Tag Archives: Trade

Roundup: Royal tour, day one

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It is now approximately day eighty-four of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and we have some confirmation now that the fighting in Mariupol is at an end. Both sides are claiming victory—Russia claiming it is a mass surrender, Ukraine stating that the garrison achieved their objectives, and in particular, they tied up Russian forces that couldn’t be deployed elsewhere, as those forces have been pushed back, as far as the border in some cases. There is now a negotiated withdrawal taking place, and prisoner swaps may be in the works, so we’ll see how this plays out.

Elsewhere, it sounds like today is the day that Sweden and Finland both make their applications to NATO, and while Turkey is still being sour about it, but we’ll see what particular concessions they try to extract before their membership is accepted.

Closer to home, it was the first day of Charles and Camilla’s royal tour, starting in Newfoundland and Labrador. They visited the provincial legislature, the lieutenant governor’s residence, and the village of Quidi Vidi, as well as met with residential school survivors. Prince Charles did talk about the need for reconciliation in his speech, and that is going to be one of the themes of the tour.

https://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse/status/1526656706914271233

https://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse/status/1526657592495423490

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Roundup: How to remove a central bank governor

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It is now approximately day seventy-nine of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and war crimes trials are beginning in the country, hearing from one youth who whose father was murdered in front of him, and who was shot by Russian soldiers but who survived. Shooting at civilians—and children especially—is a war crime, and Russians will be hard-pressed to come up with justifications for them. As well, the UN is declaring a “child rights crisis” in the country, given how many children have been killed in the invasion. Meanwhile, here is a look at the “partisans” fighting on Ukraine’s behalf from behind Russian lines, which may or may not be the cause of all of those fires and explosions.

Elsewhere in Europe, Finland’s president and prime minister are urging the country’s parliament to vote in favour of making their application to join NATO, while Sweden is expected to follow suit days later. If Putin’s fig-leaf excuse for invading Ukraine was to stop NATO’s expansion, well, he’s just done the opposite, so good job there. There will be some sensitivity in managing the time between Finland applying for membership and when they are granted it, as they could be particularly vulnerable to Russian aggression during that period.

Closer to home, Pierre Poilievre’s attack on the Bank of Canada is not going unnoticed, but it helps for the rest of us to know just what he’s trying to suggest. To that end, Kevin Carmichael provides needed context to what exactly Poilievre is threatening to do to the Bank of Canada governor, and why he’s wrong on inflation. As well, this thread is a good take on the mechanism for the how governor is appointed and what it would take to remove him.

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Roundup: Trudeau visits Kyiv

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It is now on or about day seventy-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like all of the civilians have been evacuated from under the steel plant in Mariupol. Up next to be evacuated are the wounded and medics, presuming that the agreement continues to hold, while the remaining Ukrainian forces under that plant make a final stand. As well, Ukraine’s counter-offensive near Kharkiv continues, as it remains the target of Russian shelling. The heavy weapons arriving from the West could be the key to turning the tide of this particular front. Russians also targeted a school being used as a shelter in Zaporizhzhia, where sixty people are feared to be dead. Also this weekend, US First Lady Jill Biden was in the region to hear from mothers who had evacuated to Romania, and later went into Ukraine and met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska, as a show of support.

The big news for us, however, was the arrival of Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, and Mélanie Joly in Ukraine, first to visit the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, where they witnessed the devastation at Russian hands for themselves, before heading into Kyiv to raise the flag and reopen the Canadian embassy, and then to meet with Zelenskyy. Trudeau announced a new round of supports and sanctions, and was soon after followed by a declaration from G7 leaders to pledge solidarity with Ukraine, with the added symbolism that it was Victory in Europe Day, which marked the end of the Second World War.

https://twitter.com/PaulCTV/status/1523303970571452416

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Roundup: Fetch the fainting couch for a naughty word

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It is now on or about day seventy-two of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and things appear to be heating up even more in Mariupol, with reports that Russians have started storming the tunnels under the steel plant where civilians and soldiers are holded up, thanks to information from a traitor. There are particular concerns about the capture of Ukrainian soldiers because we are days away from May 9th, which is Victory Day in Russia, where they celebrate their defeat of the Nazis in World War II. The fear is that Russians will cage these captured soldiers and parade them around for Victory Day as a propaganda coup. This means that we may see fights to the death in Mariupol, so that they aren’t captured, not to mention fear that Russians won’t respect the Geneva Conventions or other international law when it comes to those who surrender, given their record of war crimes and atrocities thus far.

https://twitter.com/jtp802/status/1522195531287736322

Closer to home, if you didn’t catch it earlier, the Deputy Speaker reviewed his recordings and didn’t find any evidence that Justin Trudeau uttered the phrase “fucker” during Question Period on Wednesday, and our long national nightmare is over. But seriously, I am getting very, very tired of the amount of pearl-clutching that this received in the media when they said absolutely nothing about the fact that the questions Trudeau was receiving at the time were from Conservatives who were building a conspiracy theory in real time about that special forces surveillance plane that flew over the occupation during a training flight. The media also doesn’t blink at the rank disinformation that is being disseminated during QP, other than to occasionally both-sides it, but an obscenity? Quick, get me to my fainting couch! Pass my smelling salts! We have a very twisted set of priorities in our national discourse, and it’s absolutely smothering our democracy.

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QP: Panic at the passport office

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While the prime minster was in town, he was not present for QP, though his deputy was. No other leader was present either, for what it’s worth, and we did learn later in the day that Candice Bergen tested positive for COVID earlier in the week, and has been isolating. Before things got started, the Deputy Speaker returned to what happened yesterday regarding unparliamentary language, and said that reviewing the tapes found no definitive proof if the prime minister actually said anything amidst the noise, but he did hear unparliamentary things on both sides, and he cautioned MPs that it was not acceptable. He also noted that the question on abortion from Sophie Chatel did not have to do with the administrative responsibilities of the government, and such questions will be disallowed in the future. (Famous last words…) He also asserted that for those whose blood pressure is running a little high, it was a beautiful day outside and they should go take a walk.

Luc Berthold led off, worrying about delays at passport offices, and asserted the solution was to have civil servants back at work in their offices. Chrystia Freeland noted that they understand their responsibilities to Canadians, but she could not agree that everything was going wrong in Canada, and the IMF praised our growth. Berthold carried on with the complaints about delays, and again demanded civil servants go back to their offices. Freeland thanked civil servants for their efforts, and that she knew they worked diligently. Berthold insisted that Canadians expected service from civil servants, and once again demanded that civil servants return to their offices. Freeland again repeated that civil servants do exceptional work. Michael Chong took over in English, and worried about another court challenge against Line 5 in Michigan—ignoring that the challenge is coming from Indigenous groups—to which Freeland assured him that they understand the importance of Line 5 and that the government was standing up for our rights including treaty rights with the US. Chong wondered why Canada was in court to fight this challenge, and Freeland repeated the assurances that the government was on the case.

Claude DeBellefeuille led for the Bloc, and she repeated this week’s demand that the federal government turn over the responsibility for immigration to Quebec. Freeland recited the government’s lines that Quebec sets their own targets and that the federal government supports them. DeBellefeuille was not mollified, and repeated the demand, and Freeland repeated her assurances, with a few added figures to quote.

Jenny Kwan rose for the NDP, and she cited the MMIW inquiry listing housing as a contributing factor, blasting the government for not having a dedicated housing strategy for Indigenous women and two-spirit people. Freeland first recognised that today is Red Dress day, and that they agreed that housing is a problem and part of the solution, which is why it was a central part of the budget. Niki Ashton took over, and demanded immediate action in the MMIW inquiry’s calls to justice, and insisted it wasn’t in the budget. Freeland repeated her initial acknowledgment of the day in French, before returning to English to correct that there were investments in this budget.

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Roundup: Preparing for another rally, this time of bikers

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It is now approximately day sixty-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russians fired two missiles at Kyiv while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was visiting, which is not a good thing. There are also concerns that Russia will attempt sham referendums in the southern and eastern parts of the country that they have captured as an attempt to legitimise their occupations. Elsewhere in Europe, Russia’s decision to cut off Poland and Bulgaria off from natural gas as a form of blackmail was met with condemnation from the rest of Europe, and given that Putin sees a united Europe as a threat, his attempts to divide the community is not working very well.

https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1519734914018590726

Closer to home, Ottawa is bracing for a different kind of convoy this weekend, this time led by motorcycles instead of trucks, and they claim to be veterans concerned about freedoms, and much like the previous occupation, while there were a handful of truckers involved, I’m not sure how many legitimate veterans will be in this rally, or that it won’t have the same group of far-right extremists, grifters, conspiracy theorists, and grievance tourists tagging along. There don’t seem to be as many links in organisers between this rally and the previous occupation, given that many of them are either in jail or on bail, but that’s not necessarily indicative of the others that tag along. This time, the police seem much more alert to the situation—and to the fact that they are on thin ice with the people of Ottawa (seriously, the whole force needs to be disbanded), and they have set up exclusion zones and barred the rally from stopping at the War Memorial as they had planned, which is just as well because it shouldn’t be used as a symbol for these kinds of events. RCMP and OPP are already in the city in preparation, and the city has announced a bylaw crackdown during the rally.

As for the previous occupation, the added security around Parliament Hill cost $6.3 million in parliamentary security alone, with another $4.5 million being racked up in overtime for Parliamentary Protection Services officers. And then there are the $36.3 million the city is demanding that the federal government foot the bill for (though frankly the city should swallow some of this out of their police budget considering how useless the Ottawa Police were and that they allowed the occupation to take hold). One wonders how much this upcoming rally is going to add to that total.

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QP: Go meet with the RCMP again

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The prime minister was present today, as were all other leaders, so that was a nice change. Candice Bergen led off with her script, and she declared that “fraud on the government” occurred with relation to the prime minister’s trip to the Aga Khan’s private island—the details of which Bergen omitted and framed to sound more lurid—to which Justin Trudeau noted that this was dealt with five years ago, and that the Conservatives were focused on him while he was focused on Canadians. Bergen demanded a yes or no answer as to whether he gave himself permission to break the law, and Trudeau gave a resounding no, and that the RCMP decided there was nothing to pursue, and that it was thoroughly investigated by third parties, while the government doesn’t interfere in the RCMP’s operations. Bergen suggested that Trudeau go back to the RCMP to let them reconsider, and he more emphatically noted that government does not direct the RCMP. Luc Berthold took over in French, demanded the same response on the decision not to pursue the fraud charge, and Trudeau again repeated that this matter was put to bed and that the RCMP made their own decision. Berthold tried to suss this out further, and he too demanded that Trudeau meet with the RCMP again, and Trudeau listed the things the government was doing while the Conservatives were playing petty politics.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and accused Trudeau of disrespecting Canadians and Ukrainians by not chartering flights for those refugees, to which Trudeau read the script that they are working safely and effectively, and thanks to the emergency travel fund, it was the safest and most effective way to act. Blanchet took issue with the rapidity at which this is happening, and Trudeau insisted that they were taking all measures to expedite this travel.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and after some word salad about profits and corporations, he demanded the government block the proposed merger between Rogers and Shaw. Trudeau noted that they set a goal to lower prices, it actually happened, which is why they were focused on competition and access. Singh switched to French to repeat the demand, and Trudeau recited the same response that did not address the demand.

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Roundup: A Ukrainian delegation in Ottawa

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We are now on or about day thirty-eight of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has accused Ukraine of crossing the border with two helicopter gunships to attack a fuel depot in Belgorod—something that the Ukrainians deny, which raises the notion that this may be some kind of false-flag operation by Russia to justify further action against Ukraine. After all, CSE has outlined some of the disinformation storylines that Russia has been pushing around their invasion of Ukraine, including the fabrication that Ukrainians are harvesting organs from soldiers, which is blatantly untrue—but Russia has been bad enough at their information operations that it may not be too surprising if they staged this explosion in Belgorod. Also pressing is the statement from president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russian forces have been leaving mines in the area outside of Kyiv, including around homes and corpses.

https://twitter.com/ArmUkraineNow/status/1510096650823421958

Elsewhere, Ukraine has paused its efforts to recruit fighters internationally, given that there are some problems with the legal status of some of them with their home countries, but also the fact that it actually doesn’t make sense to put these people on the front lines with little-to-no training. That said, they stated that they still need help with non-combat roles, such as transporting food, ammunition, fuel, and moving wounded soldiers from the battlefields, so we’ll see if there is still the same enthusiasm for those roles. As for refugees coming to Canada, there are concerns that there are now months-long waits for biometrics appointments at embassies and consulates in surrounding countries, but the government has been putting more resources in those offices, and have stated that it would actually take longer to make the IT changes necessary for visa-free travel than this system which adapts existing travel streams to the country. I guess we’ll see which winds up being correct.

Meanwhile, five Ukrainian parliamentarians have been in Ottawa for the past two days, meeting with Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, Anita Anand, and other parliamentarians. Part of what they have asked for the government are a specific shopping list of weapons and lethal aid, as well as financial aid. It sounds like there haven’t been any announcements out of these meetings, other than an assurance to watch next week’s budget, so that’s one more thing to stay tuned for on Thursday.

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QP: Unhappy with the new emissions plan

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With Justin Trudeau off in Vancouver to give a speech on the government’s new emissions plan for 2030, we did have his deputy present, which was something. Most of the other leaders weren’t present either, and some have become rare sights of late. Luc Berthold led off in French and complained that the emissions reductions plan would cripple the oil sector and that this meant we couldn’t help our friends in Europe get off Russian oil and gas. Terry Duguid stood up to recite some bromides about the plan as announced. Berthold then launched into a rant about how the government doesn’t answer simple questions, and demanded to know if inflation was costing Canadians more. Chrystia Freeland responded that they were sensitive to costs which is why they indexed benefits and introduced $10/day child care. Berthold then railed about the increasing price on carbon, demanding it be suspended, to which Freeland recited the good news about economic growth. Kyle Seeback took over in English, and he misleadingly cited the PBO report on carbon pricing in order to complain that the emissions reduction plan wasn’t going to work. Duguid got back up to recite that the PBO indeed stated that most families would be better off with rebates, and he cited the rebate levels in several provinces. Seeback then railed that the government spent $60 billion on fighting emissions and they still went up—again, somewhat misleadingly because the curve of growth has flattened—and Duguid responded that if the Conservatives were still in charge the emissions would be even higher.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded that the government start chartering planes to get more Ukrainian refugees over here. Sean Fraser insisted people were arriving all the time and they were rolling out programmes to support them. Therrien said that Air Transat was just waiting for the government to charter flights and repeated his demand, and Fraser said that they are discussing with airlines.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP in person, and he called the emissions reduction plan “disappointing,” saying it gives a free pass to the fossil fuel sector. Duguid got back up to recite a number of actions they have taken around the energy sector. Singh repeated the question in French, and Duguid recited some more climate action plans.

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Roundup: Accountability for transfers is not micro-management

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We are now in day thirty-one of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and things are going badly enough for Russia that the Ukrainians are starting to counter-attack, not only pushing Russian forces further away from Kyiv, but also other areas, which has the possibility of making Russia pay a high enough price that they could be willing to accept some kind of negotiated settlement and withdraw. Maybe. We’ll see, but it’s a good sign nevertheless that Ukraine is able to take these measures. Elsewhere, it sounds like about 300 people were killed when the Russians bombed the theatre in Mariupol, and the city is digging mass graves, while some 100,000 people remain trapped there as the Russians turn the city to rubble.

Closer to home, the federal government announced a one-time special transfer of $2 billion to provinces to help them with their surgical backlogs as a result of COVID, but they want some conditions of a sort, and cited five areas of focus for upcoming healthcare talks: backlogs and recruitment and retention of health-care workers; access to primary care; long-term care and home care; mental health and addictions; and digital health and virtual care. And some provinces, predictably, are balking at this because they think this is federal “micromanagement” of healthcare when it’s nothing of the sort. They simply need assurances that provinces are going to spend this where they say they’re going to, because we just saw Doug Ford put some $5.5 billion in federal pandemic aid onto his bottom line, and giving out rebates for licences plate stickers in a blatant exercise in populist vote-buying rather than using that money where it was intended—the healthcare system.

https://twitter.com/journo_dale/status/1507478370300628996

More to the point, provinces are insisting that they are unanimous that hey want unconditional health transfers that will bring the federal share of health spending up to 35 percent, but that’s actually a trap. They are deliberately not mentioning that in 1977, provinces agreed to forego certain health transfers in exchange for tax points, which are more flexible, and that increasing to 35 percent will really be a stealth increase to something like 60 percent, because they’re deliberately pretending that they don’t have those tax points. On top of that, provinces were getting higher health transfers for over a decade—remember when the escalator was six percent per year, and what was health spending increasing at? Somewhere around 2.2 percent, meaning that they spent that money on other things. They should have used it to transform their healthcare systems, but they chose not to, and now they cry poor and want the federal government to bail them out from problems they created, and are blaming the federal government for. It’s a slick little game that doesn’t get called out because the vast majority of the media just credulously repeats their demands without pointing to the tax points, or the fact that they spent their higher transfers elsewhere, or that Doug Ford sat on that pandemic spending, as other provinces did to balance their budgets (Alberta and New Brunswick to name a couple). So no, they do not need these transfers to be unconditional, and the federal government would be foolish if they acceded to that kind of demand.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1507418761912983561

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