-year minimum is not exactly doing anything more than current sentencing already does. Repealing the former Bill C-75 on bail? As we have said time and time again, this merely codified Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence on the law of bail and made it tougher for those accused of domestic violence to get bail, so repealing it will do nothing. What is it going to take to drive home that these are not solutions, and will do nothing about the current uptick in police-reported crime (and again, these are small upticks that are well below historic norms)?

Meanwhile, Poilievre, Andrew Scheer, and others, spent their day engaging in supportive posts for transphobes, during Ottawa Pride Week no less. So yeah, up to their same old bullshit because they want to rile up the grievance mongers so that they can begin a new round of grifty fundraising. Poilievre has learned absolutely nothing from losing his seat and the election.

Conservatives are going all-in on transphobia today, as Pride Week in Ottawa is underway. #canqueer

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T21:13:56.179Z

Ukraine Dispatch

At least fourteen people were wounded in a Russian attack on the Sumy region, three people were killed in an artillery attack on the eastern city of Kostiantynivka, and a gas distribution station was hit in Odesa. Russians claim to have advanced in the Dnipropetrovsk region, while Ukrainians knocked out power in parts of Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney met with Montreal mayor Valérie Plante about housing and transit.
• Tim Hodgson says he’s “hopeful” the government will announce major projects in the fall, but doesn’t have any details about what that might entail or when.
• Mélanie Joly says her visit to Saab was a regular part of her job, and isn’t a hint about the future of the F-35 procurement.
• General Jennie Carignan met with NATO partners to discuss options for upholding a possible ceasefire in Ukraine (which is unlikely to happen anyway).
• The RCMP says that the number of officers on long-term, off-duty sick leave (at full pay) has become unsustainable for the organisation.
• The non-partisan judicial compensation board recommends higher salaries for judges to compete with private firms; The government says “How very dare you?”
• The Canada Post union brought forward new demands for wage and benefit increases, while the Crown corporation continues to haemorrhage money.
• Labour groups are proclaiming the death of Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, albeit prematurely as it still hasn’t been tested in the courts yet.
• Canada suffered an exceptional coast-to-coast drought, which is costing business, but are we going to ever talk about climate change and real adaptation?
• The Trump administration has sanctioned members of the International Criminal Court, including a Canadian judge.
• Toronto mayor Olivia Chow says the federal government isn’t paying enough for services for asylum seekers, saying they’re paying a quarter of what they should.
• The BC Supreme Court is giving Parliament ten months to fix the Indian Act to restore status to those whose ancestors were forced to give it up.
• Justin Ling gives a lengthy explanation of the how Trump is being played by Putin around trying to force Ukraine to give up territory.

Odds and ends:

It's @clareblackwood.bsky.social back as Poilievre's personal assistant, Mandy.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T20:46:27.640Z

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