Tag Archives: First Nations

QP: Dog-piling on Diab

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The PM was in town but not present, in advance of his big upcoming trip, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent. Michelle Rempel Garner led off, and claimed that by the end of the year, there will be three million people in the country on expired work permits and demanded a plan. Lina Diab gave some boilerplate about how people can extend their permits and those with expired permits are expected to leave. Rempel Garner ginned up the outrage some more, and Dian listed how intakes are down, and that they have exceeded their francophone targets while the population decreased slightly. Rempel Garner cited a CBC story where Diab’s own caucus colleagues have no confidence in her, and demanded she be replaced. Diab listed measures that the government has taken to reform the immigration system. Rempel Garner pointed out that Diab can’t answer basic questions in committee and again demanded she be replaced. Diab switched to French to repeat her same lines about targets being met. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French, and he quoted statistics about “fake” asylum seekers and claimed that appropriate security checks aren’t being done, and Steven MacKinnon got up to praise the minister and read the same script about targets being met. Paul-Hus took swipes at Diab, and MacKinnon went on a tear about how the Conservatives have no immigration policy.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and yet again raised the pension software, and apparently Quebec’s National Assembly passed a motion to decry federal waste. (Huh?) MacKinnon got up to deliver the well-worn lines about the scale of the project and that it is within budget. Normandin tried again, and Patty Hajdu insisted that the Bloc are patently wrong, and that they are moving three major systems to the new software. Sébastien Lemire took over to ask the same again, and Hajdu assured him that they are working to resolve all outstanding cases.

Why exactly is the Quebec National Assembly weighing in on federal software transformation? Do they have nothing better to do? #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-25T19:34:35.135Z

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Roundup: Our useless minister of digital asbestos

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In the wake of the Tumbler Ridge shooting, we have learned that OpenAI had suspended the shooter’s account but decided not to alert the RCMP about the fact that they had breached the guidelines meant to prevent violence, and didn’t reach out until days after the shooting occurred.

Enter Evan Solomon, our minister of digital asbestos, who released a statement late afternoon Saturday, that demonstrated his utter uselessness.

Evan Solomon’s useless statement on OpenAI not alerting police about the Tumbler Ridge shooter. What an absolute waste of space at the Cabinet table.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T21:51:49.274Z

“All options are on the table”? Bullshit. Solomon has stated time and again that he decided to move away from a safety-first regulatory approach to digital asbestos, to a “light touch” because the tech bros convinced him and Mark Carney that any regulation is going to “stifle innovation,” and they certainly wouldn’t want to do that. Meanwhile, the number of people spiralling into psychosis using these chatbots are increasing dramatically, we had indications that a mass shooter triggered the protocols on this particular chatbot but the company didn’t do anything about it, and we really believe that Solomon is going to what? Block them from operating in Canada? Fine them a paltry sum? What? The truth is he won’t, and we know why. He’s guzzled the hype, as has his boss, and neither of them can be told anything different, even in the face of fact after fact showing that the creators of this technology are the dumbest manbabies alive, that the technology is corrosive to the environment and to the cognitive abilities of the next generation, but hey, we wouldn’t want to “stifle innovation.” Come on. Do your job and ensure that Canadians are actually being protected from this rather than just being complicit.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia inflicted a missile and drone attack on a Kyiv suburb over the weekend, as well as on energy infrastructure around Odesa. As well, several bombs exploded in Lviv on Sunday, which are also being blamed on Russia. The Star follows one family who has been shattered by the war over the past four years.

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Roundup: Security theatre, extortion edition

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It was a coordinated photo-op day, as both prime minister Mark Carney and his finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, had events in different parts of the country to each proclaim measures that the government is taking to attack the rash of extortion crimes, happening in predominantly desi communities. Champagne was in Mississauga to proclaim that they were going to “follow the money” with these extortionists, and just have FINTRAC to do the work they’re already doing. Which is great, but it bears reminding that the RCMP’s federal policing role, which involves illicit financing and organised crime, is woefully underfunded, under-resourced, and lacking in specialised personnel, and this same government has refused to do the right thing and break up the RCMP so that it can stand up a proper, competent federal policing agency. Oh, and they dragged their feet for years on the promised financial crimes agency, so that’s also on them.

Meanwhile, Carney was in Surrey to have a photo op with police in the area, and he touted their bills to do things like strengthen bail laws, which won’t actually do that because the problem is provincial resourcing of courts, not the Criminal Code. All these bills are doing is setting the government up for failure, because as soon as someone reoffenders while on bail under these revised laws, the Conservatives will point at them and say “Look, your plan isn’t working.” The other thing Carney touted was the lawful access provisions in Bill C-2, claiming police really need these powers, but no, you do not give police incredibly invasive powers that they can start going on fishing expeditions with. The Supreme Court has twice ruled lawful access to be unconstitutional, and I wish this government could get that through their heads. After all, they opposed lawful access for 15 years until suddenly deciding it was the cat’s ass last spring.

During his speech in Surrey this morning, Carney talked about moving ahead on #LawfulAccess. As a reminder, Lawful Access has *twice* been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.I have some concerns about what they plan to do about private messaging services here.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:48:12.349Z

Last week, @privacylawyer.ca and I talked about these Lawful Access provisions on my YouTube channel:

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:48:12.350Z

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are insisting that none of these measures will work, and that they need to repeal previous bail and sentencing laws because that’ll do the trick. Except it won’t, because those laws don’t do the things the Conservatives claim they do, and this is just one more bit of cheap theatre that has Canadians’ Charter rights at stake, and they don’t seem to have any conscience about it. And frankly, Conservative MP Frank Caputo, a former Crown prosecutor, knows better than this, and if he doesn’t, then he should have his law licence revoked for gross incompetence.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-02-19T22:27:02.667Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have reduced their capacity to ship agricultural and mineral exports. Top intelligence chiefs in Europe say that the US is unlikely to broker a peace deal with Russia. (No kidding!)

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/2024522579818516808

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QP: Just who is standing with Trump?

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The PM was in southwestern Ontario for his auto strategy announcement, while Pierre Poilievre was present, and he led off in French, with a somber delivery of his script on food price inflation, with the added accusation that the government gave us a weak dollar. François-Philippe Champagne said that it was the Conservatives obstructing their measures to grow the economy. Poilievre hit back that Champagne promised to stabilise food prices two years ago and they were still rising, to which Champagne quoted Poilievre’s own words around the past support for the previous GST rebate. Poilievre switched to English to denounce that auto production has fallen by half and decried that the government was subsidising American vehicles, and Champagne praised the “good news” of their auto strategy. Poilievre hammered that Champagne saw the loss of auto production and jobs, and wanted the government to eliminate the GST on Canadian-made vehicles. Champagne countered that he brought over a European auto manufacturer to Canada. Poilievre made the same demand, and Champagne patted himself on the back for their investments in the auto sector of tomorrow with EV supply chains. Poilievre pivoted and accused the government of letting Bishnoi Gang members into the country with no screening and letting them stay with refugee claims. Sean Fraser retorted that the Conservatives were obstructing lawful access measures (as well they should, because it’s unconstitutional!)

Yves Perron led for the Bloc, and he raised the Bloc’s issue of the week around the problems with pension payment software. Patty Hajdu read a script about the department working to rapidly resolve the issues. Perron tried again, and Stephanie McLean haltingly read her own statement of the same. Andréanne Larouche gave it another round of the same, and Hajdu defended her bilingualism before thanking the civil service for shrinking the backlog.

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Roundup: Another meeting that ends in all smiles

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The premiers’ meeting went off as expected—all smiles and talk of unity ahead of the New NAFTA review, and hey, Mark Carney even announced the launch of the Team Canada Trade Hub to provide coordination for trade diversification efforts as certain premiers go on their own trade mission abroad. There were also some timelines around certain trade barriers like credentials recognition and harmonization of health and safety requirements, even if those timelines may not be until next year. (But that’s something, right?)

In his remarks to the premiers, Carney invokes Sir John A Macdonald and the railway, before talking about "how we build," and being in "true partnership" with Indigenous people.The railway *might* not be the best example of "how we build" (600+ deaths) or partnership (dispossession of land).

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T15:19:08.664Z

There was some added side drama as Danielle Smith said that they may be taking Kitimat off the table as the destination for the hoped-for pipeline, but that doesn’t necessarily open up better options on the northwest coast of BC, given that it was determined that it was too dangerous to put a pipeline to Prince Rupert, even though a bunch of people seem to think that’s where it should have wound up in the first place. (Again, this is why Poilievre’s “approve a pipeline today” cries are so ridiculous, because there is no actual route even planned yet).

The other thing on everyone’s mind was the piece in the Financial Times that confirmed that the Alberta separatists were in meetings with the State Department in the US, and David Eby referred to their actions as “treason.” (Incidentally, this activity doesn’t meet the Criminal Code definition of treason). Smith, however, refused to condemn them because they’re politically useful to her, and Carney sidestepped any kind of denunciation, saying that the topic hadn’t come up in his conversations with Trump, when what he should be doing is summoning the ambassador and threatening to PNG him.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-01-29T22:27:01.937Z

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone strike killed three in Zaporizhzhia, while Trump says Putin agreed not to attack Kyiv for a week due to the cold (and I’ll believe that when I see it). An exchange of war dead was carried out, with 1000 Ukrainian bodies turned over for 38 Russians. The Kremlin says they invited Zelenskyy to Moscow for “peace talks.”

"Kremlin says Russia has invited Ukraine's Zelenskyy to come to Moscow for peace talks."Guys. Come on. www.reuters.com/world/europe…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T05:36:13.695Z

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QP: Thursday scripts with Friday faces

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It was an unusual Friday-on-a-Thursday QP, with the usual Friday start time, thanks to the Conservatives having their convention this weekend, and with the PM meeting with the premieres and Poilievre having already left for Calgary, it was going to be the b-team in play. That left it up to John Brassard to led off and accuse the prime minister of “seducing” Canadians with their own money, and accused the supposed “hidden taxes” of raising food prices. Peter Fragiskatos dismissed this and accused the Conservatives of being unserious. Brassard tried again, and Fragiskatos listed this as a populist distraction tactic. Rob Moore read the same script, and Evan Solomon recited talking points about the GST rebate and how the Conservatives are blocking their plans to build. Moore tried again, and Solomon repeated his same points. Gérard Deltell took over in French to read the same points, and this time, Marjorie Michel pointed to the previous tax cut and the GST rebate. Deltell raised food bank line-ups, and was reminded that they are following Food Banks Canada’s suggestions. 

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she raised the problems with the OAS payment system and said it was worse than claimed. Steven MacKinnon said that one error was one too many, and encouraged people to reach out to Service Canada if they have an issue. Normandin tried again, and MacKinnon again offered bland assurances that the modernised services were positive on the whole. Andréanne Larouche took over to ask the same again, and MacKinnon gave his assurances for a third time.

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Roundup: Letting Trump’s lackeys spin the narrative

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Because everything is so stupid all the time, there was a whole ridiculous bit of drama yesterday as US treasury secretary Scott Bessent went on TV to claim that prime minister Mark Carney aggressively walked back his Davos speech on the phone to Trump, when the rest of us didn’t know there even was a call because there was no readout. When Carney came in for his caucus meeting yesterday and was asked about it, he disputed the characterisation, said he meant what he said at Davos, and then turned it into one of those quasi-flattering but also quasi-shady remarks akin to calling Trump “transformational,” in saying that Canada was the first to recognize the changes to global trade that Trump instituted. I’m sure he thinks he was very clever about it too.

Nevertheless, the point stands that the lack of a readout from PMO about the call means that it let the Americans get out ahead in terms of spinning the call and what was said, and as this administration does with everything, is to just lie. Part of this is also transparency, so that we know when there are calls with world leaders, particularly given the situation we’re in with Trump, and the fact that they had a thirty-minute call on a range of topics that included Ukraine is actually kind of important to know, but Carney has refused to be transparent and has said he’s not going to provide readouts for these “informal” calls going forward. So you just keep letting Trump and his people lie about what’s being said? I do not understand why they refuse to understand how to deal with this kind of behaviour.

Amidst this are a bunch of conservatives, some MPs, some designated talking heads on media shows, who were so very eager to take Trump’s side and blaming Carney for harming the relationship, or in trying to insist that it’s Carney who is holding up a tariff deal instead of Trump being mercurial and untrustworthy. I get that for a lot of these people, it’s “anything to own the Libs,” and they will contort themselves to almost the point of treason in order to get that thrill they’re looking for, but for the love of Zeus, have some self-respect.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/2016210956372832552

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone struck a passenger train near Kharkiv, killing five, while drones attacking Odesa killed at least three. There was also a strike against a natural gas facility in western Ukraine. The US says that Ukraine needs to sign a peace deal with Russia to get security guarantees (but Russia has no interest in a peace deal).

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Roundup: The Donbas of Canada

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The mask is off. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent was on a far-right TV show to mouth the faux grievances of Alberta, and is providing succour and support for the separatist loons in the province, making it abundantly clear that the US plans to do to Alberta what Putin did with the Donbas region in Ukraine. We’ve watched the Americans also make these promises to independence-minded politicians in Greenland, some of whom naively believe that the US will simply recognise their independence from Denmark and leave them be when that isn’t their plan at all. And you can bet that they’ll start making these same promises to the Parti Québécois if they form power in the province in the next election, because they would absolutely love to break up Canada so that they can absorb the pieces.

So far, the government is downplaying this, with François-Philippe Champagne saying he’ll “remind” Bessent that they are working with Alberta to develop their resources, which is frankly not nearly enough. The US is openly meeting with separatists—those separatist organisers are openly bragging about their “high-level” meetings in Washington—and one of the top members of Trump’s Cabinet is openly supporting them. At the bare minimum, the US ambassador needs to be summoned, and if he doesn’t properly explain and apologise, then he should be expelled in order to send a message that this kind of interference is absolutely unacceptable.

And then there’s the problem of those separatists who are taking it upon themselves to “negotiate” in Washington. You might think that someone like Danielle Smith might denounce them for these actions, but she has bent over backwards to ensure that they have the easiest ride possible to their referendum, because Smith thinks that she can leverage it for her benefit. And Carney has been utterly silent, believing that his bending the knee to Smith is what is going to solve the separatism issue, even though these people have no interest in actual policy resolutions and have made hating Ottawa (and anyone named Trudeau) their whole personality. This is going to need a much stronger hand, and a forceful pushback against this American interference before it can fester even more than it already has.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-01-23T23:56:01.434Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Kyiv and Kharkiv have come under Russian attack in the early hours of the morning. The constant attacks have worsened the power grid situation, as temperatures have been falling as low as -16ºC.

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Roundup: The domestic speech and the response

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Back on Canadian soil, prime minister Mark Carney gave a speech to a domestic audience in advance of his Cabinet retreat, in which he used the location of the Plains of Abraham—where the retreat is being held, at the Citadelle in Quebec City—to praise the foundation of Canada (which the Bloc took exception to), our pluralism and shared values, and our choice to offer a vision of something different to the world. Oh, and he clapped back at Trump saying we live only because of the US. It might have been nice, but he kept veering off onto weird tangents about praising digital asbestos, or federal social programmes like pharmacare that he hasn’t done a single thing with in the past year and has outright stated he’s not interested in expanding. And if anything, the speech exposed a streak of hypocrisy—Canadian values, and pluralism, but we just signed a “strategic partnership” with a country genociding an ethnic minority. We’re going to create thousands of good-paying union jobs, but we just signed “strategic investments” with a country that employs slave labour. If you’re going to pat yourself on the back for your values, maybe try and at least pretend you’re trying to live up to them?

This Carney speech is giving me whiplash. Hooray for Canadian values! (But we’re also going to do deals with people who commit genocide and practice slave labour, and scapegoat immigrants).Hooray for our social programmes, but let’s do more digital asbestos!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T19:04:50.878Z

Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre released his own statement in response to Carney’s speech at Davos. The gist of Poilievre’s remarks is that of course Carney isn’t doing enough, that we shouldn’t alienate the Americans and by that we should engage with allies in the country who will help us post-Trump, and that he plans to move a motion next week to pass his ridiculous Canadian Sovereignty Act bill at all stages. (Transcript here).

And make no mistake—that bill is ridiculous. The primary gist of it is to tear up any and all environmental regulation to build more pipelines (who cares about a market case of First Nations consent?), to incentivise the reinvestment of capital gains in Canada (which was a plan so complex that Jim Flaherty walked it back after trying to do it during the Harper years), paying provinces a “bonus” for eliminating any remaining trade barriers, and to require the government to stop letting innovators in this country sell their intellectual property to Americans (and good luck with that one). It’s stupid and unfeasible and will only create a tonne of new problems while solving absolutely none, but he somehow thinks this is genius.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-01-22T15:05:14.665Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian strikes hit locations in Zaporizhzhia, as well as Kryvyi Rih. At Davos, president Zelenskyy gave a speech highly critical of Europe’s indecisiveness and inability to organise enough to project any strength. (Transcript here).

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Roundup: Mixed messages in Carney’s Davos speech

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There has been much praise for prime minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos yesterday, but I have some fairly mixed feelings about it. For one, much of the speech was a collection of the lines he’s used in previous speeches, and put them all into one place, so rhetorically, there wasn’t much new, even if he invoked Thucydides or Havel. And he’s not wrong that the truth of the rules-based international order was that the “great powers”—meaning the US—exempted itself whenever they wanted, but they also guaranteed its operation, so it was double-edged. And he was also correct in calling out that the instinct to go along to get along won’t save anyone. And he did pledge support for Greenland, NATO and Article V, so that was all good.

Some thoughts from me on Mark Carney’s important speech in Davos. youtu.be/Xj1VHwVgsAY?…

— Roland Paris (@rolandparis.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T18:26:05.275Z

However. The fact that he very carefully avoided naming Trump and the US means that this was not nearly as brave as some people would like. And it exposed some of the hypocrisy of his own positions—for example, saying that appeasing won’t save you is all well and good, but for months now, he has been constantly appeasing the Americans to “keep talks going,” such as how he killed the Digital Services Tax. I also have grave reservations about simply declaring the rules-based order dead and saying that “nostalgia is not a strategy” (while back home, he keeps invoking a false nostalgia about being a country that built things) because the middle powers need that structure, even if America isn’t playing ball. That means leaning into those rules collectively, and appealing to Europe to be the vanguards of that. There was an inherent hypocrisy in talking about his “values-based realism” because there are no values to be displayed when you deal with people who engage in slave labour and whom your government declared was perpetrating a genocide. He wants us to leverage a network of relations with other countries and trade blocs, but he’s cutting Global Affairs and the diplomats who would do this work. There is just so much inconsistency in what he’s saying and what he’s actually doing.

From Carney's Davos speech. This is one of the things I referred to in this morning's column—I fail to see the "respect for human rights" in all of the so-called "strategic partnerships" he's been signing, and shrugging that off as "pragmatic" just winds up reeking of hypocrisy instead.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T16:33:28.210Z

Carney has spent the past year subtweeting Trump.At a certain point, these words mean nothing if he won't actually come out and say what he's criticizing.

— Justin Ling (@justinling.ca) 2026-01-20T16:15:56.156Z

This is the right understanding of our geopolitical reality, but Carney's actions aren't in line with these statements. We need investment in our diplomatic corps and a clear foreign policy to mobilize Canada to meet the moment. www.cbc.ca/news/politic…

— Jess Davis (@jessmarindavis.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T16:13:17.066Z

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3mcum6ygq3c2h

And getting into bed with other illiberal regimes to counter the one south of us risks tainting us as well.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T16:54:40.840Z

There was a contrast with Justin Trudeau, who was also at Davos, with Katy Perry in tow, and of course all of the focus was on her, and not the speech Trudeau gave. Where people did know about it, most of the comments were dismissive, but I think he actually has a relevant point in contrast to Carney. While both pointed out that the era of the rules-based international order that protected rights and freer trade is over, Trudeau made a point of talking about respect for international law and respect for allies as the way through the crisis, and that Canada has built up enough credibility globally that people know that if we are in a conflict zone, it’s not to steal oil or sell them Coca-Cola while we replace their system of government. I think that is something that Carney was missing, and it goes the point I was making in my latest column that we have soft power leverage we can use, if Carney wasn’t so intent on just squandering it.

Ukraine Dispatch

The attacks on power infrastructure in Ukraine risks nuclear meltdowns because of the to run cooling systems, which is part of Russia’s strategy.

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