Roundup: Internet troll and wide-eyed naïf

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The occupation leaders started their turn to testify at the Emergencies Act committee yesterday, and it’s quite an interesting picture that they are painting of themselves. Chris Barber, for example, admits to being a racist internet troll who “saw the light” thanks to all of the love and hugs during the occupation (sure, Jan), but also tried to present himself as this wide-eyed naïf who couldn’t possibly understand the MOU about overthrowing the government, or who believed all the honking was just these truckers being excited. Yeah, so believable. There were, apparently, power struggles between the different groups and organisers, and things started to spiral out of their control. Gosh, you think? And when Barber was presented with an email with an assassination threat targeting Chrystia Freeland, he insisted he had no knowledge of this—because, you know, it was all peace and love. (Credit to Shannon Proudfoot for the troll/naïf descriptor).

Elsewhere, Doug Ford’s lawyers were at Federal Court to argue that the rule of law would be “irreparably harmed” if Ford and Sylvia Jones were forced to testify at the public inquiry or deal with any subsequent contempt proceedings, which…is a bit much. The judge in the case noted that the parliamentary privilege relates to criminal and civil courts, but does not specify public inquiries (because the basis of the privilege stems from a time when the Crown controlled the courts). Said judge also said he expects to have a decision by November 8th, which is two days before Ford and Jones are supposed to testify at the inquiry.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 252:

Russian authorities in occupied territories have ordered the evacuation of civilians in an area near Kherson, which the Ukrainian government considers a forced depopulation, which is a war crime. Russians also fired missiles into an apartment building in the port city of Mykolaiv, and have destroyed about 40 percent of the country’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

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QP: A puzzling and aborted attempt to change the channel

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The PM was present today, while his deputy was not, though most of the other leaders weren’t. Pierre Poilievre led off in French by accusing the government of fuelling inflation and added in some nonsense about rising taxes and deficits making interest rates go higher (no, that’s not how this works), and demanded an end to government spending. Justin Trudeau said that Canadians are concerned about the cost of living, the cost of going to the dentist, and the cost of rent, which is why they put forward measures that the Conservative have been opposing. Poilievre switched to English to insist that everything that Trudeau does makes everything worse, and demanded the prime minister stop driving up the cost of living by ending government taxing Canadians (which are wildly disparate concepts being mashed together with zero regard for how things work). Trudeau listed measures that they have made to support people and employers through the pandemic and ensured that our economy came “roaring back” faster than other countries, because it ensured economic growth. Poilievre insisted that Trudeau’s “own parliamentary budget officer” (which is some weird bullshit) that much of that COVID spending had nothing to do with COVID, and quoted some Desjardins figures about federal debt charges which he asserted could have been better spent on health transfers. (Erm, really? That’s your line? Also, those “bankers and bondholders” for that federal debt actually goes a lot to things like pension plans.) Trudeau once again touted the investments they made to support low-income families, and that the Conservatives would rather see cuts. Poilievre spun a tale of woe for people’s credit card rates, with some disingenuous laugh lines about the government assuming debt so people wouldn’t have to in the pandemic, leading to a false reading of how federal debt works. Trudeau repeated that they face supports to people, before calling out Poilievre for not condemning Doug Ford’s preemptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause. Poilievre then went on a bad faith rant about the ArriveCan app and trolled for support for his Supply Day motion on calling the Auditor General on the app. Trudeau said it was no surprise that Poilievre would not condemn this attack on rights, before returning to the points that the Conservatives want to raid EI and pensions.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he lamented the state of the healthcare system and worried that the federal government was “scheming” to deprive provinces of funding. Trudeau said that they want to see an effective system, which is why they want to supply more money, but they need to work with provinces to ensure that there are results. Therrien turned this into an attack on Quebec, and referenced the (largely apocryphal) Night of the Knives under his father. Trudeau insisted they want to work with provinces but need tangible results rather than throwing money at a broken system. 

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and in French, he shouts about fossil fuel subsidies, saying that 2023 was two months away. Trudeau said that the elimination of “inefficient” subsidies would happen by the end of 2023. Daniel Blaikie took over in English, and demanded the government eliminate GST off of home heating (which is really just a subsidy for rich households. Trudeau praised their climate rebates, and other affordability measures. 

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Roundup: Sloly, Day Two

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It was another firehose of news out of the Emergencies Act public inquiry for the second day of former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly’s testimony. Sloly lashed out at RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and then-Public Safety minister Bill Blair for not giving him the resources he needed, even though they were reluctant to give over resources without any kind of coherent plan in place (which is, frankly, reasonable), nor was Sloly following proper procedure for requesting additional resources under the Ontario policing legislation. Sloly also repeatedly contradicted documentary evidence, and attributed attacks against him to be rumours. There was some pretty disturbing stuff about how Navigator was involved in the decision-making, and how they were essentially testing how different parts of the city would react to actions to clear the occupation, which is a really, really questionable way for police to make decisions about how they’re upholding laws.

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1587096886388969472

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1587231274640490496

Meanwhile, we also got a look at the “intelligence” that the occupation was operating on, as a self-styled “expert” compiled these reports for organisers which are replete with fanciful notions of the Trudeau government trying to make this a Tiananmen Square-style event to crush dissenters. No, seriously. Other documents show that the RCMP union felt the decision to allow the trucks to park near Parliament Hill represented an unacceptable risk, and how they were preparing to respond to the request for their services. Other texts tabled with the inquiry show Marco Mendicino’s office trying to come up with a communications strategy before the convoy arrived and began the occupation.

Elsewhere, Doug Ford goes to court today to try and keep from testifying at the public inquiry. Justice Rouleau, who leads the inquiry, is seeking to have that application dismissed, saying that Ford is overstating his parliamentary privilege to avoid having to testify. But while Ford claims he’s too busy to testify, he spent yesterday putting out folksy pumpkin-carving videos, so yeah, that’s going to be a problem.

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1587114402851033091

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 251:

More heavy Russian bombardment of Kyiv has cut most power and water in the city, as the plan to try and demoralise the capital continues. Other cities were hit as well, and one missile that the Ukrainians shot down fell into a border city in Moldova, though no casualties resulted. Russia is claiming retaliation for attacks on their ships in the Black Sea, though Ukraine denies attacking them.

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QP: Competing misuses of “ironic”

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Neither the PM not his deputy were present today in spite of being in town, and most other leaders weren’t either. Pierre Poilievre was, however, and he led off in French with hyperbolic nonsense about deficits driving inflation (they are not), and worried that Canadians are cutting back to be able to afford to eat, and wanted the government to cancel their “inflationary policies” in their economic update, and called it “ironic” that it would mean cancelling everything they’ve done for seven years, which is neither ironic, nor in any way resembling reality. Randy Boissonnault responded by insisting that the government has a concrete plan for inflation including child care, the GST rebate, and the dental and rental supports, and said that it was “ironic” that the Conservatives voted against these measures, which again, is not actually ironic. Poilievre switched to English to misquote Tiff Macklem and Mark Carney about the domestic drivers of inflation, and then repeated his misuse of the term “ironic,” and once again, Boissonnault repeated his response, and his own misuse of the term “ironic.” (Make it stop!) Poilievre quoted the statistic on food bank usage, and pointed out that one in Toronto had to close because rent doubled, blaming the federal government for that, somehow. Boissonnault recited that this government has lifted people out of poverty, and wondered why the Conservatives voted against measures to help Canadians. Poilievre tried to call out the NDP for supporting the government’s carbon price as home heating bills increase, to which Sean Fraser stood up to take exception to this line of questioning, pointing to the Hurricane Fiona damage that his province suffered, and that most families get more back than they spent on it. Poilievre insisted this wasn’t a climate plan but a tax plan because the government hasn’t hit any climate targets (never mind that this is largely impossible under the sabotage of the previous government on the environmental file). Fraser got back up to insist that Poilievre has been repeating the same false points for years, and keeps being proven wrong.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the story in the Star that claimed the government planned to freeze out certain provinces in negotiations for health transfers, to which Jean-Yves Duclos insisted that all health ministers have the same goals for the same dollars. Therrien shouted that this as about breaking provinces and it was blackmail, but Duclos calmly recited that the federal government has been there for the provinces and listed the billions of dollars transferred to them.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and in French, accused the government of letting people starve while CEOs get rich. François-Philippe Champagne said that this was theatrical, and listed actions he has taken such as calling up the grocery CEOs and getting the Competition Bureau involved. Daniel Blaikie repeated the same in English, hoping for measures in the Fall Economic Statement, and Champagne repeated his response in English.

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Roundup: The wrong way to humanize politics

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I see that Government House Leader Mark Holland was making the media rounds over the weekend about his call for more “humanity” in politics, as he continues to plead for hybrid sessions to continue indefinitely. The problem, however, is that the two are fundamentally incompatible. Do you know why? Because what humanises politicians to one another is to spend time together, face-to-face. Hybrid sittings will keep MPs in isolated bubbles where they have fewer and fewer interactions with their fellow MPs in person, making it harder to see them and treat them as human beings, and we know this because we have seen the decline in civility in real-time since the 1990s when they ended evening sittings in the House of Commons to be “family friendly.” It used to be that three nights a week, MPs would go upstairs at six PM, and all have dinner together in the Parliamentary Restaurant, and at 8 PM, they’d go back to the Chamber, and debate some more. And lo, there was a lot more civility and treating each other in a friendly manner, Question Period theatrics aside, because they spent time with one another as human beings, doing that basic human thing of bonding over food (and yes, booze, because we cannot deny that it was a big part of the culture up until that point, for better or worse). But when they ended those sittings, and MPs no longer ate together, the acrimony got worse, and disagreements got more personal.

I cannot stress this enough—hybrid makes this worse. I know that there is a school of thought that it lets MPs spend more time at home, which gives them more work-life balance, and so on, but to be perfectly frank, the job is in Ottawa. The job is not to be a social worker for constituents filling out passport forms and doing immigration paperwork—the job is to hold the government to account, and doing so by controlling the public purse, meaning scrutiny of the Estimates and the Public Accounts, and debating their legislative proposals along the way. We are straying far from this path, and taking this hybrid makes the slide worse. The job is also face-to-face, because it relies on building relationships, and that doesn’t happen over Zoom. You have heard me time and again saying that the real work happens on the side-lines of committee rooms, in hallways and lobbies, and when you’re talking to ministers while you’re waiting for a vote to happen. This is all in danger of falling away the more MPs move to hybrid (and “virtual” voting is becoming an absolute disaster for MPs being able to approach ministers), and that is not a “more human” approach to politics. It is in fact the opposite, and people need to wake up and realize that fact.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 250:

Russia pulled out of the deal with the UN to allow Ukrainian grain shipments over the Black Sea, likely because their ships were hit by attacks over the weekend, but the UN and Turkey say they are going to ensure those shipments still happen, essentially daring Russia to attack them, so we’ll see how that goes.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1586779214069407745

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Roundup: Sloly’s first day at the inquiry

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It was the first of two days that former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly took the stand at the Emergencies Act public inquiry, and, well, ooooof. The man did not acquit himself or his actions very well. He blamed the media for the perception that the police weren’t doing anything (erm, they weren’t), he defended the belief that the occupation would end in two or three days, he praised the officer who fed him the widely discredited Rex Murphy-sourced intelligence, and generally insisted that everyone was doing the best job that they could, but wow. Oh, and then he got emotional and teary at the end about how the situation that he allowed to escalate got to be too much. No, seriously.

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1586011336987009029

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1586075397212770304

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 248 (because apparently, I lost a day somewhere):

Kyiv is facing increasing blackouts as a result of increased Russian attacks on electrical infrastructure. Russian forces continue to shell Bakhmut, in the hopes that it could open the way to hitting other strongholds in the Donetsk region, and that it could blunt the advance on the southern city of Kherson, which itself is a gateway to Crimea.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau unveiled a new five-year bond-buying programme for Canadians to support Ukraine financially, along with new sanctions on Russians.
  • Chrystia Freeland announced that the Fall Economic Statement will be delivered on November 3rd (just before the constituency week, so they can fan out to sell it).
  • As of August, the federal government was still in a surplus position.
  • The federal government is moving to restrict the involvement of foreign state-own enterprises in the critical minerals sector.
  • Health Canada is looking to hire an external company to process dental claims in a standalone federal insurance programme rather than involving the provinces.
  • In advance of the COP27 meeting in Egypt, developed nations haven’t stepped up to meet climate finance goals, and Canada may be asked to do more.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada struck down elements of the mandatory registration to the federal sex offender registry in all cases, restoring judicial discretion.
  • MPs on the Heritage committee pushed back at Meta’s threat to remove news content from Facebook if they go ahead with the online news bill.
  • Premiers are huffing and puffing at the news that Trudeau is looking to play hard ball with them on future health care transfers.
  • It looks like Doug Ford was happy to participate in the public inquiry back in June, but has now changed his tune and lawyered up to avoid having to testify.
  • Susan Delacourt ruminates on how politicians have dealt with defeat, and whether some rebounds are more of a sign of workaholism.
  • Justin Ling goes through the public inquiry documents to confirm that yes, there were concerns about weapons in the occupation, and firearms charges were laid.
  • My weekend column on the facile inflation narratives coming from the opposition, and the inability of the government to call it out.

Odds and ends:

Governor General Mary May Simon’s Coat of Arms was revealed yesterday.

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Roundup: Lost faith in the Ottawa Police Service

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Once again, a lot of threads to disentangle as the OPP Commissioner, Thomas Carrique, was on the stand at the Emergencies Act public inquiry, and what a lot of the day seemed to focus on (at least, from what I could tell from afar) were the texts he was exchanging with RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki. So, what did we learn? That the federal government had pretty much lost all confidence in the Ottawa Police and were discussing taking over the response to the occupation, even though Lucki was particularly reluctant to do so (and worried that the Emergencies Act would be used to make that happen). There was discussion about the OPP in particular taking over, and the Commissioner was ready to have that call before the Ottawa chief resigned. Once Peter Sloly was out of the way, an integrated command was set up. Also interesting was the comment that the Act was used to compensate tow truck drivers more than it was to compel their services (which could be a signal to the provinces about how they may need to update their own emergency legistlation).

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1585629449038577664

Carrique defended his comments that the occupation was a threat to national security, and the way that the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor was handled differently than the Ottawa occupation. Documents provided to the inquiry showed that the FBI provided some support to the Ottawa Police during the occupation, likely around US-based support for it, so that lends some credence to the national security threat analysis.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1585720241979629569

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 246:

Ukrainian forces attacked Russian forces occupying the southern city of Kherson, while fighting also intensified in the country’s east as Russians bombarded the city of Bakhmut. While Putin is denying he plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine (isn’t that a sign he will?), another mass grave was discovered in the village of Kopanky.

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QP: Framing food bank stats for their own ends

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Neither the prime minister nor his deputy were present today, nor were most other leaders, save Pierre Poilievre, who is nearly always present. Poilievre led off in French, worrying that 1.5 million visits to food banks and that this was Canada, but he blamed taxes for this. Randy Boissonnault noted that people are having a tough time, but this government had supports available while the Conservatives would rather see them on their own. Poilievre repeated the statistic in English, adding in a “triple, triple, triple” talking point to that, and this time Karina Gould delivered the same response. Poilievre called the $6000 hotel room in London as a (tortured) analogy about this government and that the party was over, but Gould got back up to point out that the Conservatives would have abandoned Canadians in their darkest hour in the pandemic. Poilievre tried to bring in WE and ArriveCan as examples of waste, and Boissonnault repeated Gould’s point more excitedly. Poilievre raised a media story of a family who over-leveraged themselves on their mortgage and their payments have gone up $2000 and wonders what the hell they do now. (The Speaker cautioned him against this). Ahmed Hussen rose to accuse Poilievre of “gatekeeping” rental supports for those who need it and dental care.

Alain Therrien rose for the Bloc, railed that the dental support was not adequate for Quebec families and wondered why the government just didn’t approach the Quebec government (because federal-provincial agreements are that easy). Pablo Rodriguez chided the Bloc for not caring enough about children. Therrien got even more exercise about this, to which Adam van Koeverden read a statement about the benefit being available to those who need it.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he too raised the food bank usage figure, but blamed the government for not tackling corporate greed. Gould reminded him that this government has raised more children out of poverty than ever before. Alastair MacGregor repeated the same question in English (Champagne: I called on grocery CEOs to task them with taking action, and I demanded the Competition Bureau investigate the sector).

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Roundup: Contradictions and poor intelligence practices

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There has been a number of competing threads in the ongoing Emergencies Act public inquiry, and a lot of police testimony that is contradictory, and contradicting their own documentary evidence. For example, one senior Ottawa police officer is claiming that they had the tow trucks all lined up and ready to go without the invocation of the Act—erm, except the documents don’t show that at all, and that they needed the Act to secure those services. There has also been a lot of alarming signs about the quality of police intelligence about the make-up of the occupation (which many leaders subsequently ignored anyway). The OPP did see an increasing risk of violence the longer it dragged on, particularly by those in the occupation who felt they were “at war” with the federal government, along with growing anti-police sentiment (presumably because police weren’t doing their bidding to arrest members of the government). The Commission has agreed to hear CSIS’ evidence behind closed doors.

Here’s former CSIS analyst Jessica Davis on the quality of that intelligence, and yikes:

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 245:

Both Russian and NATO forces carried out annual nuclear exercises, while Russia carries on its false narrative that Ukrainians plan to detonate a “dirty bomb” on their own soil in order to blame Russia—information operations entirely. While this was happening, Russian forces targeted 40 towns in Ukraine, killing at least two more people.

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QP: The increasing hyperbole meets the wall of pabulum

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The translation system was haywire in the Chamber, which made for a very awkward and very late start to the day. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he started off with the falsehood that  government spending caused inflation (he didn’t), and railed about increasing interest rates as a result. Justin Trudeau got up and said that he would respond in a second but wanted to mark that this is the 40th day since the murder of Mahsa Amini in Iran, and that he stood with the Iranian-Canadian community. Poilievre switched to English to say that people are now paying $7000 more on mortgage payments and wondered who was going to pay it. Trudeau said that the government made the decision to support people in the pandemic, and are now supporting them with the GST rebate, dental care and rental supports. Poilievre trotted out his misquote of Mark Carney and wanted to know how many people would lose their homes because of higher interest rates, and Trudeau pointed out that inflation is a world-wide problem, which is why they have supported Canadians. Poilievre chanted that the cost of government is increasing the cost of living (not true), trotted out falsehoods about ArriveCan and cited a problem with the disclosure from CBSA. Trudeau said that the appropriate ministers are looking into this discrepancy before patting himself on the back for pandemic supports. Poilievre accused the prime minister of personally handing out ArriveCan contracts and then complained about the cost of the hotel in London for the Queen’s funeral delegation. Trudeau reminded him they had a large delegation that went to the funeral and that they stayed in the same hotel and it was expected for us to have a strong presence as a Realm country.

Yves-François Blanchet worried that seniors between 65 and 75 were being discriminated against because they didn’t get the OAS top-up. Trudeau said it’s great that seniors are living longer but those older seniors can run out of savings, so the government was there in a proportionate way for those with the most needs. Blanchet made a dig about King Charles before demanding more healthcare transfers without strings attached. Trudeau said that the law states equitable treatment and the federal government was happy to talk to provinces about getting Canadians the services they need.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he railed about interest rates and demanded action from the government. Trudeau reminded him they are supporting those who need it most. In English, Singh noted that the prime minster’s own former economic advisor was concerned about the increasing interest rates and wanted help for families, and Trudeau repeated his response.

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