The Department of National Defence is investigating the leak of selective information by F-35 proponents that made that fighter look like a clear winner in the competition with the SAAB Gripen-E fighter, and the journalists who accepted the leak and wrote that story is getting a bit huffy about it. His story on the investigation quotes a Quebec journalists’ union about how important it is that journalists “do their work freely,” and that such a big purchase deserves scrutiny. This kind of self-righteousness is not unexpected.

That said, he also quoted security expert Wesley Wark who basically took him to the woodshed because the leak was quite obviously propaganda as it was selective, they didn’t provide information on the criteria that the scores were based on (just that it looked like the F-35s were the clear winner with no actual context), and this should have been completely obvious as part of the original story. It’s no secret that there is a cadre within the Canadian Forces that is heavily invested in acquiring as much American military tech as possible, in part because they operate so closely with American forces, but also because they are socialised into believing that it’s the very best and they want the very best, so they have been doing everything they can to manipulate the purchase of these fighters from the very beginning, starting with the Harper government who credulously just said “okay, we’ll sole-source it” on the military’s recommendation in the first instance, before it turned into something of a scandal because of the escalating price tag. (This is not how you do civilian control, guys). These same military folks seem to think that the Americans will never turn on us, and that Trump’s threats are not to be taken seriously.

I should be surprised—but really, I’m not—that the journalist in question allowed himself to be played like this, and clearly it did the job the leakers wanted because you had a bunch of pundits take the story to proclaim that the F-35 is the fighter for Canada, hands-down. That’s ultimately why I find the self-righteous response to a leak investigation to be…funny? Sad? Either way, I’m not a defence expert, but I do read and I do talk to people a lot, and I could see clearly that what got leaked was a frame-up job, and the journalist who wrote the original piece should have seen that as well, and done a better job of canvassing dissent to the leak rather than seeking out sources to confirm what the leakers were selling. But he didn’t, and so he got the head of a journalists’ union to get self-righteous on his behalf. It’s not great for the trust in the institution of journalism if we let ourselves get played like this.

Ukraine Dispatch

An underwater Ukrainian drone struck and disabled a Russian submarine docked at a Black Sea naval base (though Russia denies this). European leaders are meeting in The Hague to launch an International Claims Commission to compensate Ukraine for hundreds of billions of dollars in damages from Russia’s attacks and war crimes.

Good reads:

• Tim Hodgson announced the launch of a task force to assess the competitiveness of the softwood lumber industry. He also said he’s taking calls about floor-crossing.
• CSIS says there are no specific threats against the Jewish community in Canada at the moment, but there remains a “realistic possibility” of an extremist attack.
• CBSA’s new online portal continues to have problems including outages, fourteen months since the switchover happened.
• The Canadian Forces member charged with leaking information to a foreign power has been released from custody.
• The World Anti-Doping Agency is going to Federal Court to try and block a Privacy Commissioner investigation into how they handle their samples.
• It looks like Carney’s promised “consumer incentives” for green purchases have been shelved (which is not a surprise at this point).
• Here’s a look at how dangerous the waters of the Hecate Strait are, where the tanker ban currently applies, which the Conservatives want to allow tanker traffic through.
• A report suggests we could save glaciers from extinction by bending the curve enough on climate change…but that’s inconvenient, so it looks like they’re toast.
• Five Liberal MPs and one NDP MP are on a trip to the West Bank.
• Pierre Poilievre says that Carney is stealing his ideas and then undermining them.
• The Newfoundland and Labrador government has launched a four-month review of the Hydro-Quebec deal, which could kill it before the next Quebec election.
• The far-right OneBC party has essentially split, allegedly over the attempt to fire a racist and antisemitic staffer, which blew up internally.
• Marty Patriquin looks at how tech executives in Canada are frustrated by the slow pace of digital asbestos adoption because our AI godfathers preach caution.
• Shannon Gormley pens a lament for the end of American democracy.

Odds and ends:

There's no #QP for the next six weeks.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-12-15T14:34:30.534Z

Hey BSers! Need a copy of my book, for yourself or for a holiday gift? @dundurnpress.bsky.social is having their holiday sale! Use code HOLIDAY25 to save 25% on this, or any Dundurn book. Check out my book #UnbrokenMachine, or the book I contributed a chapter to, #RoyalProgress.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T02:01:04.435Z

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