Tag Archives: Trade

Roundup: MPP pay freezes serve no one

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There was a piece in the Star yesterday about how MPPs in Ontario have had their salaries frozen since 2008, with no plans to lift it anytime soon. This is the kind of thing that populist rhetoric engenders, and it’s terrible for the state of our politics. While nobody is in politics to get rich, particularly in Canada, we are pretty miserly about what we want to pay our elected officials, and every time there is some kind of economic downturn, we immediately demand that they either freeze or cut their salaries to “set an example” (which is ridiculous because I have yet to see any senior executives in the private sector freeze or cut their pay in response to bad economic times—they get further bonuses, especially if they manage to reduce payroll during said tough times).

It cannot be understated that we underpay our elected officials, particularly at the provincial and federal levels, for jobs that are fairly 24/7 in most instances—especially in the era of social media where they are expected to perform at all hours of the day and night, and where they can’t go to the store without being expected to be “on” and engaging with their constituents. And in a lot of cases, people take a pay cut to become an elected official, particularly if they are doctors or lawyers. We say we want to attract the best, but the longer this kind of thing goes on, the more it will only attract those who are already wealthy and can live with the pay cut. Oh, and Ontario killed their pensions for MPPs decades ago, so on top of being underpaid, they don’t get a pension out of it either, which just makes it all the worse proposition for someone.

Nevertheless, we already have the astroturfers at the so-called “Canadian Taxpayers Federation” griping that Toronto City Council and the mayor are getting a modest pay rise this year, and because legacy media laps up everything they put out, this feeds the hairshirt parsimony and cheap outrage that makes us look as petty and parochial as our worst instincts tend to be. (Tall poppy syndrome is absolutely one of our national neuroses). This isn’t good for democracy, but nobody wants to make that case, which is why we’re in the situation we’re in.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian missiles hit an apartment building and a medical centre in Kharkiv early Wednesday; Russia claims it was precision-targeting a building housing “foreign fighters” that included French mercenaries. Ukrainian forces also downed19 out of 20 drones targeting Odesa. The fighting has intensified near Bakhmut, as Russian forces are making more offensive assaults.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1747574419994648962

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Roundup: Fergus at the NDP’s mercy

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It looks like Speaker Greg Fergus may last another day, as the word from the NDP is that they’re going to demand a fine and another apology to the House of Commons for his lapse in judgment over that video he recorded, though I have to wonder what they think a fine is going to accomplish. That report from the Procedure and House Affairs Committee will be tabled in the Commons by Thursday, so we’ll see if there’s any kind of vote or concurrence debate at that point. And there may yet be, as Andrew Scheer is promising that he’s going to move a vote of non-confidence in the Speaker, possibly in the hopes that he can shake enough NDP MPs loose to oust Fergus. As for the Bloc, Yves-François Blanchet said that perhaps it’s time for a woman in the position, as though Alexandra Mendès hasn’t been there as Assistant Deputy Speaker the whole time, and has twice now run for the position and not gotten enough votes for it.

On the subject of the Speaker, Carleton University’s Philippe Lagassé made some comments to the Hill Times about the fact that we do treat the neutrality of the Speaker in Canada as much more of an illusion than Westminster does. He also suggests we start adopting more Westminster practices like the Speaker running for re-election as an independent, and that past Speakers be appointed to the Lords/Senate where they can continue to serve in less partisan roles, rather than having them rejoin the party ranks (and absolutely not have them run for party leader, Andrew Scheer).

Ukraine Dispatch:

An overnight missile attack on Kyiv has resulted in 45 injuries, while nearly 600 shells and rockets rained down on the southern part of the country amidst a major cyberattack on the country’s largest telecom provider. A US intelligence report estimates that Russia has suffered 315,000 casualties, which is about 90 percent of the forces it began the conflict with. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington DC doesn’t appear to have swayed too many Republicans, while he continued to insist that asking to give Russia land concessions was insane because it meant abandoning families and children to terrorists.

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Roundup: Letting delay tactics happen

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The childish games continue in the House of Commons, as the Conservatives have been using dilatory tactics to avoid debating the Ukraine trade treaty implementation bill. It’s back from committee and was ready for report stage debate yesterday, but the Conservatives decided that instead, they really needed to debate an eighteen-month-old committee report on food security, and insisted that this wasn’t delaying at all. *cough*bullshit*cough* The Liberals were performatively outraged, Mark Gerretsen marching out to the Foyer to decry the move to the camera stationed there (I was the only reporter around, mostly because I was socialising with Gallery staff). There wasn’t a vote called before the Conservatives proceeded with this dilatory debate, meaning I’m sure the Liberals let them go ahead with it so that they could further bludgeon the Conservatives and question their support for Ukraine, and talk about how they’re playing into the hands of the Kremlin, or MAGA Republicans, or what have you. Because remember, everything is now for clips.

Meanwhile, can I just point to how ridiculous the both-sidesing is in that Canadian Press piece? The other parties “accuse” the Conservatives of stalling, and quote the party spokesperson as denying that they’re stalling, while getting reaction from the other parties. It’s an obvious, transparent stall tactic. The spokesperson is obviously lying. And I get why CP thinks they need to both-sides this so that they can be supremely neutral about it all, but this is why the Conservatives learned that they can get away with lying all the gods damned time. They know they won’t be called on it, because performative neutrality demands it, rather than doing the job of simply pointing out the truth.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians have claimed to have captured the villages of Khromove as well as Maryinka, though Ukraine’s government won’t confirm anything. Here is an explainer about what is at stake with Avdiivka. Ukraine’s spy agency says that the successfully staged two explosions along a rail line in Siberia that serves as a key conduit to China. Associated Press had a fairly wide-ranging interview with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he talks about what they need in order to win the war.

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Roundup: Doubling down on the lies about the Ukraine trade deal

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As the Conservatives flail about their voting against the Ukraine trade agreement, they are throwing out a number of excuses in order to double down on a stupid position that is backed by the lie that the agreement imposes a carbon price on Ukraine. It doesn’t, they’ve had a carbon price since 2011, but that doesn’t seem to matter. They insist that nothing they’re doing jeopardises the agreement, which is true—it’s already signed, and every other party is voting for this enabling legislation, but what the Conservatives seem to be forgetting is that all of this performance they’re doing for their domestic audience is being noticed aboard, and in particular by the Ukrainian government, and it’s not leaving a good impression.

To that end, they kept moving amendments at committee to include language about weapons sales, which is stupid because nothing precludes them currently, but that kept being out of order—again, because the deal is already signed. This is enabling legislation. And they kept trying to either remove the carbon price references or delay the bill until they could force the government to remove it, but they lost that gambit as well. But again, they’re sending signals to the people paying attention that they are deeply unserious and are going to be untrustworthy allies, and that’s going to do more damage in the long run, all for the sake of trying to score some cheap domestic points right now.

Ukraine Dispatch:

The death toll from the severe  snow storm in southern Ukraine has reached ten, with more injured as a result of accidents and power loss. During this, Russians struck a residential building and a coal mine in Nikopol, killing four and injuring ten others. The wife of Ukraine’s head of military intelligence is being treated for heavy metals poisoning, but no one will say if he was the intended target. Some in Ukraine are calling for defined ends to deployments, which are currently open-ended (as though the country were not in an existential war for its survival).

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Roundup: The premier has no clothes

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith is threatening to invoke her so-called “Sovereignty Act” next week to shield power companies from federal clean energy regulations—but that will do absolutely nothing. The province doesn’t enforce federal environmental regulations, so it can’t shield the power companies from said regulations. Smith might as well get up in the legislature and perform some kind of magical incantation, because it’ll have pretty much the exact same effect.

This being said, a lot of journalists seem to either believe that the Act is going to somehow do what she’s claiming, or they’re just both-sidesing it, because guess what—this is all performance. Smith has woven you the most extravagant outfit that is so magnificent that you can’t even see it. Right? “The Emperor Has No Clothes”? Or in this case, the premier has no clothes. Don’t take this invocation at face value. Point out that it does nothing, and that she is trying to pull a fast one to keep rage-farming.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks on Russian positions in occupied Crimea, while Russians made a renewed push to take Avdiivka. Russians also launched a massive drone attack on Kyiv, where debris has caused injuries. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered reform proposals to the country’s troop mobilisation programme as the war drags on.

https://twitter.com/defenceu/status/1728127516299481335

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Roundup: Trying to falsely blame CTV

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At his media availability yesterday, Pierre Poilievre was asked if it was responsible for him to declare the explosion on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls to be “terrorism” before anything was confirmed. And what did Poilievre do? True to form, he attacked the Canadian Press reporter asking the question (including lying about the substance of the corrections that a recent CP story made to a story about comments he had made), then lied about why he said “terrorism.” Poilievre claimed this was from CTV reports, and tried to get the CP reporter to try and denounce CTV. The problem was that CTV didn’t publish anything before Poilievre began his questions in QP. And what we do know is that Fox News was definitively calling it terrorism, as were several disinformation merchants who pose as journalists over Twitter. But rather than admit that these were his sources, Poilievre lied, continued to lie, and then post the video of him attacking the CP reporter to his followers, because right-wing populism has a huge hard-on/wide-on for putting people in their place (particularly if they’re vulnerable minorities or someone they suffer no repercussions for attacking, like media).

And then things got stupid online, as Poilievre’s fans and apologists kept trying to “prove” that CTV was still the source, really, relying on screenshots that came from a different time zone. And at least two MPs shared these screenshots before they were called out and deleted them.

I will say that between these lies, and the ones he has been telling about the Canada-Ukraine trade deal legislation, it seems to finally shaking up some legacy media outlets to actually start calling him out on them. Somewhat. Some outlets are still egregiously both-sidesing the lies, as they always do, but you had Power & Politics host David Cochrane finally interjecting in places saying “That wasn’t true,” or walking through the timeline of lies in the case of yesterday’s attempt to blame CTV. It’s not nearly enough, but it is a start, but we’ll see how long it can actually last.

Ukraine Dispatch:

A daytime cluster bomb attack in a suburb of Kherson in the south killed three people. Ukraine’s farmers are hoping that the Black Sea trade corridor will help them get exports to market so that they can survive.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1727681997076644088

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QP: Goading the Conservatives on Ukraine

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The prime minister was off to meet EU leaders in Newfoundland and Labrador, while his deputy was doing photo ops in Toronto. Even Pierre Poilievre was away today, as were every other leader. Andrew Scheer led off, and after giving the new “time’s up” slogan, he misquoted the Scotiabank report and demanded the government balance the budget. Randy Boissonnault got up to denounce the Conservatives for the voting against the Ukraine trade deal. Scheer repeated the lie that the government is forcing a carbon price on Ukraine, before repeating his demand for a balanced budget. Karina Gould pointed out that there was no carbon price in the trade deal, and brought up that Poilievre falsely called yesterday’s Rainbow Bridge incident a terror incident. Scheer demanded the government support their amendment to send more weapons and energy to Ukraine before rambling about the so-called “replacement” temporary foreign workers at the Stellantis plant, which again, has been debunked. Bill Blair got up to pat himsefl con the back for the billions in military aid sent to Ukraine. Gérard Deltell got up to repeat the demand for a balanced budget in French, to which François-Philippe Champagne praised the government’s efforts. Deltell railed that the government would force our great-grandchildren to pay the price for their mistakes, and Champagne implored for them to pass their affordability bill.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the plan for interprovincial labour mobility for healthcare workers, and railed that this would disadvantage Quebec. Boissonnault pointed pivot that the federal government transfers hundreds of millions of dollars to Quebec to help francisise immigrants. Therrien insisted that all the federal government needed to do was increase transfers so that Quebec could hire more doctors on their own, to which Pablo Rodriguez said that Canadians can work together, whether the Bloc likes it or not.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he accused the industry minister of not doing anything about the grocery CEOs. Champagne insisted that he stared down those CEOs and he forced them to stabilise prices, before imploring them to pass the affordability bill. Alistair MacGregor gave the English version of the same question, and Champagne accused the NDP of not doing anything for consumers and again implored them to pass that bill.

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QP: Outright lying about the Ukraine trade deal

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The prime minister was present while his deputy was not. All other leaders were in the Chamber, so it was going to be a spectacle. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and asked for an update about the incident in Niagara Falls, which he attributed to a terrorist event (which was far too early to determine at the time, which seem to have been disproven), to which Justin Trudeau stated that a vehicle blew up on the Rainbow Bridge, and they were still gathering information, but that the border has been closed at additional locations. Poilievre repeated the request in English, but slipped in a “bring home” slogan in there, and got the same response, and then excused himself to go get further updates. Poilievre returned to French to decry that the $20 billion in new spending from the economic update would keep fuelling inflation. Randy Boissonneault insisted that the update would be good news. Poilievre got back up and asked “what’s up?”, paused, then listed things that he insisted were up before declaring “time’s up” for the government, and decried that $20 billion in English. Boissonnault repeated his good news points before lambasting the Conservatives for failing to vote for the legislation on the trade deal with Ukraine. Poilievre declared that the federal government “betrayed Ukraine” with a list of mostly falsehoods, but didn’t actually ask a question. Gould noted that if that were true, they would have voted for the bill, but they didn’t because of a red herring.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, hoped that the situation at the border would be as un-dramatic as possible, before decrying the empty box that was the economic update. Boissonnault gave his own well wishes for the situation the borders before deploying his good-news talking points. Blanchet then demanded that the government stop intruding in provincial jurisdiction around housing, to which Sean Fraser praised the deal with the Quebec government.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and asked for his own update on the border situation, to which Karina Gould gave some fairly bland assurances as there were no further details. Singh switched to French to decry that the housing funds in the fiscal update were backloaded two years. Marci Ien got up to praise the tax-free housing savings plan, insisting that it was working for young people.

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Roundup: No, Kovrig wasn’t a spy

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The Globe and Mail kicked off the weekend with an “explosive” report that says that Michael Spavor is trying to sue Michael Kovrig for getting him imprisoned in China because Kovrig was passing along information as part of the Global Security Reporting Program, which *gasp!* gets information that is sometimes of interest to CSIS! The problem, of course, is that this is largely nonsense. Kovrig, who was on leave from Global Affairs at the time, was not a spy. The GSRP is not espionage. It’s diplomats talking to persons of interest out in the open, and their diplomatic reports get read by a lot of people, including CSIS, because that’s what CSIS does—they read reports, and fit them into bigger pictures.

While there is some debate about the GSPR and what role it contributes to intelligence, I would have to once again remind people that we really should take much of the reporting from the Globe with a grain of salt, and a dose of perspective sauce, because they torque absolutely every story that has anything to do with China, because it’s what they do, and they do it without any particular self-reflection. No matter how many times that Robert Fife and Steve Chase were confronted with the facts that in their reporting on intelligence leaks about foreign interference, that they were being fed very selective pieces of information, they absolutely refused to consider the possibility that they were likely being played by their source, who wanted certain narratives put out there for their own reasons. Fife and Chase have been absolutely allergic to any of that self-examination. And it should colour how we read any of their other reporting (which is how media literacy works). So yeah, they took some innuendo and a few facts and spun a big story that got the overall picture wrong, yet again. Let’s keep some perspective.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1725916218987548927

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1725916989477048663

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drones targeted Kyiv, as well as the capitals of the Cherkasy and Poltava regions over the weekend, while intense fighting continued near Avdiivka, as well as Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces say they are pushing back Russians now that they are on the east bank of the Dnipro river. Here is the tale of an orphaned Ukrainian teenager taken to Russia last year, who has now been reunited with family back home.

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Roundup: Saskatchewan wants to play constitutional chicken

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The government of Saskatchewan tabled their bill to “protect” SaskEnergy from repercussions if they go ahead with their threat to not collect or remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, and well, it is hilariously ineffective. Why? Because the federal legislation makes it very clear who is responsible for the collection and remittance of those funds, and this bill is trying to use provincial legislation to change a federal definition. You can’t do that. Provinces do not have that ability. This is just setting up SaskEnergy and its directors to face these penalties, because the provincial government can’t say that they’ll accept the responsibility instead. Again, it doesn’t work that way.

The minister, Dustin Duncan, then went on Power & Politics and was pressed on this issue, and he flailed for a bit before trying to make this a game of chicken—they’re going to essentially dare the federal government to follow federal law, and hold the persons responsible for collecting and remitting those funds to account. Because this is the level of maturity we’re dealing with. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the CEO and the board of SaskEnergy all walked off the job in protest of being put in this kind of legal jeopardy because Scott Moe is a child.

Ukraine Dispatch:

The death toll from the Russian strike on Selydove in eastern Ukraine doubled as more bodies were found in the rubble. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukraine has seized the initiative in the Black Sea thanks to their fleet of naval drones which has pushed back the Russians toward the eastern coasts. New UK foreign minister David Cameron visited Ukraine as his first trip on the job.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1725054494969373168

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