Tag Archives: Official Languages

Roundup: Demanding LNG with someone else’s money

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While the federal Conservatives continue to promote the fantasy notion that Canada can somehow supply Europe and Japan with LNG to displace Russian supply—something that was never going to happen because of the timelines for projects to be built and that they need to be in operation to make their money back—under the notion that Ottawa needs to “get out of the way,” again ignoring that there has been no market case for it, Jason Kenney is going one step further and demanding that the federal government to build LNG export infrastructure. Which is odd because the Conservatives howled with outrage when the federal government nationalized the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline in order to sufficiently de-risk it for it to complete construction. If there’s no market case, why not get the federal government to do it?

But let’s also remember that the proposed Kitimat LNG facility on the West Coast, fully permitted and approved, is not being built, because there is no market case. Hence why Andrew Leach is calling out Kenney’s nonsense below, particularly the fact that Kenney is calling on the federal government to spend their money rather than Kenney spending his province’s own money. You know, like he did with Keystone XL, and whoops, lost billions because he made a bad bet and the American administration didn’t restore its permits. Funny that.

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 217:

UN human rights investigators have found that Russia has been violating international law when it comes to the treatment of prisoners of war during the invasion of Ukraine, which shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also asked for Canadian help in ridding his country of mines left behind by Russian forces. Meanwhile, there are reports that Russian conscription officers are at borders trying to intercept would-be conscripts from fleeing the country.

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Roundup: Salivating over magical LNG terminals

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With the visit of German chancellor Olaf Scholz to Canada, there has been no shortage of media salivating at the narrative of Canada somehow sending liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe to displace Russian supply, and they keep going on about it. Power & Politics had an interview with Scholz, and the first third of it was spent with Vassy Kapelos hectoring Scholz about whether he wanted Canadian LNG, and if he told the Quebec government to stop opposing pipelines, and I’m being serious that she actually asked him this, as though he wasn’t going to diplomatically tell her that it wasn’t his place to tell them that (which he did). And while he said sure, Canadian LNG would be great, there is no way that’s going to happen. There is no infrastructure to do so. Building it takes three to five years, and even then, if there is a steady supply (good luck with that, because it’ll drive up costs for product domestically), it’ll take 25 to 30 years to make those investments in that infrastructure pay off, and we’d be well past 2050 then. (I wrote a column on this recently). It would quite literally be investing in a stranded asset. But that won’t stop Canadian media outlets from pounding on this narrative drum, over and over again. You would think that reporters and TV hosts might have done some homework to realize that there is no business case, so you look foolish by pursuing this dead-end line of questioning, but apparently not.

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https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1562198870243028993

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 181:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is vowing of a “powerful response” if Russia attacks the country on its Independence Day, which also will mark six months since the illegal invasion began. And American intelligence is also warning that something may happen, which is why they are urging their nationals leave the country. Russians did conduct air strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region, not far from the nuclear plant, and they have been shelling near Kharkiv in the northeast. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada says that they are investigating 28,000 war crimes, including child deaths.

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Roundup: Mystified about our “clean” gas

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There has been a pervasive talking point of late, which asserts that Canadian oil and gas is “cleaner” than elsewhere—somehow—and that should be justification enough for us to increase production. There is also a pervasive myth that emission have come down in the oil sands, which is blatantly untrue—in some projects emissions intensity has decreased, meaning there are fewer emission per barrel produced, except that they increased the number of barrels produced, so emissions haven’t actually gone down. And yet Conservatives in particular pat themselves on the back about this, and keep repeating how “clean” our energy products are (when they aren’t making the risible “ethical oil” canard). So imagine my surprise when Toronto Star columnist Heather Scoffield uncritically repeated this assertion that Canadian natural gas is “cleaner” than other countries’ product, which is news to me. I grew up in Alberta—I have seen the literal mountains of sulphur that has been removed from the extracted hydrocarbons. Alberta is replete with sour gas wells, which are dangerous, and I’ve also seen the evacuation plans for areas if such a sour gas well blows. I’m not sure how this is “clean” gas. So, I reached out to an expert about the assertion. He’s mystified too. Perhaps our national columnists shouldn’t just take Conservative and industry talking points at face value.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 177:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv, and they discussed the fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and the deal around grain shipments. Meanwhile, Russians struck at Kharkiv again, while more explosions were reported at a Russian military airport in Russian-occupied Crimea, with reports that Russian air forces fired at targets near the city of Kerch in Crimea.

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Roundup: Giving Dean French undeserved credibility

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In an attempt to keep litigating the “revelation” from court documents that there was a “potential breakthrough” with the occupation in Ottawa in advance of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the CBC credulously brought the “negotiator, Dean French, onto Power & Politics to give his side of the story. It was a complete gong show. French was self-aggrandizing while trying to appear faux-humble, and insisted he wasn’t taking sides when he clearly was, particularly in repeating the patent horseshit from former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Peckford, who spent the occupation claiming he’s the last living signatory of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (he’s not), and that the public health measures violated the Charter and that the government was operating illegally (they’re not, and the courts have pointed out that those measures are saved under Section 1 of the Charter, which is reasonable limits in a free and democratic society). Yet there was French, unchallenged by the host of the show, repeating these claims from Peckford in justifying his assertion that the government was in the wrong. It’s also patently absurd on its face that French’s negotiations would have done anything about the occupation—shifting a few trucks from residential streets and packing them even tighter onto Wellington was not any kind of solution, not that there was agreement among the occupiers on even doing this much. That was not a solution, because the occupation would still have been in place, and the occupiers would have continued to terrorize the residents and businesses in the area. There was no “breakthrough” to be had, and I cannot believe that CBC would go along with the fiction that there was. No, wait—I do believe it, because they uncritically both-sides everything, just like they did with this French interview, and even more to the point, gave French credibility in this. (French, for those of you who may not be aware, was Doug Ford’s initial chief of staff who was forced to resign because he was handing out government appointments to unqualified people with whom he had a lacrosse connection. And yes, I’m being completely serious). The complete lack of critical thinking on the part of P&P’s producers and host when it came to this interview, or the choice they made in pursuing this losing line of inquiry is particularly troubling. Credulously both-sidesing is not journalism—it’s stenography, and that is costing us our democracy.

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 176:

Ukrainian forces say they beat back a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson, while Russian forces shelled the city of Kharkiv in the north, killing more civilians. This as the UN Secretary General is set to meet with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western city of Lviv. Meanwhile, it sounds like Russia sacked the head of their Black Sea fleet after the recent explosions in Russian-occupied Crimea, and that they have relocated more of their planes and helicopters either deeper in the peninsula or into Russian territory.

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Roundup: UCP contest finds new lows

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As the UCP leadership race in Alberta meanders through clown town, outgoing leader Jason Kenney took a slightly bold step, and called Danielle Smith’s “Sovereignty Act” proposal “nuts,” which is an interesting enough intrusion in the race. But, because this is Kenney, he then took it a step too far and spouted a bunch of nonsense about the lieutenant governor not signing it, and no, that’s not how this works. There is pretty much no ability for an LG to refuse to sign legislation post-Statute of Westminster, because they aren’t reporting to the foreign desk of the Imperial government in Britain. Federal powers of disallowance may still be on the books, but have for all intents and purposes gone extinct because we have courts that have the power to strike down laws, and yes, that does matter. So you can bet that if Smith were to win said contest, and did manage to somehow pass said bill without a full-on caucus revolt (because it’s sheer, unconstitutional lunacy), you can rest assured that said bill would be immediately challenged in the courts, if not outright referred to the Supreme Court of Canada by the federal government, where it would summarily be struck down, likely in a ruling from the bench because it is so blatantly unconstitutional on its very face. So we have both Smith and Kenney in the wrong here, and this contest just keeps finding new lows.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 173:

Russian troops spent the weekend shelling the cities of Nikopol and Kramatorsk, as well as claimed the village of Pisky on the outskirts of Donetsk province. This as Ukrainian forces were continuing their counter-offensive in the south, striking the last working bridge over the Dnieper River, cutting off Russian supply lines. Ukrainians also say that they are targeting Russians that are firing near or from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, and are accusing Russians of using it as a shield. As well, here is a look at Ukrainian drone pilot training, where video game skills are a welcome addition.

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Roundup: Cozying up to separatists for the wrong reasons

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The state of the UCP leadership contest in Albert continues to plumb new depths as many of the candidates are attending an event put on by a separatist group and Rebel “News”, without any particular compunction about doing so. Indeed, they are cosying up to these separatists openly, because they suffer from this completely insane misapprehension that threats of separatism gave Quebec all kinds of things from the federal government when that’s not true at all. In fact, the first referendum in Quebec quickly hollowed out its business sector—Montreal used to be the financial capital of the country, but the threat of separation had all of those head offices depart for Toronto, and the province’s economy suffered for decades as a result. Alberta will be little different if they start using the threat of separation to try and extract concession from Ottawa. As for the fact that this kind of event is selling access, that’s fairly par for the course in Alberta. The old one-party state system was rife with this kind of corruption, where business leaders got their way by donating to the party, or meeting the minister at the Petroleum Club for drinks, and the like. Access was absolutely for sale, and these UCP candidates are carrying on that corrupt tradition.

Meanwhile, when it comes to reminders that Stephen Harper sang the praises of the World Economic Forum when he was prime minister, I’m suspect any cognitive dissonance among the likes of Brian Jean in Alberta or Pierre Poilievre federally will be shrugged off, though it was pointed out to me that there is little indication that the conspiracy wing of the Conservative Party cares what Stephen Harper thinks, and I suspect that is true.

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Ukraine Dispatch, Day 171:

The focus remains on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and shelling in the area, which both sides blame each other for. While Russia controls the plant, Ukrainian engineers continue to operate it, and Ukrainian forces are moving to counterattack in the region, while in the Donetsk region, there was more shelling of the eastern town of Kramotorsk.

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Roundup: A choice to keep injuring interpreters

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We’re in day one-hundred-and-fifty-five of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has captured the country’s second-largest power plant, as they are redeploying their forces to three southern regions in advance of an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive in the area. Ukrainian forces have used American-supplied rockets to take out a strategic bridge being used by Russians to supply their forces occupying the Kherson region, which Ukraine has stated they intend to re-take. It’s these weapons that have allowed Ukrainian forces to turn the corner on their counter-offensive, and they have pointed out that the sooner they can get more of them, the sooner they will be able to end this war. Meanwhile, ship owners are assessing whether the risk is worth it to travel through mined sea corridors to ship grain out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports (and it could take weeks or months to clear the mines from these ports).

Closer to home, translators in Parliament are continuing to sound the alarm about the plan to hire unaccredited and off-site interpreters to do parliamentary work, no matter that this could impair the quality of the translations. This is very important, because it’s Parliament. To make this worse, the Government House Leader, Mark Holland, is downplaying the effect that hybrid sittings have had in injuring the existing interpreters, claiming that this is because they were already facing shortfalls before COVID because of the “expanded work” of Parliament. The problem with this statement is that they simply made the situation worse with hybrid sittings and the fact that it injures the interpreters, and they keep making excuses to keep them going. This is not helping with the shortfall in interpreters, it’s actively making it worse, and they don’t care. And while the Conservatives are opposing this move, they have not helped their case by insisting on resisting COVID measures including masking. And while I had a Liberal staffer chirping at me on Twitter about this, the fact is that MPs have been aware of the problems for over two years now, and have chosen to do nothing about it. They chose to keep hybrid sittings going, knowing full well that it injures the interpreters and can lead to permanent hearing loss. Their refusal to take measures is a choice, and a deeply unethical one. There is no defending it.

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Roundup: The Pope arrives, and snubs Indigenous women

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We’re on or about day one-hundred-and-fifty-two of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and wouldn’t you just know it, the day after Russia signed a deal to allow grain shipments out of Black Sea ports, they attacked Odessa, killing civilians. Because that’s who Russia is. They don’t respect their own cease-fires, and they act with impunity at every opportunity. (One might note that Justin Trudeau stated immediately that he didn’t trust Russia to uphold their end of the deal, and lo, was proven right). Elsewhere, Russian forces are blocking people trying to flee the Zaporizhzhia region, and they struck an apartment building in the port city of Mykolaiv.

Closer to home, the Pope’s visit to Canada has begun as part of the apology for residential schools, and both the Governor General and prime minister were in Edmonton to greet him. There are a lot of questions about how substantive this apology is really going to be, and whether he’s willing to do substantive things, like rescinding the Doctrine of Discovery that justified colonial behaviours. AFN national chief RoseAnne Archibald has been told she won’t be part of the welcoming ceremony at Maskwacis today, and she notes there are no women in leadership positions in the event (but this is the Catholic Church we’re talking about—they’re not exactly in favour of women in any leadership positions, or really of women in general). There has also been some irony noted that these events are being translated into Indigenous languages that were forbidden in residential schools, for what it’s worth.

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Roundup: CSE posts a threat bulletin about Russia

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We’re on day one-hundred-and-forty-two of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russians fired missiles at the central city of Vinnytsia, hitting civilian locations including a medical clinic. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his statement that the Russian regime is a terrorist threat. Meanwhile, the leadership at the International Criminal Court in the Hauge is calling for an “overarching strategy” to bring perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine to justice, so that other countries contributing to the investigations can cooperate with their efforts.

Closer to home, CSE released a threat bulletin on Russia’s cyber-activities in Ukraine, and it was a doozy, saying that the scope and severity has almost certainly been more sophisticated and widespread than has been previously reported, and yes, that has repercussions for Canada as well. Stephanie Carvin has more in this thread:

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547663710700728320

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Roundup: The premiers think we’re all stupid

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It is now day one-hundred-and-forty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces are claiming to have hit a Russian ammunition depot near the captured city of Nova Kakhovka in the south. At the same time, Russians continue their attacks on the cities of Sloviansk and Toetsk in the Donetsk province, killing at least nine civilians. Here is a look at efforts to train Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in combat first aid. Over in Russia, the government is poised to enact legislation that can force companies to supply the military, including making employees work overtime, as the country tries to replenish its supplies after depleting them in the invasion thus far.

Closer to home, the Council of the Federation meeting ended, and lo, the premiers were unanimous in demanding that the federal government come to the table with them to, well, accept their demands to give them more money with no strings attached. Only they had both a wounded tone, which quickly switched to sanctimony when they were challenged, particularly about the pandemic spending that couldn’t be tracked. Some premiers, Tim Houston most especially, seem to think that we all have amnesia about 2004 to 2014, when the bulk of those six percent health transfer escalators were spent on other things. Saying that they all want improved outcomes is one thing, but the federal government isn’t stupid—they are well aware that provinces would be just fine with status quo that the federal government paid more for, and that they spent less on. That’s why they want conditions—so that provinces don’t pull this kind of thing once again. Premiers were also pretending that they had no idea what kinds of outcomes the federal government is looking to achieve, because most of the is in last year’s election platform. It’s not hard to find. And frankly, federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos is right when he says that these outcomes should be agreed to at the ministerial level before the first ministers sit down to talk dollars, because you want to have a plan in place before you attach dollars to it, rather than the opposite, which John Horgan seems to think is how government should function. (You can find my thread as I was live-tweeting the closing press conference here).

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1546912224148688897

On a related note, The Canadian Press devoted several hundred words of wire copy yesterday to the fact that the promised $2 billion to clear up surgical backlogs hasn’t flowed yet…because the budget only received royal assent a couple of weeks ago. And that premiers are complaining they haven’t received the money yet. I mean, premiers know how a budget cycle works. This is not a news story—it’s not even a real process story. It’s complaining for the sake of complaining. The only piece of interest in the story was that the government tabled a bill about the spending commitment, then abandoned it in order to wrap the spending in their budget bill a couple of weeks later. This isn’t the first time they’ve done so, and it’s a really annoying habit that they have, but again, not actually a news story.

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