Tag Archives: Iran

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: The supposed worst in the G7

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The PM was present today for the first time in two weeks, and it will be the last time for three as the next two weeks the House is not sitting. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and as he did yesterday, raised the Auditor General’s report on student visas to once again demand that the current and past two immigration ministers be fired. Mark Carney said that he was blessed to have a great Cabinet, and that he has “taken back control” of immigration. Poilievre switched to English to compare current immigration numbers compared to under Harper, and returned to the AG’s report and demanded those minister be fired. Carney repeated his same answer in English. Poilievre recited the talking points about how poorly we are doing economically, and Carney noted how many jobs Canada grew versus the U.S., that wages are outpacing inflation, and rents are down to recent lows. Poilievre recited the same economic doom points again, getting some of his figures wrong, and Carney again praised our economic performance before listing off the strategies they have launched. Poilievre said that strategies won’t pay the bills, and declared how much cheaper Americans get gasoline, before demanding the industrial carbon price and clean fuel standard be repealed. Carney patted himself on the back for scrapping the consumer carbon levy, and again repeated that wages are outpacing inflation. Poilievre spun a complete fiction about carbon pricing, and Carney patted himself on the back once again for how much they are building.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he first claimed that the Bloc supports freedom of religion before noting that Carney quoted from the Bible in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, and he wondered about church-state separation. Carney admitted he did quote from the Bible, but also Marcus Aurelius, because he had some good ideas. Blanchet then used this to pivot to the Supreme Court of Canada case on the Law 21 challenge, and demanded the government lawyers scrap their arguments. Carney noted that this is about the Charter, and that they would wait for its ruling. Blanchet tried to insist that Carney either say that religion can’t influence government or they have to stop fighting Law 21. Carney said this was a false choice, and praised their hate crime bill on protecting the Jewish community and others.

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Roundup: More demands to interfere with judicial nominations

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Three more premiers have now joined Danielle Smith in her demand for more say in judicial appointments, both at the provincial superior court level as well as when it comes to Supreme Court of Canada nominees, and it would be the usual suspects—Scott Moe, Doug Ford, and François Legault. Quite immediately, federal justice minister Sean Fraser essentially told them to go pound sand, which is the correct answer, but that doesn’t mean they won’t cause a fuss about this, and try and invent a new grievance out of this.

https://bsky.app/profile/emmettmacfarlane.com/post/3mht45l24ec2w

Clearly these premiers, each of whom are constitutional vandals who have invoked the Notwithstanding Clause, are looking to politicise the appointments to their own ends, often with nonsense around judges being too “soft on crime.” Never mind that the vast majority of criminal cases are heard by provincially-appointed judges, whose appointments they already control (and Doug Ford has taken steps to make the process more partisan in Ontario), they are looking to exert more influence over appointments because they believe they can find candidates who will be more favourable to their positions, particularly when their constitutionality is challenged. Danielle Smith likes to refer to federally-appointed judges as “agents of Ottawa,” even though they are from the province they are appointed in, on the advice of local judicial advisory committees, which provincial governments already play a role in, both in terms of advising and vetting potential nominees to ensure that they don’t see problems with them.

I would add that the other thing about these judges being federally-appointed is that they are paid for by the federal government, and considering how much provinces already underfund their justice systems, I would not want to see them in control of even more appointments, whom they will underfund and undermine at every turn.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-24T21:22:01.960Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched nearly 1000 drones at Ukraine, 550 of which were during the daytime and hit as far as Lviv. Here is a look at Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy facilities.

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QP: Demands to fire the current and two former immigration ministers

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Unusually for a Tuesday in the current Parliament, the PM was not present today even though he was in the building, but Pierre Poilievre was present, and led led off in French, and he raised the Auditor General’s into student visas, and he torqued and misrepresented what was found. Lina Diab got up to recite that they have taken on the AG’s recommendations, and provided a corrective in terms of what triggers investigations. Poilievre declared that the question was for the PM who “is in Ottawa” (skirting the line of what is allowed), and demanded the PM fire the current and past two immigration ministers. Marc Miller, one of those past ministers, got up and took a gratuitous swipe at Poilievre. Poilievre then switched to English to again demand those three minsters be fired, and Sean Fraser, the third of those former minsters, said that if anyone is guilty of political incompetence, it is Poilievre. Poilievre claimed that Carney is encouraging incompetence, and again recited torqued and misleading claims from the report, and again demanded they be fired. Diab got back up to repeat her first response in English. Poilievre mocked her response, and Diab again got back up to praise that the Auditor General for agreeing that they tightened the system. Poilievre took a swipe at the absent Carney and demanded he “stand up now,” and this time Steven MacKinnon to praise the Liberal record and Diab’s performance, and touted the decline in population as though that was a good thing.

Backbench Liberal to Poilievre: “How many antivaxx billionaires did you meet with?” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T18:24:49.144Z

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and badmouthed the lawyers at the Supreme Court on the Law 21 challenge, and demanded the government withdraw their arguments. Fraser said that they are standing up for the constitution, and that the Supreme Court is the best place to have this debate. Blanchet treated this as the assertion that the federal government is superior to Quebec’s, and this time Joël Lightbound expressed some confusion with the question, and pledged that the government would not use disallowance. Blanchet then took swipes at Pierre Trudeau, and claimed that the argument is a “colony of Canada,” to which Lightbound reminded him that Quebeckers are challenging the law at the Court.

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Roundup: Justifying ghoulish behaviour with a single study

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Alberta has announced that it is closing its safe consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge, citing that they will be “transitioned” to different services like withdrawal beds and addiction clinics, and justified by a single study that used anonymized data to show that the closure of the site in Red Deer didn’t lead to increased overdose deaths or emergency room visits. And there’s a lot to unpack here.

One of the problems is that the province has a bunch of dodgy partnerships with providers for these supposed addiction recovery services that are privately owned, not proven to work, and who have some pretty spotty histories. Nevertheless, the ties to the government are suspicious and reek of collusion and possible corruption, as with so many things in the Danielle Smith government.

The other problem is that this single study, that stands apart from thirty years’ worth of public health research, is emboldening conservatives across the country to claim that this “proves” safe injection sites don’t work. Federal Conservatives are using this in a series of ghoulish demands for the federal government to end its authorizations for these sites, using a bunch of other straw man arguments like the fact that there are no age restrictions on safe consumption sites (because apparently minors who are addicts should just use in an alleyway). Another Conservative MP has been trying to ask gotcha questions about whether fentanyl is safe to inject, never mind that it has pharmaceutical applications (which is part of the problem). It’s stupid and dangerous, but this singular study is emboldening it, and I fear that we’re in for another round of increased overdose deaths as certain provincial governments beyond Alberta take this one study to heart.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-20T13:24:02.456Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones hit two foreign-flagged civilian ships in Odesa. Ukraine has begun to evacuate children from Sloviansk as the security situation deteriorates there. Some 228 Ukrainian drone specialists have now been deployed to five countries in the Persian Gulf to counter Iranian drone attacks.

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Roundup: Blame Canada, TC Energy edition

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Earlier this week, the CEO of TC Energy gave an interview to Bloomberg about how all of prime minister Mark Carney’s efforts to speed up development were useless, and that any project should be approved within six months, and look, Mexico did it so why can’t you. It’s absolutely risible, and six months is not an approval process—it’s a meaningless rubber stamp. Of course, he also continues to blame the Canadian government for a whole bunch of that were not the Canadian government’s fault, but he has a receptive audience who have convinced themselves that everything is Justin Trudeau’s fault, so he gets away with saying it, and not only that, Conservatives go around repeating it as if it were gospel.

Andrew Leach, however, has receipts, and he’s not afraid to use them.

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2034514364267671649

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— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-19T21:27:02.634Z

Poilievre on Joe Rogan

Everyone (but me, apparently) spent the day listening to it and taking notes about what he said. So, after a ten-minute discussion about kettlebells, Poilievre dismissed the conspiracy theory about Justin Trudeau’s father, he did say he’s been texting Carney about his trip in the US, that he won’t slam Carney while on foreign soil, and that when it comes to Trump talking about the 51st state stuff, he wants him to “Knock that shit off,” because he’s edgy and swears! But he’s still on about how he wants us to still be friends, sort-of defended MAiD, says that Alberta separation won’t happen, but then went on one of his bizarre tangents about the “truth” about environmentalists, claiming the environmental damage from the oilsands is “bullshit.” Because of course he did. And then they talked about UFC, because they’re bros, or something.

Justin Ling gives his take on the interview, and the unfortunate fact that Canadian politicians like going on American shows a little too much.

https://twitter.com/a_picazo/status/2034490092916482223

https://twitter.com/mattgurney/status/2034615508696289498

In case you were wondering why Pierre Poilievre went on Joe Rogan's podcast, I have the answer for you! It's for the ladies! The ladies who love him and his sexy Canadian kettlebell! www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZRL…

— Clare Blackwood (@clareblackwood.bsky.social) 2026-03-20T00:38:49.550Z

Ukraine Dispatch

EU experts arrived in Ukraine to inspect the damaged Druzhba oil pipeline, which is part of the dispute with Hungary. The EU president also says that they will find a way to get their €90 billion loan to Ukraine in spite of Hungary’s veto. Here is a look at queer nightlife in Kyiv in the shadow of the war.

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/2034650510192508971

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/2034574488965194127

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Roundup: Missing the point about the Senate

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Because everything is so stupid all of the time, a new conservative think tank popped up in Calgary that is issuing stupid polls, some of the questions of which fundamentally do not understand how Parliament works. They call themselves the “Aristotle Foundation,” and it’s a collection of the usual right-wing (and in some cases, far-right) suspects, and when they claim to be championing “reason, democracy and civilization,” well, you can start picking up where the dog-whistles are sounding.

In any case, they published this stupid poll (and of course, the National Post picked it up, because a bunch of their columnists are members of this think tank), and the very premise of their questions are absurd. “55 percent of non-Western respondents would be open to negotiating with Alberta or other Western provinces amid the threat of separation.” As well, there was a question on whether they “favoured reform of the House of Commons and Senate in the case of threats from Western separatism and Quebec separatism.” Why anyone would want to negotiate with a group of crybabies who make up a marginal fraction of the population is beyond me, but it’s not my poll. Nevertheless—negotiating about what, you ask? Supposed under-representation in the House of Commons and the Senate. They even have a handy chart about population per senator to make their case. I swear to Zeus, I am going to lose my mind.

If you're complaining about "per capita representation" in the Senate, might I suggest you read a fucking book for once in your life? nationalpost.com/news/canadia…

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-19T04:29:03.776Z

The Senate is not and has never been a rep-by-pop chamber. It is, in fact, designed not to be. That’s the whole fucking point of why it was constructed the way it was in 1867. It’s explicitly designed along regional lines in order to counter the rep-by-pop of the House of Commons, because having two rep-by-pop chambers would be stupid and counter-productive. Yes, the Atlantic provinces have outsized representation explicitly to counterbalance their small populations in the Commons. That’s why the breakdown is regional: 24 seats for Quebec, 24 for Ontario, 24 for the Maritimes, and 24 for the west (and then the three for the territories and six for Newfoundland and Labrador were later additions). If you don’t understand this basic bit of Canadian civics, what exactly are you doing? Other than shit-disturbing? This is beyond idiotic, and I cannot believe that they want to be taken seriously.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2026-03-18T22:01:56.308Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones struck several apartment buildings in Odesa. Ukraine struck two Russian plants building and maintaining military and cargo planes. Here is a look at the interceptor drones that Ukraine is sharing with several Gulf states.

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Roundup: Do something about privatization!

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If there is something I am getting mighty tired of, it’s the constant demands by certain healthcare groups that the federal government needs to stop in and “do something” about creeping provincial privatisation, and most especially Alberta’s proposed legislation on essentially creating a two-tiered system. Yesterday the demand came from community leaders in PEI who are afraid that Alberta will poach their doctors. To all of them, I ask just what exactly they think the federal government should do, and to be specific.

I am getting so tired of these."Ottawa must intervene!"How? Be specific. The Canada Health Act doesn't just the federal government swoop in and take over, or give them the power to stop a province doing something you don't like. At most, it lets them claw back funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-17T14:20:41.917Z

The thing is, this is provincial jurisdiction. The federal government can’t just swoop in and overrule them. The Canada Health Act doesn’t work like that. It is a funding agreement that if provinces abide by the five conditions laid out, then they get federal dollars, and if they don’t, those dollars get clawed back. And every year, Health Canada provides a report on provincial compliance and that includes lists of clawbacks, which are dollar-for-dollar what people get charged inappropriately. But that’s the extent of their powers. And in spite of what certain people (and certain journalists most especially) may think, a funding agreement does not make it “shared jurisdiction.” It’s fully provincial jurisdiction, and the federal government has conditions on their funding. That’s it.

So, while the Canadian Health Coalition may keep having press conferences and rallies in Ottawa, it won’t do any good. Their call to action for the federal government on Alberta is basically 1) Conduct a compliance review for Alberta which, again, already happens every year; 2) Urge the Alberta government to “pause implementation” of their legislation; and 3) use the penalties available to them, which again, they already do. Wow. Do what you’re already doing and urge Alberta not do go ahead. Wow. So effective! Meanwhile, the place they’re not rallying day in and day out is in front of the Alberta legislature, and everywhere Danielle Smith goes, even though that’s where the pressure needs to be applied. The federal government is not the provinces’ daddy, and it can’t send bad premiers to bed with no dinner if they misbehave. That’s not how the constitution works, and people need to grow up and hold their own premiers to account.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian attack damaged port and energy infrastructure in Odesa. Russia claims to have taken villages in Sumy and Donetsk, which Ukraine has not confirmed. President Zelenskyy was in London to meet with Keir Starmer about continued support for Ukraine; he also met with the King while there.

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Roundup: Myth-busting the carbon price on diesel

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For months, we’ve been hearing the Conservatives blame the industrial carbon price and the clean fuel standard for rising food prices, often citing the so-called “Food Professor” as the source of these claims. They’re hilariously wrong, but just how wrong? Energy economist Andrew Leach does the math, and demonstrates where the “Food Professor” went so wrong. (Some of these are threads, so be sure to click through because they were too long to replicate in this post).

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2033225831443816578

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2033324064933347805

And the longest explainer thread is here:

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2033309960902426664

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia launched 430 drones and 68 missiles at Ukraine on Saturday, and six people were killed, five of them in Kyiv. President Zelenskyy says that Ukraine wants money and technology in return for the anti-drone assistance they are providing to countries in the Gulf region.

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Roundup: Another call for NEP 2.0

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Pierre Poilievre has written another letter to the prime minister, this time demanding the creation of a strategic oil reserve like other countries have, never mind that unlike other countries that have said reserves, we are a net exporter and not a net importer (and yes, the US is now a net exporter, but they were not always, which is why they have a strategic reserve). The most ironic thing? This is just one more example of Conservatives demanding a redux of the hated National Energy Programme that Pierre Trudeau tried to launch in the late seventies, after the global oil crisis that happened then.

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2032212730762166778

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Of course, part of this has to do with Poilievre’s fantasy notion that such an oil stockpile, along with critical minerals, is going to be how he gets leverage over Trump in trade talks, and that it can be used to bolster allies—but only allies with whom we have tariff-free trade agreements. Never mind that it is unlikely to persuade Trump to abandon tariffs, which he loves. Never mind that he has no plan for how to pay for such a stockpile, and he would need to fund some kind of an oil arbitrage agency. It’s facile, and it’s deeply cynical, particularly because included in this demand are once again the insistence that we abolish environmental laws, because Poilievre has convinced himself that they’re just one big con, and that it’s a bunch of environmental elites somehow profiting off of said laws (because apparently there are no costs to climate change, and it’s all just in our imaginations).

https://twitter.com/coreyhoganyyc/status/2032214070892642460

Meanwhile, the Canadian Climate Institute published a report that says that once the industrial carbon price reaches minimum price of $130 per tonne, that it would effectively add fifty cents to a barrel of oil, in direct contravention to the pronouncements of doom that Poilievre and the Conservatives keep insisting that said price is doing to food prices and the economy. This after certain pundits claimed it would add $20 per barrel, which is of course nonsense.

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2031860654190281176

https://twitter.com/andrew_leach/status/2032152971174428885

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukrainian drones hit an oil pumping station in Russia’s Krasnodar region. Ukraine signed a joint defence procurement with Romania, that includes the production of drones.

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