Tag Archives: Israel

Roundup: Huffing those culture war fumes

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My absolute exasperation with the need to constantly import American culture war bullshit into Canadian politics continues to grow, as we see yet another example playing out in the House of Commons. This time, it’s opposition whip Kerry-Lynne Findlay using the far-right gotcha of “What is the definition of a woman,” in the hopes that the response is some kind of confused mess in order to include trans women in the definition of women.

This being said, I’m not surprised that it was Findlay, because she has a growing record of doing things like this, most especially when she was tweeting her concern about how Chrystia Freeland once interviewed George Soros when she was a journalist. Findlay was greatly alarmed by what she saw, and in case you’ve been living under a rock, the attacks on Soros are largely rooted in antisemitic tropes that date back to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Findlay has repeatedly shown that she hasn’t learned her lesson from that incident, and this latest one is more proof of that.

The panic over trans people continues to infiltrate the discourse in Canada. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a thinktank that initially billed itself as a centrist endeavour in the mode of the two pivotal prime ministers who helped build and shape the country as we know it, has increasingly been pulling further and further to the right, and adopting anti-trans rhetoric as part of their offerings, which is a little alarming (and people who are associated with the Institute should start distancing themselves the more this kind of bullshit takes hold). This is also in the context that CSIS is seeing threats coming from the “anti-gender” movement, and for a group like MLI to pander to those sentiments is irresponsible, and dangerous.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russia launched one of its biggest air strikes against Ukrainian thermal power generation stations in weeks, causing blackouts throughout the country. A separate air attack hit a school stadium in Kharkiv. It was Victory Day in Russia, celebrating their victory in WWII, and it should be noted that they did not take Chasiv Yar like they were hoping to beforehand.

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Roundup: MPs lacking a moral compass make up bizarre accusations

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When it comes to the absolute moral decline of MPs in the current Parliament, we’ve found a good candidate who exemplifies this in the form of Conservative MP Brad Redekopp, who put out an absolutely batshit crazy video a few days ago that literally blames Justin Trudeau and his supposed “soft on crime” policies for the murders that happened in Saskatoon so far this year. Columnist Phil Tank points to all of the ways that this accusation is batshit insanity by looking at the circumstances of each of these murders, and you really can’t connect them to any of Trudeau’s policies, but that won’t stop Redekopp from not only making these accusations, but defending them in the face of Tank’s column.

The accusations against the so-called “attack” against him (because heaven forfend, we hold him to account for his batshit insane conduct) as being from an “extremist left-wing agenda,” and that both the columnist and Justin Trudeau want to hand out free drugs. I would laugh at how absolutely childish this thin-skinned retaliation is if this wasn’t a gods damned elected official who should not only know better, but should have the ability to take criticism, and to behave in a manner that is somewhat dignified as befits his office.

But it’s more than that—it’s the fact that he feels like he can get away with outright lying (and lying to such batshit insane lengths) because he feels no sense of shame or moral compass that says “Maybe you shouldn’t lie or make up batshit insane accusations and stick to some facts in the face of tragic circumstances.” But he doesn’t, and that is perhaps most concerning out of all of this.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian strikes have damaged several power generation plants in a fresh round of targeting them. Ukrainian artillery forces need to fire and then quickly hide their platforms from Russian drones. Ukrainian intelligence says that they thwarted (another) attempt on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s life.

https://twitter.com/rustem_umerov/status/1787917915460649244

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QP: Continued weaponising of human misery

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While the prime minister was in town today, he was not in QP, though his deputy was on the day that “debate” began on the budget implementation bill. Most of the other leaders were present, and Pierre Poilievre led off in French, he worried about the cost of housing in Quebec, and lurid tales of certain people in media who have lost their homes. Sean Fraser got up to praise their agreement with Quebec to build more affordable housing. Poilievre dismissed this as “more expensive processes,” and took a shot at the Bloc for agreeing to government spending, and falsely blaming that on inflation. Chrystia Freeland praised the government’s plan to build more housing and for the green industrial transition, which the Conservatives voted against, before patting herself on the back for the renewed Moody’s Aaa credit rating. Poilievre switched to English to blame the government for the approximately sixty deaths that happened over the past ten days, as though they were solely because of decriminalisation. Ya’ara Saks stood up to say the problem is the toxic drug supply, and that were working with BC to amending their decriminalisation proposal. Poilievre insisted that they need to ban hard drugs and get people into treatment, and called the policy “insane.” Saks said they were working on a comprehensive solution with BC, and called out misinformation on the file. Poilievre went full Helen Lovejoy to worry about needles in parks, which have been happening for decades, and this time Freeland stood up to reiterate that they are working with BC, and to pour scorn on the opposition for trying to score points on this tragedy. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he railed about the possibility of CBC and Radio-Canada being brought closer together, and demanded they be kept independent. Pascale St-Onge said that French services will not be affected by internal restructuring, and that their position was closed to the Conservatives on trying to pit CBC and Radio-Canada against one another. Therrien again raised this spectre of a merger and St-Onge pointed out how the Conservatives were applauding the Bloc position, which spoke volumes.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, to decry the Conservative amendment to block contraception in pharmacare legislation, and Mark Holland got up to give a paean about women having control over their own bodies. Singh repeated the question in French, and Holland repeated his paean in French as well. 

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QP: Another slogan to “fix” the budget

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While both the prime minister and his deputy were in town, they were not present for QP, though most of the other leaders were present. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and listed off his slogans before noting that the government was spending more on interest on the debt than healthcare, and demanded the government take is “dollar-for-dollar” plan to “fix the budget.” Sean Fraser wondered if it was common sense or nonsense to cut programmes to help people. Poilievre took a swipe at Fraser for his alleged incompetence around immigration numbers, which “doubled” housing prices, and demanded the government reduce the deficit and interest rates. François-Philippe Champagne recited that Poilievre only built six affordable housing units when he was “housing minister” (which he wasn’t really), and that they wouldn’t take any lessons. Poilievre switched to English to misquote a Scotiabank report claiming government deficits were adding two points to the interest rates, to which Fraser accused him of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing in his opposition to programmes to help people. Poilievre insisted there was no value in food programmes that don’t exist or the doubling of the cost of housing, and repeated his same misleading declaration about interest rates. Fraser needled Poilievre about the number of affordable units lost when he was “minister” and the number of houses that weren’t built. Poilievre accused Fraser of being incompetent as immigration minister before being named housing minister, and then gave some misleading nonsense about rental prices when he was “housing minister.” Fraser took a shot at the Conservatives for opposing the resettlement of Afghan refugees who had helped the Canadian Forces, and after the Speaker finally restored order, repeated the points about Poilievre’s housing record.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and complained that Quebec didn’t get their fair share of housing funds, to which Pablo Rodriguez talked about the Bloc’s lack of priorities as they keep demanding referendums while the government is investing. Therrien tried his complaint again, and Fraser insisted that they were working with the province to ensure they would get their fair share.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he railed about corporate handouts to companies like Loblaws, and wanted the government to roll back Conservative policies. Champagne thanked him for his help in reforming competition law, but said they still needed support to get the Grocery Code of Conduct passed. Singh switched to French to demand an excess profits tax on grocery giants, and Champagne repeated his response.

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Roundup: Compromising the GG for clicks

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Last week, the Governor General held a national symposium on online harassment, and invited people who have experienced significant amount of it over the past few years to speak about it.

https://twitter.com/GGCanada/status/1778413516266840314

Of course, the Attorney General, Arif Virani, decided to make some hay around this in order to promote the online harms bill, which may be great for him, but is very bad for the GG, and he should have known that. His staff should have known that and ensured that he didn’t tweet something out that could compromise the GG and her position. The staff at Rideau Hall should have also known this and not invited Virani for this very reason, because come on.

And so, we now have a punch of loudmouths from the pundit class railing about the GG and how she has “endorsed” a controversial bill (which she actually did not), but of course truth doesn’t actually matter to these kinds of loudmouths, whose only goal is to try and embarrass the government. But this government, of course, so desperate to get their content for their socials, ignored all of this and went ahead and tried to co-opt the GG’s event for their own purposes. And of course, they’ll justify this by saying “oops, but we meant well.” Like they always do. The ends justify the means, the rules only apply to bad people, and so on. Every gods damned time with these guys.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Fragments of a downed missile fell over a settlement outside of Dnipro on Sunday, injuring twelve. Ukraine’s military chief has signalled that the battlefield situation on the front lines in the east has significantly deteriorated over the past several days, and that they are attempting to take the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9th, which is when Russia marks Victory Day.

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QP: Friday energy on a Thursday

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The prime minister was again absent from QP today, as was his deputy, and all of the other leaders were also away. Melissa Lantsman led off, railing about the carbon levy increase, and demanded the prime minister respect the vote on having a televised meeting with the premiers and on what day it will be. Steve MacKinnon noted that today they are debating their sustainable jobs bill, and that the Conservatives have put forward 20,000 amendments generated by AI, calling them the “robo-caucus” doing “robo-work” and told them to stop gatekeeping opportunities, Lantsman said that was false and not an answer, before she listed food bank stats, and again demanded a meeting. MacKinnon suggested they “plug into the reality channel,” because of the jobs at stake that they are standing in the way of. Lantsman insisted that the prime minister was being defiant and wondered what he was covering for. Anita Anand noted that the invitation is open for premiers to come up with a better plan but they haven’t put any forward, and that Scott Moe even stated this was the most cost-effective plan. Dominique Vien took over in French and listed failures from the government, before citing the premier of Quebec telling the federal government to butt out of its business. Jean-Yves Duclos noted that Poielivre only built six housing units when he was minister, and invited her to visit an affordable housing project in her riding. Vien claimed federal incompetence in fiscal management, and repeated the demand to butt out. MacKinnon got up to point out that she was in Charest’s Cabinet and voted for a carbon price, and now she wants to be hypocritical about housing.

Claude DeBellefeuille led for the Bloc, claimed that Quebec was being short-changed and demanded higher unconditional housing transfers to the province. Duclos praised an affordable housing project in her project. DeBellefeuille tried the same demand a second time, and Duclos again praised the agreement signed with the province a few weeks ago, which was the largest in provincial history.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and blamed the federal government for rental increases in Montreal and for not building enough affordable housing. (Guess whose jurisdiction that is?) Duclos returned to his talking points about Poilievre’s six units. Lindsay Mathyssen decried inadequate military housing across the country, and Bill Blair pointed out that the work has already begun to build new units on bases across the country. 

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Roundup: No, a foreign power can’t install a prime minister

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One of the unfortunate things about certain people I follow on the Twitter Machine constantly retweeting sludge is that sometimes I see something that is so outrageous that it sets me off. This, from former Global journalist Sam Cooper, is just such an egregious thing.

Setting aside the torqued use of Michael Chong’s testimony, this has all of the credibility of those racist emails that used to circulate, usually at the hands of someone’s relatives, where people worried that the changing Canadian demographics could mean that we might *gasp!* have a Muslim prime minister! As is unsurprising in racist emails like those, the internal logic was deeply flawed and the understanding of our system was non-existent, and was likely repurposed from American racist content worrying about a Muslim president, but that aside, this worry from Cooper is about the same quality.

To wit: If a party held a leadership contest while during a prime minister’s term, the fear expressed here is that, somehow, a foreign government would be able to swamp party memberships (either sales or sign-ups, depending on the party) and install a preferred candidate, who would then become prime minister without an election (which, I should not need to remind anyone, is perfectly legitimate in a parliamentary system). The hole in this logic is that pretty much every party has a weighted point system as part of these elections, so that highly populated regions of the country don’t swamp the more sparely-populated ones. In order for a foreign government to therefore take over a leadership contest, they would need a critical mass of voters in the majority of ridings in the country, particularly ones like small rural ridings in Quebec or Atlantic Canada. That’s simply not a possibility for any foreign government to engineer. The fact that Cooper doesn’t have a clue how these things work should be (another) warning sign about his judgment. Cripes.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drone attacks on Kharkiv struck residential buildings and cut power supplies. A Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle (larger than a drone) was used to strike deep inside Russian territory, striking an industrial site.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1775913487300002262

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Roundup: Another tranche of housing money

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As part of his pre-budget announcement tour, Justin Trudeau was in Halifax yesterday to announce a new tranche of housing funding, which comes with strings attached for provinces to access it, and if provinces don’t, well, it’ll get rolled into the municipal stream to let them access it instead. Some of this is an extension of the existing Housing Accelerator Fund, but they also have some new conditions around densification to be able to qualify for that funding, which is really about overcoming the NIMBYism that prevents a lot of it currently.

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/1775245369128939654

This having been said, there will be implementation issues, and for that, Jennifer Robson has some thoughts.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces say they downed two out of three Russian drones overnight on Monday, and that so far this year, Russia has fired five Zircon hypersonic missiles at Kyiv. Ukraine continues to make its own drone attacks against Russian refineries, with the latest strike against the country’s third-largest refinery. After much debate, Ukraine has lowered its draft age from 27 to 25 as they need to replenish their troops. Ukraine’s largest energy grid operator says that recent attacks have damaged the power system, but that total collapse is unlikely.

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Roundup: Reasons to oppose a bad judgment

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After the federal government filed their appeal of that Federal Court decision that…strongly suggested to them to appoint more judges (because it certainly wasn’t an order), the lawyer behind that suit has filed a cross-appeal because he wants tougher language and more teeth to it, but it’s not something that the courts can really force a government to do because it’s a Crown prerogative. They have no enforcement mechanism, so I’m not sure what the lawyer here is hoping to accomplish other than to keep getting his name in the papers.

Speaking of papers, I do find it to be a problem that in both the National Post and Toronto Star stories about this cross appeal that neither of them referenced the fact that the primary reason the federal government is appealing the decision is not because it’s useless, but because it’s a complete dog’s breakfast that makes up a constitutional convention from whole cloth and then runs with it. There is plenty of commentary from constitutional scholars out there, Emmett Macfarlane’s being one of the most accessible, but this is a real issue, and no government that is the slightest bit responsible wants bad precedents sitting on the books. It’s one of the reasons why they fought the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision on compensation for Indigenous families—they were willing to pay the compensation, but the Tribunal exceeded its authority and they didn’t want that to stand lest it create a precedent (and why that was one of the points of negotiation in the settlement).

Bad precedents, if left unchallenged, create bad case law, and that creates all kinds of problems in the future. Nobody is arguing that this government doesn’t need to make faster appointments, because they absolutely do, and even they recognise that. But this was a bad decision that shouldn’t be allowed to stand.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russia subjected Kyiv to intense bombardment for the third time in five days, and once again, damage and injuries were mostly from debris from intercepted missiles and drones. Russia also attacked an underground gas storage facility, at a time where there are already rolling blackouts because of attacks on power supplies, as engineers work to restore power, in particular at Kharkiv and Odesa. Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to make drone attacks on Russian refineries.

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Roundup: No, east cost LNG won’t happen (redux)

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Because we never seem to learn, and because certain interviewers in legacy media refuse to take a hint or to learn about how this works, we got yet another incident of a European leader being asked about Canadian LNG, this time the prime minister of Greece, who is in Canada for a couple of days. “Of course,” they’d be interested, if it was available “at competitive prices.” Which is the real trick, isn’t it? Because that’s not going to happen, particularly on the east coast where there is no ready access to a supply of natural gas to liquify, and where on the west coast, plenty of fully permitted projects are not moving ahead because nobody wants to sign commitments to buy the product if they build the project. That’s kind of a big deal.

So, here’s University of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach with some necessary sarcasm for this latest round.

And because Alberta decided to enter the group chat…

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russia launched new missile barrages that have gone as far into western Ukraine as Lviv, and one missile appears to have entered Polish airspace. Ukraine has launched its own attack on occupied Crimea, and hit two Russian warships and a communications centre in the process. Meanwhile, the weekend was spent disavowing any connection to the ISIS attack on the theatre in Moscow, which Russian officials keep trying to draw.

https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1771864087267291183

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