Tag Archives: NATO

Roundup: Backseat driving healthcare talks

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I occasionally find myself amused by some of the backseat driving/armchair quarterbacking that happens in Canadian politics, and there was no more perfect example that Jagmeet Singh putting out a press release yesterday declaring that if he were prime minister, he would have sat down with the provinces and not left until he was satisfied that they have all the resources they need. On the one hand it’s kind of hilarious because most of the time, Singh can barely recognise that provincial jurisdiction actually exists, or he seems to think that a Green Lantern Ring and sufficient political will would actually solve federalism. On the other, I can’t decide if that means that he thinks he’s got amazing powers of negotiation, or if he’s declaring himself a chump who will fall for the provinces’ strong-arm tactics.

Imagine for just a moment what Singh means when he says he won’t leave the table until he gives the provinces what they need. It sounds an awful lot like he’s going to give them a blank cheque and then pat himself on the back for having fixed healthcare. Meanwhile, the provinces take that money, put a paltry amount back into the system, continue on with privatizing as much as they possibly can (look at what Danielle Smith is up to in Alberta now that she’s fired the entire board of Alberta Health Services), reduce their own share of the funding because of the increased federal dollars, and then give tax breaks in the hopes of getting re-elected. And we know this because all of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again if this funding doesn’t come with some pretty strict conditions and strings. And the sooner more people start calling the premiers on their bullshit, the faster we can get to a deal where they accept strings that will actually do something meaningful with those increased federal dollars.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 269:

Ukraine’s electricity grid operator is warning people that blackouts can last for several hours as Russians continue to pound the country’s electrical systems. Russians are also continuing their push toward Bakhmut with renewed intensity. Meanwhile, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared at the Halifax Security Forum by video to ask NATO countries to assist with a ten-part peace plan, and that he hoped Canada would show leadership on one of those items.

https://twitter.com/kiraincongress/status/1593694607459717124

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Roundup: The full closure of 24 Sussex

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News that has been years overdue arrived yesterday that the National Capital Commission is finally—finally!—closing 24 Sussex to personnel, so that they can begin abatement of things like asbestos at the site, which they’d need to do even if they decide to tear it down at some point. But no, there hasn’t been an actual decision on its future, because of course there hasn’t been, but at least they have reached this step, seven years later. But who is still there if the prime minister and family have been at Rideau Cottage the whole time? Well, for one, the prime minister’s chef still operates out of 24 Sussex (and the food is transported over by staff), likely because the kitchen in Rideau Cottage is too small for both the chef and the family, based on what glimpses we got of it during the pandemic; one assumes likewise with any other household staff. They are being relocated to another NCC property, but they won’t say where.

When this news broke, my Twitter feed was full of people outraged that the leader of the opposition has a nicer house than the prime minister, and demanded that the PM take over Stornoway instead. The reason Stornoway is in better shape was because Preston Manning refused to move in when he was opposition leader, so the NCC took the opportunity to do needed renovations that 24 Sussex never had, and no, the prime minister is never going to take it over because the property is too vulnerable, and would be a security nightmare. Never going to happen. As for those who wonder why our opposition leader even has an official residence, I say that it’s because it reflects the importance of the position in a Westminster democracy like ours, and should have status appropriate to that importance. It doesn’t matter that other Westminster countries don’t also follow that—Canada chose to value its opposition leader in such a way, and it is important, so let’s treat it as such.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 268:

There were more Russian missiles targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving some 10 million people without power as winter sets in, while fighting intensified in the east as Russia tries to secure its hold on Donetsk. In liberated villages near Kherson, there are survivors talking about beatings and torture by Russians, and more graves have been found with bodies bearing signs of being tortured.

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Roundup: Auditor General day passes with little notice

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The Auditor General released a series of reports yesterday, but you almost wouldn’t know it from the dearth of coverage. Yes, The Canadian Press did cover them, and CBC did somewhat, but most of those stories were not headline news, and barely made a splash. The reports didn’t come up in QP save for two NDP questions near the back third of the exercise, and Power & Politics gave it seconds worth of mention in their “five things” segment (while they also spent three blocks on their Power Panel, a block on their ridiculous “Quote of the Day,” and ran the segment on Donald Trump’s pending announcement twice). Power Play did slightly better by actually having the Auditor General on to discuss the reports, but gave her a mere 3 minutes and 42 seconds of airtime, and only a couple of the items actually got mention.

The reports:

  • We don’t know if the federal government’s plan to reduce chronic homeless by 50 percent by 2028 is working because they don’t have enough actual data.
  • Indigenous Services’ handling disasters like fires and floods remains reactive rather than proactive, even though this has been highlighted for a decade now.
  • Federal departments need to do more to ensure secure storage on cloud servers given the rising threat of cyberattacks (which is pretty alarming, really).
  • Our aging aircraft and icebreakers mean we can’t effectively monitor Arctic waters, and there are no plans to replace RADARSAT capabilities by 2026.

Is any of this earth-shattering? Maybe not, but it’s still important and a big part of the way we’re supposed to be holding the government to account, which should be important. There was once upon a time, not that long ago, when Auditor General Day was a big deal in the spring and the fall, and it was a media circus. And now? It barely makes a dent in the news cycle. It’s a pretty sad indictment of where we’re at in terms of our national political media, and how little we’re paying attention to the things that are supposed to matter.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 266:

Russia fired a large number of cruise missiles at civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine, and throughout this, a pair of missiles appear to have crossed into Poland and struck a farm near the border, killing two people. While everything is being verified that these were in fact Russian missiles (and not, for example, Ukrainian missiles that missed intercepting the Russian missiles), NATO leaders are thus far keeping cool and trying to keep the situation cool, but this is almost entirely unlikely to trigger Article 5. Instead, it’s likely to trigger Article 4, and ramping up their investment into giving more equipment to Ukraine faster, including the plan from Poland to deliver its old MiG fighters to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1592647150504407042

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Roundup: Freeland’s non-contradictory position on energy

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On Tuesday, Chrystia Freeland gave a speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC, and she outlined some fairly ambitious economic policy that involves a retrenching of keeping our supply chains within fellow democracies, because relying on regimes like Russia and China can prove costly in the end—particularly if you look at what’s happening in Europe with their energy crisis. It also means accelerating the green energy transition, which is also happening at a faster pace. But what got a bunch of people in Canada curious was Freeland talking about fast-tracking energy and mining projects to help Europe with that transition. But there is nuance there, however.

The CBC in particular got excited because they claimed to see some kind of contradiction with what Freeland was saying with the fact that the government won’t do anything to fast-track LNG projects, and that we somehow sent German Chancellor Olaf Scholz packing when he came looking for LNG. Erm, except he didn’t, because he knows as well as anyone that we don’t have the infrastructure for LNG, and so he came looking for hydrogen, which he got. But the CBC’s Vassy Kapelos did an interview with Scholz, where she spent half of it badgering and hectoring him about LNG until he said that he would like Canadian LNG if we had it, and they kept bringing that clip up in isolation. But again, Scholz knows we don’t, that it would take too long to build, and frankly that the market case isn’t there. As I wrote in this column, the timelines for these projects don’t make sense, and frankly, the LNG projects that have been on the drawing table for decades never took off because they couldn’t get commitments from buyers for the project. And while Kapelos was hectoring and badgering natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson yesterday about LNG, and insisting that the Americans can get theirs to export and why not us, the difference is that they have been converting LNG import terminals for export, which we can’t do. We have one import terminal in New Brunswick, and it would take two years to retrofit, assuming they could get a steady supply of gas, which they don’t have without importing. That’s why it’s an import terminal. But apparently there are no producers at Power & Politics who can pick up the phone and call a gods damned energy economist who can explain these things before they talk to the minister and not waste everyone’s time.

So no, Freeland didn’t contradict anyone. They are putting a focus on mining critical minerals in Canada—Trudeau made such an announcement earlier in the week. They are focusing on hydrogen, some of which may come from natural gas, which again, is not LNG, but is an energy project. “Energy project” is not simply code for LNG, guys. It’s only slightly alarming that the gods damned public broadcaster can’t be bothered to do their homework to put things in context before they start hyperventilating, but this is apparently the era we’re living in.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 231:

Ukrainian forces say that they have recaptured five settlements in the southern Kherson region, while the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has lost external power for the second time in five days, which puts stress on the cooling systems.

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Roundup: Rota’s “Justinflation” problem

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The Speaker of the House of Commons has a “Justinflation” problem. Having too laxly enforced the rules around using first names and MPs mocking one another for too long, Anthony Rota finds that he is having a hard time getting Conservatives to stop using it. This past week in Question Period, he tried a few times to get Conservatives to stop, or to at least put a pause in between the two portions, but quickly realised that the exaggerated pause wasn’t doing anything either, and he tried to get them to stop that as well, but that mostly didn’t work either. And lo, it’s no wonder, because he doesn’t really enforce the rules. Same with repeated mentions last week about the prime minister being absent, both for the Queen’s funeral and to attend the United Nations General Assembly, which MPs are not supposed to do, and yet did anyway with no word of warning from Rota.

Rota, who tries very hard to show that he’s such a nice guy, relies on gentle chiding when MPs don’t follow the rules, and shockingly, that doesn’t work. It doesn’t work to stop things like “Justinflation, “and it doesn’t stop MPs from abusing Zoom to the detriment of the health and safety of the interpretation staff (for over two gods damned years). Gentle chiding doesn’t work. Do you know what does? Refusing to call on MPs when they break the rules. He doesn’t need to actually follow the speaking list that the House Leaders have given him. He can enforce the rules by not calling on MPs who break them, and when they shape up, then he can call on them again. These are powers that are completely with in his disposal if he cared to actually enforce the rules. But he doesn’t seem to want to, so here we are, and the “Justinflation” references continue apace. Slow clap all around.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 219:

As Russia “formally” declared they were illegally annexing two more Ukrainian provinces, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally signed a declaration that Ukraine will be seeking NATO membership, hopefully through an accelerated process, but so long as there are Russians occupying territory in Ukraine, that may not be able to happen—but it could force more NATO members to provide more support in the interim.

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Roundup: Beating the GDP expectations

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The Bank of Canada increased the overnight rate another 75 basis points, to 3.25 percent, which is now about the neutral range and into territory where it is meant to dampen growth—and they say it will likely continue to go up in future decisions. This being said, we should also recognise how strong the Canadian economy is running right now, which is having an effect on things like deficit and debt, which conversely makes the Conservatives’ insistence that government spending is driving this inflation (it’s not), and what they think austerity would accomplish here (nothing good). Anyway, here’s economist Kevin Milligan to break it down:

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1567532339496108034

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1567536188680187908

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1567538208971583489

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 197:

Shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has damaged the last remaining backup power line to the plant, which means that the coolant systems are now fully on back-up generators, and the ongoing shelling makes doing repairs an unlikely possibility. Elsewhere, heavy fighting has been reported in the north near Kharkiv; in the east, in the Donbas region; and in the south, near Kherson, where Ukrainian soldiers are pushing Russian forces in their counter-offensive.

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Roundup: A better than anticipated fiscal picture

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The Department of Finance’s fiscal monitor was released yesterday, showing that for the first quarter of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the government ran a $10.2 billion surplus, which is not a big surprise considering that the economy is overheated, and that’s generating a lot of revenues, particularly with high oil prices. Of course, this comes with the caveat that Q4 tends to book a lot of the expenses and liabilities that drag the figure down at the end of the fiscal year, but it’s a promising sign, and it’s certainly showing that all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the government’s spending and deficit has been largely for naught, and that maybe Chrystia Freeland is a better fiscal steward than they think she is.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563202103186968576

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563231824935292929

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563233131280629764

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563249022860935168

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 184:

As overnight shelling continued near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, people in the vicinity have been issued iodine tablets in the event that there is a catastrophic failure and containment is breached, releasing radiation. So that’s cheery.

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Roundup: Getting better at plain-language explainers

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Because this is the age of disinformation, it’s good when institutions start recognising that and offering plain-language explainers to help dispel the falsehoods that are swirling—especially when those falsehoods are being spread by sitting MPs and leadership candidates for political parties. In this case, it’s the Bank of Canada, and the notion of whether they printed money during the pandemic. They didn’t, and they had explainers on their site before, but this is much more accessible, which is really necessary right now—particularly given that the government can’t communicate their way out of a wet paper bag, which makes the job of defending institutions even harder (especially as the media is pretty much useless in this endeavour as well, too content to simply both-sides everything).

Of course, the replies to this thread are an absolute tire fire, so we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet, but it’s a good first step that needs to happen. (And listen to Captain Pike when you get tempted to read the comments).

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 183:

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was knocked off of the Ukrainian power grid after a fire damaged a transmission line, raising fears that we could be headed toward another Chernobyl-like disaster. (Incoming power is needed for the reactors’ cooling systems, but there are some back-up power supplies). It was later re-connected, but this remains a problem, and radiation from such a meltdown could spread across Europe under the right conditions. Meanwhile, Putin is ordering a major troop replenishment after suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Ukraine.

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Roundup: Questions for the new SCC justice

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The parliamentary hearings around Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin’s appointment took place yesterday, which were the usual awkward affair that these things tend to be, as they’re mostly a get-to-know-you exercise where you can’t really ask too many substantive questions, and as is so often the case with our parliament these days, it was full of self-congratulation of MPs and senators who were so proud to be there for this historic moment. A lot of media outlets picked up on O’Bonsawin saying that she’s a judge first and Indigenous/a mother/a Franco-Ontarian afterward, which is probably the kind of answer you want in a Supreme Court of Canada justice, but it was interesting how many outlets made that their headline.

More interesting to me were some of the responses from justice minister David Lametti, and former PEI Premier Wade MacLauchlan, who ran the selection committee, given that their testimony is actually more relevant because Lametti in particular is the political actor who is responsible for this appointment (along with the prime minister). Regarding O’Bonsawin replacing the Court’s criminal law specialists, even though she is not one herself, Lametti said that it shouldn’t fall to one person on the Court as they all need to be aware of the issue, and I think that’s fair. But when it comes to the answers about encouraging more diverse candidates, I find it utterly mystifying that this government continues to insist on people applying for these positions rather than having their committees canvas the legal community for names, and then approaching them directly rather than waiting for applications. It’s been a problem that this government has had since day one, and it doesn’t encourage diversity because a lot of people from marginalised communities don’t apply because they are either discouraged already because of institutionalised racism and discrimination, or because they feel they have no chance because they don’t fit the established mould. This government knows this, and yet they persist with this inadequate model, for reasons unknown. It boggles the mind.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 182:

It was both the 31st Independence Day and six-months since Russia began its illegal invasion of the country. Russia marked the day by hitting a train full of civilians near the town of Chaplyne in Eastern Ukraine, killing 22 people. Here are some six-month retrospectives from the Star, CBC, and Associated Press.

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Roundup: Meet Canada’s newest Supreme Court justice

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Prime minister Justin Trudeau announced yesterday that he will be appointing Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin to the Supreme Court of Canada, making her the first Indigenous justice on the top court. She will be replacing Justice Michael Moldaver, who retires on September 1st, a few months ahead of his mandatory date, and this is for one of the Court’s three Ontario seats. While it was a given that this appointment would be a woman in order to restore gender balance on the court, there has been pressure for an Indigenous justice for a while. This government has also mandated that official bilingualism should also be a requirement for appointment, which shrinks the pool of available Indigenous candidates a whole lot. And it’s not without controversy—it is true that, as many Indigenous activists point out, that kind of linguistic requirement is colonial, but it also has been pointed out that relaxing those kinds of requirements is generally done at the expense of French, which is also a very fraught notion with the insistence that French is “in decline” in the country (which is debatable, because use of French has been up in Quebec, but they are paranoid about the “mother tongue” statistics, which is generally about immigrants for whom French is not their first language).

While you can read O’Bonsawin’s application questionnaire here, it’s worthwhile noting that she comes to the Supreme Court directly from the Superior Court rather than the Court of Appeal. This isn’t a big deal, but it does speak to the pool of available candidates, because there are exceedingly few Indigenous judges at the appeal court level. This being said, it’s perfectly permissible to appoint people to the Supreme Court if they’re law professors, or even lawyers working in a firm—Justice Suzanne Côté was appointed directly from practice. This being said, O’Bonsawin has academic chops to add to her experience, with a PhD in the Gladue sentencing principles, which are about taking proper life circumstances into account during sentencing for Indigenous people. She also has done a lot of work around mental health, which is also important in the current legal environment, so it does look like she will bring a wealth of experience to the bench. The only thing I would say is that with Moldaver’s retirement, there is no longer a criminal justice specialist on the Supreme Court, which may be an issue in the longer-term, but there are enough bright minds on the court that I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

Meanwhile, here is some reaction from the president of the Canadian Bar Association, and several Indigenous leaders.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 177:

Ukraine has been making several drone attacks in the areas of Nova Kakhovka, near the occupied city of Kherson, as well as possibly the Crimean port of Yevpatoriya, which seems to be about Ukrainians showing their capabilities to Russian aggressors. Ukraine is also warning that Russia is planning a “large scale provocation” around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in an attempt to decouple it from the Ukrainian grid and attach it to the Russian grid, which is apparently a complex operation that could cause a disaster. Meanwhile, doctors talk about why they are staying in place in war-hit towns in Ukraine.

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