Tag Archives: China

Roundup: The 44th Charter anniversary

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Yesterday was the 44th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it comes at a time when the Charter is increasingly under attack by provincial governments who have realised that the prohibition against using the Notwithstanding Clause has worn off, and that the public no longer cares about it—at least not enough to actually punish a government that does it, mostly because it’s right-wing governments using the Clause to punish minorities, and there isn’t enough political will to care about trans and gender diverse youth, or the rights of visible minorities in Quebec.

While everyone waits for the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in the Law 21 case out of Quebec, there is some using about ways that the federal government could try and introduce some kinds of guardrails against its use federally, but that immediately had the Bloc Québécois howling, and the brand new Quebec premier striking a combative tone, until she got reassurances from Carney and a text message apology from the federal justice minister, which strikes me as far too much appeasement. And then you have people calling for the constitutional power of disallowance if a province invokes the Clause, but that’s extremely dangerous. Disallowance is a constitutional dead letter—it existed mostly as a way of ensuring provinces would stay within their constitutional lanes, and that function has been taken up by the Supreme Court of Canada’s reference function. Disallowance would essentially be a declaration of war, which is a very bad thing for any federal government.

So, what can we do about provinces who abuse the power? The same way you effect any political change—you organize, and you protest, and you get out the vote. But that’s hard, and people don’t want to do that, even though that’s the way politics works. There is no easy way to curb the abuse of these powers other than the public letting it be known that it’s unacceptable, and that’s hard work. But it’s the only way to ensure that you not only get change, but that said change is actually durable. Make premiers afraid of you. It’s the only way we’re going to fix what’s wrong with this country.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-04-17T13:13:12.555Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones hit the Danube port of Izmail once again, and at least one drone strayed into Romanian territory as a result. Ukrainian drones made hits at oil facilities in the Black Sea port of Tuapse and Krasnodar.

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Roundup: Danielle Smith’s Soviet-style political neutrality

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Yesterday was Trans Day of Visibility, and because of the times we live in, it was treated as an excuse to attack trans rights. In the US, the US Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy in an 8-1 ruling, under the ludicrous rubric that banning “talk therapy” was impacting free speech (even though talk therapy should be classed as medical services, as the dissenting judge pointed out). And in Idaho, the governor signed a bill to make it a felony for a trans person to use a public washroom that is not their assigned sex at birth.

Back in Canada, Alberta premier Danielle Smith tabled a bill that purports to “remove politics and ideology” from schools, which among other things, means ensuring there are no Pride flags ever raised at Alberta schools. (Noted is that the current ban on informing parents if a student joins a GSA is not being changed). There are a lot of questions around what this is supposed to mean, and whether it’s only in classrooms, or if teachers are allowed to post opinions online, or anything like that, but it’s a weird and troubling decision by Smith to pursue this particular line of attack, and especially because it’s going to create a system of surveillance and denunciations, which is starting to sound pretty Soviet for a self-professed “libertarian” like Smith.

This can be taken is so many dangerous directions. And once something like this is enshrined in legislation, it creates a culture of surveillance where educators are going to live in fear of being secretly recorded and reported (look at what's happening in the U.S.!!)

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:14:57.962Z

The bill seeks to "bar school divisions or employees from making statements on “political, social or ideological matters” outside the school division’s purview."Curious if the government will think a teacher talking about being LGBTQ2S+ issues at all is "outside the school division's purview."

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:07:49.094Z

"Nicolaides also wouldn’t say whether the flag limitation would apply to stickers or magnets or other imagery teachers might have in their classrooms, except to say they can’t have ideological symbols."In a similar vein, could teachers get in trouble having, say, a Pride flag sticker on desk?

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:09:05.569Z

For a government who loves free speech, this seems a massive affront to freedom of expression for teachers and school staff on like, a very basic level.Very curious what the unions will say about all of this …

— Mel Woods (@melwoods.me) 2026-03-31T21:10:49.732Z

This in and of itself is a problem—it treats straight, white men as the default norm, and everyone else as “political,” and when you are effacing queer and trans people in the dame of “neutrality,” that is very, very political and is not neutral in the slightest. And Smith is going to keep getting away with this kind of thing because nobody is protesting around the clock or organizing a general strike to stop her.

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukrainian drones struck the Russian oil terminal at Ust-Luga for the fifth time in ten days. European diplomats were in Bucha to commemorate the 2022 massacre by Russian forces there. President Zelenskyy is hoping the Americans can convince Russia to enter into an “Easter truce” (and good luck with that).

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Roundup: Pushing ahead for a constitutional amendment

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith has decided that she’s not taking no for an answer when it comes to her demand for more say in the appointment of superior court judges in the provinces, and is putting forward a motion for a constitutional amendment to demand such a power, and is patterning it off of a similar motion from Quebec.

Feb 19 Ms Smith announces a referendum to initiate a process to amend s 96 of the Constitution (appointment of judges).And then today she announces, w/out waiting for that vote, that the Leg will be asked to adopt a motion on the same issue.Doesn't she trust voters?www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?…

— NigelBankes (@nigelb.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T00:31:00.468Z

Here's the text:

— NigelBankes (@nigelb.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T02:02:39.364Z

Smith will try and spin this (since it only refers to AB) as an amendment that only applies to AB and thus does not engage the 7/50 formula. Good luck with that.Also makes me wonder whether she spoke to Ontario and SK before hanging them out to dry (given the joint letter the other week).

— NigelBankes (@nigelb.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T02:06:19.965Z

Of course, along the way, she is making arguments for this that have no basis in reality. Alberta already appoints provincial court judges and justices of the peace, and she has invented whole cloth this notion that somehow federally-appointed judges are being parachuted into the province from outside. No—the people named to the bench are already lawyers within the province. The provincial judicial advisory committee selects from local candidates who apply, and has members of the local legal community vet them for suitability. There is no federal imposition happening here, other than the fact that it’s not Smith who gets to choose for her own ideological reasons.

This is ridiculous.1) Good luck opening that Pandora's Box.2) Alberta already appoints provincial court judges, which handle the bulk of criminal cases.3) The premise here is utterly false. Federally-appointed judges aren't parachuted in. They come from the province and communities they serve.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T02:08:27.386Z

OF course, this all in service of inventing a new grievance that has never existed before, because she needs to find new things to get the population riled up about. And you can bet that this is going to include more dramatics and histrionics about the fact that she is not being allowed to influence the next Supreme Court of Canada appointment, which is for a western seat on the Court (but is unlikely to be from Alberta given that Justice Moreau is already from Alberta, and there hasn’t been a Saskatchewan judge on the Court in quite a while now). But needing to invent new things to be mad about is her hobby, because if she didn’t, then people might turn their attention to her government’s incompetence and corruption.

It's just lies all the way down with Danielle Smith.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T02:08:27.387Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-30T22:08:01.849Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian attacks near Poltava killed one and injured three, while artillery strikes killed another person in Nikopol. Air defence units being formed by private companies are now in operation, which is meant to help take the burden off of the front-line units. President Zelenskyy says that security accords with Gulf countries are either signed or nearly so.

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Roundup: Poilievre’s anti-trans colours

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Yesterday, Pierre Poilievre tweeted an endorsement of JK Rowling praising the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban trans women from sport, using a photo of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif as illustration. In spite of conspiracy theories and slander, Khelif is not trans (and is from a country where being queer is a crime). Poilievre should know this, but he is choosing to double down on anti-trans rhetoric (with a dose of misogyny and slander along the way). This is not the first time he has shown himself to be anti-trans, but this is the first major opportunity since he’s been trying to cast himself in a new light.

In case you needed any clarification where Poilievre stands on trans rights.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-27T17:16:48.712Z

The discussion of this online turned to Mark Carney’s stance on trans rights (he has been blandly supportive, and one of his children identifies as non-binary), and whether he is going to do anything about provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, who have invoked the Notwithstanding Clause to protect their anti-trans legislation from court challenges. The answer is that he doesn’t have the constitutional tools to do anything about it other than moral suasion. And then someone will pipe up and say that he can use disallowance.

No, he can’t. Disallowance is a constitutional dead letter because it was largely meant to prevent provinces from intruding into areas of federal jurisdiction, and that power was essentially adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada’s reference function. This means that any residual disallowance power would be a declaration of war on a province, at a time when you have two provinces that are flirting with separatist agitation. It’s not going to happen. Stop pretending that it’s a possibility because it’s not.

For the last time:The federal government is NOT going to use disallowance.Stop pretending it is a magic wand to deal with asshole premiers. You want to stop them? Get off your ass and organize, organize, organize. That's how politics works.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-28T04:36:47.504Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-27T13:24:01.622Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukraine’s economy minister said that the rise in fuel and fertilizer prices thanks to the Iran conflict are not expected to impact Ukraine’s spring planting season.

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Roundup: Trying to deflect on forced labour

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There was a lot of talk about newly-minted Liberal MP Michael Ma’s performance at the industry committee, where he questioned a witness about whether she had personally witnessed forced labour in China, in a tactic to try and dismiss her in favour of a witness who was pro-trade in Chinese EVs. Ma later apologised, and there was apparently some confusion over just which region in China he was referring to, but still, it made for a poor clip from committee (and of the CBC reporter chasing him on the Hill), and bad clips would seem to be a cardinal sin in Parliament these days.

This being said, there would seem to me to be a tension in all of this that very few people want to actually discuss, which is the fact that Carney’s “strategic partnerships” that he’s been patting himself on the back for post-Davos speech involve countries that involve forced labour—China and Qatar—while at the same time praising all of the “good, union jobs” that those partnerships will create back home in Canada. This while the Liberals still insist that they opposed forced labour in all of its forms, and that they have strong rules about eliminated forced labour from supply chains. There is a fundamental disconnect that they seem incapable of bridging coherently, because they simply ignore the dissonance, or in Ma’s case, his attempt to throw confusion around it just wound up making him look like an ass.

This is why I wrote my column earlier in the week about the Canadian Ombud for Responsible Enterprise, whose office was designed to look for forced labour in supply chains and call it out, and the fact that Carney has left the office vacant for the past year and will almost certainly smother it in its sleep and scrap the office in the name of budget cuts—so that there is no embarrassment caused over these “strategic partnerships” with forced-labour countries in the name of being “pragmatic” in the post-rupture world of global trade. Ma just gave the government a black eye over this, so we’ll see if they can handle themselves any better in the face of these embarrassing contradictions.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia claims to have taken a village in eastern Ukraine, while Ukraine reclaimed a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region. President Zelenskyy arrived for an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia, one of the countries Ukraine is supplying drone expertise.

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QP: NATO back-patting and “radical environmentalism”

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The PM was off in Halifax for his military announcement, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent, and attendance was down because this is essentially a Friday as the House is not sitting tomorrow. That left it up to Andrew Scheer to lead off, and he complained that the dollar was not rising with oil prices, and blamed the government’s “radical environmental agenda.” Mysteriously, Jill McKnight rose for the government,  to to answer the question, but to pat herself on the back for the government’s announcement that we have met the former NATO two percent spending target. Scheer said nothing about this, and kept on with his script about affordability, and blamed the industrial carbon price for declining productivity. (Seriously?!) this time, Sherry Romanado got up, and no, she didn’t answer the question either, but delivered the NATO back-patting en français. Rob Moore took over, and continued with the same script about the “radical environmental agenda” driving up the cost of living, to which Tim Hodgson got up to note that he received praise from members of the American cabinet earlier in the week for Canada’s record oil and gas production helping to keep prices down. Moore recited the lines about the industrial carbon price, to which François-Philippe Champagne got up to proclaim the “good news” of the NATO target, as well as their new bill boost home construction. Luc Berthold took over in French to decry the rising food and gasoline prices, and Champagne repeated his same response en français. Berthold then ranted about how everything was the same old Liberals, and this time Mélanie Joly pointed to inflation being stable while wages are rising at a faster rate.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she denounced Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau, and claimed the government only helps anglophones in Quebec. Marc Miller reminded her that they have invested $4 billion in French across the country, and that the are disappointed by the CEO of Air Canada. Normandin took a swipe at the Anglo speech writers in the PMO and that they are just encouraging more Michael Rousseaus. Miller reminded her that the Liberals have a historic number of Quebec MPs, and the PM has done a lot of work to improve his French. Mario Beaulieu took over and made his own swipe at Rousseau, and Miller reminded him that anglophones do have rights in Quebec.

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Roundup: Big problems with student visas

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Yesterday was Auditor General Report Day, and there were three on offer—the replacement for the Phoenix pay system, recruitment problems with the RCMP, and problems with the student visa system.

In short:

  1. The Phoenix replacement, Dayforce, is taking lessons learned from the problems of Phoenix, but in terms of simplifying pay rules, there has been no progress with the unions (which is not a surprise).
  2. The RCMP recruitment process is so bad partly because the RCMP hasn’t done enough workforce planning, their application process times keep getting longer, and they aren’t filling training classes. (Of course, the real problem is the force is horribly broken and needs to be dismantled and replaced).
  3. The student visa issue has been beset by problems with anti-fraud controls, and there has been a lack of resources to investigate cases. Additionally, the planned reductions in visa numbers wound up being way worse than intended (but that’s hardly a surprise when they get the message that they’re not wanted).

The thing that gets me in particular about the student visa issue is that the provinces are getting off scot-free here. I know the AG has no mandate to investigate provinces, but so many of the problems with this programme started with the provinces, who have not been held accountable for them, whether it’s because they cut university funding, which made them reliant on the higher tuition of foreign students, or the fact that several provinces, most especially Ontario, let these fraudulent strip mall colleges flourish, which were in turn used to be a source of cheap labour, and the federal government, which doesn’t have the mandate or capacity to investigate these colleges, is left taking all of the blame. No, the department is not blameless, as the audit shows, but the wider problem is not addressed by this, and continues to go without any accountability.

PBO candidate

The nominee for the new Parliamentary Budget Officer, Annette Ryan, appeared at the finance committee, where the Conservatives outright declared that they will not vote for her because they claim that the interim PBO, Jason Jacques, was “silenced” for calling the government out, and that he should get the job. Except that he disqualified himself, and he was not fired, nor did he “expose” anything. He made an ass of himself on camera, but that’s what the Conservatives want, and they are now spreading lies to make that point. Just unbelievable.

This is pathetic.Jacques wasn't fired. He didn't "expose" anything. His term expired, and he disqualified himself from the permanent post because he decided he wanted to play for the cameras. But that's why Poilievre wants him on the job, because for him, Parliament is a clip factory.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T00:46:12.483Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-23T13:08:04.927Z

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy is warning of an imminent “massive attack” against the country. He also says that he has “irrefutable proof” that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran.

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QP: As if the trade war wasn’t happening

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The Monday after a break week, and it was little surprise that neither of the main leaders were present. That left it up to Garnett Genuis to lead off, and he decried the job numbers released last Friday, and demanded an end to excuses by the government. Steven MacKinnon responded in French with condolences for the loss of lives in the collision at LaGuardia late last night. Genuis noted that Conservatives send their condolences as well, and again, decried job losses and blamed…government deficits. MacKinnon repeated his condolences for the collision in English. Melissa Lantsman took over, and she too decried the job numbers, and François-Philippe Champagne dismissed this as talking down the economy when they have so many things happening. Lantmsan seemed to think that we are somehow uniquely awful thanks to the government because other countries also face tariffs, as though their economies are equally exposed to the US. This time Patty Hajdu reminded her that we are in the midst of a trade war, and that they have tariff response plans with provinces like Ontario. Luc Berthold took over in French, to again denounce the job numbers, added in the recent job losses at Algoma Steel, and added in that there was no deal with Trump. Champagne took exception to that kind of question that was creating division while Canadians were standing together. Berthold tried again, blaming Carney for making things worse, and Mélanie Joly took her own turn to take exception to the question, saying that Algoma not shut down, and that they have the defence industrial strategy that would transform the sector.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she denounced the hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada on Quebec’s so-called secularism law, and declared it an attack on Quebec. Sean Fraser said that the Court is the right place to hold this argument, and it was inappropriate for him to comment. Normandin tried again, saying that the Notwithstanding Clause is the only think keeping Quebec as itself. Joël Lightbound repeated Fraser’s response. Rhéal Fortin tried the same line again, and this time Steven MacKinnon took a swipe at the Parti Québécois. 

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Roundup: Credulous takes on private members’ bills

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There have been a few stories over the past few days that have raised my ire, so I’m going to take a few minutes to point a few things out. One of them is this CBC story yesterday about Jenny Kwan’s private member’s bill, and that as many as sixteen Liberals are considering supporting it. My beef: the sub-hed on the story reading “Vote would mark first time some in caucus split from government line under Carney.” Split from the government line? It’s a private member’s bill. Those are free votes by default. That’s the whole point of them. CBC should know better, and frankly, I really don’t like it when the media tries to play party whip while at the same time wishing that MPs were more independent.

The other story yesterday was about Conservative MP Dan Albas’ private member’s bill, which purports to empower Canada Post to deliver alcohol across provincial lines. Most of the stories in various outlets talked about how Dominic LeBlanc appeared to support the bill in Question Period, which he actually did not. What LeBlanc said was that this is an area of provincial regulation (which only the Star’s story mentions), but that he would bring it up when he meets with his provincial counterparts in a few weeks because he thinks it’s a good idea. And more to the point, this bill is a gimmick, which Albas and Pierre Poilievre insist overrides provincial regulation, but it actually doesn’t because, and just puts Canada Post in a bind. It would be great if any story could point that fact out, or talked to a lawyer, but nope, they focused on LeBlanc’s answer in QP, and even then couldn’t get the nuance right.

The third is a story from CBC on Monday, which was very concerned that a lot of bills are passing “on division,” meaning without a vote. The problem was the initial sub-hed on the story which stated “Half the bills passed in the House this session have cleared 3rd reading without a head count or consensus,” which is wrong, because “on division” is consensus you don’t need a vote—the “or consensus” was later dropped from the sub-hed. Of course, the real reason is that the Conservatives don’t want to go to an election, so they’re not going to force a vote and have Andrew Scheer and Scott Reid hide behind the curtains again to ensure that the math is right and that they won’t accidentally do something stupid with the vote counts given how everything is so close, but the person you reached as your source for your explainer is Peter Van Loan? Possibly the worst Government House Leader in decades (which is saying a lot)? It came across as amateurish, and like CBC’s parliamentary bureau has a hard time understanding how parliament works, which is not a good look.

When your parliamentary bureau doesn't understand parliament, dumb things happen.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-09T13:50:45.982Z

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-10T21:22:01.632Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia dropped three guided bombs on Sloviansk in the east, and hit Kharkiv and Dnipro with drones, injuring another twenty people. Ukrainian forces have pushed Russian invaders out of Dnipropetrovsk region, while Russia claims to be making gains in Donbas. Ukraine hit a missile plant in Bryansk region in Russia.

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Roundup: Poilievre’s big foreign trip

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As Pierre Poilievre heads to London and Berlin for his first actual foreign trips as opposition leader, his office released his itinerary, which includes attending a CANZUK reception in London after meeting with parliamentarians and business leaders, and then delivering a keynotes speech in Berlin, along with meeting with officials and business leaders and touring an LNG facility.

And there’s the rub. This is going to turn into another tedious exercise of Poilievre doing a little song and dance about “Look! Europe wants our oil and gas!” when really, European leaders, after much badgering and hectoring, actually said something like “Sure, we’d like it if it was available and the right price,” neither of which is going to happen. We’ve seen this before. Certain political show hosts in our country like to engage in this very same badgering and hectoring whenever they interview a visiting European leader in order to say “Look! There’s a business case! Trudeau was wrong!” But they ignored the caveats and the economics.

The reason why LNG to Europe is never going to happen include:

  1. There is no local supply of natural gas on the east coast, so most of the feed stock would be imported from the US, raising prices locally, and if you think a cross-country pipeline is feasible, that will also increase prices in the east coast;
  2. It would take years to build an export facility, and it would take years to convert the one existing import terminal (which serves not only the local market, but also feeds into the northeastern US market);
  3. Even if these facilities existed, there has been no interest by European buyers in signing a long-term contract, which is one of the reasons why proposals for east coast LNG terminals never got off the ground. Also remember that these facilities essentially need to operate for a good thirty or forty years to make their money’s worth, and Europe is already rapidly decarbonizing.

Of course, Poilievre will ignore all of that, and declare that Europe wants our LNG, and we’ll go through this whole exercise yet again. It’s so tiresome that nobody actually wants to listen to reality on this subject.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-02-27T23:56:01.183Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia says a temporary ceasefire has been reached around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in order to ensure repairs. Ukraine is setting up a joint venture with allies to produce more air defence ammunition.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/2027352819905249375

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